South Africa History

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Cultural Studies III

South Africa: History

If the history of South Africa is in large part one of increasing racial divisiveness, today it can also be seen

as the story of – eventually – a journey through massive obstacles towards the creation, from tremendous

diversity, of a single nation whose dream of unity and common purpose is now capable of realisation.

The earliest people

The earliest representatives of South Africa's diversity – at least the earliest we can name – were the San

and Khoekhoe peoples (otherwise known individually as the Bushmen and Hottentots or Khoikhoi;

collectively called the Khoisan). Both were resident in the southern tip of the continent for thousands of

years before its written history began with the arrival of European seafarers.

And before that, modern human beings had lived here for more than 100 000 years – indeed, the country

is an archaeological treasure chest. (See “The Cradle of Humankind” )

The hunter-gatherer San ranged widely over the area; the pastoral Khoekhoe lived in those comparatively

well-watered areas, chiefly along the southern and western coastal strips, where adequate grazing was to

be found. So it was with the latter that the early European settlers first came into contact – much to the

disadvantage of the Khoekhoe.

As a result of diseases such as smallpox imported by the Europeans, of some assimilation with the settlers

and especially with the slaves who were to arrive in later years, and of some straightforward

extermination, the Khoekhoe have effectively disappeared as an identifiable group.

Other long-term inhabitants of the area that was to become South Africa were the Bantu-speaking people

who had moved into the north-eastern and eastern regions from the north, starting at least many

hundreds of years before the arrival of the Europeans.

The Thulamela site in the northern Kruger National Park is estimated to have been first occupied in the

13th century. The ruins of Mapungubwe, where artefacts from as far away as China have been found, are

the remains of a large trading settlement thought to stretch back to the 12th century. Agro-pastoralists,

these people brought with them an Iron Age culture and sophisticated socio-political systems.

Settlers and slaves

Their existence was of little import to Jan van Riebeeck and the 90 men who landed with him in 1652 at

the Cape of Good Hope, under instructions by the Dutch East India Company to build a fort and develop a

vegetable garden for the benefit of ships on the Eastern trade route.

Their relationship with the Khoekhoe was initially one of bartering, but a mutual animosity developed over

issues such as cattle theft – and, no doubt, the growing suspicion on the part of the Khoekhoe that Van

Riebeeck's outpost was becoming a threat to them.

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Perhaps the first sign that the threat was to be realised came in 1657 when nine men, released from their

contracts, were given land to farm. In the same year the first slaves were imported. By the time Van

Riebeeck left in 1662, 250 white people lived in what was beginning to look like a developing colony.

Later governors of the Cape Colony encouraged immigration, and in the early 1700s independent farmers

called trekboers began to push north and east. Inevitably, the Khoisan started literally losing ground, in

addition to being pressed by difficult circumstances into service for the colonists.

The descendants of some of the Khoisan, slaves from elsewhere in Africa and the East, and white colonists

formed the basis of the mixed-race group now known as "coloured". It is noteworthy that the slaves from

the East brought a potent new ingredient to South Africa's racial and cultural mix, especially with their

religion of Islam.

The Cradle of Humankind

A handful of the world's great cities trace their heritage to early human settlements thousands of years

back. Johannesburg's earliest residents were in the neighbourhood 3-million years ago.

Forty kilometres west of the city, among nondescript koppies, scattered shrubs and trees, is a 47 000-

hectare valley known as the Cradle of Humankind.

Three million years of human activity have taken place in and around these caves, including people's

earliest-known mastery of fire, and 40% of all the world's human ancestor fossils have been found here.

The biggest and best-known of the caves is Sterkfontein, where over 500 hominid fossils and over 9 000

stone tools have been found. It was at Sterkfontein that two major finds were made, that have changed

modern paleontology:

The Australopithecus africanusMrsPles (now believed to be a Mister Ples), dating back 2.5-millionyears, and found by Robert Bloom in 1947.

