APARTHEID IN SOUTH AFRICA

DISCOVERY AND INDEPENDENCE OF SOUTH AFRICA

• South Africa was discovered from as early as the 1490s by the Portuguese when Bartolome
Dias reached the Cape of Good Hopes, which laid the future contacts between Europe and Asia.
• However, colonization in the country started in the 1652 when the Dutch arrived. The Dutch
were called “Boers or Afrikaners” and they called South Africa at the time, “the Cape Colony”.
• When the Boers arrived, they met fierce tension and resistance from Bantu-speaking South
African people, particularly from the Xhosa Empire and the Zulus. However, they were forced to
the north and the Boers advanced and increased their population.
• In 1795, the Dutch ceded the Cape Colony to the British Crown. It was reverted back to Dutch
Rule in 1803, during the Napoleonic Wars, however, it was again ceded to Britain in 1806.
• When the British moved it, tensions grew between British people and the Boers. Eventually,
this led to the Boer War (1899 – 1902) when the Boers argue that South Africa belonged to
Dutch descendants and not the British. Although the Boers lost the war, Britain decided to give
the Cape Colony its independence.
• So, on May 31, 1910, the Cape Colony was granted its independence from Britain under the
South Africa Act which established the “Union of South Africa”.
• Upon independence, the South African government made it clear that “whites were the masters
of South Africa”.

POLITICAL DIVIDE

• When South Africa became independent in 1910, it was being led by the South African Party
(SAP). Although the SAP supported segregation, it was dominated by English-speaking South
African whites and not the Boers.
• In 1914, the Boers created their own party called the National Party (NP) with the aim of
advancing the cause of Boers and Afrikaners. The NP wanted the Boers to rule South Africa
because the SAP was a puppet government for Britain.
• Despite the Boer’s disapproval of the SAP, the National Party did not gain power until the 1948
general election.

HOW WERE BLACKS TREATED UP TO 1948?

• Despite being their own country, blacks in South Africa were always treated as secondary
citizens even before the formal creation of the apartheid system. The British were the first create
policies to separate blacks and whites. In 1894, for example, the Glen Grey Act was passed that
diminished land rights for Africans and restrict them to scheduled areas.
• In 1894, Mahatma Gandhi arrived in South Africa as a lawyer to work at an Indian firm. He
was shocked that blacks and Asians were so poorly treated. He noted, however, that blacks were
considered the most racially inferior of all people in South Africa and had the worst living
conditions. They could not vote; they were asked to sit at the back of buses; and they were forced
to live in segregated communities which lacked resources and facilities as their white
counterparts. The treatment of blacks and Asians in South Africa inspired Gandhi to start his
campaign for civil disobedience which he brought back to India and paved the way for the Indian
Nationalist Movement.
• So, when the British passed the South Africa Act of 1910, it included a clause which stated that
all policies in South Africa towards blacks would be retained and could only be changed by a 2/3
majority vote in the South African Parliament.
• Hence, blacks were treated as second-class citizens. They lived in segregated areas and could
hold no political office. They had no viable unions, and technical and administrative positions
were closed to them.
• Over 70% of the lands in South Africa were reserved for whites and by as early as 1913, South
Africa passed the Natives Land Act which prevented blacks from buying lands outside of areas
reserved for them.
• These steps to keep blacks contained and separate them laid the foundation for Apartheid.

