Key Topic 1: The response to apartheid, c1948-59 - Key Terms

Coalition

A partnership between different political parties to try to win elections together.

Apartheid

Strict separation of different racial groups. It is an Afrikaans word, meaning ‘apart-hood’.

Afrikaner people

Descendants of immigrants to South Africa, mainly from the Netherlands and Germany.

Black African people

The original population of Africa,

Bureaucracy

Members of the administration which implemented government policies.

White-collar

Professional jobs such as administrators.

Segregation

Separate facilities for members of different races.

White supremacy

A belief in the right of white people to govern and the inferiority of non-white people.

Colonisation

Settling in an area and taking control over it and its people, often through force and exploitation.

Bantus

African people who speak a common group of languages. In the apartheid era white people used the term to refer to African people in a derogatory manner.

Indigenous

Native to an area.

Boers

A Dutch word; the name given to the settlers from the Netherlands and Germany.

French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars

A series of wars fought between France and Britain and their respective allies between 1792 and 1815 in which France was defeated.

Hinterland

Land in the interior of a country.

Great Trek

Movement of Boer farmers into the vast South African interior, away from British rule, which began in 1834.

Covenant

Solemn oath or agreement; in this sense, the agreement apparently made between God and the Boers in 1838.

Republic

Country without a monarch at its head, usually led by a president.

Gold rush

Rapid migration of people to an area to find gold and become rich.

Second Boer War

War between Britain and the Boers between 1899 and 1902 with the Boers seeking