Test is on

 Sharpeville Massacre, Nelson Mandela, the ANC, segregation laws, the Defiance Campaign, SACP, the Rivonia Trial, non-violent protest, armed resistance, Bantustans

9/12/2024

ANC (African National Congress)

• Dominant force in the African nationalist opposition to Apartheid

• Political Party, founded as the South African Native National Congress (SANNC), in Bloemfontein in 1912

  • Prominent members of black community came together in order to form a party that would effectively represent the interest of Africans following the Union of South Africa in 1910

  • Early delegates were from small minority – elite middle class blacks

• Early strategy – reverse the tide of segregation

• Sent members to London in 1914 to protest the Native Lands Act of 1913, but were told nothing could be done

• Name changed to ANC in 1922

• Viewed by poor urban Africans initially as elitist and out of touch, membership declines in 1930s

• WWII brought in an economic boom – reinvigorates the ANC 

• ANC Youth League – formed in 1944

  • Led by Anton Lembede – ANC youth league leads to rise in many important leaders – Walter Sisulu, Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo

  • Youth league rejected the cautious, constitutional approach of old ANC

  • Movement away from lobbying and negotiation with power structure from a position of weakness

• Mandela: “the ANC was not going to rely on a change of heart. It was going to exert pressure to compel the authorities to grant its demands”

ANC -- 1948

• Election of the Nationalist Party in 1948 – ANC gets more aggressive

• Start day strikes and other campaigns against apartheid

• Irregular action – not effective

• Defiance Campaign – sustained protests, but ultimately fails

• Chief Albert Luthuli placed in charge in 1952

  • Impeccable moral credentials

  • Committed Christian, traditional triba; leader, hard to paint as communist by SA government, had legitimate backing by Africans

  • Continued the direction set by the Youth League

ANC and Luthuli

• Luthuli initiates Resist Apartheid Campaign

  • Opposition to forced evictions from Sophiatown and elsewhere

  • Was going to give speech “legalized robbery” at meeting but is arrested and banned by SA government

  • Developed “Program of Economic Advancement”

    • Trying to address issues of extreme poverty and homelessness

Chief Albert Luthuli

• President General of the ANC from 1952 until his death in 1967.

  • Grew up a Seventh Day Adventist – influences his commitment to the use of non-violence and moral example as a means of opposing Apartheid.

  • Trained to be a teacher – stresses the value of education as a means of advancement

• Joined Natal Native Teacher’s Union and involved in organizing school boycotts

• 1935 – elected by tribal elders to Chieftaincy of Groutville, a designated native reserve under Native Lands Act of 1913

• Luthuli’s prominence made him a leader of the defiance campaign

• Firm Christian Principles and noble bearing made him an ideal figurehead for a series of protests designed to highlight the moral injustice of the Apartheid system.

• Government reacted by asking him to resign Chieftaincy or resign from the ANC

  • He refused

• Wrote “The Road to Freedom is via the Cross”

  • Non-violence is the only viable strategy

  • Peaceful resistance would convince whites of the injustice of apartheid

• Elected President General of ANC 1952

  • Banned for two years under Suppression of Communist Act

  • Ban prevents him from holding large meetings, speaking in public, confined him to Groutville

  • Leaders in ANC still visited him in Groutville before important decisions were made

• Arrested in 1956 as part of Treason Trial, released due to lack of evidence

  • Less involved after in late 1950s

• Gives way to younger leaders in ANC

• Last major protest, burns his Passbook following Sharpville

• Has a minor stroke in 1960s, dies in 1967 – run over at Train crossing

• Overall, Luthuli, won Nobel Peace Prize in 1961

  • Was influential early for non-violent activism, but by 1960s, was not a major player in protests

SUCCESSFUL ANC?

• Carried fight against apartheid: Defiance Campaign, partnership with COP, bus boycotts, and finally armed struggle

• ANC nearly achieves success with Rivonia Trial, yet that is also what kills ANC

• Failures:

  • Ultimate goal  end apartheid – not achieved

  • Party unity failed – PAC breaks off in 1959

  • Close relationship with SACP contributed to PAC breakaway, and alienated Whites that may have otherwise supported the movement

  • Decision to adopt armed struggle confirmed the suspicion of Whites that ANC was a terrorist organization  plays into the hands of SA government.

  • ANC has no answers for government crackdown following Sharpeville

  • Senior leaders jailed in 1964 – movement goes quiet for an extended period

South African Communist Party (SACP)

• Founded in 1921

• Inspired by Bolshevek Revolution in Russia in 1917

• Major growth period: following WWI – fierce struggle between White workers and mining houses. 

• Fall in price of gold, Smuts government proposes to cut costs by lowering wages of white workers and suspending the color bar that disallowed blacks to be employed in semi-skilled and supervisory positions

  • SACP picks the side of Whites, meaning they were part of a racist movement

    • WH Andrews, aka “Comrade Bill” leading SACP

  • Rand Revolt – 22,000 white workers marched against the state, Smut government sends in army, killing 200 workers

• Under orders from the Comintern (global organization of communist parties), SACP shifts its focus

  • 1925, majority of members are now Black, by 1928, calls for Black majority rule

• SACP begins it relationship with the ANC in the late 1920s, under the radical Josiah Gumede

• Works closely with trade unions, helped established the AMWU, whose first president JB Marks, was a leading black Communist

• 1948 election – National Party campaigning against two “Perils” – “red” and “black”

  • Malan closes Soviet consular offices, and stigmatizes ANC with communists  stricter action and apartheid strengthens

  • SACP declared illegal

• Ultimately, SACP remained ideologically true to revolutionary heritage of seeking to overthrow capitalism

  • Argue capitalism had given rise to the system of exploitation and racial oppression

•  Confirmed after Mandela’s death – he served on central committee of the SACP before his arrest in 1962

• SACP plays a role in the Congress of the People, through the “front” of the white dominated Congress of Democrats

  • Communist language found in the freedom charter

    • “the mineral wealth beneath the soil, the banks, and monopoly industry shall be transferred to the ownership of the people as a whole”

    • “the land [shall be] re-divided amongst those who work it”

SACP and Rivonia

• Secured the funding through Moscow for the MK

• Arthur Goldreich is paid for Liliesleaf Farm, and Denis Goldberg, Joe Slovo, Lionel Bernstein are all members of MK high command

• SACP was weary of moving to armed conflict but helps. Correctly predicted that if they acted too soon, they would be crushed by the SA government

• Following Rivonia, SAPC has to rely on friendly communist governments for funding, training and logistical support.

