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Naile A's List: Apartheid

  • Jun 07, 14

    "South Africa was colonized by the English and Dutch in the seventeenth century. English domination of the Dutch descendents (known as Boers or Afrikaners) resulted in the Dutch establishing the new colonies of Orange Free State and Transvaal. The discovery of diamonds in these lands around 1900 resulted in an English invasion which sparked the Boer War. Following independence from England, an uneasy power-sharing between the two groups held sway until the 1940's, when the Afrikaner National Party was able to gain a strong majority. Strategists in the National Party invented apartheid as a means to cement their control over the economic and social system. Initially, aim of the apartheid was to maintain white domination while extending racial separation. Starting in the 60's, a plan of ``Grand Apartheid'' was executed, emphasizing territorial separation and police repression."

  • Jun 07, 14

    "Resistance to apartheid within South Africa took many forms over the years, from non-violent demonstrations, protests and strikes to political action and eventually to armed resistance. Together with the South Indian National Congress, the ANC organized a mass meeting in 1952, during which attendees burned their pass books. A group calling itself the Congress of the People adopted a Freedom Charter in 1955 asserting that “South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black or white.” The government broke up the meeting and arrested 150 people, charging them with high treason."

      • This page has a video about Nelson Mandela's role in the fight against apartheid.

    • ANC leader Nelson Mandela, released from prison in February 1990, worked closely with President F.W. de Klerk's government to draw up a new constitution for South Africa. After both sides made concessions, they reached agreement in 1993, and would share the Nobel Peace Prize that year for their efforts.
  • Jun 07, 14

    "



    Nelson Mandela, the father of the na"

      • This site appears to be a tribut to Nelson Mandela.

    • Nelson Mandela, the father of the nation affectionately known as Madiba, has gone to rest. He has left the world a legacy which will endure and inspire future generations in the knowledge that their freedom is owed to him and others in their struggle to overcome discrimination and prejudice.

       

         

       

        His gift and message is not only pertinent to those who suffered under the draconian apartheid concept of segregation and second class status for black South Africans, but to the millions who find themselves in similar circumstances today in other parts of the world. It is Nelson Mandela's message of negotiation and reconciliation - in moving beyond the yoke of servitude and conflict to a position of building a new nation based on the principles of equality, non-racism, non-sexism and equal opportunity - that finds resonance in the hearts and minds of the international community and the world at large.

       

         

       

        Mandela regarded the 27 years he had to endure in prison as small measure for the reward of the freedom of his people - both friend and foe alike - who make up the citizens of South Africa and by extension the citizenry of the world. The principle of reconciliation he held up as his mantra endeared him to all, including his former jailers. And then came the first democratic elections, standing in line for hours in 1994 to vote, the majority for the first time, in excitement and incredulity, experiencing the previously unimaginable. Freedom!

  • Jun 07, 14

    "apartheid, ( Afrikaans: “apartness”) apartheid: South African beach during the apartheid era [Credit: E. Andrews—Impact Photos/Heritage-Images]policy that governed relations between South Africa’s white minority and nonwhite majority and sanctioned racial segregation and political and economic discrimination against nonwhites. The implementation of apartheid, often called “separate development” since the 1960s, was made possible through the Population Registration Act of 1950, which classified all South Africans as either Bantu (all black Africans), Coloured (those of mixed race), or white. A fourth category—Asian (Indian and Pakistani)—was later added."

    • The Group Areas Act of 1950 established residential and business sections in urban areas for each race, and members of other races were barred from living, operating businesses, or owning land in them. In practice this act and two others (1954, 1955), which became known collectively as the Land Acts, completed a process that had begun with similar Land Acts adopted in 1913 and 1936; the end result was to set aside more than 80 percent of South Africa’s land for the white minority.
  • Jun 07, 14

    "Population Registration Act, 1950 - This Act demanded that people be registered according to their racial group. This meant that the Department of Home Affairs would have a record of people according to whether they were White, Coloured, Black, Indian or Asian. People would then be treated differently according to their population group, and so this law formed the basis of apartheid. It was however not always that easy to decide what racial group a person was part of, and this caused some problems.
    Group Areas Act, 1950 - This was the Act that started physical separation between races, especially in urban areas. The Act also called for the removal of some groups of people into areas set aside for their racial group. Well known removals were those in District Six, Sophiatown and Lady Selborne (also see Cato Manor, Fietas and Curries Fountain (Grey Street area)). People from these areas were then placed in townships outside of the town. They could not own property here, only rent it, as land could only be white owned.
    Promotion of Bantu Self-Government Act, 1959 - This Act forced different racial groups to live in different areas. Only a small percentage of South Africa was left for black people (who comprised the vast majority) to form their 'homelands’. Like the Group Areas Act, this act also got rid of 'black spots’ inside white areas, by moving all black people out of the city. This Act caused much hardship and resentment. People lost their homes, were moved off land they had owned for many years and were moved to undeveloped areas far away from their place of work.
    Bantu Education Act, 1953 - established an inferior education system for Africans based upon a curriculum intended to produce manual laborers and obedient subjects. Similar discriminatory education laws were also imposed on Coloureds, who had lost the right to vote in 1956, and Indians. The government denied funding to mission schools that rejected Bantu Education, leading to the closure of many of the best schools for Africans. In the higher education sector, the Extension of University Education Act of 1959 prevented black students from attending "white" universities (except with government permission) and created separate and unequal institutions for Africans, Coloureds, and Indians respectively. The apartheid government also undermined intellectual and cultural life through intense censorship of books, movies, and radio and television programs.
    The Suppression of Communism Act, 1950 (originally introduced as the Unlawful Organisations Bill) - The Act was introduced in an attempt to curb the influence of the CPSA and other formations that opposed the government's apartheid policy. It sanctioned the banning/punishment of the CPSA or any group or individual intending to bring about political, economic, industrial and social change through the promotion of disorder or disturbance, using unlawful acts or encouraging feelings of hostility between the European and non-European races of the Union of South Africa. The Act was progressively tightened up in 1951, 1954, and yearly from 1962-1968."

