Apartheid Flashcards
Why was the black resistance so weak before 1948?
Afrikaners had access to :
Modern technology
Military
Leadership - better unified, stronger, wealthier
Support from abroad
Better education
Economic power
Controlled over police, army, control by force
Lack of motivation, lack of hope / superior
Experience of colonial rule
What was apartheid?
Apartheid word means “separateness”, or “the state of being apart”, literally “apart-hood”) was a system of racial segregation in South Africa enforced through legislation by the National Party (NP), the governing party from 1948 to 1994. Under apartheid, the rights, associations, and movements of the majority black inhabitants and other ethnic groups were curtailed, and white minority rule was maintained.In 1948 - The Afrikaner party won the general elections, and implemented the Apartheid Laws.
What were the apartheid laws?
Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act, Act No 55 of 1949 - Prohibited marriages between white people and people of other races. Between 1946 and the enactment of this law, only 75 mixed marriages had been recorded, compared with some 28,000 white marriages.
Immorality Amendment Act, Act No 21 of 1950; amended in 1957 (Act 23) - Prohibited adultery, attempted adultery or related immoral acts (extra-marital sex) between white and black people.
Population Registration Act, Act No 30 of 1950 - Led to the creation of a national register in which every person’s race was recorded. A Race Classification Board took the final decision on what a person’s race was in disputed cases.
Group Areas Act, Act No 41 of 1950 - Forced physical separation between races by creating different residential areas for different races. Led to forced removals of people living in “wrong” areas, for example Coloureds living in District Six in Cape Town.
Suppression of Communism Act, Act No 44 of 1950 - Outlawed communism and the Community Party in South Africa. Communism was defined so broadly that it covered any call for radical change. Communists could be banned from participating in a political organisation and restricted to a particular area.
Bantu Building Workers Act, Act No 27 of 1951 - Allowed black people to be trained as artisans in the building trade, something previously reserved for whites only, but they had to work within an area designated for blacks. Made it a criminal offence for a black person to perform any skilled work in urban areas except in those sections designated for black occupation.
Separate Representation of Voters Act, Act No 46 of 1951 - Together with the 1956 amendment, this act led to the removal of Coloureds from the common voters’ roll.
Prevention of Illegal Squatting Act, Act No 52 of 1951 - Gave the Minister of Native Affairs the power to remove blacks from public or privately owned land and to establishment resettlement camps to house these displaced people.
Bantu Authorities Act, Act No 68 of 1951 - Provided for the establishment of black homelands and regional authorities and, with the aim of creating greater self-government in the homelands, abolished the Native Representative Council.
Natives Laws Amendment Act of 1952 - Narrowed the definition of the category of blacks who had the right of permanent residence in towns. Section 10 limited this to those who’d been born in a town and had lived there continuously for not less than 15 years, or who had been employed there continuously for at least 15 years, or who had worked continuously for the same employer for at least 10 years.
Natives (Abolition of Passes and Co-ordination of Documents) Act, Act No 67 of 1952 - Commonly known as the Pass Laws, this ironically named act forced black people to carry identification with them at all times. A pass included a photograph, details of place of origin, employment record, tax payments, and encounters with the police. It was a criminal offence to be unable to produce a pass when required to do so by the police. No black person could leave a rural area for an urban one without a permit from the local authorities. On arrival in an urban area a permit to seek work had to be obtained within 72 hours.
Native Labour (Settlement of Disputes) Act of 1953 - Prohibited strike action by blacks.
Bantu Education Act, Act No 47 of 1953 - Established a Black Education Department in the Department of Native Affairs which would compile a curriculum that suited the “nature and requirements of the black people”. The author of the legislation, Dr Hendrik Verwoerd (then Minister of Native Affairs, later Prime Minister), stated that its aim was to prevent Africans receiving an education that would lead them to aspire to positions they wouldn’t be allowed to hold in society. Instead Africans were to receive an education designed to provide them with skills to serve their own people in the homelands or to work in labouring jobs under whites.
Reservation of Separate Amenities Act, Act No 49 of 1953 - Forced segregation in all public amenities, public buildings, and public transport with the aim of eliminating contact between whites and other races. “Europeans Only” and “Non-Europeans Only” signs were put up. The act stated that facilities provided for different races need not be equal.
Natives Resettlement Act, Act No 19 of 1954
Group Areas Development Act, Act No 69 of 1955
Natives (Prohibition of Interdicts) Act, Act No 64 of 1956 - Denied black people the option of appealing to the courts against forced removals.
Bantu Investment Corporation Act, Act No 34 of 1959 - Provided for the creation of financial, commercial, and industrial schemes in areas designated for black people.
