2012 Apartheid and South Africa
On your Left Side:
• Write down what you already know about
South Africa and/or apartheid.
• Where do you know this information from?
– Book you read
– Movie you saw
– TV program you saw
On your Left Side:
• Diagram or draw out a timeline and write
down the main events from the next couple of
slides.
Early History
A Time Line
•
•
•
•
1806 – British seize Cape of Good Hope
1867 – Discovery of Gold
1886 – Discovery of Diamonds
1889 – 1902 – The Boer War (British and
Dutch settlers)
• 1902 – The beginning of apartheid
• 1990’s – The end of apartheid
Early
Inhabitants of
South Africa
The Khoikhoi speaking people lived in the southern coastal
region of South Africa, the San, or bushmen, in the desert
region, and Bantu speaker (farmers, hunters, and herdsmen) in
the east .
1835: The “Great Trek”
Feeling the British policy
destroyed their political
and social order, based
on racial separation and
that white dominance
was “God’s own
will,”10,000 Boers, or
Voortrekkers, left Cape
Town to escape British
rule on a 1,000 mile
migration inland,
known as the“Great
Trek.”
On your Left Side:
• Make a timeline of the main events of the
Boer Wars/Struggles.
A Series of
Boer Struggles
1838: Boers defeat the Zulu nation in the Battle of Blood River in
their fight to obtain land the Zulu tribe was occupying.
1843:
British take over Natal.
1852-1854: Boers travel further north and establish the Orange Free
State and Transvaal as independent republics.
1870-1886: Diamonds deposits are discovered in Kimberley and
gold deposits are discovered in Transvaal causing an influx of
British immigrants and black Africans searching for work
and
fortune.
1880-1881: Anglo-Boer Wars
More struggles
1899: Boer War erupted as a result of Afrikaaners upset
over Continual British migration inland to the mining
regions.
1899-1902: British established Afrikaner civilian camps
where epidemics broke out and killed 26,000
prisoners.
1902: Boers surrendered to British rule
1910: British award independence to South Africa. They
believed only white to be capable of self-government.
Blacks were barred from voting and Afrikaans was
made the official language.
A Country Divided
• White South Africans made up only 21.5% of the
total population and of these, an English-speaking
minority dominated government and business in
the cities.
• Most whites were Afrikaans-speaking Boers, mostly
farmers and still bitter about the war
• The majority black population, 67%, included many
different groups of people including Zulu and Xhosa
of the Transkei region. Other groups were much
smaller.
• By 1910, black Africans owned less than
10% of a country their ancestors
completely controlled.
• 1913, the South African Parliament
passed a Native Land Act that limited the
blacks’ ownership of land even more.
– Apartheid placed restrictions on how people
could live. For example, black South Africans
were made to live in tiny clusters of homes
called townships.
Other Ethnic Groups
o Coloureds: 9% of the population.
o Indian immigrants: 2.5% of the
population.
Both groups had varying rights in the
Cape, but were not treated as equals by
most whites
The Native Homeland Act
separated different African
tribes into segregated
areas.
This act set aside
7.3% of the country’s land
Aside as reservations and
banded black Africans
from buying land outside
these areas.
Road to Apartheid
In 1912, the South African Native National
Congress (later known as the ANC – 1923)
was founded to unite black Africans and
defend their interests.
In 1913, the Afrikaaner Nationalist Party was
established.
ANC
• African National Congress (ANC) was created
to aide in the civil rights movement.
Peaceful Protest
• 1912, a young Indian Lawyer living in Cape
Town named Mohandas K. Gandhi became
outraged after being thrown off the train for
sitting in a “white’s only” seat.
• He organized a peaceful protest march,
inspiring some black South Africans to form a
civil rights organization.
Whites Asserting Control
• In 1924, the Labour Party defeats the South
African Party.
• Led by James Hertzog, South Africa became
more independent of British control and
favored the interests of whites, especially
Afrikaners.
• Afrikaans is confirmed as an official
language along with English.
South Africa: Divided by Race
• Decolonization in South Africa was tainted by the clash
between white and black citizens of the newly free
country.
• The government that declared freedom from Britain was
controlled by the white minority, largely descended
from the Dutch Boers.
• These Afrikaners practiced the policy of apartheid
(extreme racial segregation).
• South Africa is one of the world’s richest sources of gold
and diamonds.
• Between the 60’s and 90’s, the white government of
South Africa turned the country into the wealthiest,
most modern, and most industrialized on the continent.
South Africa
In the early 1900s South Africa was run by white Afrikaners—descendants
of the original Dutch settlers. Even though South Africa had received
independence from Great Britain in 1910, nonwhites in South Africa were
not free under the Afrikaner government.
Apartheid
• 1948, racial discrimination
heightened when Afrikanerdominated National Party began to
run South African government
• Instituted policy of apartheid,
“apartness” in Afrikaner language
Racial Separation
• Apartheid policy divided into four
racial groups: White, Black,
Colored (mixed ancestry), Asian
• Attempted to create greater
separation between whites,
nonwhites, impose harsh controls
Apartheid laws banned interracial marriages, and placed further
restrictions on African ownership of land and businesses.
Apartheid
• a method of “divide and rule” to
counteract the so-called "black
danger" Afrikaner rulers saw Africans
as threatening to overrun or engulf
them by their sheer numbers.
• Brutal racism: imprisonment, police
killings and murder
Apartheid
• “Apartheid” is a word meaning
“Separateness”
• Black South Africans, who made up 75%
of the population, and other non-white
People lived under government
institutionalized racial segregation from
1948 to 1994.