    • On 17 December 1949 the ANC adopted a 'Programme of Action’ at their conference. This marked one of the most important turning points in the history of the organisation's existence up to that time. The adoption was precipitated by the victory of the National party and its determination to implement a policy of apartheid. The Programme of Action called on the ANC to embark on mass action, involving civil disobedience, strikes, boycotts and other forms of non-violent resistance, similar to the 1946 Passive resistance campaign mounted by the South African Indian Conference (SAIC). Therefore, inspired by the desire to achieve national freedom, the ANC was transformed in the 1950s; it now became a more militant liberation movement.
  • Jun 07, 14

    "Apartheid in Retreat

    Beginning about 1970, the internal contradictions of apartheid finally caused its slow demise. After the massive legal discrimination of the early apartheid years, black income, relative to white, fell dramatically, and the advance of white workers was won. But much like the boom periods of the two world wars, the robust economic growth of the 1960s rendered apartheid’s protection increasingly obsolete (many white workers no longer required all the separateness that apartheid had wrought) and exceedingly expensive (the South African economy was continually stalled by the artificial truncation of labor supply). Necessity became the mother of reform."

      • This website contains a quotation regarding the crisis in South Africa.

    • as the white skilled-labor shortage worsened, the government became ever more impatient with white trade unions which were hampering the training of blacks and thus blocking black advances into skilled jobs. In 1973 it was announced that blacks, including Africans, could do skilled work in the white areas. The government did not rigorously adhere to its promise that it would consult with white trade unions before making this decision. In 1975 the defence force announced that black soldiers would enjoy the same status as whites of equal rank, and that whites would have to take orders from black officers. This broke the rule that the hierarchical structure (or ratchet) must be kept intact, with blacks always working under whites. (Giliomee and Schlemmer 1989, p. 124)
  • Jun 07, 14

    "A Vegas-style recreation center with glamorous hotels, gambling casinos, showrooms and spas, Sun City is located in Bophuthatswana, one of South Africa's so-called "homeland" regions, where Zulus were relocated without their consent. In efforts to legitimize the area, Sun City has offered vast sums to entertainers to perform there. Some of the acts that have done so in years past include Rod Stewart, Queen and Linda Ronstadt. Although executives at the resort frequently try to downplay the realities of apartheid, the Sun City complex has become a symbol of the opulence that whites enjoy at the expense of the country's black natives."

      • Artists outside South Africa wouldn't play in Sun City.


    •   (Note: The term "Africans" is used to   refer to black Africans.)
       
        · 1946: African mine workers are paid twelve times less than their   white counterparts and are forced to do the most dangerous jobs. Over   75,000 Africans go on strike in support of higher wages. Police use violence   to force the unarmed workers back to their jobs. Over 1000 workers are   injured or killed.
      • This page includes an apartheid timeline.

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  • Jun 07, 14

    "During his years in prison, Nelson Mandela's reputation grew steadily. He was widely accepted as the most significant black leader in South Africa and became a potent symbol of resistance as the anti-apartheid movement gathered strength. He consistently refused to compromise his political position to obtain his freedom.

    Nelson Mandela was released on February 11, 1990. After his release, he plunged himself wholeheartedly into his life's work, striving to attain the goals he and others had set out almost four decades earlier. In 1991, at the first national conference of the ANC held inside South Africa after the organization had been banned in 1960, Mandela was elected President of the ANC while his lifelong friend and colleague, Oliver Tambo, became the organisation's National Chairperson."

    • Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was  born in Transkei, South Africa on July 18, 1918. His father was  Hendry Mphakanyiswa of the Tembu Tribe. Mandela himself was  educated at University College of Fort Hare and the University of  Witwatersrand where he studied law. He joined the African  National Congress in 1944 and was engaged in resistance against  the ruling National Party's apartheid policies after 1948. He  went on trial for treason in 1956-1961 and was acquitted in  1961.
    • Nelson Mandela - Biographical
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