  • Tambo, Kotane, and Slovo all went to Soviet Union to receive guerrilla training in 1964

• Legacy of SACP – Contested

  • Most agree ANC is more influential, but SACP heavily influence group

Umkhonto we Sizwe

• Means “Spear of the Nation” in Zulu

• Created on December 16, 1961

• Organization lacked experience of armed struggle and members were untrained at its beginning

• Created after PAC creates Poqo

• Sharpeville Massacre proves that SA government will use ultimate force against protests

• First operations : series of sabotage 

  • White communists brought in – technical knowledge of explosives

  • Targets: power stations, electricity pylons, post offices, telephone exchanges, tax offices and police stations

    • Every effort is made to avoid loss of human life

MK

• General Laws Amendment Act – slows sabotage as jail penalty increase dramatically in 1962

• Overall – MK was a failure

  • Movement was short lived (1961-64)

  • Operation largely limited to sabotage

• No decisive blows against Apartheid State

• Successes

  • Showed Africans were not afraid of taking up arms

  • Legacy of MK kept spirit of resistance going, influence later resistance in late 1970s 

Nelson Mandela

• Born in 1918, Mandela’s father was the chief counsellor to the King of Thembu, a branch of the Xhosa.

• Studied at the Africans only University of Fort Hare, a college known for political activism

  • Expelled for taking part in a student protest

• Met Walter Sisulu after fleeing home and the prospect of an arranged marriage in 1941

  • Began studying to be a lawyer

  • Helped defend those who had been charged with breaking segregation laws

• Joined the ANC in 1944, the same year as Chief Luthuli

  • Formed the ANC Youth league with Sisulu and Africanist Anton Lembede

  • Mandela becomes known for his organization capacity and dynamism, as well as his opposition to the old guard of the ANC at the time

    • The old guard had mostly passively petitioned the authorities instead of actively trying to change the system.

• Following the NP’s rise to power in 48, persuaded party leaders to adopt the Youth Leagues Program of Action – more protesting 

  • Document is the foundation of the Defiance Campaign

• Mandela was elected to the ANC National Executive Committee in 49

  • Appointed President of the Youth League in 1950

• Nominated as national volunteer-in-chief in 1952, Mandela is perhaps the single most important member of the party in organizing civil disobedience across the country

Mandela and The Defiance Campaign

• Eventually arrested and given a six month banning order from ANC activity

  • Gave him time to open South Africa’s first Black law firm in Johannesburg with Oliver Tambo

    • Quickly gained a reputation for fearless representation of victims of apartheid laws

•  Working with other groups during the Defiance Campaign convinced him of the value of creating  a common front against apartheid

  • Heavily influenced by Lembede, he had been a known Africanist prior to 1952

  • Despite a close relationship with SACP Secretary-General Moses Kotane, he had been a vocal opponent of communism

    • Had be a critic of the communist organized May Day stay-at-home strike of 1950 because he thought ANC should be making its own protest, not joining the SACP

  • BUT, overtime, working with leading communists, Kotane, Yusuf Dadoo and JB Marks, Mandela became a firm believer in a non-racial approach as his politics swung left

Mandela

• Mandela drew closer to the SACP following the secret relaunch of the party in 1953

  • Influential in creating an alliance with other anti-apartheid groups through the Congress Alliance

  • Defied banning orders to take part in planning the COP and helped write the Freedom Charter

    • Watched from the Sidelines at Kliptown, as he faced arrest

• In 1953, drafted the “M Plan”

  • Contingency measures that the movement should adopt in case the ANC was banned and forced underground

    • Included the possibility of armed struggle

• Mandela was a main defendant in the Treason Trials lasting from 1956-61

  • Eventually acquitted, but held in custody off and on during this time

  • Becomes even more important to the ANC as Luthuli is banned to rural Stanger during the Trial

• With the collapse of the Treason Trials in 1961, Mandela knows the South African Government would double down and come after him

• One last public act of defiance – addressed a huge crowd of delegates at the All-in African Conference organized by the ANC

  • Mandela urged the government to admit the error of its ways and establish a democratic convention representing all South Africans, or face a strike which would paralyze the country

    • This convention would come to fruition finally in 1990 after negotiations between freshly released Mandela and PM FW de Klerk – Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA)

  • Mandela goes into hiding after this speech

    • Stayed at Liliesleaf Farm, travelled around the country organizing resistenc

      • “Black Pimpernel” – disguised as a house boy, gardener, or driver

    • Organized regional commands for MK

• He snuck out of South African in 1962 and travelled extensively around Africa, where he met national leaders and received guerilla training in Algeria

  • Also arranged for exiled MK recruits to train in Ethiopia

• Arrested after his return to SA in 1962, charged with leaving the country without permission and inciting strike action

• Rivonia Trial

  • Would be on Robben Island following sentencing for 27 years

9/10/2024

The Imprisonment of ANC Leadership

• Apartheid and communism are in a lot of ways natural enemies

Rivonia Trial

• Protesting and resisting has not made a difference, government has gotten stronger!!!

• Named after suburb in northern Johannesburg, where the resistance movement had a “safe house”

• The Rivonia Trial, revolves around the arrest of senior leaders of the ANC and SACP (south african communist party)

• Movement had been driven underground since 1960  Why?

