Apartheid
Global History and Geography II
Date: ________________________
Name: ________________________
Excerpt adapted from
bbc.co.uk
“In 1948 South Africa had a
new government, the National
Party. Elected by a small
majority in a whites-only
election, its victory followed a
steady increase in black
migration to the country's
towns. This migration had led
to a fear of black domination
among the minority whites the Afrikaners, and the
English-speaking community,
mainly of British descent.
Questions:
1: Who was elected to power in South Africa
in 1948?
______________________________________
2: Why was this election not truly
democratic?
______________________________________
3: Who were the Afrikaners?
______________________________________
4: What was Apartheid?
______________________________________
5: What was the ideological basis for
apartheid?
______________________________________
6: What were some of the laws of the
apartheid system?
______________________________________
7: How was the apartheid system similar to
segregation in the United States?
______________________________________
8: Why was the apartheid system a racist
system?
______________________________________
9: What were the “pass laws”?
______________________________________
Apartheid, or racial
separation, overshadowed
South Africa for the next four
decades…But apartheid was
more than just a brutal power
game. In theory, it also had a
consistent ideological base. For
the Afrikaners, descended from
Dutch immigrants, the idea
that different cultures should
live apart was nothing less than
God's will…
The system decreed that black
Africans should be unable to
move freely into urban areas.
Much-hated "pass laws" which effectively required them
to carry internal passports were introduced. The entire
nation was split up and
categorized according to race.
Even park benches and shops
were reserved according to the
color of one's skin.”
Excerpt from snu.edu
Questions:
1: What was the Pass Laws Act of
1952?
__________________________________
2: What was a dompas?
__________________________________
3: What happened to a black South
African worker who displeased his
employer?
__________________________________
4: Describe the technique known as
“endorsing out.”
__________________________________
5: What happened to a person who
misplaced his dompas?
__________________________________
6: Why happened to over 250,000 black
South Africans every year?
__________________________________
7: Why was the dompas the most
despised symbol of apartheid?
__________________________________
8: Explain the cartoon.
__________________________________
“The Pass Laws Act of 1952
required black South Africans over
the age of 16 to carry a pass book,
known as a dompas, everywhere
and at all times. The dompas was
similar to a passport, but it
contained more pages filled with
more extensive information than a
normal passport. Within the pages
of an individual's dompas was their
fingerprints, photograph, personal
details of employment, permission
from the government to be in a
particular part of the country,
qualifications to work or seek work
in the area, and an employer's
reports on worker performance and
behavior. If a worker displeased
their employer and they in turn
declined to endorse the book for the
pertinent time period, the worker's
right to stay in the area was
jeopardized. According to the Pass
Law, government officials possessed
the power to expel the worker from
the area by adverse endorsement in
the passbook. This technique was
known as 'endorsing out' and could
be carried out at any time and for
any reason. Officials were not
required to provide an explanation
for their actions. …Forgetting to
carry the dompas, misplacing it, or
having it stolen rendered one liable
to arrest and imprisonment. Each
year, over 250,000 blacks were
arrested for technical offenses
under the Pass Laws. As a result,
the dompas became the most
despised symbol of apartheid.
“I detest racialism, because I regard it as a barbaric thing, whether it comes from a
black man or a white man.”~ Nelson Mandela
Questions:
1: Who was Nelson
Mandela?
_________________________
2: Why was Mandela
imprisoned?
_________________________
3: When was Mandela
elected the first black South
African president?
_________________________
4: Explain the meaning of
the cartoon.
_________________________
Excerpt adapted from bbc.co.uk
“Rolihlahla Mandela was born in Transkei, South Africa on 18 July 1918
and was given the name of Nelson by one of his teachers. His father Henry
was a respected advisor to the Thembu royal family. Mandela was educated
at the University of Fort Hare and later at the University of Witwatersrand,
qualifying in law in 1942. He became increasingly involved with the African
National Congress (ANC), a multi-racial nationalist movement trying to
bring about political change in South Africa.
In 1948, the National Party came to power and began to implement a policy
of 'apartheid', or forced segregation on the basis of race. The ANC staged a
campaign of passive resistance against apartheid laws. In 1952, Mandela
became one of the ANC's deputy presidents. By the late 1950s, faced with
increasing government discrimination, Mandela, his friend Oliver Tambo,
and others began to move the ANC in a more radical direction. Mandela was
tried for treason in 1956, but acquitted after a five-year trial.
In March 1960, sixty-nine black anti-apartheid demonstrators were killed
by police at Sharpeville. The government declared a state of emergency and
banned the ANC. In response, the organization abandoned its policy of nonviolence…On (Mandela’s) return he was arrested and sentenced to five years
in prison…The following year Mandela was sentenced to life imprisonment.
He was held in Robben Island prison, off the coast of Cape Town, and later in
Pollsmoor Prison on the mainland. During his years in prison he became an
international symbol of resistance to apartheid. In 1990, the South African
government responded to internal and international pressure and released
Mandela, at the same time lifting the ban against the ANC. He was awarded
the Nobel Peace Prize together with FW de Klerk, then president of South
Africa, in 1993. The following year South Africa held its first multi-racial
election and Mandela was elected its first black president.”
Excerpt from Nelson
Mandela’s Speech: “No Easy
Walk to Freedom”
Questions:
1: Explain the meaning of the cartoon.
_______________________________________
2: What did the African National Congress
begin in June 1952?
_______________________________________
3: How did the South African government
react to this action?
_______________________________________
4: What was the Criminal Laws Amendment
Act?
_______________________________________
5: Why did the government react as it did to
the protests of the ANC?
_______________________________________
6: Explain the meaning of the Mandela quote
on courage.
_______________________________________
7: What lessons can be learned from the life
and actions of Nelson Mandela?
_______________________________________
_______________________________________
_______________________________________
“In June, 1952, the African
National Congress and the
South African Indian
Congress, bearing in mind
their responsibility as the
representatives of the
downtrodden and oppressed
[badly treated] people of South
Africa, took the plunge and
launched the Campaign for
the Defiance of the Unjust
Laws…all rallied to the
national call and defied the
pass laws and the curfew and
the railway apartheid
regulations…The government
launched its reactionary
offensive and struck at us…In
November last year, a
proclamation was passed
which prohibited meetings of
more than ten Africans and
made it an offence for any
person to call upon an African
to defy…Almost
simultaneously [at the same
time], the Criminal Laws
Amendment Act was passed
which provided heavy
penalties for those convicted of
Defiance offences. This Act
also made provision for the
whipping of defiers including
women…”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“I learned that courage was
not the absence of fear, but the
triumph over it. The brave
man is not he who does not
feel afraid, but he who
conquers that fear.” ~Mandela