South Africa Anti-Apartheid Freedom Struggle – Strategies (2)Humanities 9 – Social Movements Anti-Apartheid Movement Strategies Apartheid Museum(modified)

Strategies to Resist SegregationFrom the 1940s to the 1970s, resistance to apartheid took different forms. Pre-1930s—Organizing Africans’ lives were controlled; however, people tried to resist the oppression. Shortly after the Land Act in 1913, a group of educated Africans started the South African National Native Congress (ANC). The leaders of the ANC believed that if they responded with reason to the injustices, then the white politicians would take them seriously. They used petitions, delegations, and resolutions as a form of protest. Unfortunately, white politicians rejected them. The Indian community in South Africa used nonviolence to protest the racial discrimination. Mohandas Gandhi, a leader and lawyer, organized a mass protest. The goal was to get arrested in large numbers in order to protest the unjust laws. In 1913 Indian workers went on strike because of discriminatory laws, taxes, and poor working conditions. Police arrested thousands of people, including Gandhi. Gandhi believed that if the jails were full and overflowing the government would be forced to negotiate. Eventually, the government compromised with the Indians. 1940s—OrganizingDespite the segregation laws, growing poverty, and hardships, there was little organized African resistance in the 1940s. There were many popular events and struggles, such as housing protests and boycotts. However, many leaders were white, since the African National Congress (ANC) consisted of educated. The protest changed in 1944 when the Youth League formed as part of the ANC. Youth leaders, such as Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo, and Walter Sisulu organized mass protests, boycotts, and passive resistance. 1950s—Defiance

In the 1950s the resistance efforts and participants were nonviolent but openly confronted apartheid. People used civil disobedience and defiance throughout the country. Although most of the acts of resistance intended to be nonviolent, some became violent, usually as the result of brutal police action. In 1952 the ANC organized the Defiance Campaign. Africans openly, peacefully, and deliberately broke apartheid law. The plan was to get arrested and overcrowd the prisons. They hoped this would create public attention to the apartheid laws and force the government to abolish them. Mass rallies were held all over the country and volunteers broke the laws. For example, people walked through “whites only” entrances, sat in parks for whites only, broke curfew, and refused to carry passes. As a result, police arrested over 8,000 people. The campaign encouraged more people to participate and also join the ANC. The membership swelled from 7,000 to 100,000. However, the police responded with extreme violence. They imposed fines and increased jail sentences. The ANC stopped the campaign.

A group of white, Indian, coloureds and Africans defy the separate facilities law during the Defiance Campaign. In order to impose control, the government declared a state of emergency. This allowed the police and army to arrest anyone they believed to be a threat to the government and order. The government also banned people. This meant that a banned person had to report to the police twice a day and he could not be with more than one person. This silenced people and ended organization efforts. In order to continue the struggle, different groups that worked separately to end apartheid joined forces to form the Congress Alliance. More than five groups worked together. They traveled all over South Africa to collect ordinary people’s wants and demands. The

Congress Alliance helped revive the ANC and established the Freedom Charter. This showed what the people wanted. Specifically, Africans wanted democracy, redistribution of land and wealth, an end to apartheid, freedom, and a just society. The Freedom Charter Campaign of 1955 united people of all racial origins in a common struggle to end apartheid and establish a non-racial democratic state. The South African government considered the Freedom Charter as a treasonable document. This mean that it was a act considered disloyal and punishable by execution. The government thought the Congress Alliance plotted to overthrow the state. As a result, 156 members were arrested and charged with treason. The trials lasted from 1956 to 1961. Although these leaders were prosecuted, government failed to prove treason, so everyone was acquitted. 1960s Resistance—Armed StruggleBy the 1960s people took up arms in the struggle. The government responded with more repression and increased control. The Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) group started in order to completely overthrow white domination. The PAC organized protest against pass laws. They planned to march peacefully to the local police station. They planned to hand over their pass books and give themselves to be arrested. They were unarmed. Over 5,000 people gathered outside the police station at Sharpeville. Three hundred police fired on the crowd. The police killed 69 people (including eight women and ten children) in the back while they ran away. They wounded 180 others.

Sharpeville Massacre. The police continued to fire on the retreating crowd. The Sharpeville event marked a turning point in the anti-apartheid struggle. There was massive outcry, both nationally and internationally, about police actions. The government responded with another state of emergency and banned the ANC and PAC. Both organizations rethought their strategies. They decided to use armed resistance. The ANC, lead by Nelson Mandela, set up a military group called Umkhonto we Sizwe, “the Spear of the Nation.” The PAC stared a military group called Poqo, “Standing Along.” Both groups used sabotage and violence against the government. Between 1961 and 1963, 200 acts of sabotage took place in South Africa. They used tactics such as bombing government building and power towers. Although they used guerrilla warfare, or untraditional methods of direct confrontation, they only wanted to damages state property never people. In 1963 police arrested all leader of the Umkhonto we Sizwe/ They were charged with “training in sabotage and warfare for the purpose of violent revolution.” During the trial eight men were found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. At the Rivonia Trial, Nelson Mandela talked for four house and ended with the famous lines, “I have dedicated my life to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the idea of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony, and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But, if need be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.” 1970s Resistance—Youth Take ChargeWith the key leaders banned, jailed, or in exile, the resistance movement took a new form.

The South African Students Organization, was founded by a medial student who organized to empower people. The main ideas were: pride in being black, blacks should end their dependence on white people.