  • BANNED. Anc (case oh!)

• ANC establishes the  uMkhonto weSizwe (MK)

  • Militant arm of ANC, was to coordinate armed resistance

• Nelson Mandela is arrested in August of 1962, could no longer play key role in organizing of sabotage acts

  • Arrested on charges of leaving the country without permission and inciting strike action

  • MK operate without him, led by Walter Sisulu and leading white communists

• Liliesleaf Farm, safe house, is raided by special forces in July 1963 following a tip from an unfriendly neighbor

• Police found members of MK high command, including Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, Raymond Mhlaba, Lionel Bernstein,  Ahmed Kathrada, Arthur Goldreich, and Denis Goldberg

  • They were studying a document titled “Operation Mayibuye”

    • Detailed plan for a revolutionary guerrilla war to be waged by MK from bases in rural parts of the country

• Eleven defendants, including Nelson Mandela, face charges of treason

• Trial begins in October 1963

• Tried under the Sabotage Act of 1962

  • Sabotage is a capitol offense (death penalty case)

  • Chief Prosecutor, Percy Yutar, called for the death penalty to be applied

    • Argued that the accused had endangered human life and that they were planning to use violence to overthrow the state

    • Chief Witness against MK – Bruno Mtolo

      • Had Photographic memory

      • Became disillusioned with the MK – believed they were working for the communists, not the ANC

      • After arrested for working with MK, decided to tell everything he knew about the leadership.

        • Did not like that he wasn’t receiving promised pay, thought the leaders were enriching themselves

• Mandela and co-accused agreed that they would freely admit to the charge of Sabotage

  • However, they denied that any lives had been put at risk by their campaign

• Strategy: Politicize the trial by arguing that their struggle was morally legitimate, conducted on behalf of the people of South Africa for freedom and democracy

• Government  domination and oppressive – had given little choice but armed struggle to pursuit equality.

• Mandela could have argued that since he was already in prison in 1962 when the Sabotage Act was introduced, he could not possibly be guilty

• Instead, stood with colleagues, and confirmed to the court that he had continued to act while in jail as the leader and took responsibility for the actions of the MK

• Those accused agreed to accept the death penalty if convicted

  • (some people can and escaped.. 4 of the defendants bribed prison guards and fled/ got out)

• Trial draws to an end by June 1964

• Hundreds of journalists word-wide descended on Court in Pretoria – the world waited to see what would happen

• June 9th, the UN Security council passes a resolution calling for the SA Government to end the trial and offer amnesty to all involved

  • USA, France, Britain, and Brazil abstained from the vote

• Justice Quartus de Wet – verdict: guilty of all the charges (except Bernstein)

• Alan Paton, member of Liberal Party (opposed to apartheid) gave a speech asking for clemency

  • Judge sentence men to life in prison – all go to maximum security prison Robben Island (except Goldberg – white only)

• Rivonia Trial marked the end of an era in the struggle against apartheid

• Government had successfully broken the ANC and MK

• All major leaders, except the banned and increasingly frail Chief Luthuli, are either imprisoned or in exile

• Townships remain quiet, little to threaten the Apartheid State until in the 1970s

  • Unprecedented numbers of White South Africans would vote for the NP

• Oliver Tambo becomes leader of the ANC while in exile in Zambia

• ANC does not accomplish much but remains intact

• Rise of Steve Biko’s South African Student’s Organization and the Black Consciousness Movement in the 1960s and 70s

• To end Apartheid, it will take open revolt of townships in 1980s coupled with international isolation and trade sanctions that wreak havoc on South African economy. 

9/4/2024

Paper 3 things:

• Every time you talk about one source, you must write about the other source

• Mention both sources in both point of comparison and contrast

• Need to say 6 things bc of 6 mark question

• Reread both sources; underline key ideas and shit

• 3 similarities, 3 difference, short paragraphs (4-6 sentences max)

• Short paragraph!! Unless ur fucked then bullet point

• TONE (optimsitic/ pessimistic) ACTORS (individuals and organizations mentioned) SCOPE (chronology or countries considered) THEMES (cultural, economic, political, social, technological, territorial etc) EVENTS 

• Understand what the question is asking you to compare and contrast

• Don’t quote! Cite the documents yes. Paraphrase though..!

• Documents are not facts; a lot of documents are opinions

• Being concise and exact is good

• Focus on the content.

Protests and Action Part II

Recap

• Defiance Campaign: Overall a failure (policy doesn’t change, in fact gets worse), but has moderate successes in bringing groups together

• Congress of the People: Issues Freedom Charter – manifesto on how South Africa Needs to change.

Bus Boycotts

• Form of action that we see in American Civil Rights movement as

• well

• Bus Boycotts are a major form of black protest against the South

• African authorities, even prior to 1948

  • First major bus boycott was in 1940

  • Another took place in 1943, where a young Nelson Mandela marched the nine miles from Alexandria Township into the center of Johannesburg in solidarity of tens of thousands of other protesters

• The causes of the bus boycotts tended to be economic rather than

• political, they were not a planned form of protest but occurred as a

• popular reaction to fare increases

• At its peak, 20,000 were boycotting buses

• Johannesburg Chamber of Commerce stepped in to rescind rate

• increases.