Little Foot, an almost complete ape-man skeleton that could be just over 4 million years old, thefirst pieces - footbones - of which were found by Ronald Clarke and Phillip Tobias in 1995 (thebones had lain in a box since the late 1970s, when they were excavated).

In 1997, Clarke, digging through more boxes of bones from Sterkfontein, found more footbones from the

same individual - one with a clean break suggesting that more of Little Foot's bones might still be inside

the cave. Clarke went after the rest of Little Foot's skeleton - and in 1998, amazingly, found it, or at least

a significant part of it.A complete skull and fragments of arm, foot and leg bones have been uncovered so far; the rest of the

bones are still being painstakingly excavated from the rock.

Some believe that Little Foot is the most significant hominid find since Raymond Dart's discovery of the

skull of the Taung child, a juvenile Australopithecus africanus, discovered in 1924 near a town called

Taung in the far north of North West.





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Natal, and the Battle of Isandhlwana

The Colony of Natal, however, was developing along somewhat different lines, the size of the Zulu nation

assuming threatening proportions to the colonists. Reserves were created under traditional African law for

refugees from Zulu might; outside those reserves, British law held sway. As almost all blacks were

deemed to fall under the rule of the chiefs in the reserves, almost none had any chance of political rights

outside their borders.

Economically, Natal had the advantage of being ideal for the cultivation of sugar cane. The consequent

labour requirements led to the importation of indentured labourers from India, many of whom – in spite of

discrimination – remained in the country after their contracts had expired: the forebears of today's

significant and influential Indian population.

The late 19th century was an area of aggressive colonial expansion, and the Zulus were bound to come

under pressure. But they were not to prove easy pickings. Under King Cetshwayo, they delivered

resounding proof at Isandhlwana in 1879 that the British army was not invincible.

However, they were defeated in the following year, leading to Zululand eventually being incorporated into

Natal in 1897.

Land and labour

Land and labour are two very important elements of the economic development of a society, and the way

they are used will influence how the society develops. In South African history there has always been the

fight for ownership of land and the need for cheap labour. Government policies over the years have tried

to solve this problem in different ways.

Land

At the start of the twentieth century, in 1910, the whole of South Africa was united under one

government. Until this time, the Cape and Natal had been colonies controlled by the British, and the

Transvaal and Free State were areas under Boer control. The South Africa War was fought at the end ofthe 19th century, leaving all the land in the hands of the British. The rights of the black population were

generally not taken into account, although they did still live scattered across South Africa. Some black

tribes had been forced off their land over the years and had resettled.

After the Union of South Africa, 1910, land in South Africa was divided. In 1913 the government passed

the Land Act. This Act decided how the land in South Africa was going to be divided between black and

white people. At this time there was no apartheid policy in place, but the government did want to prevent

black and white people from mixing together. The policy is known as the policy of segregation, and would

later be replaced with the policy of apartheid in 1948.

The 1913 Land Act set aside 7.5% of the land in South Africa for black people. The Act also said that blackpeople could not get more land outside of their tribal areas. The Act caused a problem for black people

who worked on white land but had their own piece of ground. These people, known as share-croppers, had

to decide between working for the white farm owners or moving to areas set aside for black people. The

situation with the 1913 Land Act became only very slightly better in 1936 when the Native Trust and Land

Act increased the amount of land to just over 10% of South Africa.

Labour

During the same period the government saw the need for cheap labour to work on the mines and on

farms. The government needed to make sure that people did come to the towns, and for this reason they



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introduced taxes that needed to be paid. This meant that young men left their families for a while to come

to the cities to earn some money. This money was then given over to the chief to pay taxes. This became

known as the system of migrant labour - people moved across the country, often far from home, to work

for a short while and then return to their families. There were few job opportunities in the black areas, so

they had to go to the cities to get cash to pay the government taxes.

The system of migrant labour led to some problems developing in black society:

young men sometimes could not marry until they had done a certain amount of labour for the chief

families were disrupted

farms were left in the hands of women and young children

men in the cities became used to the western way of life, and did not want to settle on the farms

again

the tribal and traditional society was broken up

The government also introduced laws to protect white labour - reserving certain jobs for white people

only, and other jobs were kept for black people only. The jobs that white people did were normally better

paid, although there were also some poor whites.