• Non-whites were stripped of citizenship
and necessities such as medical care and
education.
What is Apartheid?
• Apartheid= separateness
• A policy of racial discrimination
• Began in 1948 by South Africa’s
government
• Black South Africans (more than
75% of pop.) were forced to live
under strict segregation
Hendrik
Verwoerd
•Prime Minister
of South Africa
from 1958 until
his assassination
in 1966
•“Architect of
Apartheid”
1948:
Apartheid becomes Law
• During the 1948 elections, the National Party
introduced apartheid as part of their campaign.
• With the party’s victory, led by D.F. Malan,
apartheid became the governing political policy
until the early 1990’s.
• Many National Party members aligned with the Nazi
party racist movement that had divided humanity
into “master race” to dominate and an “inferior”
race to be enslaved.
Apartheid Laws
Laws Harsh on Blacks
Citizenship Denied
• Apartheid laws especially harsh
on blacks in South Africa
• Under apartheid, only white
South Africans could vote, hold
political office
• Required to carry passes,
identity books
• Also faced imprisonment if
police found them in an area for
more than 72 hours without
pass
• Blacks made up nearly 75
percent of population, were
denied South African citizenship
• Restricted to certain
occupations, very little pay
Looking into Apartheid…
1948-Racism
institutionalized
-Marriage between blacks
and whites prohibited
-”white-only” jobs
sanctioned
The History of Apartheid in South Africa
1950-Population
Registration Act
-Divided South Africans into
white, black (Africans), and
colored (mixed descent)
-Based on appearance, social
acceptance, and descent
-Blacks-forced to carry “pass
books” holding fingerprints,
photograph, and information
on access to non-black areas
Apartheid- Marriages and business
• Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act 55 of
1949, prohibiting marriages between white
people and people of other races
• Blacks were not allowed to run a business in
the areas that were meant for white South
Africans.
Laws of Apartheid
Apartheid is the rigid racial division between the
governing white minority population and the nonwhite majority population.
It is Afrikaan for “apartness”
People were divided into three social groups
•
White
•
Black African or Bantu
•
Coloured or people of mixed descent.
Some Rules of Apartheid
• Africans had to be
legally classified (Black,
White, Colored, Indian)
• Africans were not
allowed to have
interracial marriages
• Africans had to carry
registration cards with
their race indicated
• Africans had to be
separated publicly
(restaurants, hospitals,
beaches, theaters,
pools, restrooms, etc)
• Africans also had
separate educational
systems (lower
standards for blacks)
Images of Apartheid
Apartheid
No Rights for Non-whites
•
•
•
•
•
No right to vote
No ownership of land
No right to move freely
No right to free speech
No right to protest the
government
On your Left Side:
• Which of these laws makes you most angry?
Why?
Apartheid
separated
the whites
from
the nonwhites
On your Left Side:
• Imagine you are one of the black non-citizens
of South Africa.
• How would you feel about what is happening
in your country? Why?
• What would you do about it? Why?
What does Kaffir mean?
• The word Kaffir is an ethnic slur that is mostly used
in Jamaica and South Africa.
• Referring to someone from Jamaica or South Africa
as Kaffir would be the same as referring to an
African-American person as the “N-word.”
• This usage and “strength” of Kaffir is fading away.
Dehumanization
• All blacks were required to carry pass books
containing fingerprints, photo, and information
to non-black areas.
• Non-whites were classified into various groups
by way of state tests.
• This classification would determine rights and
privileges.
• Children were taught from a young age to
prepare to be a laborer when they grew up.
A Journey of Inequality
1939-Representation of Voters Act weakened the
political rights for Africans and allows them to
vote only for white representatives.
1946-African mine workers are paid twelve times
less than their white counterparts. Over 75,000
Africans go on strike in support of higher wages.
Over 1000 workers are injured or killed before
police violence forces them to end the strike
1948-The Afrikaner Nationalist Party gains control
of the government and passed the first of 317
Apartheid laws, separating whites from blacks.
1951-The African National Congress (ANC), a
political organization for Africans, encourages
peaceful resistance to Apartheid Laws. The
government reacts by arresting more people.
1950-1953-Multiple Apartheid laws are passed
restricting the movement and rights of blacks and
requiring pass books. From 1948-1973, over ten
million Africans were arrested because their
passes were not in order
COUNTERPARTS:
PEOPLE ON THE SAME LEVEL, DOING THE
SAME WORK
APARTHEID:
A POLICY OF SEPARATENESS
AFRIKANER:
A EUROPEAN DESCENDANT OF THE DUTCH
IN SOUTH AFRICA
Mine Workers in South Africa
Working conditions were terrible in the mines, with miners earning only
a few dollars a day and being forced to be separate from their families
for months or years at a time.
Apartheid-Public facilities and jobs
 Medical care and other public services and provided
black people with service inferior to those of Whites
Practical separation of residential areas
Separation of public institutions e.g. schools and
hospitals.
Separation of jobs, ”jobs for whites only”
Separate use of facilities like toilets, chairs, bus stops,
stair-cases etc.
Black buses stopped at black bus stops and white
buses at white ones.
Trains, hospitals and ambulances were segregated
With your partner on your Left Side:
• Compare and contrast the treatment of blacks
in American before the abolishment of Jim
Crow Laws to that of blacks in South Africa
under Apartheid.
• On your Left Side:
• What is the main
point the
cartoonist is
making about
apartheid?
• How can you tell?
1951 Bantu Authorities Act
• Created basis for
ethnic government in
African reserves or
“homelands”
• Blacks had no rights
in South Africa. Their
rights were restricted
to the so called
“homelands”.