• Success of bus boycotting lead to other peaceful protests

Alexandra bus Boycott

• Began in January of 1957, over a rate increase of 4 to 5 pence 

• Importance: widespread coverage by the White media

• Sheer magnitude of the Boycott showed there was more tension than just a few cents fare increase – the political temperature had been rising in South Africa

  • Elimination of “Black Spots” in 1955

  • Tensions high in black urban areas

  • Verwoerd wanted to eliminate Alexandra

• Lull in political action since the Congress of the People

• Bus fare per year was already more than one months salary for most Africans

Alexandra

• On January 7th, thousands join the boycott – freedom songs, “Azikhwelwa” Zulu cry meaning “we will not ride”

• Spread from Alexandra to Sophiatown to Moroka and Jabavu to what is today Soweto, eventually to other major cities of Bloemfontein, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and East London

• 70,000 plus people

• Alexandra People’s Transport Action Committee (APTAC) created to coordinate

• In the end, Johannesburg Chamber of Commerce axes fare increase, but agrees to subsidize the Bus fare

Impact of Bus Boycotts

• Viewed as a major threat to apartheid

  • This was not a planned campaign by the ANC

  • Government tried to place the blame on the ANC for inciting boycotts

• Bus Boycotts only ended when demands of protesters had been met

  • In the past, ANC campaigns fizzled when pressure was applied to leadership

• White community was more sympathetic to bus boycotts

  • Whites even participated by giving free rides

  • Stretched beyond whites involved with the South African Communist Party

Increasing Violence: Sharpeville

• March 21, 1960

• Police open fire on a crowd of demonstrators at a township on the outskirts of Vereeniging, which is South of Johannesburg

• 69 unarmed demonstrators, including 8 women and 10 children died, 186 were injured

• Caused shock in South Africa and around the world

• Major result: ANC began to abandon its strategy of peaceful resistence, and began to move towards armed struggle

Pan Africanist Congress

• “Africa for Africans”

  • Wanted the land and wealth of South Africa to return to Black ownership

  • Kick the whites out

• Anton Lembede  Robert Sobukwe and Potlako Leballo

  • Disagreed with ANC reaching out to other groups

  • Mandela and others wrapped up in Treason Trials, creating small power vacuum in ANC

• Officially form PAC in 1959

• PAC tries to hijack major protest by ANC – pass bookbonfire

• South African Government on edge

• Sharpeville protest organized by PAC

  • Origin of conflict – possibly armed protestor and police, crowd tries to get a view, police spooked, shots fired and chaos ensues

  • Police accuse protestors of throwing throwing rocks

  • Many of the dead – shot in the back while fleeing

Verwoerd’s Response

• Many non-whites horrified at what had happened

• Verwoerd was seen as the embodiment of callousness and indifference to the human suffering government caused

• Verwoerd: most Africans are peace-loving citizens who fully supported his policies

  • Protesters are coerced by ANC and PAC

• Verwoerd: declares a state of emergency on March 30th, 1960

  • Unlawful Organizations Act: banned ANC and PAC

    • ANC is now running out of options to protest

Did Sharpeville Cause ANC to turn Violent?

• Reasons for:

  • Turning point for ANC, moderate leadership, such as Chief Luthuli begin to see apartheid as unrepentant and unlikely to change

  • Civil Disobedience – not making a big dent

  • Old methods failing because South African Government was willing to retaliate with violence

  • ANC was officially banned

  • PAC rival had been created

    • They create their own armed wing, Poqo

• Reasons against

  • Internal debate for violent struggle had been taking place for years prior

  • As early as 1953, Mandela had been creating contingency plans for ANC banning

    • Wanted creation of small clandestine cells that would launch a full-scale guerilla insurgency

Global Impact

• The world begins to turn decisively against South Africa following Sharpeville

• While Sharpeville created another increase in power for South African government, the international campaign against Apartheid began.

• British Prime Minister Harold MacMillan gives “Wind of Change” speech in Cape town in 1960 – argued the legitimate nationalist aspirations of Africans would eventually have to be met

• Not a lot of pressure is put on south africa until like 1980 

8/29/2024

Protests and action part 1: strategies of the anti-apartheid movement

The Defiance Campaign

• The Defiance Campaign was the first in a number of coordinated nationwide campaigns and protests organized by the African National Congress against the Apartheid System

  • The ANC was formed on 8 January 1912 by Saul Msane (Esq.),Josiah Gumede, John Dube, Pixley ka Isaka Seme and Sol Plaatje along with chiefs, people's representatives, and church organizations, and other prominent individuals to bring all Africans together as one people to defend their rights and freedoms (Unify black south african interests), the ANC from its inception represented both traditional and modern elements, from tribal chiefs to church and community bodies and educated black professionals, though women were only admitted as affiliate members from 1931 and as full members in 1943.

  • Today it is the ruling party of South Africa, and has had power since 1994

• The Defiance Campaign was designed to apply concerted pressure on the Government and force it into repealing Apartheid legislation and negotiating with the ANC

• Methods:

  • Coordinated Campaign of Defiance against new Apartheid Laws

    • Law would be deliberately broken while crowds of onlookers would provide them with support and encouragement

    • Philosophy of Non-Violent civil disobedience – stark contrast to the heavy handed tactics (willingness to arrest and beat) of Apartheid Policemen

  • Force thousands of arrests

    • South Africa’s Prisons would be filled until they were overflowing

      • Stretch enforcement (Courts, Police, Prisons) to the breaking point

• Other Racial groups were involved in the struggle against apartheid by coordinating the Defiance Campaign with the South African Indian Congress (SAIC) and other communities

• Mostly black led

Why the Defiance Campaign (in the early 50s)

• Prior to the campaign, there were many organized protests.

• Defiance was more longstanding

• However, Apartheid was simply much more enforced and extreme than previous segregation laws

• Pretoria Government shows no inclination to engage the ANC

• Earlier one day strikes, had failed to sustain popular resistance to the regime

• ANC also risked losing credit within the African Community if they were unable to provide an effect response to Apartheid

Defiance Campaign

• Officially started in 1952

• The Campaign officially started in response to an event planned by the National Party to celebrate Jan van Reibeck’s landing at the Cape on April 6th 1652 – the 300th anniversary 

• ANC organizes many mass rallies in a number of major cities in protest

National Action Committee

• Created as a joint venture between the ANC, the SAIC (indian), and FRAC – Franchise Action Council.