APARTHEID- JUSTIFICATION

• The word “Apartheid” means apartness. At first it was a slogan used by the Afrikaner National
Party during their election campaign in 1948. However, when they won the election and Daniel
F. Malan became the Prime Minister, apartheid evolved into a system of legislation that upheld
the segregation of whites and non-white citizens of South Africa between 1948 and 1994.
• Despite separation being the status quo of South Africa before 1948, apartheid officially began
or became institutionalized in 1948.
• By 1950, the government had banned marriages between whites and people of other races and
prohibited sexual relations between black and white South Africans.
• The Population Registration Act of 1950 provided the basic framework for apartheid by
classifying all South Africans by race, including Bantu (black Africans), Coloured (mixed race)
and white. A fourth category, Asian (meaning Indian and Pakistani) was later added. In some
cases, the legislation split families; parents could be classified as white, while their children were
classified as coloured.
• The South African government argued the ethnic groups in South Africa could not prosper
together and had to be separated for their own good. Apartheid was also a policy of “good
neighbourliness” because it would maintain peace between the ethnic groups.
• The National Party also justified apartheid on the basis that it gives whites, who had the best
knowledge of governance, the power to rule.
• It is important to note that Apartheid was NOT slavery. It was a legal form of segregation as
was the case in the United States under the Jim Crow South. Blacks in South Africa were not
enslaved and were not forced to work. However, some Africanist leaders believed that it was a
formed of slavery because blacks had no choice but to sell their service to whites who controlled
the wealth in the country.

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE APARTHEID SYSTEM

• Apartheid was implemented in South Africa by legislation and force.

• Numerous discriminatory laws were passed to justify the apartheid
system and divide the ethnic groups. The key acts were the:
✓ Prohibition of Mixed Marriage Act (1950) – banned marriage between whites, blacks and
Asians.
✓ Immorality Act (1950) – banned sexual activities between whites, blacks and Asians.
✓ Population Registration Act (1950) – Required all citizens to be registered based on race.
✓ Groups Area Act (1950) – separated ethnic groups and dictated where each group could live.
Whites were given the best lands.
• One of the main strategies was to not only separate blacks from whites, but separate blacks
from each other. This was done under the Group Areas Act of 1950.
• Hence, the South African government divided the black communities into homelands called
Bantustans. Bantustans ensured that the blacks were never fully united in the fight against
apartheid.
• By the 1960s, organizations that offered resistance to Apartheid such as the African National
Congress (ANC) and Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC) were banned.
• To trample resistance from early on, the South African government targeted education. Under
the Bantu Education Act of 1953, black children were not taught anything of significance in
school. They were only taught skills to keep them in their reserved areas.
• All of the laws passed by the South African government were upheld as constitutional by the
Supreme Court of South Africa who were composed of white judges that were selected by the
government. It meant that all laws, no matter how evil or discriminatory, were upheld by the
Court.

RESISTANCE TO APARTHEID

• Blacks were the main opponents to the apartheid system and even before it was
institutionalized, they took steps to resist the discriminatory actions of the South African
government.
• In 1912, the South African Native National Congress was founded by a group of black urban
and traditional leaders who opposed the policies of the first Union of South Africa government,
especially laws that appropriated African land. In 1923, the organization was renamed the
African National Congress (ANC).
• The principal organizers of the ANC were Albert Luthuli and Nelson Mandela. They were
popular among the blacks and up to the 1960s, stressed a policy of peaceful protests and
petitions. Above all, the ANC was considered a multiracial organization and was open to all
ethnic groups – whites, blacks, coloured and Asians. The ANC believed that all ethnic groups
were victims of segregation, and it was necessary for a united campaign against apartheid.
• In 1924, the Asians created the South African Indian Congress (SAIC) to campaign against
discriminatory policies affecting Indians.
• In 1955, the ANC and the SAIC launched the Freedom Charter which stated that South Africa
was for all its people.
• Not all agreed with the ANC, and some of its members disapproved of its policies of peaceful
protest and petitions. In 1958, Robert Sobukwe left the ANC and founded the Pan-Africanist
Congress in April 1959.
• Unlike the ANC, the PAC believed that South Africa was a land of blacks and so it was only
opened for black membership. It also disagreed with peaceful protest and insisted on a militant
strategy.
• The ANC and PAC became even more central in the fight against Apartheid in 1960 with the
Sharpeville Massacre which occurred on March 21, 1960.

SHARPEVILLE MASSACRE

• In 1960, thousands of blacks in South Africa gathered outside of a police station in Sharpeville
to protest the pass laws. These were laws that require blacks, alone, to carry pass books called
dompas. It described the carrier’s colour, criminal background, nationality and employment
history. It was also one of the best excuses for blacks to be persecuted by police officials,
especially if they are found in unreserved areas without one.
• The blacks gathered their dompas and set them on fire.
• The Police officials claimed that the protestors tossed stoned at them and fire their firearms into
the crowd killing 180 people and wounded an
unknown number of people.
• The South African government blamed the ANC and PAC for the protest and the subsequent
massacre and banned both of them. It also labelled them as terrorist organizations.

