South Africa
Early South Africa
• 17th century-the Dutch were the first
Europeans to settle in South Africa
• 19th century-Gold and diamonds
were discovered in the region.
• The British and Dutch fought for
control of these valuable resources.
Dutch Settling in South Africa
Early Apartheid
• By the early 20th century, the British
military gained control of South Africa.
• South Africans were not allowed to vote
under British rule- beginning of apartheid.
• Apartheid means “separateness” in
Afrikaans, the language of the
descendants of the Dutch settlers known
as Afrikaaners.
• Many Europeans grew wealthy and
powerful while millions of South Africans
suffered.
Apartheid
• It was part of South African law until 1993.
Apartheid was a system of legally enforced
racial segregation in South Africa between
1948 and 1990.
• During apartheid, South Africans were
legally classified by the color of their skin.
• The racial classifications were: white, black,
Asian, and colored (mixed race).
• The majority of South Africans were
classified as black.
Apartheid
• Institutionalized racism stripped
South African blacks of their civil and
political rights and instituted
segregated education, health care,
and all other public services, only
providing inferior standards for
blacks and other non-Afrikaans.
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What is Apartheid?
• Means “apart-ness” in
Afrikaans
• Definition- a policy of
Segregation and
political/economic
discrimination against nonEuropeans in South Africa
• Apartheid’s roots go as far
back as 1652
• It was designed in 1917 by
Jan Smuts, the Africaner
Prime Minister of South
Africa
• It was legalized in 1948.
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Complexities of
Apartheid
• Apartheid was more
than just race
• Included gender
• Strict hierarchy
• Only White men
could vote & own
property
• Systematic
disadvantage
•
•
•
•
•
Afrikaner Men
English Men
Afrikaner Women
English Women
Other Europeans/
honorary Whites
• Asians
• Coloureds (people of
mixed racial
heritage)
• Africans
Social Grouping
• In 1948 (right after the end of WWII), the South
African government grouped people into 3
groups:
– Black
•Native Africans
– White
•European descendants
– Coloured
•Mixed race people and Asians
Apartheid
• Non-whites had separate schools,
hospitals, beaches, and libraries; they
couldn’t share drinking fountains or
restrooms.
• The services and buildings for whites
were much better than those for
everyone else.
• During apartheid, white people in
South Africa lived in conditions that
were better than those found
anywhere else in Africa.
Apartheid
• They were forced to move to
homelands and could not vote.
• Homelands were poor, crowded areas
far away from cities.
• Homelands often did not have water
or electricity.
• Even though these areas were named
“homelands,” most black South
Africans had never actually lived there
before.
Apartheid
Townships
During the Apartheid
Era, blacks were
evicted from
properties that were
designated as "white
only" and forced to
move into townships.
Legislation that
enabled the
Apartheid
government to do this
included the Group
Areas Act.
Typical Homestead
Typical Squatter’s Camp
“Coloured”
Grand Laws of Apartheid
1. THE POPULATION REGISTRATION ACT—grouped every South
African into a particular “race” (white, Indian, Coloured, and Black). Only
whites could vote. Those lower down on the list had fewer rights.
2. THE MIXED MARRIAGES ACT—made it a crime for any marriage to
take place between whites and any other “racial” group. Only 75 marriages
between blacks and whites had been recorded before Apartheid began.
3. THE IMMORALITY ACT—made it a crime for any sexual act to be
committed between a white person and any other “racial” group. Between
1950-1985, 24,000 people were prosecuted for this crime.
4. THE GROUP AREAS ACT—divided South Africa into different areas
where the different “race” groups could live. Of the 3.5 million people who
had to leave their homes because of this act, only 2% were white.
5. THE PASS LAWS—made it mandatory for blacks to carry pass books at
all times, which allowed them to have permission to be in a white area for a
limited amount of time. Without their pass, they were arrested
Human Rights Violation
• South Africa used these 3 categories to
give out benefits.
• It officially denied most blacks of decent
housing, education, and health facilities.
• How does apartheid compare to
segregation in America?
• Why is this considered a human rights
violation?
So, what
happened?
• Armed movements fought apartheid for
the next 45 years.
• International community opposed
apartheid too.
• South Africa became isolated from the rest
of the world, but apartheid continued on.
• Isolation made life very hard for the people
of South Africa.
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Life for Africans during Apartheid
• Extreme poverty and
unemployment
• Urbanization & Townships
• Gangs and Violence
Sharpeville Uprising
Man with Passbook
Rodden Island Prison
Checking Passbook
Soweto Uprising
Funeral and Protest
Separate Bathroom Facilities
9
The Struggle Against Apartheid
• Riots
• The Sharpeville
Massacre (1960)
• The Rise of the
ANC
The ANC was formed to
work for equality in the
country of South Africa.
Sharpeville Massacre
The government was outnumbered; 69 black people were killed.
1960-A large group of blacks in the town of
Sharpeville refused to carry their passes. 69
people die and 187 are wounded. The African
political organizations, the ANC and the PanAfrican Congress, are banned.
THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN
RIGHTS:
1962-The United Nations establishes the Special
Committee Against Apartheid to support a
political process of peaceful change, based on
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
1963-1990-Nelson Mandela, head of the African
National Congress is jailed for the third time. He
expected the death penalty and so he gave a
four hour long speech, saying what he thought
would be his last words to the African community.
He was sentenced to life in prison, first on Robben
Island, doing intense labor. He then spent 27 years
in Pollsmoor Prison, where he was placed in
solitary confinement.
1970-Resistance to Apartheid increases. The allblack South African Students Organization, under
the leadership of Stephen Biko, helps unify
students through the Black Consciousness
movement.
ADOPTED ON DECEMBER 10, 1948 BY
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE
UNITED NATIONS AS GUIDELINES FOR
HOW HUMAN BEINGS SHOULD BE
TREATED ALL OVER THE WORLD