  • FRAC: a Colored organization, created in protest of laws removing coloreds from voting rolls

• First major protest: June 26th, 1952

  • Second anniversary of the Day of Protest in 1950, in which 19 protesters had been fatally shot by the police.

• Goal was to repeal six laws: Pass Laws Act, The Group Areas Act, Suppression of Communism Act, the Bantu Authorities Act, Separate Representation of Voters Act, and the Stock Limitation Act.

• Defiance Campaign began with an ANC meeting that broke up at 11PM, even though Curfew was 11PM. A small group of volunteers, including Nelson Mandela, deliberately defied Apartheid laws in front of police and onlookers. They were arrested and then released a few days later

Popular Methods of Defiance

• Burning or damaging pass books

• Using segregated amenities (parks and hotels)

• Illegally entering white suburbs

• Remaining in whites only areas after curfew

• “Hey Malan, Open the jail doors, we want to enter”

• ANC grows from 20,000 in 1952, to 100,000 in 1953

• In 1952, 8,300 volunteers had been arrested

Short End of Defiance Campaign

• Protesting led to a bigger issue: rioting

• Violence defeats the purpose of Civil Disobedience

• Pretoria Government passes Criminal Law Amendment Act in 1953

  • Courts can hand down longer sentences and introduced whipping as a punishment for “offences committed as a way of protest”

• ANC is banned from meeting under Suppression of Communism Act

Failure of Defiance Campaign

• ANC fails to achieve political objectives

• None of the six unjust laws repealed

• Government emerged with even stronger repressive powers

• Rural areas are hardly involved at all

  • Support strongest in Johannesburg, Port Elizabeth and East London

• Anticipated wave of strikes crippled South African economy

• Most of the participants were middle class blacks, few poor and colored participated.

• Whites viewed the movement with great hostility

• English language press was unsympathetic to movement

• (they went to the polls) 1953 White only election strengthened the NP

Successes of Defiance Campaign

• First time in its history, ANC managed to coordinate an extended National Campaign

• Thousands of ordinary South Africans had demonstrated their readiness to become involved in the struggle

• Broad coalition of interest groups was involved

• Hardly anyone in the party, including members of an emerging Africanist faction that objected in principle to working alongside groups that were not African, had openly opposed the campaign

• National and Global (more attention) profile of ANC grew

Congress of the People and the Freedom Charter

• The Congress of the People (COP) convened in 1955

  • Alliance of anti-apartheid movements, ANC was largest contributor

• Goals:

• Forge a single popular front by uniting all of South Africa’s racial groups

  • Expand the membership and broaden the social base of the ANC

    • To turn struggle into mass movement

  • Draft a Freedom Charter for the COP, a document that would encapsulate the political goals of the congress movements as we as the democratic aspirations of all of the people of South Africa

  • Consolidate the ANC strategy of working together with other parties and racial groups opposed to Apartheid

• Professor ZK Matthews proposed the COP

COP

• COP convened as a series of gatherings, conferences, campaigns, and rallies

• Many meetings were large and well attended, but most were on a smaller scale

• Organized in factories, homelands, farms etc…

• Purpose of smaller meetings: raise awareness, get people to join the struggle

• Collected signatures for Million Signature Campaign – asking for grievances of ordinary people

• COP’s largest meeting: 2,844 delegates at a football (soccer) field in Kliptown

• Leaders such as Mandela, Chief Luthuli, and ZK Matthews were banned from attending by Pretoria Government

The Freedom Charter

• Freedom Charter Proclaimed at this meeting (the COP’s largest meeting)

• Freedom Charter was drafted based on the suggestion of millions of South Africans

• Called for an end to the apartheid system, the election of a democratic, non-racial government, and the equitable distribution of the country’s wealth and resources.

• Freedom Charter is Unanimously adopted by the COP.

• Kliptown rally ends in ended in chaos

  • Police raid the meeting, armed

  • Authorities arrest many of the speakers and seize many documents – used later in court battles to try to end resistance movement

  • Treason Trials would take years, eventually all those accused with treason were acquitted in 1961

8/27/2024

Rank 3; Most to Least Inflammatory from the board

(Group Areas Act, Population Registration, Separate Education Act, Minds ..?, Separate Amenitties Act, Rep..?, National Consol..?)

1. Group Areas Act

2. Population Registration → classification of people

3. Seperate Amentities

The ways in which people are separated → Apartheid… ! 

Grand Apartheid

Review 

• Petty Apartheid (also known as Baaskap – literal translation “boss rule”)

  • Associated with Malan and Strijdom

  • Principal Purpose was to ensure the complete domination, both economic and political of Whites over Blacks

  • Characterized by brutal subjugation of the Black majority and decisive manner in which the government dealt with Anti-Apartheid opposition

  • “Petty” suggestive of the unnecessarily fussy nature of many apartheid regulations

  • Racial hierarchy, whites over blacks

Grand Apartheid

• Grand Apartheid

  • People become citizens of their own race; strict territorial segregation

  • Initiated by HF Verwoerd in the late 1950s

  • More ideologically sophisticated

  • Grand Apartheid, at least in theory, marked a departure from straightforward racial segregation to territorial segregation of South Africa – leading to the goal of independence of the component parts of the country.

  • Aimed to establish moral legitimacy – Africans would be allowed to achieve full independence

  • Global pressure is increasing against apartheid

  • Ambitions reflected in term “Grand” – lofty goals

  • U.S. Support maybe because of communism, not much moral high ground (social justice movement), economic value of south africa (natural resources! Also mining),

Bantustans

• Hailed by the National Party as the flagship of Grand Apartheid

• The Plan is to give each of the Black Peoples of South Africa their own self-governing homeland

• This would be achieved by transforming the existing native reserves into a number of small, fully independent states.

