Year 11 IB History

Paper 1: Apartheid
Sophiatown

Directions: Listen to the BBC “Witness” podcast (o minutes) and use it to answer the following
questions.

*Note the podcast can be found by googling “BBC Witness Sophiatown’. *

1. Why were the black residents evicted from Sophiatown?

The national party were scared that the amount of non-white’s in Sophia town would group
together as a majority and overrule apartheid and its laws.
2. How long did the process take, and how many people were affected?
The process took approximately 5 years and more than 65,000 people were affected.
3. How did Sophiatown get its name?
The township was named after the wife of Agrmann Tobiansky in 1897 after he bought 237 acres
of land in the area and sold it to white people.

4. How did this non-white community manage to grow up in this area of Johannesburg, where black
residency was usually banned?
The whites did live there but eventually moved out due to the factory smells and overcrowding,
thus more and more multi-cultured people moved in. This went unnoticed for many years and
was prior to the lands right act.
5. What examples of multicultural vitality in Sophiatown are provided?
Many people would learn other languages just to talk to one another.
6. Where was the black population moved to?
The Meadowlands.
7. What was the message of the protest song ‘Meadowlands’?
The message states ‘we are not moving, we are staying here’, ‘meadowlands my love’ as a
protest.
8. What was life like in Meadowlands?
Very minimum, structured, cheep (no ceiling, no plastered walls), no heating etc. Life was tough.
It was extremely dark and there was no electricity.
9. What do people miss most about Sophiatown?
The very same mix of coloured friends, the ability to mix with other races and learn different
cultures and meet new people.
10. What happened to Sophiatown after the black population was evicted?
The head of the South African state, DF Malan, sent policeman in with rifles and they physically
bull dozed the town to the ground, destroying everything in its path.