The response to apartheid 1948-1959 Flashcards
How many Africans were in SA in 1951?
8.5 million
Why did tribes make the ANC’s work harder?
It had to bridge tribal divides and create an African identity
How many Dutch and British in the 1951 census?
1.6 million and 1 million
What role did the British have in SA?
They were more wealthy and educated than other groups, often working in business and professions
How many coloreds were in the census of 1951 and what did they usually speak?
1.1 million, usually speaking Afrikaans
Percentage of Indians in 1951 census
3%
When were blacks disenfranchised?
1936
In 1948, what percentage of the population was white and therefore could vote?
21%
What was a key issue for the National Party that gained them popularity in 1948?
The Poor White Problem, where these individuals looked for job security and to be above the blacks socially once again
Where did the majority of Africans live?
In the countryside or townships (urban areas just outside cities and places of work)
What percentage of land was owned by the white man in 1948?
80%
What was the word for white economic power over blacks?
Baaskap
What was the role of the rural African?
He worked the fields either on white-owned land or on reserves
Where was education often best for the blacks?
In the reserves, where religious congregations had set up schools
Which pre-1948 event rose Afrikaner nationalism?
1938 century of the Great Trek which incensed a feeling of volk in the population with Voortrekker monument, alongside a religious fervour due to the Covenant made with God in the Battle of Blood River made in 1838
What soft-power did the British have in SA?
Sport links as well as ownership of mines and industries by British companies which created animosity between them and Afrikaners
Which group gave the ideological backing to the National Party and what did they support?
The Broederbond, Christian republicans and nationalists from 1918
How did religion influence the Afrikaners of 1948?
The Calvinist Dutch Reformed Churches saw the need for separate racial development - desire for banning inter-racial marriage
How did WW2 influence the 1948 election?
The Ossewabrandwag who were anti-war, conservative to the point of fascism and yet militaristic, mostly turned to the National Party post-war (300,000 members at peak)
Why was SA far from the norm in world views in 1948?
The post-war consensus on the need for basic human rights and equality were rebuked by SA
Where did some members of the National Party take strength from internationally?
The Deep South of America, where religion and racism went hand in hand
Which 3 things did the National Party mention in the 1948 election to scare whites?
Swart gevaar (black danger) and oorstrooming (flooding) as well as relations across colour lines threatening a white hierachy
Why were the United Party losing votes up to 1948?
Support for WW2, as well as being seen as an appeaser of the blacks and not the true Afrikaner culture
Why did the National Party mathematically win the election in 1948?
Even though they had 11 points less than the United Party in the popular vote, they had a small majority of support in the many rural communities`
How did the National Party ensure it’s political survival?
Adding 6 MP’s for Namibia as well as somewhat unconstitutionally removing coloureds from electoral rolls in the Cape Colonies in 1956, more Afrikaners in Civil Service with British pushed to retire, senior NP members also part of Broederbond
From what to what did state employment increase by in the 1950s and who had these jobs?
482,000 to 799,000, even more jobs for the whites
What was the long-term benefit for whites under apartheid?
The cementation of hierarchy
Which roles did Verwoerd have in government?
Minister of Native Affairs (1950-58) and Prime Minister (1958-66)
What was passed in 1951?
Bantu Authorities Act which gave local chieftains responsibility in the African communities
What was passed in 1959?
Promotion of Bantu Self-Government Act; 8 self-governing African units run within tribes, blacks removed from official statistics so whites were largest group, grand apartheid
What was passed to stop crossing of racial lines sexually?
Mixed Marriage Act of 1949 and Immorality Act of 1950
What 2 pieces of key legislation was passed in 1950?
Population Registration Act and Group Areas Act
What did the Group Areas Act do?
Give whites the ability to remove other races from inner-cities along with their businesses, like with Sophiatown in Johannesburg
Why was Sophiatown targeted by nationalists?
It had a vibrant black culture with much support for the ANC and Drum magazine, as well as shebeens and tsotsis
How does the actions of the Group Areas Act in Durban show National Party policy to different races?
There was a graduation, with whites in the city center, Indians forced out to live in the south to provide a barrier from the blacks who were in a township outside the city called Umlazi
What shows the failures of the Group Areas Act to work efficiently?
