Apartheid

Atrocities and justice in colonial and post-colonial Africa

Miclea Razvan
Table of contents

 History
 Election of 1948
 Black states
 Whites, Blacks, Indians and Mixed
 Resistance
 International Relations
 Life after Apartheid
 Nelson Mandela
 Reverse Apartheid?
Definition

Apartheid, in Afrikaans meaning “separation”, is a racist social, political and

economic system imposed by the white government in 20th century South
Africa.
The law itself meant that whites and blacks would live separate from each
other and that blacks weren’t allowed to vote or have the right to travel.
It was very prevalent in modern history but this particular term refers to the
South African case.
 What happened before?
From 1652 until the end of the apartheid era, South Africa had been inhabited and
controlled solely by Europeans who invaded the country.
Europeans settled on the coast of South Africa on their eastern journey to Asia. The first to
settle were the Portuguese, however, they did not permanently resolve in South Africa; they
used the coast of South Africa as a catalyst to further navigate their trip to Asia. The first
permanent settlers were the Dutch, who eventually transformed their settlement into a
colony. The Dutch developed a language stemming from the influence of various groups
and called it Afrikaans. Due to the name of the language, the Dutch soon began referring to
themselves as the Afrikaners or the Boers. When the Dutch colonized over most of the coast
of South Africa, the British began to enter. The British realized the advantages of having a
cape colony and soon gained power of it over the Dutch in 1806. In 1814, the coast became
known as a British colony. The Dutch, unhappy with the British power and decisions made,
began to revolt. Soon enough, a war broke out between the two groups known as the Boer
War.
 European Wars on African soil

The Boer War started in 1899 and ended in 1902, resulting in the British defeating the
Afrikaner’s, and gaining control over several other colonies. The British reacted by placing
Afrikaners in concentration camps, killing 26,000 of them. The British created the South Africa
Act in 1910, which established the Union of South Africa. The four British colonies of South Africa
merged together and made up this union . The British recognized that these united colonies of
South Africa would not run successfully without the cooperation of the Afrikaners. Therefore,
the British proposed some compromises and eventually worked out conflicts between them
and the Afrikaners. This cooperation laid out the foundation for a future of white supremacy in
South Africa.
 Aftermath

 Under British rule, life for the Afrikaners took a turn for the worse

 British missionaries were turning the black African tribes against the
Dutch settlers, portraying them in a negative light (Divide et
impera!)

 Was used to stop the Dutch from rising up against the British

 Between 1779 and 1879, British and Dutch colonists fought 9 wars
against neighboring black tribes. These wars were often initiated in
response to the cattle theft on the part of blacks
 Pre-Apartheid laws
 In 1911, the Mines and Works Act was passed which only allowed for blacks
to receive cheap labor. The high paying jobs were only appointed to
whites because of the skill and eligibility it required

 The natives were forced to live in rural areas, called “Homelands”

 In 1913, the Natives Land Act was passed which forced 10 percent of
blacks to become reserves. This act also prohibited blacks from owning
land outside of these confined reserves
 Election of 1948
In 1948, the Nationalist Party won the elections and formed a coalition
with Afrikaans Party.

There were two main approaches about the implementation of

systemic racial segregation
Daniel
1. The “Baasskap”(white domination) approach, which was the Francois
dominant approach in the NP, favoured systematic segregation, Malan
but also favoured the participation of black Africans in the
economy with black labour controlled to advance the economic
gains of Afrikaners

2. The “Purists”, believed in “vertical segregation”, stated that blacks

and whites should be entirely separated, with blacks living in native
reserves, with separate political and economic structures, which,
they believed, would entail severe short-term pain, but would also
lead to independence of white South Africa from black labour in
the long-term.*
 Black states

 The defendants of Apartheid claimed that the discrimination against blacks

was justified, since they were not citizens of South Africa but rather of other
independent states.
 10 such “Homelands” were made. These states were split by tribes
 Residents of these states had their citizenship revoked
 They were considered as persons in transit, persons that were staying
temporary in the country or illegal aliens
 A total of 3.5 million people were displaced
 Soweto

 One of the most famous case was the one in Johannesburg where 60
thousands blacks were displaced in a city called Soweto
 It received attention on 16 June 1976 when mass protests erupted because
the natives were forced to learn Afrikaans rather than their own language
 Police opened fire on the 10 thousand students that were marching in the
streets
 A total of 23 students have died that day, including also two white people
 This led to economic and cultural sanctions from abroad
 Since 1991, this date and the schoolchildren are being commemorated by
the International Day of the African Child
 Whites, Blacks, Indians and Mixed

