Beginnings - 1948-1959

Question 1

Name the three ethnicities in South Africa in 1948

Answer 1

Whites (mainly Afrikaaners or of British descent), Coloured and Indian people, and black Africans.

Question 2

What is the 1939 Land Act?

Answer 2

A law forcing people of color to live in reserves and making it illegal for them to be sharecroppers.

Question 3

When was South Africa handed self-government by Britain?

Answer 3

1910

Question 4

What did the government do to keep cities as ‘white’ spaces?

Answer 4

They established townships. These were on the edge of cities and had poor living conditions.

Question 5

How was life in South Africa’s rural areas divided pre-1948?

Answer 5

Whites owned 80% of the land, mostly as large farms. Black people were the majority on most of these farms, working as tenants and wage laborers. Black staff and white owners lived together but under a strict hierarchy.

Question 6

What is the Broederbond? What were their values?

Answer 6

A society of carefully chosen Afrikaner white men. They were Christians, nationalists, and had a republican outlook.

Question 7

How was religion used to implement and justify apartheid?

Answer 7

Most Afrikaners were deeply religious, so they believed that white and black people had different roles in society and that they needed to be kept separate to follow divine designs.

Question 8

What two parties competed in the 1948 election?

Answer 8

National Party and United Party.

Question 9

Who was the leader of the United Party in 1948?

Answer 9

Jan Smuts

Question 10

Who was the leader of the National Party in 1948?

Answer 10

D. F. Malan

Question 11

Why did the National Party win in 1948 despite not winning the popular majority?

Answer 11

Because South Africa worked with a Westminster constituency system. The National Party got more seats because they won many small constituencies and those seats added up.

Question 12

Why did people vote for the National Party in 1948?

Answer 12

-There was a growing movement of Afrikaner nationalism.
-There was no international interference or criticism of the NP’s racist ideas.
-The National Party wanted people of color to be completely alienated from society and this appealed to their voters.
-It was an opportunity to legalize racist policies and turn them into a system that cemented white supremacy.

Question 13

What is ‘black danger’?

Answer 13

The idea of black South Africans flooding into cities and stealing ‘white’ jobs.

Question 14

Explain separate development.

Answer 14

The idea that different ethnicities had different capabilities and therefore needed different levels of education and work. It was used to promote white supremacy and segregation.

Question 15

Why did black people not have the right to vote in South Africa in 1948?

Answer 15

Because when South Africa gained independence from Britain, the UK did not make it a requirement for people of color to be able to vote, so they were never enfranchised.

Question 16

How did the National Party begin to implement their ideas?

Answer 16

Through parliament. Commissions were also formed to investigate how to best advance the apartheid agenda.

Question 17

What was the purpose of the 1951 Separate Representation of Voters Act?

Answer 17

To take away the remainder of the colored vote. A few select people were allowed to vote until then.

Question 18

How did the National Party pass the 1951 Separate Representation of Voters Act?

Answer 18

They didn’t receive the necessary 2/3 majority but passed it anyway. When judges claimed it void without the majority, the government appointed new judges and packed the Senate with sympathetic Afrikaners.

Question 19

Name two race laws of the time

Answer 19

Mixed Marriage Act (1949) and the Immorality Act (1950). They prohibited marriage and sex across racial boundaries.

Question 20

What are the Group Area Acts?

Answer 20

Laws that provided the power to eradicate black houses, shops, and businesses in urban areas so that cities would be in white hands.

Question 21

Who was Hendrik Verwoerd?

Answer 21

Minister of Native Affairs 1950-58 and Prime Minister 1958-66. He coordinated the Apartheid Project and established the Bantu Authorities Act and the Promotion of Bantu Self-Government Act.

Question 22

What is the Bantu Authorities Act?

Answer 22

A law that aimed to ensure the establishment of the homelands and traditional chiefs to rule them.

Question 23

What law legalised separate development in 1953?

Answer 23

The Reservation of Separate Amenities Act.

Question 24

What are pass laws and reference books?

Answer 24

Pass laws required black people to have passes to move to urban areas or cross community lines. The laws were changed frequently and used to arrest people.
Reference books needed to be presented on demand.

Question 25

What did the Bantu Education Act of 1953 do?

Answer 25

It extended education to African children, largely due to fear of street youths and violent gangs forming.

Question 26

What is the Tomlinson report?

Answer 26

A report on how to improve the Bantustans. It required an investment of £100 million and was never used because the NP refused to invest that amount in black communities.

Question 27

Why was the Tomlinson report not implemented?

Answer 27

It required too much money. Verwoerd rejected it because he claimed the white population would not support the investment and that the Bantustans should develop at their own pace without outside investment.

Question 28

Explain ‘Betterment and Rehabilitation’.

Answer 28

A strategy to stop environmental degradation and enable Africans to intensify their farming without destroying the soil or vegetation. It affected black South Africans because rural families were moved into compact villages to free up more land and they were forced to sell their cattle.

Question 29

Explain some inadequacies of the Bantustans.

Answer 29

They were on a limited area of land so people lived very close to each other. The chiefs were often corrupt and concerned with their personal gains. Living conditions were poor and there was virtually no funding available.

Question 30

Explain the Treason Trial

Answer 30

In 1956, 156 members of the Congress Alliance were arrested and tried for high treason. The trial lasted 5 years and prosecutors tried to prove that the defendants had tried to overthrow the government and had communist affiliations. All accused were acquitted in 1961.

Question 31

Why did the ANC align themselves with the communist party?

Answer 31

For resources. The plan was a two-phase revolution. First end Apartheid, then try to turn South Africa into a communist country. This was more opportunistic than belief-based since the ANC was not a communist organisation.

Question 32

What were the principles of the Youth League?

Answer 32

African consciousness, nationalism and a united people.

Question 33

When was the Liberal Party formed?

Answer 33

1953.

Question 34

What were defiance campaigns?

Answer 34

Groups of volunteers breaking racially-based restrictions in an organised and non-violent manner.

Question 35

Name some forms of non-violent protests.

Answer 35

Strikes, bus boycotts and defying of pass laws.

Question 36

When was the Youth League’s programme of action adopted by the ANC?

Answer 36

1949.

Question 37

Describe rural resistance at the time.

Answer 37

It happened alongside urban resistance. Betterment and Bantu authorities helped trigger a series of rural movements.

Question 38

What is the Freedom Charter?

Answer 38

A document written by the Congress Alliance stating their core political beliefs. Thousands of people across South Africa submitted their suggestions. It was a sign of coordinated resistance against the apartheid regime.

Question 39

State the core beliefs and constituency of the PAC.

Answer 39

The majority of their supporters were teachers. They believed in ‘Africa for Africans’. They thought that non-Africans had too much influence in the movement, they wanted more direct action and they believed in the return of the land to Africans.
They also believed that the Freedom Charter was too focused on civil rights for all.