South Africa
Background (1948-1994)
Until the seveententh century the black people lived in the area of South Africa
white peope arrived in 1652 in a ship from Netherlands that arrived at the Cape of Good Hope
The white people that arrived first were from Netherlands, Germany and Sweden . Then Great Britain arrived and they called themselves boers or afrikaners
In the 1899 a conflict (second boer war) between the decendants of the people from netherlands and the British .In 1902 Britain won
In 1910 a new country appeared (South Africa) under the British empire
After the creation of South Africa
After the first white government of South Africa they passed some laws against the black people
The Natives Land Act which consisted in
The black people (4 million) were given 7.3% of the land in South Africa
The white people and the coloureds (less than 2 million) were given 92.7%
Hertzog government (1924-1939)
During this period, the white government took away more and more rights from black people
In 1926, Hertzog’s government passed a law prohibiting black and Indian people from gaining skilled work which paid well.
In 1927, the government passed a law prohibiting a sexual relationship between black and white people.
In 1925, Afrikaans, the language of the Afrikaners, became the official language of South Africa.
Apartheid laws
These were made after Daniel Malan's party (national party) won the 1948 election, he believd in white superiority over black people
The laws were the following
He divided the South Africans in different racial groups: white (afrikaners or white people), coloureds (mixed and asian people) and natives (black people)
No black and white people or coloured married, and prohibited sexual relationships between them.
South African people should be categorised in groups.
There were places, constantly supervised, for white people only and the best facilities and servicies were also reserved for them
No communism in South Africa
Rules were tightened
The goverment controled black people's education and all the
aspects on their lives
Coloureds were removed from voting
Hendrick Verwoerd (1958-1974)
He was prime minister of South Africa when Daniel Malan died. He supported him and also believed in the rights of the afrikaners, in fact he thought he was doing god's work. Hendrick was against black peope controlling the country.
The opposition in South Africa
Steve Biko
Sharpeville 1960
Soweto 1976
In 1966 he studied at Natal Medical School
While he studied there he helped establish the South African Student’s Organisation (SASO) in 1968.
His political activities led to his expulsion from the University
but he continued campaigning against
apartheid
His ideas were very popular amongst black people who believed in campaigning for themselves
He died in 1966 while managing his political party and his country. In 1959 the goverment passed the promotion of Bantu self-goverment act.
Biko was arrested several times and none of them he was charged and also he got banned on doing some certain thigs like : travelling without the government’s consent and publishing any work
In 1977 he got killed while being interrogated by 5 men who beat him up until he got unconcious
The police said that he hit his head against a wall and after that he was driven on a Land Rover 1,000 kilometres for treatment in a Pretoria hospital. And after that he hung himslef with his jeans
Bantustants: they were self-governing homelands of black people (apart from white goverment).
These were the Verwoerd's solution to the overpopulations problems, as 87 percent of the land as controled by white people, black pople were forced to move to the batustants. These places were not truly self- governing and too small to have their own economy.
One of the most unpopular of the government’s policies was the policy forcing every black person to carry a passbook or they would be punished by giving 10£ or 1 month on prision
The PAC suggested to do a non violent riot that consisted in going everyone that was black without the passbook and confess in fornt of a police station so they were not able to throw every person inside of the jail
The protest wasnt successfull because the police officers opened fire against black people without warning shots and killed some people
Soweto was a huge township outside Johannesburg where over a million black people lived.
What made Soweto so unusual was the fact that so many young people lived there. Over half the population were under 20 years old and because of this there were more prostest because th youth had more extremist points of view
In 1976, the government decided that black people would receive half their education through the medium of Afrikaans. Children at black schools were not happy to be taught through the medium of a language they considered as the ‘language of the oppressor because of this children were not assisting to exams and going on a march(June 16th)
because of some police officers that shoot and killed 2 black men the riots and protest became more violent and the black people started to burn governments buildings ,atack cars and also kill police officers
PAC AND ANC
ANC before sharpeville
white government began passing laws against black people back in 1910, many black people decided to come together to oppose these steps
Those who established the ANC believed strongly in trying to use non-violent methods to fight apartheid
After Dr Daniel Malan’s National Party came to power in 1948 and began building a new country based on apartheid, black people were extremely worried about their future.
PAC
ANC after Sharpeville
until 1960 the ANC were non violent but with the massacre of sharpeville two things happened:
The leaders of the ANC and an organisation called the PAC realised the government was willing to use violence against non violent protests
Following Sharpeville, the government banned both organisations, making them illegal (PAC and ANC)
The PAC was established by former members of the ANC who did not agree with some of the
organisation’s policies.
They believed that its members collaborated too much with white people, and were under Communist influence
After sharpeville the PAC went on to establish a
terrorist group called Poqo
Mandela
He was raised in the Thembu Tribe, took part in a boycott against quality of food with Oliver Tambo and got suspended from university. Then he flew to Johannesburg and found a legal job
Was not against white people but against white supremacy and sruggling against the supremacy
Established the ANC youth league with Tambo and Sisulu
Took part in a campaign against apartheid and got arrested for it, also getting arrested back in South Africa for leaving without permission
Defended himself and others accused in the Rivonia Trival, also admitting his participation in the bombing campaign
Sentenced to life imprisionment, was iimprisionedfor 27 years and didn't accept being released until apartheid was over
Was a symbol of the fight against apartheid
Discussed the feature of South Africa with De Klerk and became leader of the ANC, then they both won a Nobel Peace Prize and finally he became president of South Africa in the first free election for black people
British commonwralth
By 1970, most African countries had gained independence from the European countries which had ruled them
South Africa became a republic with a President, and became completely independent of Britain
F.W De Klerk
Prime minister since 1989
Botha and the new realism
In 1978, Botha succeeded John Vorster as Prime Minister. He knew they needed to change to keep the white supremacy as apartheid didn’t work anymore.
He wanted to use more power to control black violence and he wanted to see a slow change in apartheid so he decided to develop a more realistic policy towards it.
He said that the country needed a general change
In December 1989, Mandela and de Klerk met. Although Mandela was still in prison, he asked
de Klerk to lift the ban on the ANC.
In February 1990, de Klerk told the South
African Parliament that:
he would lift the ban on the ANC, the PAC and 30 other organisations; from then on, being a
member of the ANC would not be against the law
he would release political prisoners who had not committed violent crimes
newspapers would have the right to report on events, without being censored
capital punishment would be eliminated
Mandela would be released unconditionally.
On 11 February 1990, Nelson Mandela was released from Victor Verster prison
The general election
For the first time over 16 million black people could vote it consisted in:
The National Party (de Klerk) 20%
The government also began introducing reforms on other elements of apartheid: Some public places, such as cinemas, were open to everyone. In 1981, beaches in Cape Province became mixed. In 1985, black people were given the right to go to some of the same hotels and restaurants as white people.
The Inkatha Freedom Party (Chief Buthelezi) 10%
The African National Congress (the ANC) 62%
Other 8%