• The White Government
had complete control
over the homelands.
By Mzoli Mncanca
Homelands
Townships
Further Segregation
• Apartheid placed limits on
where blacks could live
• Restricted businesses allowed
in townships, kept people poor
• Required to live in impoverished
areas of cities called townships
• 1950s, created rural
“homelands” for tribes, groups
Citizenship
• Did not include good farmland,
resources
• Used homelands as excuse for
depriving blacks of citizenship
Aliens
• Men forced to migrate without
families to work in mines,
factories, farms
• Homeland policy made millions
resident aliens in own country
• “Reservations” or
Homelands
“Bantustans”
• Verwoerd established 9
African groups
• Each was to become a nation
within its own homeland
• Africans had rights and
freedoms
• Outside the homelands,
treated as aliens
• Poor quality land with
erosion
• Completely incapable of
supporting large populations
Typical Homestead
Homelands
• Covered 13% of South Africa’s land area
for 75% of its population.
• Economic development was outlawed.
• The only work was in the white areas
• Blacks were forced to live apart from
their families to work in the white areas
where they had to carry Passes at all
times.
Rural vs. Urban
• Group Acts of 1950
& 1986
• 1.5 Million Africans
were forced from
urban areas to rural
reservations
• 1961 – Pressure
from UN caused
South Africa to
withdraw from the
Commonwealth of
Nations
Houses in Soweto, a black township.
Typical Squatter’s Camp
Umbulwana, Natal
in 1982.
Called "a black spot"
because it is in a
"white" area.
Eventually
demolished and the
inhabitants forced to
move to identically
numbered houses in
"resettlement"
villages in their
designated
"homelands.“
Millions of black
South Africans were
forcibly "resettled" in
this way.
On your Left Side:
• Using the previous pictures, imagine what a
day living in the homelands would be like from
getting up to going to bed.
• Explain.
Pass Checks
• Checks were
performed at random
of any/all black
Africans.
• Those without Pass
were arrested and
fined. If they couldn’t
pay the fine, they were
sent to work camps.
Courtesy of www.unitedstreaming.com
Checking Passbook
The Pass Book
• Needed special permits to live outside
of reservations, but not with family
• Lived in Townships (the city’s perimeter)
• Curfew regulations
• Passbook raids
• Failure to meet curfew or have passbook
= subject to arrest
On your Left Side:
• Are there any rules we have today that you
can relate to apartheid? What are they?
• Why do you think these types of rules keep on
being created in various countries?
1953- Public Safety Act and
Criminal Law Amendment Act
• Gave government power to
declare states of emergency,
increasing punishments for
protesting against or
supporting repeal of a law:
fines, imprisonment, whippings
• 1960-Government declared
state of emergency when
large group of blacks in
Sharpeville refused to carry
their passes
– Emergency lasted for 156 days,
69 people dead and 187 people
wounded
Photo and History: The History of Apartheid in South Africa
Oppression
• In 1953, the government passed laws which allowed officers to
arrest, whip, or kill protestors during sanctioned states of
emergency.
• Even peaceful protests often ended violently.
• Starting in the 1950’s, many black South Africans were forced to
move from their homes and into densely populated areas where
they were unable to own land.
• Those who did not comply
were
arrested and often
interrogated and
tortured.
Repression (a general intro):
• 1950s- more than 500,000 pass-law arrests
annually
• 1950s- more than 600 inhabitants jailed as
communists; nearly 350 people “banned”
• Increasingly ruthless methods used
starting in 1960s including routine torture,
political assassination, house arrests, etc.
• Around 10,000 people arrested in early
1960s for political offenses, etc.
Bantu Education Act
• The 1953 Bantu Education Act was one of apartheid's most
offensively racist laws.
• It brought African education under control of the
government and extended apartheid to black schools.
• Previously, most African schools were run by missionaries
with some state aid.
• South Africans were to receive an education designed to
provide them with skills to serve their own people in the
homelands, to work as maids, or to work in labouring jobs
under whites.
Separate Unequal Education
Bantu Education Act of 1953
• HF Verwoerd : “Natives (blacks) must be taught from an
early age that equality
with Europeans (whites) is not for
them.”
• Student/teacher ratio
46:1-1955, 58:1 -1967
• Overcrowded classrooms,
poor facilities,
under-qualified teachers
Education Under Apartheid:
• “The Bantu Education Act (No. 47) of 1953:
– decreed that blacks should be provided with separate
educational facilities under the control of the Ministry of Native
Affairs, rather than the Ministry of Education.
– pupils taught Bantu “cultural heritage” and, in the words of
Hendrik F. Verwoerd, minister of native affairs, would be trained
"in accordance with their opportunities in life," which he
considered did not reach "above the level of certain forms of
labour."
– removed state subsidies from denominational schools with the
result that most of the mission-run African institutions (with the
exception of some schools run by the Roman Catholic Church
and the Seventh Day Adventists) were sold to the government or
closed.
– The Extension of University Education Act (No. 45) of 1959
prohibited blacks from attending white institutions, with few
exceptions, and established separate universities and colleges
for Africans, coloureds, and Indians.
Apartheid Education
 Bantu Education Act (1953) gave the central
government control over African education
 "Native education should be controlled . . . in
accord with the policy of the state . . . If the
native in South Africa today in any kind of
school in existence is being taught to expect
that he will live his adult life under a policy of
equal rights, he is making a big mistake . . .
There is no place for him in the European
community above the level of certain forms
of labor." -Hendrik Verwoerd, Prime Minister
By Mzoli Mncanca
Education Under Apartheid
• Black people were not to receive an education
that would lead them to aspire to positions
they wouldn't be allowed to hold in society.