During Apartheid

The situation with regard to labour and land remained more or less the same during the apartheid period.

With regard to labour, the policy of protected labour remained in place, strengthened by the Bantu

Education Policy. The system of migrant labour continued, although more black people started settling in

white areas, leading to the establishment of townships. Many men continued to come to the city without

their wives, which led to the deterioration of the family system and unfaithfulness in marriages. Workers

in the mines had to stay on the mine premises where their wives could not stay. They stayed in rooms

with many other men. Women increasingly came to the towns to get work as domestic workers, leaving

their children behind to be looked after by other family members.

The land laws were made stricter in the apartheid period, although the amount of land allocated to the

black people did increase slightly. Black people were not allowed to live in white areas, and could not own

land in these areas. This meant that those staying in townships could not own their land. The apartheid

government also removed black people from some areas and declared these areas white. The apartheid

government had a policy called the homeland policy. According to this policy, black people would all

become citizens of independent black homelands. The government said that black people should settle in

their own homeland, own land there and have political freedom there. Many black people were born in

these urban areas and had never been to the countryside that was suddenly declared their 'homeland' by

the white government. These homelands were usually not on the most fertile soil or in the best area,

making economic success impossible, especially with the overcrowding and poor facilities. It was planned

that all black people would eventually live in the 'homelands', and some would commute to work in the

white areas. Essentially the 'homelands' were desolate, depressed labour pools for white business to

obtain cheap workers. The apartheid state invented the idea of separate homelands that emphasized

division and difference between the different tribes in South Africa' Sotho, Zulu, Xhosa, Tswana, Pedi, etc.

This was a 'divide and rule' strategy which made up myths about how the government thought black

people were completely separate from each other. The reason for this was that it made apartheid seem

more logical (no mixing between races) and also ensured that the different groups could not all join

together against the government. The truth was somewhat different: e.g. some tribes had been

intermarrying for years and separation caused great sadness and social turmoil (e.g. the Shangaan and



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Venda). Some homelands that were created were Transkei, Ciskei, Bophuthatswana and Lebowa to name

a few.

Electronic source: http://www.sahistory.org.za/topic/land-labour-and-apartheid

The gathering storm

The 1950s were to bring increasingly repressive laws against black South Africans and its obvious

corollary – increasing resistance.

The Group Areas Act, rigidifying the racial division of land, and the Population Registration Act, which

classified all citizens by race, were passed in 1950. The pass laws, restricting black movement, came in

1952.

The Separate Amenities Act of 1953 introduced "petty apartheid" segregation, for example, on buses and

in post offices. In that year Malan retired and JG Strijdom became Prime Minister.

The Defiance Campaign

In reaction to all this came the mass mobilisation of the Defiance Campaign, starting in 1952. Based on

non-violent resistance, it nevertheless led to the jailing of thousands of participants.

The result was to increase unity among resistance groups with the forming of the Congress Alliance, which

included black, coloured, Indian and white resistance organisations as well as the South African Congress

of Trade Unions.

In 1954 a campaign against the deliberately inferior Bantu Education System was launched.

The Freedom Charter

The following year saw two of the most significant events of the decade.

One established how far the government was willing to go to pursue its aims. Unable to gain the two-

thirds majority required by the 1910 constitution to remove coloureds from the common voters' roll, thegovernment changed the composition of the Senate by increasing its size (and consequently Nationalist

majority) to give it the required majority in a joint sitting of the Senate and the House of Assembly.

The second watershed moment came when, after an ANC campaign to gather mass input on freedom

demands, the Freedom Charter – based on the principles of human rights and non-racialism – was signed

on June 26 1955 at the Congress of the People in Soweto.

Reaction was swift: the following year 156 leaders of the ANC and its allies were charged with high

treason. The longest trial in South African history was to lead to the acquittal of all accused in 1961.

