Name: Answer Key
November 16, 2015
South Africa Notes Comprehension Check
Objective:
Go through each question and try to answer without using your notes. When you answer as many as you can
comfortably, pull out your notes and use them to adjust your answers.
1.
Place the following events in chronological order:
a. Emancipation of slaves
d. Discovery of Gold
b. Great Trek
e. Boer War
c. Discovery of Diamonds
f. Nat’l Party Wins Election, Apartheid Begins
Boer War
Discovery of Diamonds
National Party Wins Election, Apartheid Begins
Great Trek
Discovery of Gold
Slaves are emancipated
2. When diamonds are discovered, how does South Africa become more diverse?
Indians and Chinese meet high demand for cheap laborers to work in diamond mines
3. How did the Europeans decide the order of the social hierarchy? Race/Skin Color
4. When was the Boer War fought? 1899-1902
5. Explain why the Europeans went to war and fought in the Boer War:
Determine which empire claimed the colony of South Africa
Control over the gold mines
6. List three results of the Boer War.
British win the Boer War
Afrikaners displaced from war and concentration camps
British secure control of gold and diamond mines
Afrikaners forced to give up their slaves
Afrikaner tensions and hatred increase toward British; much of this hostility is taken out on everyone, but British
7. How did education transition for black South Africans under the advocacy of British missionaries?
What happened to many missionaries the more they advocated for black South African students?
Missionaries start to acknowledge potential of all students of all diverse backgrounds and want to advocate for
black students, demanding curricular change and increase in resources for black students. They are met with
resistance from the empire, with no intention of building a South Africa with professional blacks. Many
missionaries were sent back to empire.
8. What happened in South Africa in 1948?
a. National Party (Afrikaners) win the election in a Whites-only election
b. Apartheid is launched and becomes official policy of the country
9. Define Apartheid:
Racist policy in South Africa where the white minority rule the black majority; legalized racism and segregation
laws are put in place (1948-1994)
10. What is a township and where were the townships located?
Living quarters for anyone, except Europeans. Located on outskirts of cities (segregation) so whites did not have
to encounter, coexist with black, Coloured, Hindu, Chinese civilians
Townships were scenes of high poverty, crime, disease, unlivable conditions, and the sites of frequent raids and
brutality
11. What happened once Apartheid was instituted in South Africa? (Give at least three specific changes to South
Africa once legalized racism began)
a. Passbooks administered to every South African
b. Hundreds of new segregation laws created and enforced
c. Townships become frequent sites of raids, arrests, brutality, and demolition
d. ANC members and other organizations move underground working towards the resistance movement, trying
to end Apartheid
12. What is the definition of kaffir? Give both original and Apartheid version of this term.
Original: Arabic term “infidel”, which means non-believer of Islam
Apartheid: Racial slur meant to dehumanize and degrade its recipient
13. What township did the excerpt from “Kaffir Boy” take place? Alexandra
14. Summarize the excerpt in your own words. (Include beginning, middle, end)
(Please review your “Kaffir Boy” passage)
15. List at least two examples of a façade during Apartheid.
a. Claims of prisoner deaths i.e. Steve Biko’s hunger strike versus reality of brain damage, internal bleeding
caused by police brutality
b. “Operation Clean-up Month” gave the illusion that police were doing their jobs and cleaning up crime and
raising health standards of the country while in fact it was meant to terrorize communities and search for
organization leaders and resistance members
c. Use of scholarships for black South Africans (Dr. Ramphele from “Cry Freedom”)