South Africa: History In An Hour

Anthony Holmes

Introduction

On 10 April 1993 South Africans held their collective breath.

In the midst of discussions on the transition from a white oppressive regime to a

multiracial democracy, Chris Hani, the black leader of the South African Communist

Party and Chief of Staff of the armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC),

was murdered. He was brutally gunned down by white ultra-conservatives as he

stepped out of his car at his home in front of his family.

The assassination was part of a plot to

destabilise the negotiations to end

apartheid. His neighbour, a white woman

rushed to call the police and the

perpetrator, Janusz Waluš, was arrested.

His accomplice Clive Derby-Lewis, a

Member of Parliament in the Conservative

Party and right wing extremist, was

subsequently also arrested. Both men were found guilty of murder.

The country was poised on a knife-edge. Black people

were incensed and enraged at the assassination. White

people were shocked by the brutality of the crime and

terrified of the expected black backlash.

It took a man of incredible wisdom, courage and statesmanship to make the

following speech. A man who had been recently released after being jailed for 27

years by the same oppressive regime. A man who had not yet ascended to any office

of state but who was generally acknowledged to be the de facto leader of the

country.

His name was Nelson Rolihlahla Dalibhunga Mandela and he broadcast the following

words in a voice that had been silenced for so long, but which was to become one of

the world’s best known voices:

‘Tonight I am reaching out to every single South African, black and white, from the

very depths of my being. A white man, full of prejudice and hate, came to our country

and committed a deed so foul that our whole nation now teeters on the brink of

disaster. A white woman, of Afrikaner origin, risked her life so that we may know,

and bring to justice, this assassin. The cold-blooded murder of Chris Hani has sent

shock waves throughout the country and the world. ... Now is the time for all South

Africans to stand together against those who, from any quarter, wish to destroy what

Chris Hani gave his life for – the freedom of all of us.’

Although some riots did follow Chris Hani’s murder, the two sides of the negotiation

were motivated and galvanised into action. The process was not allowed to drag on

and they rapidly came to the agreement that democratic elections should take place

on 27 April 1994, just over a year after Hani's assassination. The short speech given

by Nelson Mandela saved South Africa from descending into chaos.

What tortuous path led South Africa to that dramatic moment in its history? To

appreciate the ‘politics of colour’ that encompassed the lives of Nelson Mandela,

Walter Sisulu, Oliver Tambo, John Vorster, PW Botha, FW de Klerk and millions of

South Africans of all races, religions, professions and beliefs in the second half of the

twentieth century one must go back in the history of South Africa.

The Early History of South Africa

The First Contact with White People

The conflict between black Africans and white people in South Africa finds its origin

in the seventeenth century when white men from the Netherlands established a

permanent harbour to replenish food and water and conduct repairs for the trading

fleet of the Dutch East India Company (V.O.C) at the Cape of Good Hope. Jan van

Riebeck arrived in the Cape in 1652 with a party of ninety men with instructions from

the Company to build a fort and develop a vegetable garden to provision the ships

on their voyages to and from the east.

The history of South Africa from 1652

onwards was written by the white

historians. The history from the

perspective of the black people was

handed down orally. As is the way

with history, each party paints a

picture favourable to themselves and

each naturally accepts their version as

‘the truth’.

The first tribe encountered by the Dutch settlers were the cattle herders called the

Khoikhoi. The initial contact with the Khoikhoi was based on barter; however the

groups had differing philosophies of ownership, especially when it came to livestock.

This led to animosity and accusations of theft from the side of the white farmers,

whereas the Khoikhoi subscribed to the concept that cattle did not ‘belong’ to

anyone.

The Slave Period

After serving their five year contracts with the V.O.C, nine men were released from

their contractual obligations and given their own land to farm. They were called

vryburgers (free citizens). In 1657 the first slaves were brought to South Africa from

other parts of Africa, Madagascar, India and East Asia. Most were labourers and

servants but many of them were skilled carpenters and bricklayers. The V.O.C owned

most of the slaves in South Africa's Cape colony. They were confined to living

quarters in a huge slave lodge (later converted into the old Supreme Court and more

recently the South African Cultural History Museum) while other slaves were owned

and housed by the vryburgers.

Five years later when van Riebeck returned to Holland in 1662, there were about 250

settlers in what was clearly now a permanent colony. Further expansion saw

independent farmers immigrate to South Africa and in the early 1700s the so-called

‘trekboers’ or pioneer farmers started to push outwards towards the east. The

geographic location of the black African tribes at the time determined that the Xhosa

would be the first black nation to encounter the white farmers. With the Xhosa

continuing their migration westwards along the southern coast and the white

farmers searching for new opportunities to the east, confrontation was inevitable.

The Wars between the Xhosa and the White Settlers

The conflicts between the Xhosa people and the white famers were called ‘The Kaffir

Wars’. The term ‘Kaffir’ originated from the Arabic/Islamic term Kafir meaning ‘a

non-believer’. The word is considered racially offensive in the present day. The use

of the ‘K’-word has been actionable under South African law since 1976. There were

nine conflicts between the Xhosas and the white settlers which are now called the

Xhosa Wars.

