Activity sheet 1ANC centenary 2012

Timeline 1900s – 1960s

This timeline shows some key events in South African history including: the birth of apartheid and the ANC in the early 1900s; peaceful protest against apartheid laws in the 1940s and 50s; the beginning of the armed struggle against apartheid in the 1960s.

Date / Event
1912 / The African National Congress (ANC) is formed. It aims to bring all Africans together as one people to defend their rights & freedoms.
1913 / The Natives Land Act. Black Africans are forced off the best land and have to live in African ‘reserves’.
1918 / Nelson Mandela is born.
1944 / The ANC Youth League is formed. Among the leaders are Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu and Oliver Tambo. They believe Africans will be freed only by their own efforts.
1948 / National Party become the party of government and implement apartheid.
1949 / The Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act. People from different races can no longer marry.
1950 / The Race Classification Act. All South Africans are classified as belonging to separate racial groups – White, African (Black), ‘Coloured’ (mixed race) or Indian.
1951 / The government decides that each African tribe should have its own ‘Bantustan’ or homeland.
It gives 13% of the poorest quality land to 70% of the population.
This policy is also designed to divide black South Africans by physically
separating them into different tribal groupings.
1952 / The ‘Pass Laws’. Black Africans are forced to carry identification with them at all times and have to get permission to travel between areas.

1953 / The Bantu Education Act.
Black Africans are given an education designed for working in manual jobs.
"Whites Only" and "Non-Whites” signs start to appear in public amenities, public buildings, and public transport.
1955 / The Freedom Charter is adopted by the South African Congress Alliance which includes the ANC and other groups who oppose apartheid. It declares that South Africa belongs to all who live in it.
1958 / HF Verwoerd, becomes Prime Minister of South Africa
1960 / The Sharpeville Massacre, 21 March.
69 people are shot dead in a protest against the pass laws.
Ten days later the government bans the ANC and the Pan-Africanist Congress.
1961 / Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation) is set up by ANC militants to take up arms against the South African Government following the massacre of peaceful protestors and the subsequent banning of the ANC.
1964 / On June 12, ANC leader, Nelson Mandela, and seven other Congress leaders are imprisoned for life on a charge of treason. Mandela becomes a source of inspiration to people living inside and outside South Africa.

1966 / Prime Minster HF Verwoerd – the ‘architect’ of apartheid - is assassinated.