Apartheid: Racial Segregation and White Minority Rule in South Africa

Basic Facts Four basic racial categories

- Native: indigenous African

- White

- Coloured: mixed heritage, not treated as badly as blacks

- Asian

More Basic Stuff

• Sometimes people of the same family were classified differently

Imposed after the election of 1948 when a new political party came to power

- Favored the right of Afrikaners (Dutch descent)

• Gender discrimination as well

Apartheid Laws

Population Registration Act 1950: All people had to have identity cards specifying their race

Group Areas Act 1950: People could live only in areas designated for their race

- Native and Coloured residents forcibly removed

Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act 1949 and Immorality Act 1950

Video Interview

More Apartheid

Reservation of Separate Amenities Act 1953: Exactly what is sounds like

Suppression of Communism Act 1950: Anyone speaking against Apartheid could be declared Communist

Bantu Education Act 1953: Separate education systems

- Education for Blacks would prepare them to be laborers

Other Bantu Acts: Steps to remove blacks from government

“Bantustans”

Continued...

By 1970 all non-white representation in government was eliminated

- “native” and “coloured” residents were not even considered citizens anymore

- “asians” had never been allowed to vote

• Many people were forced to move to designated “homelands” or “bantustans”

- There were ten, related to tribe

Sharpeville Massacre (1960)

ANC (African National Congress) Liberation organization with particular power in

South Africa Some resented the power that some white liberals

had in the ANC Tied to the South African Communist Party

- Eventually declared a Communist organization Umkhonto we Sizwe was the violent militant wing Still the dominant political party in South Africa

Go Over Homework- Selections from the Freedom Charter

PAC (Pan-Africanist Congress)

Formed by members who left the ANC

- Wanted an organization with purely black leadership

- Objected to connection with other organizations

- Objected to the 1955 “Freedom Charter” Used the same tactics as the ANC with different

end vision of S. Africa

Specific Actions Taken

ANC staged “Defiance Campaign” in 1952 to protest apartheid

- Mass strikes and boycotts

- Died out in 1953 after thousands of arrests Protests such as the 1960 demonstration in

Sharpeville Church Street Bombing 1983 Negotiated with the S. African government to repeal

laws and, in 1994, allow free elections

The Rest of the World

In 1960 the U.N. agreed to put pressure on S. Africa to end Apartheid

- Why at this time? What happened in 1960?

- More official condemnations between 1962 and 1974 U.N. passed voluntary arms embargo in 1963 and

made it mandatory in 1977 25 nations, including U.S. and Britain passed

sanctions by the late 1980's

Sports Boycotts

S. Africa banned from the 1964 and 1968 Olympic games

- George Houser an important American figure in organizing support for boycotts

32 Countries boycotted the 1986 Commonwealth Games

Most nations did not lift sporting bans till 1993

Walter Sisulu and Oliver Tambo

Both helped plan the “Defiance Campaign” Both helped organize and lead Umkhonto we Sizwe Sisulu went around the world to get support for the

ANC Sisulu spend 26 years in jail Tambo was banned by the S. African government

from 1959-1990

Nelson Mandela

Mandela and Tambo opened the only African law firm in S. Africa

Major figure behind the “defiance campaign” In prison from 1962-1990

- became an international celebrity when he turned 60 in 1978

Led negotiations with white government from 1990-1994

Elected the first president of democratic S. Africa

Turning Point: Mandela is released from prison in 1990