Apartheid in South Africa 1960-1994

Question 1

African National Congress (ANC)

Answer 1

African National Congress (ANC) South African political group led by Nelson Mandela, which led the fight against apartheid; they won the majority of legislative seats in the 1994 election and, at the time of writing, continue to lead the government of South Africa.

Question 2

Afrikaner

Answer 2

Afrikaner The name for part of the white South African population; Afrikaner heritage derives from the colonists who broke away from the English-controlled Cape Colony and moved into the interior of South Africa to set up their own republics in the 1800s; also known as Boers.

Question 3

Afrikaner nationalism

Answer 3

Afrikaner nationalism The concept of Afrikaners forging their own cultural identity and language in South Africa and maintaining racial segregation based on the apartheid system.

Question 4

ANC Youth League

Answer 4

ANC Youth League Founded in 1944 by Nelson Mandela and other young nationalist members of the ANC to steer the parent organisation towards a more militant mass-resistance agenda.

Question 5

Apartheid

Answer 5

Apartheid From 1948–91, the white minority of South Africa used force to oppress the black majority by forcing them into segregated homelands and denying them equality; a system of segregation and discrimination in which different races were forced to live separately.

Question 6

AWB (Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging or Afrikaner Resistance Movement)

Answer 6

AWB (Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging or Afrikaner Resistance Movement) Right-wing extremist group.

Question 7

Baas

Answer 7

Baas Term used by black South African workers to address white adult males.

Question 8

Bantu

Answer 8

Bantu A term for the main linguistic and ethnic group to which most black Africans in Central and Southern Africa belong; the nationalist government used this term to identify black Africans and so it has some pejorative overtones.

Question 9

Bantustans (see Homelands)

Answer 9

Bantustans (see Homelands) Areas set aside for black people within South Africa as independent ethnic tribal homelands.

Question 10

Biko, Stephen

Answer 10

Biko, Stephen Founder of South Africa’s Black Consciousness Movement and president of the South African Students’ Organisation; banned by the government from political activity in 1973, he was killed while in police custody in 1977; Biko became an international symbol of the repression of the white government of South Africa.

Question 11

Black Consciousness Movement

Answer 11

Black Consciousness Movement South African political movement led by Stephen Biko; stressed black pride and the rediscovery of black culture.

Question 12

Boers

Answer 12

Boers A white South African of Dutch, German or Huguenot descent, especially one of the early settlers of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State.

Question 13

Botha, Pieter Willem

Answer 13

Botha, Pieter Willem Commonly known as ‘P. W.’, he was the leader of South Africa from 1978 to 1989, serving as the last Prime Minister from 1978 to 1984 and the first executive State President from 1984 to 1989; he introduced the policy of total strategy to deal with the problems of apartheid and the township riots during the 1980s.

Question 14

Buthelezi, Mangosuthu

Answer 14

Buthelezi, Mangosuthu A South African politician and Zulu tribal leader who founded the Inkatha Freedom Party in 1975 and was Chief Minister of the KwaZulu bantustan until 1994; he served as Minister of Home Affairs of South Africa from 1994 to 2004.

Question 15

C10

Answer 15

C10 Secret South African Police counter-insurgency unit which served the apartheid government; it captured political opponents and either ‘turned’ (converted) or executed them, including members of the ANC; the unit was commanded first by Dirk Coetzee and then Eugene de Kock, and headquartered at a farm known as Vlakplaas 20 km west of Pretoria.

Question 16

CODESA

Answer 16

CODESA Convention for a Democratic South Africa.

Question 17

Coloureds

Answer 17

Coloureds Those ‘of mixed race’, in apartheid terminology; usually referred to people with African and Dutch ancestry.

Question 18

Decolonisation

Answer 18

Decolonisation Process by which colonies become independent of the colonising country.

Question 19

de Klerk, Frederik Willem

Answer 19

de Klerk, Frederik Willem The last white minority president of South Africa; in 1989, de Klerk became president and began to dismantle the apartheid system; he freed Nelson Mandela in 1990 and negotiated with Mandela for a peaceful transfer of power and free elections; he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize along with Mandela in 1993.

Question 20

Disinvestment

Answer 20

Disinvestment The policy of international corporations of removing capital and investment from South Africa to pressure the government to end apartheid.

Question 21

Great Trek

Answer 21

Great Trek The Great Trek was a movement of Dutch-speaking colonists into the interior of southern Africa in search of land where they could establish their own homeland, independent of British rule.

Question 22

Hertzog, J.B.M.