• Instead they were to receive education
designed to provide them with skills to serve
their own people in the homelands or to work
in labouring jobs under whites.
Education Under Apartheid
• Bantu Education did enable more children in
Soweto to attend school than the old missionary
system of education, but there was a severe lack
of facilities.
• Nationally public to teacher ratios went up from
46:1 in 1955 to 58:1 in 1967. Overcrowded
classrooms were used on a rota basis.
• There was also a lack of teachers, and many of
those who did teach were underqualified.
• In 1961, only 10 per cent of black teachers held a
matriculation certificate [last year of high school].
Effects from Bantu Education Act
• The government controlled the non-whites' lives.
• Blacks could not choose where to go to school, where
to live, what job to have, and they couldn't get
medical care (or if they did, it wasn't good health
care).
• When walking around town, blacks had to have passes
to prove that they lived there and had a job.
Education and Soweto
• Because of the government's homelands policy, no new
high schools were built in Soweto between 1962 and
1971 -- students were meant to move to their relevant
homeland to attend the newly built schools there.
• Then in 1972 the government gave in to pressure from
business to improve the Bantu Education system to
meet business's need for a better trained black
workforce.
• 40 new schools were built in Soweto.
• Between 1972 and 1976 the number of pupils at
secondary schools increased from 12,656 to 34,656.
• One in five Soweto children were attending secondary
school.
Young school children in a classroom in the squatter
camp of Cross Roads, South Africa, in 1979. (UN Photo#
143373 by Peter Magubane)
Lost Generation of South Africa
• Students of the 1970's and 80's are referred to
as the lost generation of South Africa.
• They are often called this because the 1970s
and 80s was the time period that a lot of black
South Africans lost their education.
Conclusion: Key Facts
• The Bantu Education Act was one of apartheid's
most offensively racist laws.
• During this time the government controlled the
non-whites' lives.
• In high school, blacks had to learn a language.
• The riot in Soweto started off as a peaceful
march, but then changed into a violent riot.
• Students in the 1970's and 80's were referred to
as the lost generation of South Africa because
many blacks lost their education.
Conclusion: General Facts
• South Africa has about 12.3 million learners.
• During the 1960s, the number of schools for
blacks increased, but their curriculum was
designed to help children do menial jobs.
• The new government is now trying to
recover from the forty years of apartheid
education.
• They are giving very poor people an
education, called a fee-free school.
• They are also giving more money to schools
for better teachers and textbooks.
Education and Soweto
• This increase in secondary school attendance had
a significant effect on youth culture.
• Previously, many young people spent the time
between leaving primary school and obtaining a
job (if they were lucky) in gangs, which generally
lacked any political consciousness.
• But now secondary school students were forming
their own, much more politicised identity.
• Clashes between gangs and students only
furthered the sense of student solidarity
Education and Soweto
• In 1975 South Africa entered a period of economic depression.
• Schools were starved of funds -- the government spent R644 a year
on a white child's education but only R42 on a black child.
• The Department of Bantu Education then announced it was
removing the Standard 6 year from primary schools.
• Previously, in order to progress to Form 1 of secondary school, a
pupil had to obtain a first or second-degree pass in Standard 6.
• Now the majority of pupils could proceed to secondary school.
• In 1976, 257,505 pupils enrolled in Form 1, but there was space for
only 38,000.
• Many of the students therefore remained at primary school.
• Chaos ensued.
Education and Soweto
• So when the Department of Education issued its decree that
Afrikaans was to become a language of instruction at school, it was
into an already volatile situation.
• Students objected to being taught in the language of the
oppressor.
• Many teachers themselves could not speak Afrikaans, but were
now required to teach their subjects in it.
• When the 1976 school year started, many teachers refused to teach
in Afrikaans.
• But generally students were disparaging of the attitude of their
teachers and parents.
• One student wrote to The World newspaper: "Our parents are
prepared to suffer under the white man's rule. They have been
living for years under these laws and they have become immune to
them. But we strongly refuse to swallow an education that is
designed to make us slaves in the country of our birth."
On your Left Side:
• With your partner, compare and contrast
issues and problems with the American
education system to that of education under
apartheid.
Most black men had to leave
their homeland to find work in
mines or factories.
Women raised whatever crops
they could.
Economics of Apartheid
• Cheap (black) African
labor force for work in
mines
• Protection of skilled
jobs for whites
• Enormous income
discrepancies
http://www-users.york.ac.uk/%7Ead15/SApolitics.htm
Resistance and Protests
Apartheid is Challenged
On your Left Side:
• If you were a black non-citizen in South Africa,
how would you resist and protest against
apartheid? Explain.
• Or would you not resist and just accept and
endure? Explain.
Early resistance: 1912-1948
• 1912 African National
Congress founded
(original name: South
African Native
National Congress)
• Legal protests led by
African elites
Delegation from the South
African Native National
Congress that went to
England in 1914 to convey the
objections of the African people
to the 1913 Land Act
Resistance
• In 1912 the ANC was set up to protest apartheid
• By the 1950’s there were continually harsher
regulations placed on natives by the Afrikaners
• During the 1960’s government violence against
protesters increased
• 1964 the ANC was outlawed
Nelson Mandelactivism
•
Joined African National Congress in 1944
• Formed Youth League with Oliver Tambo
– Secretary of ANCYL in 1947
• National Party won election of 1948
– New ANC president approved by
ANCYL
• President of ANCYL in 1951
• Banned from ANC in 1952
– Prohibited from attending meetings
or holding an office
– Confined to Johannesburg area
• ANC operated underground
The Treason Trial
• 156 nationalists arrested
December 5th, 1956
– Included Mandela and Albert
Luthuli, President of ANC
– Leaders of Congress Alliance
• Combination of five major
anti-apartheid
organizations
• Charged with high treason
– Punishable by death
• Acquitted in March of 1961
Human Rights – Nelson Mandela
• Protest was outlawed. Anyone caught organising a demonstration,
reading banned newspapers or speaking against the Apartheid system
was in danger of being detained without trial, tortured, imprisoned,
even sometimes murdered.
