The History of Apartheid
Apartheid has its roots in the colonization of South Africa during the seventeenth century by Dutch settlers. White settlers from Holland landed in South Africa in 1652 and began the long process of oppressing the South African Kingdoms. In the 1860s, England sent a large army equipped with rifles, cavalrymen and cannons to seize control of South Africa. The Xhosa Kingdom had fought nine wars of resistance versus the colonizers from Holland, so it was only natural for them to take up arms against the British. The Xhosa were defeated in 1878 after more than 100 years of warfare against foreign invaders.
The British suffered their first defeat at the hands of the Zulu, but British reinforcements moved in and subsequently crushed the Zulu. By 1900, the British had conquered the African kingdoms and controlled all of South Africa through a system of colonial government. Dutch descendants, known as Boers or Afrikaners, revolted against English rule around this time and engaged the British in the Boer War. The Dutch defeated the British, and both parties were engaged in a power struggle until the 1940s. During this period, the Afrikaner Nationalist Party gained the majority. Politicians in the Nationalist Party created apartheid as a way to extend racial separation while maintaining white domination. Apartheid became the system of government through the ratifying of 317 apartheid-related laws. The union of South Africa was designed with a government acknowledging the rights of white people while denying those same rights to blacks.
Racial discrimination was associated with the enactment of the 1948 apartheid laws. Total racial control emerged in every aspect of life including the sanctioning of "white only" jobs and the prohibition of marriage between non-whites and whites. The 1950 Population Registration Act required the populace of South Africa to be divided into three racial categories: white, black (African), and colored (of mixed descent). The organization in charge of this racial classification was the Department of Home Affairs. Those who did not abide by the classification laws were dealt with harshly.
The Bantu Authorities Act of 1951 established homelands. Homelands were independent states that became the basis for ethnic government in African reserves. Each African was assigned a homeland by the government on the basis of their origin. Voting and all other political rights were restricted to the designated homeland. The objective of creating homelands was to force Africans to maintain loyalty to their respective homeland, thereby relinquishing their South African citizenship. The government hoped this would result in blacks not being able to participate in the South African Parliament. The homeland administrators, who kept pressure for political rights within the country as a whole, refused official independence. As a result, Africans living in these homelands needed passports to enter South Africa. Blacks became foreigners in their own country.
In 1953, the Criminal Law Amendment Act and the Public Safety Act were passed into law. They allowed the government to declare and enforce strict states of emergency as well as increase penalties on those who protested/supported the repeal of a law. During such states of emergency, a police officer could arrest anyone, most often blacks, for six months and detain them without a hearing. While in custody, many died as a result of torture by policemen. If someone was awarded a trial, his or her options were basically limited to death, banishment, or, similar to Nelson Mandela, life imprisonment.
Although apartheid is only a few generations old, it is nonetheless one of the most outstanding violations of human freedom history has experienced. Although not as obviously horrific as a World War or a Holocaust, apartheid exerted similar monstrosities upon blacks solely on the basis of their skin.
Laws and Effects of Apartheid
Apartheid was officially incorporated into the South African government when the while Afrikaner Nationalist Party came to power in 1948. Under this system of legal discrimination, more than 25 million blacks had their rights revoked while the less than 5 million whites held the power of government in South Africa. The laws established during apartheid combined earlier segregation laws and customs into a comprehensive code of racial statutes that were to be carried out for the next thirty years. Strategists belonging to the Nationalist Party who wanted to guarantee their (white) control over the economy and social system of South Africa created apartheid. The supreme goal of apartheid, according to the Nationalist Party, was to establish racial separation legally and maintain white authority.
Apartheid was legally established in South Africa through 317 thorough laws that touched every aspect of black living. The laws established were designed to create restrictions based upon race. Under these racist laws, South Africa became the first country in the world to officially legalize racism thereby allowing discrimination of people based upon the color of their skin. The restrictions placed on the black people of South Africa dealt with matters such as land issues, jobs, housing, living areas, personal relationships, constitutional rights, and general rights.
The End of Apartheid
Through most of this century, the African National Congress (ANC) has fought the Pretoria regime and the Nationalist government in hopes of escaping the domination of apartheid, colonialism, racism, and fascism. Their struggle came mainly in the form of peaceful protests. It was not until the 1960's that an armed struggle began.
In 1961, the ANC and the South African Communist Party formed a people's army to fight the government. In the 1970's, the liberation of surrounding countries provided hope for the struggling South Africans. In the 1980's, the ANC, along with oppressed black South Africans, entered into a complete revolution against the government. This revolution included political and religious struggles, trade activities, women's campaigns, school boycotts, revolts and military actions. Due to these struggles and the implementation of UN sanctions in 1977, the government of South Africa was significantly weakened, but did not fall. It was not until the late 1980's and early 1990's did apartheid come to an end. In 1986, the United States Congress decided to involve itself in the South African on-goings by encouraging peace and supporting negotiations between the South African government, the ANC and their affiliates. The U.S. Congress' hopes were that a democracy would be established in South Africa.
F.W. de Klerk became the president of South Africa in 1989. Instead of supporting apartheid, which was expected, he proclaimed: "white domination will have to disappear. Otherwise there will never be peace in South Africa." In 1990, Nelson Mandela was released from jail, and he quickly gained supporters. His continual determination to end apartheid strengthened the movement even more. As a result, the government repealed the last laws supporting apartheid in 1991, allowing democracy to be ushered into the country slowly but surely. In 1993, de Klerk and Mandela shared the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts in bringing peace to South Africa.
Name ______Period _____ Date ______
Apartheid
1. Which Europeans were the first to discriminate against black South Africans? ______
2. Which country sent soldiers to take control of South Africa from the Dutch? ______
3. Who defeated the British in the “Boer War”? ______
4. What political party created apartheid? ______
5. Why was apartheid created? ______
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6. What were the racial categories divided by the 1950 Population Registration Act?
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7. What was the objective of “homelands”? ______
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8. How long could a person be arrested and held without a hearing? ______
9. How many whites held power over the 25,000,000 black South Africans? ______
10. How many laws ensured control over the black South Africans? ______
11. What was the name of the first organization that fought against apartheid? ______
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12. What political organization joined the ANC to fight against the South African government?
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13. When did the United States government get directly involved in apartheid? ______
14. What South African president opposed apartheid? ______
15. Who was imprisoned and later became president of South Africa? ______
16. What was the year that the last laws of apartheid were repealed? ______