How did the massacre change the face of Apartheid resistance?

• It became clear to the members of the ANC that peaceful protest would not change the policies
under apartheid and as such they too agreed with the PAC that a military stance was necessary.
• In 1961, the ANC launched a military wing called the Umkhonto we Sizwe which translated
“Spear of the Nation.” This was fully endorsed by Nelson Mandela, but several religious
members of the ANC disapproved such as Demond Tutu and Albert Luthuli.
• Military arms became the final resort for the Africans since peaceful protests were banned in
1960.
• The massacre also made it clear that blacks had to defend themselves against the whites who
will justify killing them even during a peaceful protest.

THE SOWETO UPRISING

The South African government maintained the apartheid system through education. Blacks were
only taught subjects that would make them useful in society and from as early as 1959, blacks
were banned from attending white universities. In the 1970s, the South African government’s
attempt to further control blacks through education led to the Soweto Uprising of 1976.

In 1974, the government passed the Afrikaans Medium Decree which required that the Afrikaans
language had to be taught in black schools and that it had equal status as English. This was
insulting to blacks who viewed the Afrikaan language as an oppressive language. So, on June 16,
1976, Students took to the streets to protest the Decree. Over 10,000 students joined the protest.
The police arrived and fired upon the crowd killing over 600 students and wounding thousands.

The Soweto Uprising was significant because it showed that young black South Africans were
now taking a bigger role in the fight against apartheid. It also showed that the ANC and PAC
were still significant despite them being banned in South Africa after the Sharpeville Massacre.

STRATEGIES USED BY THE AFRICANS TO RESIST APARTHEID BETWEEN 1948

AND 1994

• Creating several anti-apartheid organizations – ANC, PAC and SAIC.

• Peaceful demonstrations and protests – which yielded little results up to
the 1960s.
• Creation of a youth league in 1944 as a wing of the ANC to educate young people about
apartheid and encourage them to join the fight.
• Boycotting white businesses.
• Refusing to carry dompas.
• Sharpeville Protest and Soweto Uprising
• Launching military campaigns against apartheid especially after the
Sharpeville Massacre of 1960.
• Seeking refuge in religion.
• Seeking help from the International Community

THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY AND APARTHEID

• When apartheid was institutionalized in South Africa, there was little response from the
international community.
• The United States of America had its own problems with the civil rights movement and the
United Nations felt that it was outside of its scope being that it was an internal issue in South
Africa rather than an international issue.
• However, by the 1960s, the United Nation changed its tune and called it a crime against
humanity, particularly after the Sharpeville Massacre. The UN also called for a united response
from the international community.
• South Africa’s anti-communist stances also meant that communist states such as China and the
Soviet Union were against apartheid and provide loans, training and aid to anti-apartheid
communist parties in South Africa.
• In many cases, the response was purely economic. As such, countries encouraged their citizens
not to vacation in South Africa, they restricted their aircrafts from landing in South Africa and
ended their air-space agreements (Australia being the first in 1977 followed by European
countries in the 1980s), they stopped trades with South Africa, refused to give loans, and they
even banned South Africa from the Olympics (in 1964).
• The USA and several technological based countries such as Japan refused to send technology to
South Africa that could have been used to further oppress blacks.
• Countries close to South Africa such as Angola, Mozambique and Zimbabwe became refuge
for blacks that fled South Africa. They also trained anti-apartheid soldiers and provided
weapons, food and support for apartheid leaders.
• Excluded South Africa from the Commonwealth of Nations from as early as the 1960s.