The first Xhosa War is recorded as having begun in 1779. Wars followed in 1789,

1799 and 1812, but protracted skirmishes were virtually continuous. Outcomes were

indecisive. The sides were evenly matched. The white settlers were heavily

outnumbered but they had the better weaponry.

Meanwhile in Europe the newly established Republic of France conquered the

Netherlands in 1795. The Netherlands was re-named the Batavian Republic and

Prince William of Orange fled to England. Once there the prince asked England to

prevent France taking possession of the Dutch colonies. At the behest of Prince

William, Britain occupied the Cape colony in 1795, occupying it permanently in 1806

and ruling it as a crown colony.

The British were in a better position to bring force to bear in South Africa. They

commanded military resources in India as well as Britain and were determined to put

an end to the frontier problem. In 1820 an emigration scheme brought five thousand

white British settlers to the frontier districts. This move only served to increase the

competition for land between the racial groups.

The remaining wars of the nineteenth century were

devastating for the Xhosa. Warriors, armed only with

spears and clubs, fought against guns. The loss of life

was high. The British maintained a military force to

protect the white colonists, but the farmers were still

harassed and subject to theft of their livestock. Land was

seized progressively by the settlers in each successive

war and the pressures on the Xhosa intensified with

each defeat. The Xhosa, divided into a number of

chieftaincies, was unable to coalesce into a cohesive

fighting force.

In a tragic turn of events in 1857 the Xhosa were persuaded by their witch doctors

that they would succeed against the white man if they destroyed all their own cattle.

This disastrous self inflicted catastrophe so weakened the Xhosa that military action

was not pursued for a generation. In 1877 further pressure from the white colonists

brought a final and hopeless military response from the Xhosa. The Cape Colony

annexed all remaining Xhosa lands effectively ending the independence of the Xhosa.

The Coloured (Mixed Race) People

In the Cape Colony itself, the remnants of Khoikhoi that had not moved away

mingled with the slaves from elsewhere in Africa. They interbred with white people

and with a new category of slaves from the East, particularly Malaysia, producing the

mixed race group which was later given the designation of ‘Coloured’. The slaves

from East Asia brought Islam into the Calvinistic settler establishment. The

vryburgers employed the slaves to help with domestic chores and the cultivation of

wine, vegetables and wheat. A few slaves were freed on their owners’ death and

earned a living by catching fish and selling vegetables.

It would not be until 1833, following the Slavery Abolition Act in Britain that a law

was passed in South Africa freeing all slaves. (This was thirty-two years prior to the

ending of slavery in the US). The law allowed for a four-year apprenticeship after

which slaves were free to leave their owners but which left many slave owners

bankrupt because there was no-one left to perform the labour.

The Great Trek

The Dutch-speaking colonists

did not take kindly to British

rule. They blamed the new

administration for not

providing sufficient protection

from the Xhosa, abolishing

slavery and espousing a new

liberalism towards black

Africans. 1835 witnessed the

first of several migrations to the north and north east. Approximately 14,000 people,

including servants and employees, embarked on what collectively became known as

the ‘Great Trek’, the mass migration of Dutch speaking colonists searching for a

promised land where they could establish a free and independent state. The life style

of the ‘trekboers’ (nomadic famers) enabled them to pack their possessions into ox-

drawn wagons and leave the colony forever.

The families who set out from the eastern frontier

towns represented a small fraction of the Dutch-

speaking inhabitants of the colony. Their

pioneering courage is remembered as the most important aspect of Afrikaner folk

memory. Represented in later days as a peaceful and God-fearing journey into the

unknown, the Great Trek caused tremendous upheaval in the lives of the indigenous

people. Messengers made their way to the chiefs of the Sotho clans to report that

the white men were coming in their hundreds.

The Voortrekkers (pioneers) had to face the uninviting prospect of the barren

Kalahari Desert, the tsetse fly belt and the realm of the deadly malarial mosquito. Yet

they trekked onwards, intent on gaining access to ports beyond the sphere of British

control, such as Delagoa Bay, Inhambane and Sofala. In order for their new

settlement to be viable, it was crucial that they establish independent trading links

with Europe.

The British resented any intrusion by other European powers in their colony’s affairs.

Whenever ‘foreign’ interference was detected, the British used the expedient of

annexing the territory concerned. In the 1840s the Voortrekkers of the Republic of

Natalia endeavoured to open contacts with the Netherlands, so the British annexed

Natal. In the 1880s Germany annexed South West Africa (modern Namibia) resulting

in the British pre-emptive action of annexing Bechuanaland (modern Botswana).

Self Government for the Cape Colony

In 1853, the British Government conferred a representative legislature on the Cape

Colony which made a timid move towards political equality among the races. The

non-racial franchise was based on economic qualifications, but in practice it excluded

the vast majority of black and coloured people. Nevertheless, the promise of full

political inclusion existed. In 1872 the Cape Colony was granted self government.

Over the following twenty years the expansion of the colony resulted in the inclusion

of great numbers of native voters. The government progressively raised the

franchise hurdle. Communal land ownership was excluded as a qualification and

proof of the ability to write was introduced as a requirement.

Read more in South Africa: History In An Hour by Anthony Holmes published by

Harper Press