Answer 22

Hertzog, J.B.M. A Boer general during the second Anglo-Boer War, he became Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa from 1924 to 1939; Hertzog promoted the growth of Afrikaner culture in South Africa.

Question 23

Homelands (also Bantustans)

Answer 23

Homelands (also Bantustans) Ten mini-states designated by the white South African government under apartheid as self-governing black areas intended to segregate blacks and limit their contact with the minority white population; more than 80 per cent of the population was relegated to these 10 states, which represented approximately 13 per cent of the total land; the homelands were carved out of the least agriculturally and economically desirable land in the country.

Question 24

Influx control

Answer 24

Influx control The apartheid-era policy of restricting the movement of black people into urban areas to live or work through the use of pass books.

Question 25

Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP)

Answer 25

**Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP)** The IFP is a political party in South Africa; since its founding in 1975 after the banning of the ANC and PAC, it has been led by Mangosuthu Buthelezi.

Question 26

Kaffir

Answer 26

**Kaffir** Insulting term used to describe black Africans by white South Africans.

Question 27

Kitskonstables

Answer 27

**Kitskonstables** (meaning instant constables) In the last days of apartheid, these men were unemployed blacks who were deputised into the South African security forces and then let loose on their own people with no restraint.

Question 28

Madikizela-Mandela, Winnie

Answer 28

**Madikizela-Mandela, Winnie** (1936–2018) The second wife of Nelson Mandela, marrying him in 1958 and divorcing in 1996; she was a strong critic of apartheid, resulting in lengthy periods of imprisonment, torture, solitary confinement, internal exile and house arrest from the 1950s to 1990; member of parliament for the ANC from 2009 to 2018\.

Question 29

Malan, D. F.

Answer 29

**Malan, D. F.** A South African politician who served as Prime Minister of South Africa from 1948 to 1954; he was the leader of the National Party, which came to power in 1948 and laid the foundations for the apartheid state.

Question 30

Mandela, Nelson

Answer 30

**Mandela, Nelson** (1918–2013) The leader of the ANC who eventually became South Africa’s first democratically elected black leader; imprisoned from 1962–90; leader of the anti-apartheid movement while in prison and was inspirational in bringing about a free and democratic South Africa after his release from prison; Mandela became an international statesman and champion for equality and justice.

Question 31

Mbeki, Thabo

Answer 31

**Mbeki, Thabo** A longstanding member of the ANC who was appointed Deputy President from 1994–99 and then elected President from 1999–2008, when he resigned.

Question 32

National Party (also Purified National Party or Nationalist Party)

Answer 32

**National Party (also Purified National Party or Nationalist Party)** White minority party that came to power in 1948 and institutionalised the system of apartheid.

Question 33

Operation Mayibuye

Answer 33

**Operation Mayibuye** (meaning ‘bringing back what was lost’) A plan of guerrilla-type activities against the apartheid government by the ANC’s military wing MK, which was thwarted in 1963 during a police raid at Rivonia.

Question 34

Organisation of African Unity

Answer 34

**Organisation of African Unity** Organisation of African nations created to promote continental peace, unity and cooperation; the group works to resolve conflicts between nations and to coordinate political, economic, cultural, scientific, medical and defence policies.

Question 35

Pan Africanist Congress

Answer 35

**Pan Africanist Congress** A splinter group of the ANC that broke away in 1959; the organisation’s beliefs differed to the ANC in that PAC was focused on liberation and self-government of black Africans.

Question 36

Pass Laws

Answer 36

**Pass Laws** South African legislation controlling the movements of blacks and coloureds (people of mixed racial descent) under the apartheid system; the laws were created to control the movement of people between their homes and places of work, and between rural and urban areas; between 1952 and 1986, millions were punished by the courts for failing to carry their passes; the Pass Laws were abolished in 1986\.

Question 37

Poqo

Answer 37

**Poqo** Military wing of the PAC.

Question 38

Reagan, Ronald

Answer 38

**Reagan, Ronald** An American politician and actor who served as the Governor of California and the 40th President of the United States from 1981 to 1989\.

Question 39

Sanctions

Answer 39

**Sanctions** Economic or sporting bans placed on South Africa by the United Nations or other countries.

Question 40

Sanction busting

Answer 40

**Sanction busting** Using third parties to defy international sanctions.

Question 41

Segregation

Answer 41

**Segregation** The policy of keeping one group of people apart from another and treating them differently, especially because of race, sex, or religion. In South Africa, apartheid was a policy of segregation.

Question 42

Separate development

Answer 42

**Separate development** Under Hendrik Verwoerd, apartheid developed into a policy known as separate development, where each of the nine African (Bantu) groups was to become a nation with its own homeland, or Bantustan.

