South Africa under Apartheid

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14094918

Early Inhabitants

of South Africa

The Khoikhoi speaking people lived in the southern coastal region of South Africa, the San, or bushmen, in the desert region, and Bantu speaker(farmers, hunters, and herdsmen) in the east .

Timeline of South Africa

Thousands of Years Ago

African peoples inhabit the southern part of the African continent

Timeline of South Africa

• Native people include

• Khoi Khoi,

• San,

• Zulu,

• Xhosa

VOCABULARY

• Afrikaner (n.) – Dutch settlers in South Africa

(Dutch for “African”)

• Afrikaans (n.) – language of the Afrikaners;

South African version of “Dutch” language

• Boer (n.) – Dutch settlers in South Africa

(Dutch for “farmer”)

• In 1652 the Dutch came to settle in South Africa. They call themselves “BOERS” and later AFRIKANERS

• They defeated many Africans and forced them to work as servants and slaves.

• In 1806, Great Britain captured the colony from the Dutch.

• 1810s: British missionaries arrive and criticize the racist practices of the Boers, urging them to treat the Africans more fairly.

• The Boers refuse because they believe that they are the more superior race

• Trek Boers expanded north and east looking for land for farming and grazing of cattle. They preferred free, unrestricted life to town law. They paid for their choice of lifestyle with constant conflict with the native “black” tribe population.

1720-1770

Afrikaners (Boers) – Africa’s “white tribe”

• Dutch Trekkers developed their own culture and beliefs, including a strict form of Protestantism that portrayed them as a chosen people in a hostile word.

– Protestantism (branch of Catholic church)

• The language they developed is a mixture of Dutch and African languages called Afrikaans.

• When diamonds and gold were discovered, the British forced blacks off the mineral-rich land.

• 1867:Diamond mining begins in South Africa. Africans are the main labor force, are given the most dangerous jobs, and are kept in fenced barracks.

• 1899-1902: The Boer War is fought between the Boers and the British to see who would rule South Africa.

• The war was long and bloody. The British were cruel and established 31 concentration camps for Boer women and children and natives.

• Almost 40,000 people died in these camps.

• 1908-A constitutional convention is held to establish South African independence from Britain.

• The all-white government decides that non-whites can vote, but cannot hold office.

• 1910-The South Africa Act takes away all political rights of Africans in three of the country’s four states.

• 1910s-1930s-Africans educated at missionary schools attempt to organize to resist white rule and gain political power.

• However, few of them are literate, communication is poor, and money is a problem.

• 1912-The African National Congress is formed. The political party aims to organize Africans in the struggle for civil rights.

• 1913-The Land Act give 7.3% of the country’s land to Africans, who make up 80% of the population. Africans are allowed to be on white land only of they are working for whites

The Native Homeland Act

separated different African

tribes into segregated

areas. This act set aside

7.3% of the country’s land

Aside as reservations and

banded black Africans

from buying land outside

these areas.

Peaceful Protest

• 1912, a young Indian Lawyer living in Cape Town named Mohandas K. Gandhi became outraged after being thrown off the train for sitting in a “white’s only” seat.

• He organized a peaceful protest march, inspiring some black South Africans to form a civil rights organization.

• 1939-Representation of Voters Act weakened the political rights for Africans and allows them to vote only for white representatives.

• 1946-African mine workers are paid twelve times less than their white counterparts.

• Over 75,000 Africans go on strike in support of higher wages.

• Over 1000 workers are injured or killed before police violence forces them to end the strike

• 1948-The Afrikaner Nationalist Party

gains control of the government

• and passed the first of 317 Apartheid laws, separating whites from blacks.

• 1951-The African National Congress (ANC), a political organization for Africans, encourages peaceful resistance to Apartheid Laws.

• The government reacts by arresting more people.

Laws of Apartheid

• Apartheid is the rigid racial division between the governing white minority population and the non-white majority population.

• It is Afrikaan for “apartness”

• People were divided into three social groups – White

– Black African or Bantu

– Coloured or people of mixed descent.