• Overtime, the goal was for all Black South Africans to reside in these homelands, and they would be citizens of these Bantustans rather than the rest of South Africa

• South Africa was to be an exclusively white country

Bantu Authorities Act 1951

• Ground rules set down pretty early, under Malan

• Undertaken by Malan Government

• Created New regional Authority for Africans

• Eliminated the Natives Representative Council, which was the small segment of parliament reserved to represent the various people of Color in South Africa

Bantu Self-Governing Act 1959

• Passed by Verwoerd Government

• Divided the African population into Eight Distinct Groups, this would later be expanded to Ten (goal is 10 bantustands)

• The members of each groups were assigned a White Commissioner-General, whose task it was to assist them in making the political transition to full self-government

• As a result, the government could now argue that Black South Africans were not its political responsibility – thus abolished the already limited indirect representation of Africans in Parliament

• BY 1970, Government decrees that all Black South Africans were Citizens of their Homelands – meaning that Blacks that did not live in homelands were foreigners in their own Country, and were under the threat of Deportation to the Bantustans

Bantustans

• Homeland’s only become Fully Independent in 1970s

  • Transkei 1976, Bophuthatswana 1977, Venda 1979, Ciskei 1981

  • Plans to offer full independence to other Homelands, including KwaZulu, KwaNgwane, KwaNdebele, QwaQwa, Lebowa and Gazankulu were put on indefinite hold in 1980s as the government starts taking tentative steps towards ending apartheid.

Transkei

• First of the Native Reserves to be converted to a Bantustan

• Homeland of the Xhosa (pronounced so-sa)

• Transkei Constitution Act 1963

  • Creates Transkei Legislative Assembly, capital of Umtata

• Chief Kaiser Matanzima is appointed the first chief minister by South African Government

  • Problematic – not a major Chief

  • Declared Paramount Chief by Verwoerd – Actual Paramount Chief Dalindyebo refused to collaborate (those people (white south afr. gov.) meddling into traditional shit…

• Traditional Tribal leaders were not always popular with their own people

• Pretoria Government (Region within South Africa, the administrative Capitol) however kept them in power to create an Oligarchy they could control

• Pretorian Government viewed Africans as too Childlike to be given responsibility  for choosing their own leaders – Yet Grand Apartheid is to Given them their own Homelands?

• 1963 Transkei Act creates Transkei Legislative Assembly (first sets of elections)

  • Democratic Party won emphatically, however the confusing structuring of the Assembly meant hand picked Tribal leaders that were Allies of Matanzima kept power

• Pretoria Government still controlled – internal security, foreign relations, immigration and Banking until 1976 (not much else… that they can do..)

Other Bantustans

• Transkei Advatage: Continuous Border with South Africa

• Bophuthatswana for example, spread out in dozens of Tiny enclaves

  • Many divided by hundreds of miles

• Remember – 1913 Natives act, Africans given land that was agriculturally unproductive, land that Whites didn’t want, or land that historically had no White Presence

Bantustans

• Most Black South Africans felt no political allegiance to their Assigned Homelands

• Viewed Bantustan Leaders as self-Interested

• With the Partial exceptions of Israel and Taiwan, Bantustans were never officially recognized by any Country other than South Africa itself

• 13% of the total land of South Africa – as much as 55% of the Country would eventually Reside in them.

• Land soon became over-grazed, soil exhausted of nutrients

• Population made up of mostly the young (children) and Elderly, making them 

• Middle aged people went to like city centers

• Economically Unproductive

• Bantu Investment Corporation Act 1959 – tried to encourage economic growth based on availability of cheap labor, but it fails. Bantustans remain semi-rural, with few opportunities for work

Sun City

• Example of Semi-Successful area of Bophutatswana

• Hotel and entertainment Industry: Casinos, cabarets, nude shows etc…

• Irony of this is that South Africans had banned blacks from cities in fear that they couldn’t handle the cities vices (it would destroy tribal culture), and yet homelands were so poor, this was the only industry that thrived

8/23/2024

The Nature and characteristics of Discrimination under Apartheid: 1948-1964 (Petty Apartheid)

• The Election of 1948

• Ground Breaking Election (parliamentary) that allows for Apartheid to be put in place

• Daniel François (DF) Malan, leader of the National Party (Herenigde Nasionale Party in Afrikaans) wins control of the government with the help of a coalition with the Afrikaner Party

• This ousts Jan Smuts and the United Party

  • The United Party had been in power since 1933

  • Was pro-segregation, and inacted segregation policies, but the party had been softening

  • Smuts and others thought integration of society was inevitable

Prime Ministers Following Malan

• Johanned Gerhardus Strijdom

  • Known as Lion of the North for domination of the National Party in the Transvaal

  • Regarded as radical and uncompromising

  • 1954-1958 served as PM

• Dr. Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd

  • Psychologist

  • Critic of South African Policy of taking Jewish Refugees in 1930s and 40s

  • Controversial within party, but is known as the “Architect of Apartheid” (designs the system known as grand apartheid)

  • Assassinated in 1966

Development of Apartheid

• Petty Apartheid (also known as Baaskap – literal translation “boss rule”)

  • Initial phase

  • Associated with Malan and Strijdom

  • Principal Purpose was to ensure the complete domination, both economic and political of Whites over Blacks

  • Characterized by brutal subjugation of the Black majority and decisive manner in which the government dealt with Anti-Apartheid opposition

  • “Petty” suggestive of the unnecessarily fussy nature of many apartheid regulations

  • Creates complete domination of white over black in south africa (regulating every bit of your life if you’re not white)

• Grand Apartheid

  • Lofty goals

  • Legally justify; paint the system of apartheid in a positive light (creating separate nation states within a country for each diff race to belong to)

  • Initiated by HF Verwoerd in the late 1950s

  • More ideologically sophisticated

  • Grand Apartheid, at least in theory, marked a departure from straightforward racial segregation to territorial segregation of South Africa – leading to the goal of independence of the component parts of the country.