In addition to college students changing their way of thinking about being black, middle school students joined the struggle. In 1975, African schools had to teach in Afrikaans, the language of the oppressor.The man known as the “Architect of Apartheid,” H.F. Verwoerd, said, “The Natives [Africans] will be taught from childhood to realize that equality with Europeans is not for them. There is no place for the Bantu [African] child above the level of certain forms of labor.” In addition to the racism, no new schools were built for a decade and schools were overcrowded. For example, there were 60 students per class, and as a result of the crowdedness, teacher restored to harsh methods to maintain control. Student were frustrated and resented this.On June 16, 1976, 20,000 students marched peacefully through Soweto to protest. The children marched to tell the government how angry they felt. The police and army went in the street to stop the children. They used teargas and guns. Police fired on the crowd. They

also set dogs on the children. Many children were killed and injured. Hector Pieterson was the first child to die. He was 13. Although the police crushed the uprising, this event challenged the government and the apartheid system. The government could no longer ignore resistance. This event also marked the end of apartheid. Student rebellions and organization sprung up all over the country.

1980s Resistance—Intensified ActionOn the day of the new government in 1983, African townships erupted in violence as a result of rent boycotts. Additionally, president/general of the ANC, Oliver Tambo, inspired people to take action through Radio Freedom broadcasts. The youth took to the streets.

Total OnslaughtThe 1980s were characterized by the most intense explosion of civic and student unrest that the country had ever known. In 1983 hundreds of anti-apartheid groups joined Resistance to apartheid grew steadily both inside and outside South Africa. The government responded with new methods of repression and new kinds of reform. At the same time, larger sections of white society began to question the morality of apartheid.

The government fought back. Yet again the resorted to a state of emergency in some areas in 1985 and a full emergency in the entire country between 1986 and 1990. South African became a police state. The army occupied towns, and this only intensified the people’s anger. By 1986, between 16,000 and 20,000 people were detained and thoughts killed by the police and army.

Churches With so many leaders of the struggle in prison or exile, churches gained a voice of the people. Church leaders opposed apartheid because they thought it was immortal and unchristian. Church leaders believed that the government was less likely to act against them. Nevertheless, many suffered for speaking out against the government. For example, Beyers Naude, Reverend of the Dutch Reformed Church, ended his support of the church’s political teachings after the Sharpeville massacre. Additionally, in 1963 stated in public that apartheid was unchristian. As a result, he was forced to leave the church. He then became an anti-apartheid activist and worked for justice and peace in South African until his death in 2004. There were others who were detained or jailed. White ResistanceMost South Africans—both black and white—did not fight against apartheid. Although many white supported the government and apartheid, other actively resisted. They just lived their lives with the hope that things would get better. While majority of the people who resisted were black, there were important examples of whites who opposed apartheid. White students created organizations. When the government needed more troops to control the Africans during the state of the emergency, it forced white men who had served in the army were sent to the African towns as troops. Whites who rejected this forced military service protested. Some joined organizations and other went to jail rather than serve in the army. The Torch Commando was a group of 100,000 white South African men who fought against Hitler in World War II. They protested by holding torchlights in cities around the country to try to keep coloured min on the voters’ roll. There were some British and Afrikaners who used their position in order to oppose the oppression in South African. For example, Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Helen Suzman was the single voice in Parliament that opposed apartheid. She was known for her strong criticisms of apartheid. She used her position in government to fight for the rights of political prisoners. Like Suzman, Bram Fischer worked defended all the accused leaders in the Rivonia Trial. He was a South African lawyer of Afrikaner descent. He himself was jailed in 1965 for his role in the protest movement. He was imprisoned for nearly 10 years until he got cancer, and was released to die at home in 1975. International PressureIn the 1960s the United Nations (UN) disapproved of apartheid and described apartheid as

a crime against humanity. In the 1970s the UN called for economic sanctions to be imposed against South Africa. This meant that the UN encouraged countries to not have economic, political, sporting, cultural and academic relationships with South Africa. In the 1980s South Africa was banned from participating in the Olympics. Although these action distressed white South Africans, the government feel seriously threatened until the United States stopped investing in the economy in 1986. After the US pulled financial support the government began to negotiate and find compromises with the ANC. Roots of CompromiseThe turning point of recent South African history was 1987-90. By this time important changes were made. In August 1989 F W de Klerk replaced the hardline P W Botha as president. Within months he had decided the only way forward was to release Nelson Mandela and to unban the ANC, PAC, SACP and other political organizations. Even though talks happened during this period, violence continued. Over 14,000 South Africans were killed in political violence, and several times more than had died in the previous four decades. First Democratic ElectionsDespite the violence, negotiations continued. On 27 April 1994 voters stood for hours in queues often stretching over a half a miles long to vote, but they did not mind. Everyone in South African over the age of 18 went vote. For the very first time, Indian, African, and coloured people were allowed to vote. This was the country’s first democratic election. Women and men, old and young, and people of all ages voted together. The date April 27th was a significant movement in the history of South Africa. It had been a “long walk to freedom”. After suffering humiliating apartheid laws and intense violent repression, the people of South African finally won. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC)In July 1995 South Africa’s new parliament passed a law authorizing the formation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The Commission, chaired by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, was appointed in December 1995. The central purpose of the Commission was to promote re-conciliation and forgiveness among perpetrators and victims of apartheid by

the full disclosure of truth. The Commission was charged with three specific tasks: to discover the causes and nature of human rights violations in South Africa between 1960 and 1994; to identify victims with a view to paying reparations; and to allow amnesty to those who fully disclosed their involvement in politically motivated human rights violations. The Miracle and BeyondThe election of 1994 was seen by many as a miracle. It was one of the few times, perhaps the only time, that a colonizing group had given up its power without a civil war or large scale external intervention. A Government of National Unity was formed bringing together the National Party and the ANC as well as other political forces such as the IFP. This exhibit documents important moments in that process. Through extracts from current newspapers and television interviews with members of the public, it also records the hopes, fears and debates about South Africa now and in the future. This interactive exhibit allows you to add your voice to this collection through a recording booth.