• However, Mandela’s group, the African National Congress committed
itself to using non-violent means to protest against this system
• That is, until the Sharpeville Massacre in 1960.
The Pan Africanist Congress
• Formed by more radical members of ANC
– Rivalry between ANC and PAC
• 69 demonstrators killed at Sharpeville on March 21, 1960
• Both groups formed military wings in 1961
• Umkhonto we Sizwe (“Spear of the Nation”)
– Mandela appointed first commander of MK
• PAC’s Poqo and MK prepare sabotage
Nelson Mandela
 Nelson Mandela
peacefully fought to
end apartheid. He
served 27 years in
prison for such
“treason.”
 Thousands of other
South African nonwhites were
imprisoned and
executed for their
resistance against
apartheid.
Travel and Arrest
• Mandela left country in secret in 1962
• Attended Conference of Pan-African Freedom Movement of East
and Central Africa
– Conference of African nationalist leaders in Addis Ababa
– Provided with Ethiopian passport by Haile Selassie
• Traveled to Algeria for military training
– Guerilla warfare
• Next to London to visit Tambo
– Arrested upon return
The Rivonia Trial
• Charged for leaving country
– Sentenced to five years in prison
• MK HQ at Lilieslief raided on
July 11th, 1963
– Arrested leaders charged with
221 counts of sabotage
• Mandela delivered four hour
statement
– “I am Prepared to Die”
• Sentenced to life imprisonment plus
five years
On your Left Side: What does
Mandela mean by this speech?
“ During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to
this struggle of the African people. I have fought
against white domination, and I have fought
against black domination. I have cherished the
ideal of a democratic and free society in which all
persons live together in harmony and with equal
opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for
and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which
I am prepared to die.”
• Mandela went on the run after the ANC was banned. He was arrested in 1962,
after secretly returning to South Africa, and was imprisoned for five years for
organizing strikes.
• In 1963, Mandela was linked to a sabotage campaign in Rivonia near
Johannesburg. He was sentenced for life.
• 1973, Mandela was offered a shorter sentence if he would support the bantustan
program – he refused!
• In 1974, South Africa was banned from the United Nations General Assembly.
A Suppression of Communism Act gave the government the
power to imprison anyone accused of trying to make
changes through “disturbance or disorder.”
Nelson Mandela was elected national president of the
Youth League.
He planned a “Defiance Campaign” of marches and meetings
for April 6, 1952 – just as Afrikaners celebrated the 300th
anniversary of Dutch settlement.
The Nationalist government cracked down with arrests and
made apartheid laws harsher, but the campaign spread
awareness abroad and the system was condemned by the
United Nations.
Mandela was arrested under the Communism Act.
On your Left Side: What
does Mandela mean?
“I was made by the law, a criminal, not
because of what I had done, but because
of what I stood for, because of what I
thought, because of my conscious. Can it
be any wonder to anybody that such
conditions make a man an outlaw of
society?” Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela in Prison
• Would you be
willing to
spend 27
years in jail for
a cause?
• Why or why
not?
Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in solitary confinement in this cell.
Human Rights – Nelson Mandela
• “During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to the struggle of the African
people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought
against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and
free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal
opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if
needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”
• Nelson Mandela’s speech from the dock, Pretoria Courthouse, 1964
The shanty towns became centers
for black groups who resisted the
white government.
Thousands resisted apartheid by
refusing to work, refusing to buy
white products, going into “white
only” areas, and marching in
nonviolent demonstrations.
Sharpeville Massacre
• The Sharpeville Massacre took place on March 21st, 1960. Police
opened fire on blacks demonstrating against the policies of the
National Party government.
• 69 people were killed simply for expressing an opinion.
• This event was credited by Mandela as forcing the hand of his ANC
organisation. They soon resorted to violent methods themselves.
Though never targeting civilians, they began to blow up railway
lines and other economic targets.
• Later, the Soweto Massacre was to have a similar effect on public
opinion around the world….
1960 Sharpeville Massacre
• In 1960, during a
peaceful protest in
the city of
Sharpeville, 69
people were killed
• This massacre ignited
additional
demonstrations and
protests against the
unfair treatment of
non-whites
Sharpeville Uprising
March 6,1960: Sharpeville Massacre
A large crowd of Black South Africans assembled in front of the
Sharpeville police station to protest the pass laws imposed by
apartheid.
The Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC), led by Robert Sobukwe, together
with Nelson Mandela's African National Congress (ANC), organized
the protest for the nation's blacks to join together to demonstrate
peacefully against apartheid.
Rarely in South Africa before 1960 had so many black people
demonstrated their defiance of the laws in any way. The police were
highly apprehensive, not knowing what to expect. Suddenly, tensions
were released: the crowd pelted the policemen with stones, and the
edgy policemen retaliated with gunfire.
In the end, sixty-nine protesters were killed and one hundred and eighty
were wounded (some shot while trying to flee)
After the Sharpeville Massacre,
the government banned (exile) all
black African political
organization, including the ANC
and the PAC.