District Six which still now has vacant areas of land in the Cape Town area
What was passed in 1953 to entrench petty apartheid?
Reservation of Separate Amenities Act, separate but not equal
Why was the African lifestyle so unstable in the townships?
They were unable to buy property
What was brought in in 1952 to protect white city interests?
Native Abolition of Passes Act and Urban Areas Act, leading to implementation of reference books for all (to standardised process) and creating a minority of blacks who could live in the city
How many convictions of the pass laws were there in 1952 and 1962?
160,000 then up to 380,000
How many blacks lived in the cities in 1946 and 1960?
1.8m up to 3.5m
Percentage of Africans literate in 1951
24%
What was passed in 1953 to control African education?
Bantu Education Act, which segregated classrooms and syllabuses - brought in to avoid growth of tsotsis
What was brought in in 1959 to control African universities and why?
Extension of University Education Act which brought the previously radical Fort Hare and Witwatersrand Universities under government control
When was the Tomlinson Report written?
1955
What did the Tomlinson Report recommend?
Creation of large farming units from many smalls ones, funding of Bantu agriculture and encouraging foreign investment into Bantustans
Why was the Tomlinson report rejected?
No desire for black industry competition, or undermine local chieftain support with private property, or mass black migration to cities once displaced
What was betterment?
The change of land into small rotating animal paddocks, and as a result Africans were moved into villages
What policy was abandoned from betterment/rehabilitation in the 1960s?
Livestock culling
What was the major hypocrisy in the Afrikaner view of the African?
The whites were not split into tribes like blacks were
How many were arrested in 1956 from the Congress Alliance?
156
How long did the Treason Trial take?
5 years
What was the benefit of the Treason Trial for the ANC?
It gave them a podium and an audience (media was very interested)
What was the disadvantage of the Treason Trial for the ANC?
The leadership were tied up in court for a long time
What was a popular pre-Group Areas Act protest strategy?
Squatting, as shown by the success of James Mpanza in 1944 in Johanesburg, helping to create the Soweto township to escape the slums of the city
What piece of racial protest occurred in 1946?
African miners strike, aided by black communists
What were boycotted in 1944 and 1949?
Buses
When was the ANC Youth League set up and why?
1944 to galvanize radical Africans, emboldened by anti-colonial rhetoric and West African Nationalists
Where did the ANC Youth League have the greatest success?
Around Johannesburg and Witwatersrand
What was launched by the ANC Youth League in 1949 and what did it show?
Programme of Action, an attack on white supremacy and old ANC loiterers, showing desire for Africanist policies crossing class boundaries
What was the major split in the Africanist movement?
Decision to accept other races or not
What was the SA Communist Party aim?
A two-stage revolution, first to democratic equality, then to socialism
When was the Communist Party banned?
1950
What was the Indian rights group?
South African Indian Congress
What was formed in 1953 as a white retaliation to apartheid?
The Liberal Party
When did the Defiance Campaign begin and what influenced it?
1952, influenced by Gandhi’s protests in India
How many arrests were in the Defiance Campaign?
6,000
What was the bad result of the Defiance Campaign?
The death of Sister Aidan who was burned alive in her car in East London
Why was the positive results of the Defiance Campaign?
Large-scale protests occurred in East London and Port Elizabeth, and ANC membership rose from 4,000 to 100,000
What was set up within the ANC in 1948?
ANC Women’s League
What were women good for during the struggle against apartheid?
Grass roots support and large protests i.e. August 1956 pass office protest, called the Women’s March, in Pretoria, 20,000 protesters
What happened in Sekhukhuneland in the 1950s?
The National Party tried to place their preferred leaders into the homeland, but by 1958, 9 of these men were dead
When was the Freedom Charter signed and where?
1955, in Kliptown, Soweto
Where was Africa for Africans supported and by who?
Johannesburg, by The Africanist newsletter and Potlake Leballo and Robert Sobukwe
What was freedom and independence for Africanists?
A return of land to Africans
Which school of Africanism was supported most strongly by Africanists?
Pan-Africanism and more confrontational direct action
What was the short term trigger for the split in the ANC?