 The population was split in 4

 Mixed people were also discriminated against and were forced to leave
their homes and lands
 Although having more rights than blacks, mixed people were not allowed
to vote which made them fight against the Apartheid
 This led to different members of the same family belonging to different race
groups
 In 1977 the NP approved proposals to bring mixed and Indians into central
government
 The United Democratic Front(anti-apartheid) was seen as an alternative to
an alliance with whites, which were in the NP Durban
 As a result, from 1983 to 1989 were to become the most intense period of 1989
struggle between left-wing and right-wing South Africans
 Resistance

 With the start of the Apartheid, in 1949, the youth wing of the African
National Congress (ANC) took control of the organisation and started
advocating a radical black nationalist agenda.
 They claimed that the white authority could only be overthrown through
mass campaigns
 In 1959, a group of disenchanted ANC members formed the Pan Africanist
Congress , which organised a demonstration against pass books on 21
March 1960. One of those protests was held in the township of Sharpeville,
where 69 people were killed by police in the Sharpeville massacre.
 In the wake of Sharpeville, the government declared a state of
emergency. More than 18,000 people were arrested, including leaders of
the ANC and PAC, and both organisations were banned. The resistance
went underground, with some leaders in exile abroad and others engaged
in campaigns of domestic sabotage and terrorism.
Resistance

 In May 1961, before the declaration of South Africa as a Republic, an

assembly representing the banned ANC called for negotiations between
the members of the different ethnic groupings, threatening demonstrations
and strikes during the inauguration of the Republic if their calls were
ignored.
 When the government overlooked them, the strikers (among the main
organisers was a 42-year-old, Thembu-origin Nelson Mandela) carried out
their threats. The government countered swiftly. Defeated, the protesters
called off their strike. The ANC then chose to launch an armed struggle
through a newly formed military wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe, which would
perform acts of sabotage on tactical state structures. Its first sabotage
plans were carried out on 16 December 1961, the anniversary of the Battle
of Blood River.(Between Dutch settlers and Zulu people)
 Surprisingly, 20 percent of whites living in South Africa were against the
Apartheid. They formed in the South African Communist Party
International relations

 South Africa was on the UN agenda because of the problems between SA

and India, both members of the Commonwealth
 UN concluded that this was a domestic affair, which fell outside the UN’s
jurisdiction
 Following the Sharpeville Massacre, UK Prime Minister Harold Macmillan
criticized the Apartheid
 In 1963, the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 181, calling
for voluntary arms embargo against South Africa
 After much debate, by the late-1980s, the United States, the United
Kingdom, and 23 other nations had passed laws placing various trade
sanctions on South Africa
 This led to a social and economical crisis which eventually ended the
Apartheid
Inequality in post-apartheid South Africa

 Nelson Mandela’s victory in 1994 officially marked the end of Apartheid in

SA
 Many of the inequalities created back then are still visible today
 One of the most unequal income distribution patterns in the world:
approximately 60% of the population earns less than US$7,000 per annum
whereas 2.2% of the population has an income exceeding US$50,000 per
annum.
 Statistics show that blacks make up to 90% of the country’s poor while
being almost 80% of the population
 Because of the Apartheid many blacks had no access to education,
causing them to have no jobs and therefore living in poverty
Nelson Mandela

 Was born to the Thembu royal family in Mvezo

 In his youth, he was part of the ANC. This led to his arrest in 1962
 Is seen as an international hero for his fight against Apartheid
 Ideologically, he was an African nationalist and socialist and served as the
President of the African National Congress party from 1991 to 1997
 He was a controversial figure for much of his life.
 Critics on the right denounced him as a communist terrorist and those on
the far-left deemed him too eager to negotiate and reconcile with
apartheid's supporters
 He also received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993
 Reverse Apartheid?

 Malema: 'We Have Not Called For The Killing Of White People... At Least For
Now’
 Malema is the leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters, a far left party.
 In February, the government voted to create a commission that would
revise the Constitution so that the expropriation of white farmers can be
done without compensations
 This reminds us of the Zimbabwe case, where the president expropriated
white farmers
 After 10 years, following famine, social and economic crisis in Zimbabwe,
some of the farmers were allowed to come back, where they were
received with joy by the locals
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Thank you for listening!