Cause of the Riot in Soweto in 1976
• When black students went to high school, they had to learn
a language.
• Most students wanted to learn English because it was a
general language that people spoke.
• However, the government forced the students to learn
Afrikaans, the language of Apartheid.
• The blacks were angry, so they boycotted the classes and
went to protest in Soweto.
The riot in Soweto
• The march in Soweto spread to
other towns in South Africa.
• The march in Soweto was
meant to be peaceful and
nonviolent.
• However, it wasn't taken as a
march to make a point
nonviolently.
• Many people were killed,
including thirteen year old
children.
The Soweto Uprising
• Young people had been forced to learn Afrikaans in school, the language
of the Dutch settlers.
• They were not allowed to speak or learn in their own language.
• On March 21st 1976, school-children protesting the right to be taught in
their own language were shot by police. 69 school-kids died. The day is
now commemorated in South Africa as Youth Day.
• People around the world were outraged. But it was to be almost 20 years
until the Apartheid system collapsed.
• At the time, Nelson Mandela was serving his time in prison for what the
government called ‘terrorist’ activities.
1976: Soweto
When high-school students in Soweto
started protesting for better education
on June 16, 1976,police responded
with teargas and live bullets. In the
aftermath, the plan for schooling in
Afrikaans was dropped and the UN
banned sales of weapons to south
Africa in 1977.
Riot in Soweto
Soweto Student Uprising
• "It
was a picture that got the
world‘s attention: A frozen
moment in time that showed
13-year-old Hector Peterson
dying after being struck
down by a policeman's
bullet. At his side was his
17-year-old sister. ” (source)
Student Uprising: 1976
 Black students were
forced to learn in
Afrikaans.
 Protests against
Afrikaans started.
 More than 500 black
students killed by
white policemen.
 More than a
thousand men,
women and children
wounded.
By Mzoli Mncanca
On your Left Side:
• If you were a black
student in South
Africa, would you
have taken part in
either of the
protests?
• Why or why not?
• If you were alive and
a high school or
college student in
America and saw the
reports of the two
protests on the
news, what would
you think and why?
Steve Biko
A young Black leader
Grave in King Williams
Town, South Africa.
Died in police
detention in 1977.
During the inquest into
his death, strong
evidence was
presented that he
suffered violent and
inhumane treatment
during his detention.
Robben Island
• prisoners crushing rocks at Robben Island
United Democratic Front
This organization helped get the word out to the world about apartheid.
Mid 1970’s – Mid 1980’s
The government implemented a series of reforms that allowed
black labor unions to organize and permitted some political
activity by the opposition.
The 1984 constitution opened parliament membership to
Asians and Coloreds, but it continued to exclude black Africans,
who made up 75% of the population.
Many countries, including the United States, imposed economic
sanctions of South Africa. More urban revolts erupted and, as
outside pressure on south Africa intensified, the government’s
apartheid policies began to unravel.
On your Left Side with your partner:
• What does the
cartoonist mean or is
trying to prove with
each political cartoon?
• How do you know?
• What would be a good
sarcastic caption for
each political cartoon?
• Explain
1985 Demonstration
• In 1985 an
International Day for
the Elimination of
Racial Discrimination
was organized. The
demonstration was
held at Langa
Township in
Uitenhage. The day
commemorates the
anniversary of the
March 21, 1960
massacre.
1985 Demonstration
• The message
was simple:
“Freedom in
Our
Lifetime!”
On your Left side with your partner:
• Come up with a slogan and a symbol that are
against apartheid
Momentous Meetings
In May 1988, the United Nations called for Mandela’s
release without conditions.
In July 1989, President Botha met with Mandela. Both men
pledged a “support for peaceful developments.”
Both resigned due to health reasons and was succeeded
as president by F.W. de Klerk.
Determined to break the “cycle of violence,” de Klerk
Ordered the release of eight political prisoners.
• De Klerk and Mandela met in
December.
• Mandela declared de Klerk
to be “the most honest and
serious white leader” he had
ever met.
• On February 2, 1990, de
Klerk announced the end of
the bans on the ANC, the
PAC, and over 30 other antiapartheid organizations
Free At Last!
On February 11, 1990, after 27 years in
prison, Nelson Mandela was released.
“Today the majority of South Africans, black
and white, recognize that apartheid has no
future.” – Nelson Mandela
Nobel Peace Prize
• Mandela and De Klerk both won the Nobel
Peace Prize in 1993 for their efforts to end
Apartheid.
• Accepting the award on December 10, 1993,
Mandela declared:
“We live in the hope that as she battles to remake
herself, South Africa will be like a microcosm of the
new world that is striving to be born.”
On your Left Side:
• If we were to create a
Wanted Poster for
Nelson Mandela, what
would be on his list of
crimes?
• If we were to create a
Hero Poster for Nelson
Mandela, what would
be on his list of
achievements?
1994
• Reservations abolished and territories
reabsorbed into the nation of South Africa
• Apartheid caused major economic hardships
on South Africa
• International sanctions
• Decreased labor force
• Cut investments from countries like U.S.A.
• First multiracial election
• Nelson Mandela elected president of South
Africa (1994 – 1999)
A New Government
Nelson Mandela casts the first vote for the new government of South
Africa.
On April 27,1994, Nelson Mandela
became South Africa’s FIRST black
president!
On April 27, 1994, Nelson Mandela was elected
the first black president if the first free election.