  • Aimed to establish moral legitimacy – Africans would be allowed to achieve full independence

  • Global pressure is increasing against apartheid

  • Ambitions reflected in term “Grand” – lofty goals

PETTY APARTHEID

Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act

• The Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act, Act No 55 of 1949, was an apartheid law in South Africa that prohibited marriages between people of different races. 

• It was among the first pieces of apartheid legislation to be passed following the National Party's rise to power in 1948. 

• In the three years before its enactment, mixed marriages accounted for just 0.23% of all marriages in the country.

• Banning something that was relatively nonexistent anyways…

Population Registration Act of 1950

• Essential Component of Apartheid – the division and classification of racial groups in South Africa

• Creation of a National population Registry

  • Based on biological, not cultural factors

  • Individuals race would be determined, then recorded in their official identify documents

    • Three Groups: White, Coloured, and Bantu (apartheid speak for black African)

      • Indian population in South Africa initially denied any status, 1959 classified as Asian and added to the Coloured group

• According to the Legislation:

  • “A white person is someone who is an appearance obviously white – and not generally accepted as Coloured – or who is generally accepted as White – and is not obviously Non-White, provided that a person shall not be classified as a White person if one of his natural parents has be classified as a Coloured person or a Bantu”

• Is this scientific or even rigorous?

• Race Classification Board created to apply legislation

  • Created seven sub categories of Coloured: Cape Coloured, Malay, Gritiqua, Chinese, other Asiatic and Other Coloured

Methods of the Race Classification Board

• Many people sought to be classified as White – for obvious economic and political advantages (like could vote)

• Test of “Whiteness” included:

  • Linguistic proficiency

  • Skull measurements

  • “Pencil test”

    • Stuck a pencil in persons hair, if it fell out, you had straight enough hair to be considered white

• Arbitrary and Subjective

  • Ayesha Hoorzook – two children classified different levels of Coloured

  • Vic Wilkinson – reclassified twice Coloured to White, White back to Coloured

• Ultimately if you had one parent that was not classified white, you would never be classified as such

Segregation of Populations and Amenities

• Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act gets extended in 1950 with the Immorality Act

  • All extra-marital affairs sexual relations between whites and non-whites

  • Government is concerned with “purity” of white race

  • Law was enforced – police would react to a “tip”

    • Burst into the house in the middle of the night, smash down doors

    • Home would be ransacked while “searching for evidence”

    • Brought before the court, couple could face sizeable fines, and even prison terms. Blacks were punished much harder than whites.

Reservation of Separate Amenities Act 1953

• Like segregation in the united states

• Seen as the epitome of petty Apartheid

• Strict segregation of all public amenities by race

  • Buses, trains, restrooms, hospitals, separate entrances and service counters, parks, beaches, swimming pools.

• Things like Hotels and restaurants located in city centers simply were instructed to refuse admittance to non-Whites

• Whites only signs became a ubiquitous and notorious feature of the civil landscape of South Africans

• Members of other racial groups risked arrest and imprisonment if they used Whites only facilities

Group Areas Act of 1950

• Only people of color there for economic benefit of the white

• Declared the city centers were for Whites Only

• Many blacks continued to work there nonetheless

• Local governments were able to argue that there was no need to provide decent or even any public amenities for non-Whites because the had no right to reside in the cities anyway

• This is demeaning beyond just the lack of amenities. Non-whites could no longer occupy the same civic spaces as whites. Urban amenities like concert halls, libraries, and theaters were out of bounds. This has a limiting effect on educational and cultural horizons of Africans. It also made it near impossible for Non-Whites and whites to cultivate friendships.

Pass Laws

• Starts with the Natives Abolition of Passes and Co-ordination of Documents Act of 1952 (Pass Laws Act)

  • Technically abolished traditional Passes – reality replaced the traditional Passes with more comprehensive documents that Africans were required to carry at all times.

• 96 page booklet – reference books

  • Incredibly detailed – employment record, tax payments, interactions with police etc..

  • Contain “Permits” – that had to be stamped

    • For example, you needed a permit to travel to a city, where you would need to get a permit from police within 72 hours to allow you to stay for limited time. If you got a job, you needed a permit, otherwise you’d be forced back to the country

• Police Checks were regular, many people were imprisoned.

• Secondary purpose – constant surveillance of Black Africans

Forced Removals: The Group Areas Act

• Malan called the Group Areas Act the “essence of Apartheid”

• Premise of the Act – Africans were a rural people (racist)

  • Exposure to city life would lead to a breakdown in the social order

• NP’s Sauer report 1947 – Africans belonged in the native reserves

  • Presence of Blacks in and around urban areas was only to be tolerated if they remained economically useful to white people

• Before 1955 – used mainly to target Indian business owners in cities – used to force them to close or relocate. 

  • Forced 1 in 6 Indians to move to outskirts of town

• Africans forced into “townships” outside of the city but close enough for daily travel – technically Africans can’t own land outside of reserves

Natives Resettlement Act 1954 and Group Areas Development Act 1955

• Designed to clear out “black spots” in cities

• Case study: Destruction of Sophiatown

  • Black neighborhood in Johannesburg

    • Packed with illegal drinking establishments called shebeens

    • Also center of intellectual and political activity – African National Congress, and other Anti-Apartheid groups met 

  • Armed police moved into the area and forced people to move

  • Bulldozers stood by to destroy homes as soon as they were vacated.

  • 65,000 were forced to move

  • Afrikaner suburb built in its place: Triomf

• Resettlement Areas became crowded: 7-14 per dwelling

• Township of Soweto – balloons to 2 million people

Life in the Townships

• Overcrowded

• People faced a long commute

• Schools were few in number and overcrowded.

