Apartheid in South Africa – Key Vocabulary

Vocabulary flashcards summarising the key legislation, organisations, events and figures involved in South Africa’s apartheid system and the struggle to end it (1960-1994).

Apartheid

The South African system of institutionalised racial segregation and discrimination (1948-1994) designed to keep the white minority in political and economic control.

Afrikaners

White South Africans of mainly Dutch, German and French Huguenot descent whose nationalist ideology underpinned apartheid.

National Party

White-only political party that won the 1948 election and ruled South Africa for 46 years, formally introducing and enforcing apartheid.

Scientific Racism

Pseudo-scientific belief used by apartheid ideologues to justify racial separation and white supremacy as ‘natural’ and ‘beneficial.’

Population Registration Act 1950

Law requiring every South African to be classified as White, Coloured, Asian or Black, forming the legal basis of all later apartheid legislation.

Pass Laws Act 1952 (Passbooks)

Nationwide system forcing Black South Africans over 16 to carry identification that controlled where they could live, work and travel.

Group Areas Act 1950

Legislation that assigned separate residential and business districts to each racial group and authorised forced removals.

Bantu Education Act 1953

Law placing Black schools under state control, providing inferior curricula aimed at preparing Black students only for menial labour.

Suppression of Communism Act 1950

Broad statute banning any organisation or person deemed ‘communist,’ effectively outlawing most anti-apartheid activity.

Reservation of Separate Amenities Act 1953

Ordered segregated public facilities; those for non-whites were consistently inferior in quality and funding.

Separate Representation of Voters Act 1956

Stripped Cape Coloureds from common voters’ roll, limiting them to electing a handful of white representatives.

Promotion of Bantu Self-Government Act 1959

Legislation creating nominally self-governing Black ‘homelands’ (Bantustans) and removing Black representation from Parliament.

Bantustans (Homelands)

Territories making up 13 % of South Africa to which most Blacks were forcibly assigned, denying them South African citizenship.

Tomlinson Report 1954

Government-commissioned study recommending the full implementation of Bantustans and industrial zones on their borders.

Influx Control Laws

Regulations limiting the number of Blacks allowed to enter or remain in ‘white’ urban areas, enforced via pass raids.

African National Congress (ANC)

Founded 1912; principal liberation movement advocating a non-racial democracy and later leading the struggle against apartheid.

ANC Youth League (1944)

Radical wing of the ANC that drafted the 1949 Program of Action calling for mass protests, boycotts and civil disobedience.

Program of Action (1949)

ANC strategy endorsing non-violent mass action to oppose apartheid laws through strikes, boycotts and passive resistance.

Defiance Campaign 1952

Nationwide ANC-led civil disobedience against pass laws and segregation; met with violent repression and mass arrests.

Congress Alliance

Coalition of ANC, SA Indian Congress, Coloured Peoples Association and trade unions that drafted the Freedom Charter.

Freedom Charter 1955

Foundational statement demanding a non-racial, democratic South Africa with equal political, economic and social rights for all.

Pan Africanist Congress (PAC)

1959 breakaway from ANC favouring African nationalism and, ultimately, armed struggle to end white rule.

Sharpeville Massacre 1960

Police opened fire on PAC pass-law protestors, killing 69; led to worldwide condemnation and the banning of ANC and PAC.

Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK)

‘Spear of the Nation’—the ANC’s armed wing, co-founded by Nelson Mandela in 1961 to carry out sabotage against apartheid targets.

Poqo

Militant PAC armed wing that embraced violent tactics, including the killing of perceived enemies of freedom.

Nelson Mandela

ANC leader, first MK commander, life-sentence Rivonia defendant, global symbol of resistance, and South Africa’s first Black president (1994).

Rivonia Trial 1963-64

Court case in which Mandela and MK leaders were convicted of sabotage and sentenced to life imprisonment on Robben Island.

Robben Island

Maximum-security prison where many anti-apartheid leaders, including Mandela, served long sentences under harsh conditions.