Question 43

Sisulu, Walter

Answer 43

**Sisulu, Walter** A prominent leader of the South African fight against apartheid; he was imprisoned on Robben Island from 1962–89.

Question 44

Smuts, Jan

Answer 44

**Smuts, Jan** A South African and British Commonwealth statesman and military leader; Smuts was prime minister of the Union of South Africa from 1919 until 1924 and from 1939 until 1948; he originally supported racial segregation and opposed the right to vote for black Africans; however, he began to oppose segregation and his government lost the 1948 election to the National Party, who advocated apartheid.

Question 45

Sobukwe, Robert Magaliso

Answer 45

**Sobukwe, Robert Magaliso** Founder of the anti-apartheid Pan Africanist Congress (PAC); he helped organise the demonstrations against the Pass Laws in 1960 and was banned and imprisoned from 1960–69.

Question 46

South African Defence Force (SADF)

Answer 46

**South African Defence Force (SADF)** The SADF’s main role was to defend and protect South Africa’s territory and borders, but it was increasingly used to crush rebellion and riots during apartheid.

Question 47

South African security forces

Answer 47

**South African security forces** A combination of the South African Defence Forces (SADF) and South African Police, used to enforce apartheid and repress opposition.

Question 48

South African Students’ Organisation (SASO)

Answer 48

**South African Students’ Organisation (SASO)** A breakaway group from the National Union of Students, which demanded change and argued that whites in South Africa would not take the necessary steps to end apartheid.

Question 49

Soweto

Answer 49

**Soweto** South African township near Johannesburg and one of the largest urban areas in southern Africa, it is notorious for its poverty, overcrowding and oppression, and from 1976 to 1991, Soweto became the centre of the student fight against apartheid.

Question 50

State of emergency

Answer 50

**State of emergency** In 1986 the government declared South Africa to be in a general state of emergency; to protect the white minority and repress any actions against apartheid, townships were sealed off by the army, the military patrolled cities and suburban streets, and strict curfews were put in place; the policy was in place until 1990\.

Question 51

SWAPO

Answer 51

**SWAPO** South West African People’s Organisation; a political party and former independence movement in Namibia.

Question 52

Tambo, Oliver

Answer 52

**Tambo, Oliver** Nelson Mandela’s lifelong friend who directed the ANC from exile while Mandela was in prison; he was the Deputy President of the African National Congress.

Question 53

Terre’Blanche, Eugène Ney

Answer 53

**Terre’Blanche, Eugène Ney** A South African white supremacist and Afrikaner nationalist who was the founder and leader of the AWB (Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging) movement; he was murdered in 2010\.

Question 54

Thatcher, Margaret

Answer 54

**Thatcher, Margaret** Later became Baroness Thatcher, she was a British stateswoman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990\.

Question 55

Total onslaught

Answer 55

**Total onslaught** The idea proposed by P.W. Botha in 1985 that South Africa was under threat from both domestic and international pressures.

Question 56

Townships

Answer 56

**Townships** Government-built towns in South Africa with minimal municipal services located near cities that were designated as living areas for members of specific racial groups in order to separate them from whites, such as Soweto (South Western Townships), a black township in the Johannesburg area.

Question 57

Tutu, Desmond Mpilo

Answer 57

**Tutu, Desmond Mpilo** A South African Anglican cleric known for his work as an anti-apartheid and human rights activist; he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for his political activism; from 1996, Tutu served as head of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and delivered its findings in 1998\.

Question 58

Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation)

Answer 58

**Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation)** also known as MK, this was the military wing of the ANC co-formed by Nelson Mandela in 1960\.

Question 59

UNITA

Answer 59

**UNITA** National Union for the Total Independence of Angola.

Question 60

United Democratic Front (UDF)

Answer 60

**United Democratic Front (UDF)** A multiracial party formed with the aim of uniting all resistance groups in the fight against apartheid.

Question 61

Verwoerd, Dr Hendrik Frensch

Answer 61

**Verwoerd, Dr Hendrik Frensch** Also known as the ‘architect of apartheid’, he was a South African professor, journalist, editor-in-chief and politician who served as Prime Minister of South Africa from 1958 until his assassination in 1966\.

Question 62

Vorster, J.B.

Answer 62

**Vorster, J.B.** The Prime Minister of South Africa from 1966 to 1978 and the fourth State President of South Africa from 1978 to 1979; Vorster was known for his steadfast adherence to apartheid; as the Minister of Justice he supported the state prosecution in the Rivonia Trial in which Nelson Mandela and other ANC figures were sentenced to life imprisonment.