Apartheid Notes

History In 1652, Dutch, German, and French came to the Cape of Good Hope. Dutch, French, and German settlers and their descendants in South Africa were called Afrikaners. They were very religious and very racist. In the early 1800s, the British took control of the Cape and its surrounding areas. Boers (Afrikaner frontier farmers who had spread out from the original Cape colony) resisted the British. Boers moved farther North.

History During this time, a Bantu-speaking tribe, the Zulu, were creating their own empire. The British defeated the Zulu and made South Africa a commonwealth. Many Afrikaners died in battles with the ‘natives’. Hatred of the British and Blacks deepened Afrikaner solidarity. Independence was granted in 1910. While the Afrikaners made up only 13% of the population, they dominated the government.

Apartheid In the early 1900s, South Africa’s government became increasingly racist. In 1948, the Afrikaner Nationalist Party gained control of the South African government and established the system known as Apartheid, a policy of separation of races which means ‘apartness’ . Apartheid included 317 laws which reserved civil rights for 5 million whites and denied them to 25 million blacks.

Apartheid All citizens were classified by race. All public places were segregated. There were separate residential areas. Each African tribe was given its own area, called ‘homelands’, which had little or no resources. All resources were owned by the whites. Blacks were forced to live in separate areas called townships, which were often crowded clusters of tiny homes.

Resistance Resistance began in the 1950s. Many countries objected to the apartheid laws, and put sanctions – economic penalties imposed by one country on another to force a change in policy- on South Africa. South Africa became more isolated. The African National Congress (ANC) was formed to protect the rights of black South Africans. Many ANC members were jailed and forced to leave the country.

Resistance Nelson Mandela rose to leadership of the ANC, but was arrested in 1964 and imprisoned for 26 years. In 1976, thousands of students protested in a black township in Johannesburg, which became known as the Soweto Riot. The government killed 600 students. South Africa was expelled from the United Nations in 1974, and banned from the Olympic Games in 1976.

Apartheid Ends In the late 1980s, South Africa began to move away from the Apartheid system. In 1990 Nelson Mandela was released from prison and the ANC worked with the government to write a new constitution, which put an end to Apartheid. In 1994 Mandela was elected as the first Black President of South Africa.

Apartheid Ends Today all races have equal rights in South Africa. However, white South Africans are still far wealthier than the majority of black South Africans.

Bathroom Signs

Beware of Natives Sign (Black South Africans)

Passbook