NELSON MANDELA’S ROLE

Nelson Mandela became the face of the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa from the
1960s. His imprisonment from 1962 to 1990 increased his influenced amongst blacks in South
Africa and encourage them continue their fight against apartheid. His significance to the
liberation movement included:
• Helping to expand the African National Conference up to the 1960s.
• Leading several peaceful protest and demonstrations against apartheid
• Militarizing the ANC after the Sharpeville Massacre
• Raising funds to expand the scope and activities of the ANC
• Appealing to the international community while imprisoned

Apartheid officially ended in 1994 when Nelson Mandela became the leader of South Africa.
However, the legacy of apartheid still affects the way the ethnic groups in South Africa relate to
each other.

PAST PAPER QUESTIONS DOCUMENT QUESTION – 2006

The extracts below relate to the national liberation movement in South Africa. Study them, then
answer questions (a) to (d) that follow.

Document I
... [W]ho will deny that thirty years of my life have been spent knocking in vain, patiently,
moderately and modestly at a closed and barred door? What have been the fruits of moderation?
Chief Luthuli in Eli Weinberg, Portrait of a People, A Personal Photographic Record of the South
African Liberation Struggle, London: International Defense and Aid Fund for Southern Africa,
1981, p. 105.

Document II
... [T]he old methods of bringing about mass actions through public mass meetings, press
statements and leaflets ... have become difficult to use effectively ... (we) require the
development of new forms of struggle ... on a higher level ... there is no easy walk to freedom
anywhere.
Address of Nelson Mandela, President of the Transvaal ANC, 1960 in Eli Weinberg, Portrait of a
People, p. 105.

Document III
The time comes in the life of any nation where there remain only two choices - submit or fight.
That time has now come to South Africa. We shall not submit and we have no choice but to hit
back by all means in our power in defence of our people, our future and our freedom.
Manifesto of Umkhonto we Sizwe, 16 December 1961, in Eli Weinberg, Portrait of a People, p.
105.

(a) With reference to Document 1:

(i) Explain why the door was "closed and barred" to black South Africans
after 1948. [3 marks]
(ii) Explain, with an example, how the door was "closed and barred". [3 marks]

(b) With reference to Document II, explain the developments in South Africa that required the
adoption of "new forms of struggle". [9 marks]

(c) With reference to Documents II and III, describe TWO "new forms of struggle" that were
used by the African National Congress in South Africa after 1960. [6 marks]

(d) With reference to Documents II and III, describe THREE developments outside of South
Africa which contributed to South African "freedom" (end of Apartheid). [9 marks]
Total 30 marks
Useful points:
(a) (i) Institutionalization of the apartheid system, the rise of the National Party of 1948, the
passage of several discriminatory laws that were mostly against blacks.
(ii) Restriction of movement for blacks, separation of blacks into bantus, lack of political offices
for blacks to effect any political changes, inability of blacks to interact with other ethnic groups –
select discriminatory acts that will illustrate this such as the Immorality Act, Group Areas Act
etc.

(b)The division of the ANC (members supported armed struggles went and created the PAC), the
expansion of the pass laws, Sharpeville Massacre of 1960, increase support from the
International Community, Banning of the ANC and PAC, Development of military wing of the
ANC which transformed the anti-apartheid movement.

(c) Military strategy, training of soldiers, appealing to neighbouring African states, appealing to
the international community to impose economic sanctions on South Africa, alliance with
communism which increased the anti-apartheid efforts of China and USSR.

(d) Successful liberation movements in other African countries such as Angola, Mozambique
and Zimbabwe; the UN declaring apartheid a crime against movement; the partial success of the
civil rights movement in the US increased anti-apartheid sentiment; economic sanctions from
neighbouring countries.

CAPE 2012
Assess the contribution of Nelson Mandela to the liberation movement in South Africa. [30
marks]

Useful points:
• Helping to expand the African National Conference up to the 1960s.
• Leading several peaceful protest and demonstrations against apartheid
• Militarizing the ANC after the Sharpeville Massacre
• Raising funds to expand the scope and activities of the ANC.
• Appealing to the international community while imprisoned
• Motivated young people to participate in the liberation movement –
Students in the Soweto Uprising in 1976
• Gave hope to anti-apartheid leaders while imprisoned through letters etc