Apartheid

Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela

• ANC leader

• A dominant figure in the liberation movement (1948-1964)

• Helped compose the Freedom Charter

• Firm believer in a non-racial approach as his politics swung to the left

• Revitalized the party in the late 40s through his activism in the Youth League

• Lead the Defiance Campaign (1952)

• Was necessary for uniting South Africans of races through his advocacy of the COP

African National Congress (ANC)

• Forefront of black opposition to apartheid

• Aims:

  • End the Apartheid regime and institute a non-racial democratic system.

  • Expand membership to poorer Africans → end perception of elitist party

  • Represent the interest of all Africans, especially Black

  • Show the Whites that Black people were civilized and respectable

  • Worthy of greater political inclusion

Coloreds

• One of the four classifications of race in South Africa during Apartheid

• Referred to those who were mixed-race

• Worked among the Congress of the People (COP) to draft the Freedom Charter and some were also a part of the ANC

• Not the leading force behind the liberation movement but were contributors nonetheless

Pan Africanist Congress (PAC)

• Sharpeville incident → independence from other groups → Emergence of the Pan Africanist Congress PAC

• Judged it could take advantage of accumulated public rage and act on its own against the past laws

• Led by Robert Sobukwe → split off of the ANC

• Impact on government:

  • Unrelated to any political party → more dangerous

  • Thousands of Africans joining together in a mass demonstration with no fears threatened the basis of the apartheid regime

Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK)

• Armed wing of the ANC

• Created for sabotage operations against apartheid state

• Nelson Mandela persuaded ANC leaders of MK

• Co-founded by Nelson Mandela in the wake of the Sharpeville massacre

• Mission → fight against the South African government by economically destabilizing the government (aiming to destroy expensive infrastructure)

Immorality Act

• Outlawed the procreation and sexual relations between "members of different races"

• Influenced the lives of the black population due to the racial segregation.

• A man would be arrested (along with his partner) if they were caught together and belonged to different races.

• Made to prevent the "degeneration" of the pure white population

National Party (NP)

Party led by DF Malan, which implemented an extreme version of racial segregation known as apartheid

Petty Apartheid

Complete domination of white over black and separation of races in all facets of society (Malan, Strijdom)

Grand Apartheid

Territorial/physical segregation of the entire nation with independent nationhood of each race as its goal (Verwoerd)

Bantustan System

Plan to give all Black people self-governing homeland → become independent from South Africa → South Africa becomes purely white

Defiance Campaign (1952)

• Coordinated nationwide campaigns and protests organized by the ANC → "civil disobedience"

• Earlier attempts failed → had to find a more effective response to the apartheid laws

• Authorities had shown no inclination to engage the ANC in dialogue

• They wanted to make the government repeal six laws

Congress of the People (COP)

• Alliance of anti-apartheid congress movements; ANC being the largest

• Goals:

  • Create a singular unit front by uniting all South Africa's racial groups in the fight against apartheid

  • Expand membership and social support base of ANC → involve poorer Africans

  • Draft a Freedom Charter: encapsulate the political goals of the congress movements + democratic aspirations of all

  • Consolidate ANC's plan with the involvement of other parties and racial groups → avoid exclusion of any community

Sharpeville (1960)

• White policeman opened fire on a crowd of demonstrators

• Altered course of liberation struggle

• ANC → abandoned peaceful resistance → embraced armed struggle

• Consequences:

  • Change in global opinion

  • Country's international isolation began in earnest

  • Economic sanctions were applied

  • Strong pressure form independent states → SA forced out of British

  • Commonwealth → became a republic in 1961

Rivonia Trial (1963)

• Named after resistance movement's "safe house" in Liliesleaf Farm

• Used by senior leaders of the ANC and SACP

• July 1963 → Liliesleaf Farm raided

• Police found "Operation Mayibuye" → Revolutionary guerilla war to be waged by MK

• October 1963 → trial began

• Accused agreed that since they considered the trial to be political, would not appeal to death penalty

• June 1964 → everyone except Lionel Bernstein were guilty of all charges → life imprisonment in Robben Island Prison

• Government officially broke ANC and MK

HF Verwoerd

Initiated Grand Apartheid in the late 1950s

Treason Trial (1956)

• Series of legal processing against the accused began → Treason Trial

• Government argued that the COP wanted to replace the National Convention (1908-1909), the body responsible for the union constitution in 1910

• The Freedom Charter was an embryonic constitutional document for a new South Africa → treason against the state