Free Nelson Mandela Campaign

Worldwide movement (from 1980) demanding Mandela’s release; galvanised sanctions and mass support against apartheid.

Black Consciousness Movement (BCM)

1970s movement led by Steve Biko promoting Black pride, psychological liberation and self-reliance.

Steve Biko

Medical student, BCM founder and writer (‘I Write What I Like’) whose 1977 death in police custody intensified opposition to apartheid.

Soweto Uprising 1976

Mass student protest against compulsory Afrikaans instruction; police response killed hundreds, sparking nationwide revolt.

Total Strategy

President P. W. Botha’s policy of limited reforms combined with heightened security repression to counter a perceived ‘total onslaught.’

State of Emergency (1985-1990)

Period granting security forces sweeping powers—curfews, censorship, mass detentions—to suppress township unrest.

Internal Security Amendment Act 1976

Law extending detention without trial and other powers to silence opponents of the state.

Kitskonstabels

‘Instant constables’—poorly trained Black auxiliaries used by police to terrorise fellow township residents.

United Democratic Front (UDF)

1983 umbrella organisation of over 600 groups opposing apartheid and the Tricameral Parliament, aligned with ANC principles.

Tricameral Parliament 1983

Constitutional reform giving Coloureds and Indians limited chambers while excluding Blacks entirely; widely rejected.

Necklacing

Township vigilante execution method (burning tyre round the neck) used against alleged collaborators in the 1980s.

Pollsmoor March 1985

UDF-organised protest demanding Mandela’s release; violently suppressed, leading to 28 deaths and escalating Western Cape unrest.

Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP)

Zulu-based movement led by Mangosuthu Buthelezi; sometimes violently opposed the ANC during the transition period.

Economic Sanctions

Trade, investment and lending restrictions imposed by foreign governments and companies to pressure South Africa to end apartheid.

Disinvestment

Withdrawal of foreign corporate assets from South Africa; key economic weapon of the global anti-apartheid movement.

Gleneagles Agreement 1977

Commonwealth accord discouraging sporting contact with South Africa, deepening its international isolation.

Bob Hawke

Australian Prime Minister who lobbied international banks to cut loans to Pretoria, calling financial pressure the ‘dagger’ that felled apartheid.

F. W. de Klerk

Last apartheid-era president who unbanned liberation movements, freed Mandela (1990) and negotiated the democratic transition.

CODESA (1991-1993)

Convention for a Democratic South Africa—multi-party talks between the National Party, ANC and others to draft a new constitution.

Eugene Terre’Blanche / AWB

Far-right Afrikaner leader whose paramilitary Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging threatened violence to prevent Black majority rule.

1994 General Election

First non-racial national vote in South Africa; ANC won 62 %, Mandela became president, ending 46 years of apartheid rule.

One Man, One Vote

Democratic principle of universal suffrage long denied under apartheid and central to ANC demands.

Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC)

Post-apartheid body (1996-2003) that investigated human-rights abuses and granted amnesty in exchange for full disclosure.

Forward Defence

SADF policy of cross-border raids and support for proxy forces to destabilise neighbouring states harbouring ANC bases.

Total Onslaught

Apartheid regime’s term for perceived combined internal and external threats—communist, nationalist and international—to white rule.

SABC Censorship

State broadcasting monopoly that enforced strict content controls and biased reporting to support apartheid policies.

Trojan Horse Massacre 1985

Incident in which security forces hid in a truck and opened fire on Cape Town protestors, killing three youths and shocking the world.

Langa Massacre 1985

Police killed 35 protestors commemorating Sharpeville’s anniversary, intensifying township violence.

Operation Mayibuye

MK plan for mass armed rebellion uncovered during Rivonia raid, forming key evidence at the trial.

Pass Law Raids

Frequent police sweeps arresting Blacks without valid passbooks; central mechanism of urban apartheid control.

Coloureds

Official apartheid racial category for people of mixed ancestry, positioned socially between Whites and Blacks.

Native Labour (Settlement of Disputes) Act 1953

Law barring Black workers from joining registered unions or striking, entrenching cheap labour practices.