• 1652 Cape Colony was established
• By 1700 Dutch Farmers (Boers) seize
land use by indigenous people for
cattle and sheep grazing (basis of
their economy)
– San and Khoikhoi peoples
• By 1800 Europeans dominate the
entire region
– 1809 British decree that the San and
Khoikhoi must work for white
employers and place restrictions on
their travel.
• 1867 – Diamonds are discovered at Kimberley
and mining begins. Africans are given the most
dangerous jobs, are paid less than white workers,
and are housed in fenced, patrolled barracks.
• 1908 – A constitutional convention is held to
establish South African independence from
Britain. The all-white government decides that
non-whites can vote but cannot hold office.
• 1914 – The all-white Afrikaan National Party was
founded.
• 1948 – Urbanization and economic growth
during World War II fuels white fears that
South Africa’s racial barriers would collapse.
• The National Party introduces apartheid
measures against blacks, Indian immigrants
and those of mixed race.
• Apartheid officially BEGINS!
• Literally means “apartness” in Africaans
– A policy of racial segregation introduced by
the National Party after its electoral victory
in 1948.
– It created a highly stratified society in which
whites dominated politically, economically,
and socially at the expense of blacks
• “The white man is the master in South Africa,
and the white man, from the very nature of his
origins, from the very nature of his birth, and
from the very nature of his guardianship, will
remain master in South Africa to the end.”
• 1950: law classified people into three
racial groups:
1. white (European)
2. Colored (mixed race or Asian)
3. Native (African/black)
• Marriages between races are outlawed in order
to maintain racial purity.
Defined a "white
person" as one who
"in appearance is
obviously a white
person who is
generally not
accepted as a
colored person; or is
generally accepted
as a white person
and is not in
appearance
obviously a white
person."
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Characteristics of the person's head hair
Characteristics of the person's other hair
Skin color
Facial features
Home language and especially the knowledge of
Afrikaans
Area where the person lives, the person's friends
and acquaintances
Employment
Socioeconomic status
Eating and drinking habits
• 1951: Specific communities were set aside for
each of the races (white, colored, mixed race
or Indian) and native (African/black).
• The best areas and the majority of the lands
were reserved for whites.
• Non-whites were relocated into “reserves”.
• Mixed-race families were forced to live
separately.
• Who were the Boers?
• What country did South Africa gain
independence from in the early 1900s?
• Define apartheid.
• What did the Population Registration Act do?
– What three categories did it place people into?
• What did the Group Areas Act do?
• 1951: the white government declares that the lands
reserved for black Africans were independent
nations.
• Government stripped millions of blacks of their
South African citizenship and forced them to
become residents of their new “homelands.”
• Blacks considered foreigners in white-controlled
South Africa; needed passports to enter.
• Blacks only entered to serve whites in menial jobs.
• The homelands are too small to support the many
people in them.
– In Soweto, for example, seventeen to twenty people live
in a four-room house.
– Amounted to 13% of the country's land
• Approximately 3.5 million
black South Africans
(overall 11 million) were
herded onto reserves
between 1960 and 1980.
• 55% of South Africa's
population lived in the
Bantustans; the remainder
lived in South Africa
proper, in townships,
shanty-towns and slums
on the outskirts of South
African cities.
Colored refers to a
racially
heterogeneous
ethnic group who
possess ancestry
from Europe, Asia,
and various tribes
of Southern Africa;
highest levels of
mixed ancestry in
the world
• 1953: established
“separate but not
necessarily equal”
parks, beaches, post
offices, and other
public places for
whites and nonwhites.
• 1953: states that white government
supervises the education of all blacks.
• Schools condition blacks to accept white
domination.
• Non-whites cannot attend white universities.
• Africans were taught only in Afrikaans.
Classroom in a complex of old
horse stables on the Orange
Farm in 1990.
• 1951: Nelson Mandela along with other
Africans form the African National Congress
(ANC) with the goal of passive resistance
• 1963: ANC leader, Nelson Mandela, was jailed
and one year later was sentenced to life
imprisonment.
• March 21st, 1960 – A large group of blacks in
the town of Sharpeville refused to carry their
passes.
• The government declares a state of emergency,
and responds with fines, imprisonment, and
whippings.
• South African police opened fire on the crowd
– 69 black demonstrators are killed.
– 187 people were wounded.
• 1970s– The all-black South African Students
Organization, under the leadership of Steven
Biko, helps unify students
• 1976 – Thousands of students in the black
township of Soweto stage protests to demand
they be taught in English rather than the
Afrikaans.
• Police fire on the demonstrators, sparking
nationwide riots and more repression.
• Police kill more than 500 protesters within a
year, including leading activist Steven Biko.
Hector Pieterson (1964 –
June 16, 1976) became the
iconic image of the 1976
Soweto Uprising in apartheid
South Africa when a news
photograph by Sam Mzima
of the dying Hector being
carried by a fellow student,
was published around the
world. He was killed at the
age of 12 when the police
opened fire on protesting
students.
• 1980s – People and governments around the
world launch an international campaign to
boycott South Africa.
– An act of voluntarily abstaining from using, buying,
or dealing with a person, organization, or country
as an expression of protest
• Some countries banned the import of South
African products and citizens of many
countries pressure major companies to pull out
of South Africa.
– Crippling effect on the South African economy and
weaken the government.
• 1990 –Nelson Mandela is released from prison after 27
years.
• 1991 – President F.W. de Klerk repeals apartheid laws
and calls for the drafting of a new constitution.
• 1993 – A multiracial, multiparty transitional
government is approved.
• 1994 – Elections are held. The United Nations sends
2,120 international observers to ensure the fairness of
the elections.
– Mandela wins 63 percent of the vote in elections and on
May 10 Mandela is sworn in as president of the new South
Africa.