• Charges proved insubstantial

• 1961 → all the accused were absolved of treason

• 156 arrested, including Nelson Mandela

Pass Laws Act

• The Natives Act of 1952

• Enforced segregation

• Changed passes to more official documents → 96 pages

• Controlled black people, such as if they are traveling, changing jobs, etc

• It was a criminal offense if black people did not carry their pass books to get identified by the police

• Any white person could ask to view a black person's pass

Bantu Education Act

• Made it impossible for schools to admit students of multiple racial groups

• Education of Africans under direct control of the government

• Content adjusted depending on authorities' decision on the necessity of intellectual capacities → blacks received inferior one

• Insufficient academic equipments for blacks and no professional qualification

• Foster a sense of tribal identity → separate tribal development

Sophiatown

• Predominantly black neighborhood located west of the city of Johannesburg

• Apartheid anomaly

• Obvious Target:

  • Packed with illegal drinking establishments and music halls

  • Creative and cultural hub

  • Centre of intellectual and political activity (ANC frequently held meetings and rallies there, many anti-apartheid activists)

• January 1955 → initiation of Western Removal Scheme

• Sophiatown was razed to the ground

Freedom Charter

• Statement of core principles of the South African Congress Alliance

  • Consisted of the ANC and its allies → the South African Indian Congress, the South African Congress of Democrats, and the Coloured People's Congress

• Proclaimed ''South Africa belongs to all who live in it" and that "all shall be equal before the law"

• Changed criminal justice system and encompassed a lot of communists beliefs → indirectly condemned the minority white rule of South Africa

Alexandra Bus Boycott (1957)

• Triggered by bus raise from 4 to 5 pence

• Resulted in hundreds of thousands involved in the boycott

• First time of widespread and sympathetic coverage in white media

• Example of non-violent protest

Civil Disobedience

A nonviolent, public refusal to obey allegedly unjust laws

United Party

• The leading political party before the 1948 elections (from which the National Party took power)

• Were also white supremacists, did not extend their actions to the extent of Apartheid

• Lost the 1948 election due to their association with the Great Depression and their pro-British stance in WWII (the National Party was in favor of the Germans and their policies of racial cleansing)

SACP

• South African Communist Party

• Opposition to the National Party, yet never gained mass sympathy or power due to its repression and the population's disdain towards Communist ideals;

• Were a part of the COP, views influenced some of the clauses on the Freedom Charter -> made the government and population more critical and less persuaded by it;

• Others in the movement disliked them as they were "ruining" its image and was a mostly white party

Natives Land Act (1913)

• Africans prohibited from owning or renting → could only live in native reserve territory

• Areas selected soon became overcrowded and impoverished

• Africans could reside outside reserves if employed by whites

Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act

• Illegal for whites to marry people of other races, together with outlawing sexual relations and procreation between different populations.

• If suspected → police would burst into the house to catch the couple

• If successful → blacks convicted of miscegenation would get harsher punishments than their white partners

Social Darwinism

• The belief that only the fittest survive in human political and economic struggle.

• Apartheid similar to social Darwinist philosophies

Chief Albert Luthuli

• President-general of the ANC from 1952 until his death in 1967

• Non-violence was the only viable strategy in opposing apartheid → highlight the moral injustice

• One of the key organizers of the Defiance Campaign

• First global icon of the South African liberation movement

• Formulated the overall strategy of the movement

Baasskap

• Afrikaans term used during Apartheid by white South Africans that described their social, political, and economic domination of the country

• Equated to white-supremacy → those who held this ideal supported racial segregation in all societal spheres to promote "racial purity"

Suppression of Communism Act (1950)

Banned communism and any other political group that would bring political change through disorder

Extension of University Education Act

• Brought to an end the allowing of a small number of universities to have students of all races registered in their courses

• Only one racial group, or racial tribe, could be admitted.

• ​​Inferior quality in non-white universities.

• Each race had its own educational facility → self-contained political and economic units for each

• Act removed one of the few areas of society that could resist apartheid attacks

Reservation of Separate Amenities Act

• Extended the rules of segregation

• Natives were now forced to use separate entrances for public places and services

• Bus stops, recreational areas, shops

• More separate areas for whites and non-whites

Group Areas Act

• City centers as whites-only residences

• Since Africans were “rural” people, the exposure to cities would result in a social order breakdown

• Friendships between whites and non-whites were hard to keep → no longer occupied the same civic spaces

• Public humiliation