Strijdom died in 1958, to be succeeded by HF Verwoerd. The following year representatives of black

Africans were removed from both houses of parliament and the Cape provincial council.

On the other side of the political fence, the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC), founded by Robert Sobukwe,

broke away from the Congress Alliance.

The stage was set for the even more polarised 1960s.

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Three decades of crisis

The 1950s had still offered many opportunities to resolve South Africa's racial injustices peacefully. This,

however, was contrary to official ideology. Instead, apartheid transmuted itself into the policy of "separate

development": the division of the black population into ethnic "nations", each of which was to have its own

"homeland" and eventual "independence".

The Sharpeville Massacre

A turning point came at Sharpeville on March 21 1960 when a PAC-organised passive anti-pass campaign

came to a bloody conclusion with police killing 69 unarmed protesters. A State of Emergency was

declared: detention without trial was introduced and the ANC, PAC and other organisations were declared

illegal. The resistance groups went underground.

South Africa's isolation increased in 1961 when, following a white referendum, South Africa became a

republic and Verwoerd took it out of the Commonwealth. A general strike was called to coincide with the

May 31 institution of the republic.

At the end of that year, Umkhonto we Sizwe (The Spear of the Nation), emerged with acts of sabotage

against government installations. Originally formed by a group of individuals within the ANC, including

Mandela, it was to become that organisation's armed wing.

A new stage of international pressure began when the UN General Assembly called on its members to

institute economic sanctions against South Africa. Mandela, in the meanwhile, had travelled through Africa

making contact with numerous leaders. Going underground on his return, he was arrested in Natal in

August 1962 and received a three-year sentence for incitement.

The Rivonia Trial

In July 1963 a police raid on the Rivonia farm Lilliesleaf led to the arrest of several of Mandela's senior

ANC colleagues, including Walter Sisulu. They were charged with sabotage, Mandela being brought from

prison to stand trial with them. All were sentenced in 1964 to life imprisonment and taken to Robben

Island.

In September 1966 BJ Vorster became Prime Minister after the assassination in parliament of Verwoerd.

Segregation became even more strictly enforced. Reeling under the blow of the "Rivonia Trial", the ANC

nevertheless continued to operate, regrouping at the Morogoro Conference in Tanzania in 1969.

The first half of the next decade was marked by increasing repression, increasing militancy in the

resistance camp, and extensive strikes.

June 16, 1976

The moment of truth came on June 16, 1976, when the youth of Soweto marched against being taught in

the medium of Afrikaans. Police fired on them, precipitating a massive flood of violence that overwhelmedthe country.

Nevertheless, an attempt was made to further the "homeland" policy, with Transkei being the first to

accept nominal independence later that year.

A new movement known as Black Consciousness had become increasingly influential. The death as a

result of police brutality of its charismatic founder, Steve Biko, shocked the world in 1977.

PW Botha, who became Prime Minister in 1978 after Vorster's retirement, tried to co-opt the coloured and

Indian population in the early 1980s with a new constitution establishing a Tricameral Parliament, with





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results of apartheid; and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, set up primarily to investigate the

wrongs of the past.

In the country's second democratic election on 2 June 1999 the ANC marginally increased its majority and

Thabo Mbeki became President. The New Nationalist Party, previously the official opposition, lost ground

and ceded that position to the Democratic Party, which later became the Democratic Alliance.

In 2004 South Africa's third democratic election went off peacefully, with Thabo Mbeki and the ANC again

returning to power, and the Democratic Alliance retaining its position as official opposition.

Then, three years later, Mbeki lost the presidency of the ANC to his former deputy, Jacob Zuma, and

power within the ruling party shifted away from Mbeki.

After nearly 10 years as president, Mbeki resigned in September 2008, with KgalemaMotlanthe appointed

as "caretaker" president by the National Assembly.

In the 2009 elections – democratic South Africa's fourth – the ANC won 65.9% of the vote and Jacob

Zuma was elected as president. The Democratic Alliance strengthened its position as opposition, winning

16.7% of the vote as well as the Western Cape.