“We are moving from an era of resistance, division,
oppression, turmoil, and conflict and starting a
New era of hope, reconciliation, and nation-building. I
sincerely hope that the mere casting of a vote . . . will give
hope to all South Africans.”- Nelson Mandela
On your Left Side:
• What does the cartoonist mean with the
following political cartoon?
• What would be a good overall sarcastic
caption to use to emphasize this message?
Presidency
•
•
•
•
•
•
Inaugurated May 10th, 1994
First black president of South Africa
Aimed to improve social and economic
conditions for black majority
– Large scale redistribution of wealth
Truth and Reconciliation Commission
– Human rights violations from old regime
– Improved living standards of black
population
• Better housing and education
Violence control
– Afrikaner Resistance Movement
• Extremists opposing new government
using terrorism
Legislation to protect workers
– Workplace safety, overtime pay, minimum
wage
Retirement
• Decided not to run for
reelection in 1997
• Supported Thabo Mbeki
– Inaugurated June 16, 1999
• Retired from public life in 2004
• Committed to fight against
HIV/AIDS epidemic
– Son Makgatho Mandela
died of AIDS on January 6th,
2005
On your Left Side: What is the main
message of this speech?
“ We have at last achieved our
political emancipation. We pledge
ourselves to liberate all our people
from the continuing bondage of
poverty, deprivation, suffering,
gender, and other discrimination
. . . Never, never, and never again
shall it be that this beautiful land
will again experience the
oppression of one by another. . .
Let freedom reign.”
Life after Democracy
• 1994 – 1997 Nelson Mandela became the first
Black President, FW De Klerk the first Deputy
President and Thabo Mbeki the second.
• 1997 – 2006 then Thabo Mbeki become the
second Black President and Jacob Zuma was a
Deputy President.
On your Left Side with your partner:
• What is the message of
each political cartoon?
• How can you tell?
• What would be a good
sarcastic caption for
each?
Cont
• 2009 Jacob Zuma become the fourth
Democratic President up until today after the
Acting President Ralima Motlhale.
Political South Africa
The political structure of our nation
has been shaped directly by the
influences of the Apartheid era.
Political parties, politicians and
our very constitution have been
shaped by the struggle.
Consequently policies and
legislation today attempt to
redress the imbalance that was
a characteristic of the Apartheid
era
IMPACT OF APARTHEID
Politics 1: Political Parties
African National Congress:
A popular party partly because it took a pivotal
role in the overthrow of Apartheid
New National Party:
Struggles with its past as the party that
implemented Apartheid. Not popular but has
supporters amongst some Coloured and Whites
Democratic Alliance:
The remnants of the liberal parties of the
Apartheid era (PFP, DP etc). Continues to
safeguard principles of democracy but looks to
protect economic privilege
IMPACT OF APARTHEID
Politics 1: Political Parties
Inkatha Freedom Party
A tribal based party (Zulu) was formed out of the
divisions sponsored by the policy of Separate
Development
Freedom Front
Last stand of the Afrikaaner movements. Tends to
have realistic outlook but wants to protect
Afrikaaner values
Pan African Congress:
Important player in struggle but Africanist stance
limits appeal to other racial groups. Small but
influential group
IMPACT OF APARTHEID
Politics 2: Our Politicians
Thabo Mbeki’s father, Goven, was head of the ANC during
the exile years
President
Former
President
Nelson Mandela played a critical role in the struggle and
was imprisoned on Robben Island
IMPACT OF APARTHEID
Politics 3: The Constitution
• The concerns raised by the injustices of
Apartheid have resulted in the
formularization of our democratic
constitution. This document is the envy of
numerous nations who do not have the
freedoms we have.
• Your right to freedom in terms of:
– Race
– Sex
– Religion
– Sexual Orientation
– Gender
… are all protected in terms of the South
African Constitution
IMPACT OF APARTHEID
RETURN TO MENU
Economic South Africa
The economic structure of our
nation has also been shaped
directly by the influences of the
Apartheid era. Political power
might now rest with the black
majority but economic power
still rests with the white classes
who hold important positions
within nearly all sectors of the
economy. Affirmative action is
one such strategy designed to
try and change this.
IMPACT OF APARTHEID
Economics 1: Corporate Power
Corporate power rests with the
historically advantaged classes
and therefore is still dominated
by English and Afrikaans
speaking families. Foreign
investors too influence the
goings on in the corporate
world. Foreign based companies
such as Anglo America, Anglo
Gold etc. are big economic
players
IMPACT OF APARTHEID
Economics 2: Social Classes
The economic divisions are obvious
to us today. Schooling is just one
area where most blacks and many
whites still experience the
disadvantages or benefits derived
from their economic class
IMPACT OF APARTHEID
RETURN TO MENU
Challenges facing SA today
• High rate of unemployment
• Inequality with a racial overlay
• Lastly, poverty especially to those who were disadvantaged
before democracy.
In schools :
• Endemic to rural areas including overcrowding, poor school
infrastructure (including collapsing ceilings and broken
windows), high student to teacher ratio, long walk to get to
school and lastly, the lack of teaching and learning resources.
On your Left Side:
• What challenges or problems facing South
Africa today is the political cartoon
addressing?
• Explain.
Opening Education to All
• 1994 - universal access to single system of
education
• 1996 - Constitution extended compulsory
education to grades 1 – 9 (ages 6 – 15)
• 1999 Tirisanot Programme of Action focused
on improving the quality of secondary schools
Economic Equity in Education
• Fee-free schools
– Up to 40% of all schools in 2007
National Nutrition Program
• Feeds 1.6-million schoolchildren every day
• Nearly 2000 school gardens
with federal,
local and
NGO support
Cont
• Violences in schools is increasing, Special
needs and problems resulting from the HIV/
AIDS pandemic, social problems such as
substance abuse.