• Police presence in townships – almost non-existent

• Tsotsis- urban gangs, ruled townships, creating a criminal economy

The Bantu Education Act 1953

• Made it mandatory for schools to admit students from one racial group only

• Africans put under direct control of Native Affairs Department, ran first by HF Verwoerd

• Got rid of the idea of a singular education model for all, created separate school boards

• Each had its own distinct curriculum – Black education was grossly inferior to that of whites.

  • Blacks: focus on rudimentary technical skills – only basic levels of literacy and numeracy

• Spending was at least 7 to 1 in favor of whites

• Links Petty and Grand Apartheid – Verwoerd designed education specifically to prepare Africans for a life of economic servitude.

Bantu Education

• Forced Christian Nationalism

• Patronizing of African culture yet wanted the students to explore their “tribal culture”

• Wanted different tribes to divide from each other

  • Easier to control divided population

• Expanded with Extension of University Education Act

  • Universities could only admit one race

8/21/2024

South Africa: Background

• Officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA)

• Today – 25thlargest Country by landmass, and 24thmost populous Nation

• About 80 percent of South Africans are of Sub-Saharan African ancestry,divided among a variety of ethnic groups speaking different Bantu languages, nine of which have official status.The remaining population consists of Africa's largest communities of European (white), Asian (Indian), andmultiracialancestry.

• Languages:Afrikaans (DUTCH), Northern Sotho, English, Southern

• Ndebele, Southern Sotho, Swazi, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa, Zulu

Origins of Apartheid

• You have a country that segregates its population into separate countries

• In order for Apartheid to Work, there is one very basic assumption about Humanity

  • Various Ethnic Groups or Races that constitute Humanity are essentially different from one another

  • Each ethnicity has a set of common physical characteristics that distinguishes it from other racial groups

  • There is a natural hierarchy of races, because some groups will posses certain biological traits that make theminherently superior

• APARTHEID comes from the philosophy ofSocial Darwinism –A philosophy popular in the late 19thand 20thcenturies that applied Darwin’s theories of natural selection and applied it to human society. Social Darwinists argue that “survival of the fittest” is a basic law of human nature and that “superior races” should aim to dominate “inferior” ones.

Calvinism?

• Apartheid is influenced heavily by Calvinisit Doctrine

  • According to Calvinisit logic (predestination included), God created the different races and it was his wish that they should remain separate- destiny of his chosen people- in this case- the Afrkikaners (dutch settlers in South Africa), to rule South Africa and ensure that His divine will was enforced

Afrikaner Exceptionalism

• Scholarship has shown that Afrikaner Exceptionalism starts with the trekboers, who lived on the colonial frontier

• These Pios Dutch colonist, cut off from Europe, cultivated an Old Testament World view, which led them to draw analogies between their experiences and those of biblical Israelites. Afrikaners grew to equate Africans with the biblical “sons of Ham” condemned by got

• 1833 – British, who control South Africa at the time, ban slavery

• Boers (Dutch descent) undertake the “Great Trek” to their “promised land” of the interior of South, where they would be free from British interference.

• Boers defeat the Zulu (native people) in the Battle of Blood River in 1838, affirming the belief that the Boers were indeed “God’s chosen people”

• Boers make solemn covenant with God – vowing to bring “Civilization” to Africa in return for God’s favor and protection

• Subsequent History: establishment of two Boer Republics, struggle with British in South African (Boer) War, the Union of South Africa, introduction of segregation, and the eventual election of the Nationalist Party in 1948 may be interpreted as the slow unfurling of Afrikaner destiny

Challenges to Theory

• Challenged calvinist myth

• Some believed that the Afrikaner Broderbond (semi-secret nationalist organization) created the myth of Afrikaner destiny in the 1930s to revise history in a manner that encouraged Apartheid

• Counter Argument to this Counter: Firm foundations for system of segregation pre-19thcentury, and that was during British Control of the territory.

Early Forms of Segregation

• The British and Cape Colony

  • Eastern Frontier of Cape Colony where major British Settlements located

  • Contact with Xhosa tribes

  • Create 1853 constitution with reference to “Civilized” and “Uncivilized”

  • “Uncivilized” subject to punitive laws

    • Required to carry passes when traveling outside of immediate areas of residence and employment

    • Used to restrict movement

Early Segregation

• Residential Segregation

  • Started with a curfew on Blacks

• Mass migration from around Africa to Cape town in 1890s

  • Establishment of black only townships – Ndabeni 1901

  • Located far from the city center

Uitlander Population

• Afrikaners were pushed toward the West

• Transvaal and Orange Free-State

  • British recognized their sovereignty

  • Slavery banned but ignored in these regions

  • Constitutions declare (directly) White Supremacy

• Gold Discovered in 1886 in Johannesburg

  • Huge influx in English speaking white workers

  • Major Cultural Agreement – white supremacy

  • Uitlanders sought labor protection against black competition – erodes political rights of Africans

Early Segregation in South Africa

• South African Party governs new unified Government.

  • The Act of Union – restricted all voting rights to minority White Population

    • Few exceptions for Coloureds and Blacks in Cape Province

  • Unified gov → unified way of segregation

    • The Mines and Works Act of 1911 – restricted semi-skilled jobs in mining to Whites

    • The Natives Land Act of 1913

      • Prohibited Africans, who made up over 2/3 of the population, from owning or renting land anywhere outside of certain parcels of territory designated as native reserves. This was only roughly 7.5% of the total land area in South Africa

      • Bad land btw

    • The Natives (Urban Areas) 1923 – Cities were the principally for the use of Whites

    • Industrial Conciliation Act 1924 – legal registration of White Unions, not their black counterparts.

    • Wage Act of 1925 – Preferential Treatment to whites

    • Mines and Works Amendment 1926 – Color Bar (certain things not allowed based on color) in industry

    • Representative Natives Act 1936 – removed Africans from electoral rolls

    • Native Trust and Land Act 1936 – Extended Native reserves to 13% of land area, but enhanced eviction powers.