IB HOA - South African Apartheid Review

Grand Apartheid

the laws that restricted black South Africans' rights in terms of politics, land ownership, and citizenship along with voting rights

Petty Apartheid

the everyday discrimination like separation of utilities, such as benches, faucets, restrooms, etc

Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act (1949)

This act was passed to prevent the mixed marriages of black and white South Africans, which was considered impure by the whites and thus was put into law.

Population Registration Act (1950)

The purpose of the Population Registration Act was to make sure that every person was registered to one of the four races. These four races include Bantu (black Africans), colored (mixed Africans), white Africans, and others.

Pass Laws Act (1952)

The purpose was to control labor mobility as people would have to carry around reference books with photographs of themselves, details of place of origin, employment record, tax payments, fingerprints, and encounters with the police, everywhere they went to present to police upon request.

Bantu Education Act (1953)

The act was made to teach Africans the bare minimum skills they needed to be a valuable cheap labor worker.

South African Apartheid Division & Classes

4 Groups - Blacks, Whites, Indian, and Mixed/Coloured

Segregation of Populations and Amenities

Group Areas Act (1950) - purpose was to divide the land into residential zones that were based on race or skin color

Separate Representation of Voters Act (1951) - introduced by the national party and was a part of a process to remove all blacks from the voter's roll

Creation of Townships/Forced Removals

Reservation of Separate Amenities Act (1953) - put into law the unequal distribution and divisions of amenities and types of facilities for different racial groups based on different levels of quality

Segregation of Education

Bantu Education Act (1953) - act was made to teach Africans the bare minimum skills they needed to be a valuable cheap labor worker

Extension of University Education Act (1959) - separate colleges created were based on ethnicity and what language you spoke, which further encouraged separation even amongst tribes

Bantustan System

Promotion of Bantu Self-Government Act (1959) - traditional tribal lands are able to become independent states Bantustans

Overall Impact of Apartheid Laws

- restricted the lives of those who weren't white

- created a system of tribalism and white dominance

- allowed whites to stay in power as they were the only ones who could vote

Overall Goal of Apartheid

- create a legal system of racial segregation

- institutionalized racism in S.A.

- dominance of whites over others

- have blacks, Indians, coloured people do all the labour/low-skill jobs

South African Bus Boycotts

- Public Utility Transport Corporation raised the bus fare

- ANC-led boycott began against PUTC

- caused gov't to raise white taxes in order to offset losses

Defiance Campaign (1952)

- demonstrations of resistance against apartheid laws

- first large-scale act of resistance

- inspiration from U.S. Civil Rights Movement

- included jail-packing, passbook burning, etc

Freedom Charter (1956)

- demands of the ANC on the behave of black South Africans

- pushed for racial equality, free education and equal opportunity for distribution of wealth

The Sharpeville Massacre (1960)

- protest in Sharpeville that led to police opening fire on crowd, killing 69 and injuring many more

- caused the ANC to go underground

- led to the formation of the Spear of the Nation, the military-wing of the ANC

Adopting the Armed Struggle

- Spear of the Nation

launched in 1961

- official name was uMkhonto weSizwe (MK)

- ANC and SACP joined to form the group

- included sabotage works on government buildings

Rivonia Trials (1963-1964)

- trial of the leaders of the ANC, including Mandela and Sisulu on their acts against the state

- prosecution seeked the death penalty

- Mandela and the others used this as a rallying cry to their cause

- result was life imprisonment on Robben Island

Nelson Mandela

- ANC leader

- face of the anti-apartheid movement

- implicated in the Rivonia Trials and imprisoned for 27 years

- first black President of South Africa

Albert Luthuli

- first Nobel Peace Prize Laureate in 1960

- President-General of ANC from 1952-1967

- gained experience through organizing boycotts and negotiating with white authorities

Robert Sobukwe

- became interested in politics after studying Native Administration

- joined ANC Youth League in 1948

- elected president of the Fort Hare Students' Representative Council in 1949

Walter Sisulu

- key figure of the anti-apartheid movement

- helped organize the Defiance Campaign

- incarcerated for 25 years at Robben Island as a result of the Rivonia Trials

HF Verwoerd

- moved to S.A. as a child due to father's sympathy for the Afrikaners

- was strongly in favor of segregation

- helped transform Black reservations into the Bantustans

DF Malan

- strong Afrikaner nationalist

- appointed Minister of the Interior in the Hertzog government of 1924

- didn't want a coalition between the Nationalist Party and the South African Party

- became Prime Minister after Nationalist Party victory in 1948

Nationalist Party

- political party that ruled South Africa from 1948-1994

- white/Afrikan nationalist party

- created apartheid and system of white supremacy

African National Congress

- black nationalist political party

- goal was to secure voting rights for blacks and coloured people

- banned from 1960-1990 by the National Party Gov't

- leaders included Mandela, Sisulu, Tambo, etc

Pan-Africanist Congress

- political party that pursued Africanist policies for black South Africans

- spread from the ANC during the 1940s

- wanted S.A. ruled and for indigenous people

- did not support equal rights for all races

South African Communist Party

- formed in 1921

- had a close relationship with the ANC

- focused on workers' rights

- helped organize major worker strikes

MK (uMkhonto weSizwe)

- result of Sharpeville Massacre

- militarized wing of the ANC

- similar to the Black Panther Party

- main work was gov't sabotage

South African Indian Congress

- Mohandas Gandhi helped inspire the SAIC's formation in 1917

- nonviolent protests and actions

- worked with the ANC to secure equal rights for all people

- participated in formation of the Freedom Charter and in the Defiance Campaign