Electronic source: http://www.southafrica.info/about/history/521109.htm#ixzz25PgHnPdD

http://www.southafrica.info/about/history/521109.htm#ixzz25PgHnPdD






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The peaceful and orderly queues to vote in South Africa's first democratic elections were celebrated on the front

page of the Star newspaper on 28 April 1994(Image: The Star)

On 9 May 1994, the day before Mandela's inauguration as President of South Africa, Time ran in-depth features

on the 'miracle' of the country's democratic transformation(Image: Time)

The History of Apartheid in South Africa

South Africa is a country blessed with an abundance of natural resources

including fertile farmlands and unique mineral resources. South African mines

are world leaders in the production of diamonds and gold as well as strategicmetals such as platinum. The climate is mild, reportedly resembling the San

Francisco bay area weather more than anywhere in the world.

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.

With the enactment of apartheid laws in 1948, racial discrimination was institutionalized. Race laws

touched every aspect of social life, including a prohibition of marriage between non-whites and whites,

and the sanctioning of ``white-only'' jobs. In 1950, the Population Registration Act required that all South

http://www.star.co.za/

http://www.time.com/

http://cirrus.sawb.gov.za/



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http://www.time.com/

http://www.star.co.za/



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Africans be racially classified into one of three categories: white, black (African), or colored (of mixed

decent). The coloured category included major subgroups of Indians and Asians. Classification into these

categories was based on appearance, social acceptance, and descent. For example, a white person was

defined as ``in appearance obviously a white person or generally accepted as a white person.'' A person

could not be considered white if one of his or her parents were non-white. The determination that a

person was ``obviously white'' would take into account ``his habits, education, and speech and

deportment and demeanor.'' A black person would be of or accepted as a member of an African tribe or

race, and a colored person is one that is not black or white. The Department of Home Affairs (a

government bureau) was responsible for the classification of the citizenry. Non-compliance with the race

laws were dealt with harshly. All blacks were required to carry ``pass books'' containing fingerprints,

photo and information on access to non-black areas.

In 1951, the Bantu Authorities Act established a basis for

ethnic government in African reserves, known as

``homelands.'' These homelands were independent states to

which each African was assigned by the government

according to the record of origin (which was frequently

inaccurate). All political rights, including voting, held by an

African were restricted to the designated homeland. The idea

was that they would be citizens of the homeland, losing their

citizenship in South Africa and any right of involvement with

the South African Parliament which held complete hegemony over the homelands. From 1976 to 1981,

four of these homelands were created, denationalizing nine million South Africans. The homeland

administrations refused the nominal independence, maintaining pressure for political rights within thecountry as a whole. Nevertheless, Africans living in the homelands needed passports to enter South

Africa: aliens in their own country.

In 1953, the Public Safety Act and the Criminal Law Amendment Act were passed, which empowered the

government to declare stringent states of emergency and increased penalties for protesting against or

supporting the repeal of a law. The penalties included fines, imprisonment and whippings. In 1960, a large

group of blacks in Sharpeville refused to carry their passes; the government declared a state of

emergency. The emergency lasted for 156 days, leaving 69 people dead and 187 people wounded.

Wielding the Public Safety Act and the Criminal Law Amendment Act, the white regime had no intention of

changing the unjust laws of apartheid.



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The penalties imposed on political protest, even non-violent protest, were severe. During the states of

emergency which continued intermittently until 1989, anyone could be detained without a hearing by a

low-level police official for up to six months. Thousands of individuals died in custody, frequently after

gruesome acts of torture. Those who were tried were sentenced to death, banished, or imprisoned for life,

like Nelson Mandela.

The apartheid policy was highly effective of achieving its goal of preferential treatment for whites, as is

demonstrated by the statistics in Figure 1.

Electronic source: http://www-cs-students.stanford.edu/~cale/cs201/apartheid.hist.html

http://www-cs-students.stanford.edu/~cale/cs201/apartheid.hist.html




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South Africa History