Grand Apartheid Laws

• THE POPULATION REGISTRATION ACT—grouped every South African into a particular “race” (white, Indian, Coloured, and Black). Only whites could vote. Those lower down on the list had fewer rights.

• THE MIXED MARRIAGES ACT—made it a crime for any marriage to take place between whites and any other “racial” group. Only 75 marriages between blacks and whites had been recorded before Apartheid began.

• THE IMMORALITY ACT—made it a crime for any sexual act to be committed between a white person and any other “racial” group.

– Between 1950-1985, 24,000 people were prosecuted for this crime.

• THE GROUP AREAS ACT—divided South Africa into different areas where the different “race” groups could live.

– Of the 3.5 million people who had to leave their homes because of this act, only 2% were white.

• THE PASS LAWS—made it mandatory for blacks to carry pass books at all times, which allowed them to have permission to be in a white area for a limited amount of time.

– Over 10 000 000 blacks were arrested for breaking these laws .

Apartheid separated

the whites from

the non-whites

• In 1958, the government separated black

people from white people by making blacks

live on reserves, or homelands.

• Several blacks also lived in shanty towns –

overcrowded towns full of poorly built

shacks on the edges of cities.

• Most black men had to leave their

homeland to find work in mines or

factories.

• Women raised whatever crops they could.

• The shanty towns became centers for black

groups who resisted the white government.

• Thousands resisted apartheid by refusing to

work, refusing to buy white products,

going into “white only” areas, and

marching in nonviolent demonstrations.

• 1960-A large group of blacks in the town of Sharpeville refused to carry their passes.

• 69 people die and 187 are wounded. The African political organizations, the ANC and the Pan-African Congress, are banned.

• 1962-The United Nations establishes the Special Committee Against Apartheid to support a political process of peaceful change, based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

• 1963-1990-Nelson Mandela, head of the African National Congress is jailed for the third time. He expected the death penalty and so he gave a four hour long speech, saying what he thought would be his last words to the African community.

• He was sentenced to life in prison, first on Robben Island, doing intense labor.

• He then spent 27 years in Pollsmoor Prison, where he was placed in solitary confinement.

Mandela’s cell on Robben Island

• 1973-The United Nations passed a resolution condemning Apartheid.

• 1976-People in Soweto riot and demonstrate against discrimination and instruction in Afrikaans.

– The police react with gunfire, killing 575 and injuring and arresting thousands. Stephen Biko is beaten and left in jail to die from his injuries.

• BIKO

• BIKO

• 1980s-People and governments around the world launch an international campaign to boycott South Africa.

• Sun City

• Hundreds of thousands of Africans who are banned from white-controlled areas ignore the laws and pour into forbidden regions in search of work.

• Civil disobedience and other protests increase.

• In 1986, the white South African

government tried to destroy those who

resisted apartheid. Still, blacks increased

their actions against the government.

Momentous Meetings

• In May 1988, the United Nations called for Mandela’s release without conditions.

• In July 1989, President Botha met with Mandela. Both men pledged a “support for peaceful developments.”

• Botha resigned due to health reasons and was succeeded as president by F.W. de Klerk.

• Determined to break the “cycle of violence,” de Klerk ordered the release of eight political prisoners.

De Klerk and Mandela met in December. Mandela declared de Klerk to be “the most honest and serious white leader” he had ever met.

On February 2, 1990, de Klerk announced the end of the bans on the ANC, the PAC, and over 30 other anti-apartheid organizations

Nobel Peace Prize

• Mandela and De Klerk both won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 for their efforts to end Apartheid.

• Accepting the award on December 10, 1993, Mandela declared:

“We live in the hope that as she battles to remake herself, South Africa will be like a microcosm of the new world that is striving to be born.”

• In 1994, the government agreed to an open

elections. The African National Congress,

the largest anti-apartheid party, won.

• Nelson Mandela became the new president

of South Africa.

• 1996 - Truth and Reconciliation Commission chaired by Archbishop Desmond Tutu begins hearings on human rights crimes committed by former government and liberation movements during apartheid era.

• 1998 - Truth and Reconciliation Commission report brands apartheid a crime against humanity

• and finds the ANC accountable for human rights abuses.