• Non-governmental organisation are the main
providers of children’ social welfare services
and working along with the government.
ABOUT THE POET
Tatamkhulu Afrika (1920–2002) was
born in Egypt to a Turkish mother and an
Arab father, but was orphaned as an
infant and adopted by white South
Africans. His poetry and writing
conveyed his opposition to
apartheid.
CONTENT
This is an AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL poem
written in the FIRST PERSON about a
man’s journey to a district that
has changed in recent years. The area is
DISTRICT SIX which was an area ONLY
for WHITE people during apartheid.
CONTENT
The poem begins with the poet visiting
District Six after apartheid ended and
anybody, black or white is allowed to go
there. He describes how the area is
being redeveloped with
new houses and
fashionable restaurants.
CONTENT
HOWEVER, at the time the poem was
written many black people would not have
been able to afford to go there or were
not made to feel welcome. This makes
the poet ANGRY as he feels that it as if
apartheid is still in existence.
On your left side:
• Make notes about the poem left side of your
Interactive Notes.
NOTHING’S CHANGED
The poet returns to the
wasteland that was once
his home, and
relives the anger he felt
when the area was first
destroyed.
He describes the area
as being neglected and
desolate
Small round hard stones click
under my heels,
seeding grasses thrust
bearded seeds into trouser cuffs, cans,
trodden on, crunch
Alliteration of
in tall, purple-flowering,
the ‘c’ sound
amiable weeds.
creates a harsh
Friendly
tone.
NOTHING’S CHANGED
Although
apartheid is
officially over
Afrika still
feels that there
are divides.
Repetition of
‘and’ 4 times
emphasises
the poets
rising
ANGER.
District Six.
No board says it is:
but my feet know,
and my hands,
and the skin about my bones,
and the soft labouring of my lungs,
and the hot, white, inwards turning
anger of my eyes.
NOTHING’S CHANGED
Here he describes a
high-class
fashionable restaurant.
‘Brash’ suggest
it is big and flashy.
Just beginning to
develop.
Despite
apartheid being
abolished it is
still a ‘whites
only’ restaurant
and even has a
guard to ensure
this.
Simile
Brash with glass,
Name flaring like a flag, ‘Squats’ is an
unattractive verb. It
it squats
suggests that it does
in the grass and weeds
not belong there.
Incipient Port Jackson trees:
New, up-market, haute cuisine,
guard at the gatepost,
whites only inn.
NOTHING’S CHANGED
No sign says it is:
but we know where we belong.
He is speaking
directly
to the reader.
There is no
official
segregation but
inequality still
exists in South
Africa.
NOTHING’S CHANGED
I press my nose
To the clear panes, know,
before I see them, there will be
crushed ice white glass,
linen falls,
the single rose.
Exquisite
images
emphasise
the splendour
of the
‘whites only
inn’
He is looking in
at the exclusive
‘whites only’
restaurant.
Assonance to
stress the
character’s
anger.
NOTHING’S CHANGED
Here we have
a
juxtaposition of
the lives of
white and black
people. White
people dine in a
beautiful
environment.
Whilst IN
CONTRAST
black people
dine in a basic
‘working man’s
café’.
Down the road,
working man’s café sells
bunny chows.
Take it with you, eat
it at a plastic table’s top,
wipe your fingers on your jeans,
spit a little on the floor:
it’s in the bone.
The café
where black
people dine.
‘Bunny chow’ is a
South African
colloquialism
meaning low-quality
fast food.
NOTHING’S CHANGED
‘Boy’ in South Africa
is an insulting
name for a black
male.
‘Nothing’s
Changed’ – The
poem’s ending is
the same as its
title showing
the cyclical
nature of
segregation.
He feels it will
continue despite
the end of
apartheid.
I back from the glass,
boy again,
Leaving small mean O
of small, mean mouth.
Hands burn
for a stone, a bomb,
to shiver down the glass.
Nothing’s changed.
Repetition
Metaphor
showing that he
is ANGRY and
wants to take
revenge!
Social injustice still remained.
Largely confined to poorlypaid manual jobs, black
people formed an economic
underclass.
POETIC TECHNIQUES
1. CONTRAST – between the luxurious
setting of the smart restaurant and the
cheap café.
2. SYMBOLISM – District Six (the most
famous community from which black and mixedrace citizens were evicted) represents
apartheid.
POETIC TECHNIQUES
3. ALLITERATION - the harsh ‘c’
sound, e.g. ‘into trouser cuffs, cans’,
expresses the poet’s ANGER
4. ANGRY DICTION – expresses how
the poet is feeling e.g. ‘anger of my eyes’,
‘mean mouth’, ‘a bomb to shiver down the
glass’.
POETIC TECHNIQUES
5. ONOMATOPOEIA – e.g. ‘click’,
‘crunch’, ‘spit’. These words help us to
follow the man on his journey through the
district, literally and metaphorically.
STRUCTURE
• The poem is written in 6 stanzas of 8
lines each. This regularity illustrates
that the poet is in control of his
emotions and feelings, rather than flying
into a rage.
STRUCTURE
• Each stanza has sentences of varying
length, some with only 2 words:
E.g. ‘District Six.’
• The short sentences convey his
bitterness and anger at the unjust
situation.
MAIN THEMES IN THE POEM
• Cultural Identity
• ANGER at discrimination and racial
prejudice.
• Frustration caused by unfairness in
society.
• Alienation and feeling excluded, ‘….we
know where we belong.’