The automatic re-election of the ANC leadership in 1958 and Luthuli’s disparaging words about Africanism
Who supported the PAC in it’s creation in 1959?
Leaders of independent Ghana and Guinea
2 important pre-1948 laws
1923 Urban Areas Act, creation of townships, and 1936 Native Trusts and Lands Act, 14% of land tribal reserves (how much the Africans had when Boers first arrived)
Percentage of whites and Africans living in urban areas in 1946
75% and 23%
United Party fault for 1948 result
PM Jan Smuts was old and tired suggesting blacks live in white areas during WWII for employment in long term, no new policies and poor campaign, as well as Deputy PM Jan Hofmeyr seen as moderate on racial policy
How did German connections influence the 1948 result?
Afrikaner resentment at entry to war against their brethren, Verwoerd with Die Transvaaler newspaper of NP espoused pro-Nazi stance as a result
How did war-time industry affect the result of 1948?
Only 25% of 125,000 newly hired war-time workers were white, fear that blacks would entrench new rights as workers
Example of Nazi group
Greyshirt movement supported by Oxwagon Sentinel
From when did the UN General Council condemn apartheid every year?
1952
2 types of apartheid
Grand - separate development, and petty - separate facilities
What happened to Sophiatown under the Group Areas Act?
1953 as a blackspot it was destroyed with Africans moved to township ‘Meadowlands’ and Triomf white suburb built over it
Number of Africans forcibly evicted between 1951 and 1986
3.5m
Facts about schools in 1945-48
4400 missionary schools and 230 government-run ones for Africans, while only a third of students attended school
What was the Bantu Education Act of 1953 based on and what did it do?
Eiselen Commission of 1949, with Ministry for Native Affairs taking over bantu education, removing state subsidies from mission schools so they close, Native Affairs controlling 26,000 teachers
What was created in 1958 for education?
Department of Bantu Education
3 recommendations of Tomlinson Report
Only 2/3rds of population could be sustained on the homelands, betterment worth £100m would help to stop soil erosion, and some should work in cities close to homelands as well as in agriculture
Power of 1950 Suppression of Communism Act 1950
Communism meant general disorder, organisations and people could be banned for 5 years, British Lord Chancellor said Minister of Justice in SA decided what was communist
What did the 1953 Public Safety Act allow?
State of Emergency to be called by government for a year, could be extended
Law of 1953 in area of crime
Criminal Law Amendment Act - guilty by accompanying an individual who committed a crime
Censoring in 1950s
1955/56 Censorship Acts preventing critical reporting of the state
1956 Freedom Charter reaction law
Riotous Assemblies Act - no meeting engendering hostility between races allowed, and banned people couldn’t address public meetings
Treason Trial arrests, start of trial and end
December 1956, 30 prosecuted in August 1959, acquitted in March 1961
Reflection of inability of Treason Trial accused to carry on life
Tambo and Mandela’s law firm basically closed, so equally no ability to fight a campaign
Date of forming ANC, SAIC and CPSA
1912, 1919 and 1921
Who formed the ANC and how did SAIC join it?
Middle-class elite at first, with SAIC joining in Three Doctors Pact of 1947
Example of irritation of ANC youth with old guard
100,000 striking miners organised in 1946, but only supported by ANC, nothing was led like this
What was created in 1948 and 1949 by the Youth League?
Basic Policy (tribes united, right to wealth of Africa by Africans, accept help of whites) and Programme of Action
End of Defiance Campaign
January 1953
Issue for some of Freedom Charter
Common ownership of wealth seen as communist
1957-1959 direct action
Potato Boycott, potatoes rotted quickly leading to farmers gaining better working conditions in August 1959
1957 direct action
Zeerust Uprising, local chief overthrown by not carrying out pass implementation for females, riots as people bussed in from Johannesburg, but most acquitted
1960 direct action
East Pondoland revolt as Africans wanted corrupt chief to be removed, armed struggle by Intaba movement rebels, white stores boycotted, chief survived in January 1961 leading to feelings ANC was not powerful in rural areas, and PAC would do better
Area of support for PAC and number of supporters in 1959 compared to ANC
Witwatersrand with 25,000 more members than ANC in 1959