Extension of University Education Act, Act 45 of 1959 - Put an end to black students attending white universities (mainly the universities of Cape Town and Witwatersrand). Created separate tertiary institutions for whites, Coloured, blacks, and Asians.
Promotion of Bantu Self-Government Act, Act No 46 of 1959 - Classified black people into eight ethnic groups. Each group had a Commissioner-General who was tasked to develop a homeland for each, which would be allowed to govern itself independently without white intervention.
Coloured Persons Communal Reserves Act, Act No 3 of 1961
Preservation of Coloured Areas Act, Act No 31 of 1961
Urban Bantu Councils Act, Act No 79 of 1961 - Created black councils in urban areas that were supposed to be tied to the authorities running the related ethnic homeland.
Terrorism Act of 1967 - Allowed for indefinite detention without trial and established BOSS, the Bureau of State Security, which was responsible for the internal security of South Africa.
Bantu Homelands Citizens Act of 1970 - Compelled all black people to become a citizen of the homeland that responded to their ethnic group, regardless of whether they’d ever lived there or not, and removed their South African citizenship.
What was the AMC?
The ANC began to question the tactic of passive argumentation.
ANC was mainly composed of Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Anton Lembede, and Oliver Tambo.
What was the Freedom Charter?
The people shall govern
All national groups shall have equal rights
The people shall share the country’s wealth
The land shall be shared among those who work it
All shall be equal before the law
All shall enjoy human rights
There shall be work and security
The doors of learning and culture shall be opened
There shall be houses, security and comfort
There shall be peace and friendship.
Why was white south african government able to stay in power?
- The economy was very strong and South African businesses attracted massive foreign investment from Britain, Germany, USA and Japan
- South African minerals. Not only diamonds and gold but rare industrial metals And materials which are vital for industrial production
- South Africa’s regional strength. The neighboring countries depended on South Africa for their own economies for example jobs and trade routes
- South Africa’s military strength. The army had a formidable army and Air Force ; equipped with state of the art technology.
- South Africa and the Cold War. The country was strongly anti-communist, and was a vital ally for the West in the Cold War which was spreading to Africa.
What did Nelson Mandela believe in?
- the attacks of the wild beast cannot be fought off with only bare hands
- the peaceful protests made no effect
- he believed that they had no choice but to hit back all means within their power in defense of the people
- the government had already used violence
- blacks were already turning to violence
- a sabotage campaign directed against buildings rather than people would harm less people
What were Mandela’s beliefs? About the economy, the political system?
- equal wages
Equal job opportunity
Freedom Charter
Equal political rights
What were some methods used by the South African security forces?
Bannings - prevented the named person from attending meetings, writing, broadcasting or leaving a district without permission from a magistrate, and any gathering considered dangerous was banned.
Detention without trial - people suspected of terrorism were detained for up to 30 days, doing what they like with them.
Murder - government opponents were often found dead in peculiar circumstances, probably done by the government.
Press censorship and harassment - newspapers could not quoted banned people, and people could get arrested for retaliating in writing against the government, for example about prison conditions, and a leading black newspaper called the World was banned.
What were the ideas of Black Consciousness?
black students decided that the National Union of South African Students was white-dominated and could not support the black students. They formed SASO, and their arguments were that s a result of living for generations in a white-dominated society, black people had lost confidence in themselves. They came to assume that the whites were superior so they accepted too easily, if unhappily, the bad ways in which they were treated.
How was B.C. different from other groups?
B.C. was different from other groups because it made young people ready to defy the government and police at any cost. Biko’s murder just added fuel to the fire which the white government never fully succeeded in putting out.
What were Steve Biko’s strengths as a leader?
Steve Biko’s strengths as a leader included being a powerful writer and thinker, and eloquent speaker and also a man of much charm and many friends.
What was Nelson Mandela’s background?
Nelson Mandela was born on July 18, 1918, in Mvezo, Transkei, South Africa. Becoming actively involved in the anti-apartheid movement in his 20s, Mandela joined the African National Congress in 1942. For 20 years, he directed a campaign of peaceful, nonviolent defiance against the South African government and its racist policies. In 1993, Mandela and South African President F.W. de Klerk were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to dismantle the country’s apartheid system. In 1994, Mandela was inaugurated as South Africa’s first black president. In 2009, Mandela’s birthday (July 18) was declared “Mandela Day” to promote global peace and celebrate the South African leader’s legacy. Mandela died at his home in Johannesburg on December 5, 2013, at age 95.
What were Nelson Mandela’s aims and beliefs?
Nonviolent resistance, equality
What actions did Nelson Mandela take?
He was instrumental in running the ANC, was imprisoned on Robin Island, and then was freed and became the first black president of South Africa.
