Apartheid In Africa
Apartheid was a long shadow in the history of
South Africa.
Nelson Mandela is one of the
great moral and political leaders of our time: an
international hero whose
lifelong dedication to the fight against racial
oppression in South Africa
won him the Nobel Peace Prize and the presidency of
his country. Since his
triumphant release in 1990 from more than a
quarter-century of imprisonment,
Mandela has been at the center of the most
compelling and inspiring political
drama in the world. As president of the
African National Congress and
head of South Africa's anti-apartheid movement, he
was instrumental in moving
the nation toward multiracial government and majority
rule. He is revered
everywhere as a vital force in the fight for human rights
and racial
equality. The election of Nelson Mandela in 1994 marked the first
time all
race elections were held in South Africa and the end of all white rule
in
South Africa. Prior to 1994, only white people held political control
with
the majority of people living in South Africa having little to no
real
representation in government. One word described the racist system that
kept
non-whites from political and social equality and became infamously
known around
the world: Apartheid. Apartheid was not a case of just "I am
white and I don't
like blacks." It was a complex system of social separation
- called
segregation under British rule. It was a system of cheap labor
enforced by laws,
social, and industrial practices. There was also an
ideology that justified it;
whatever one did to question it, there was the
pre-existing attitude "we are
civilized and they are not." In 1910 the
British parliament passed the Act of
Union that brought British and
Afrikaans colonies together to create a united
and independent South Africa.
Unfortunately, the newly created country did not
break from a tradition of
discrimination and segregation. Instead these
practices became even further
entrenched as bills were passed to ensure white
domination. However, it
wasn't until 1948 and the election of Dr. D.F. Malan's
Nationalist Party
that the concepts of apartheid became officially government
policy (Moodie,
1994, p12). Malan was victorious in the election, beating the
United
Party and its leader Jan Smuts by portraying Smuts and his party as
too
liberal and not capable of dealing with the swart gevar (Afrikaans
for
"black peril"). In a country controlled by a white minority,
fear
tactics worked for the Nationalists, and they managed a slender
parliamentary
majority. From 1948 on, official apartheid principles were put
into practical
effect, and Malan's government passed bills designed to
maintain political,
economic, and social control by whites over non-whites
(Robinson, 1968, p.87).
Under apartheid, people were classified into one
of four categories: White,
Colored, Indian, and Black. As a non-white,
one was required to carry a passbook
that detailed one’s racial grouping,
employer, place of dwelling, and
permission to be (on a temporary basis only)
in a white area. In 1954 the
Resettlement of Natives Act meant that
entire towns and villages in which
"non-whites" lived were suddenly
designated to be
"white-only" areas. The entire population would then be
forced to
resettle into "tribal reserves." As well, Blacks not needed for
labor
in white communities (referred to as "superfluous Bantu" by
the
nationalist government) were sent to live in these homelands. During the
1960's,
nearly three million Africans were moved onto the Bantustans (Porter,
1991,
p.32). Blacks would be removed from their homes, trucked to their new
homeland,
and dumped on land with little or no agricultural value and no
infrastructure.
The result was mass starvation and major epidemics. In an
effort to give
credibility to the reserves, the 1953 Nationalist government
passed the Bantu
Authorities Act allowing Bantustans to become
"independent" homelands.
In reality, however, Bantustans proved to be
nothing more than holding areas for
cheap labor for the white economy (Report
of the Select Committee on the
Immorality Amendment Bill, 1968, p. 9).
Meanwhile charges of racism were coming
from both inside South Africa and
around the world. Oliver Tambo, a leading
political activist against
apartheid and president of the African National
Congress (ANC), outlines
what it meant to be a non-white living in apartheid
South Africa in his
paper Human Right in South Africa: During the last two
decades human values
in our country sank to primitive levels as elementary human
rights were
trampled underfoot on a scale unparalleled in recent history. This
occurred
in open and direct defiance of the United Nations and the
entire
international community. It is as well to remember that the men in
power in
South Africa today wholeheartedly supported Nazism and have
never repented of
it. The African and other non-white people in Africa do not
enjoy the right to
take part in government nor can they vote for
representatives who govern. The
Constitution of the Republic of South
Africa (passed in 1961) specifically
excludes non-whites from any
participation in the councils of the State. They do
not have the right to
assemble with others and join - or refrain from joining -
any legitimate
organization or group. They cannot enjoy a full cultural life in
accordance
with their artistic, literary and scientific inclinations. On the
contrary,
the majority of the people are excluded from places of culture
or
entertainment, from libraries, from scientific institutions. Our people do
not
have the right to travel without hindrance within the country or leave
the
country. The notorious pass laws and the Departure from the Republic
Regulation
Act prevent this. Africans do not have the right to a job and
in fact are
legally prevented from doing a large variety of jobs which are
reserved for
whites. They have no rights of collective bargaining, and cannot
form or join a
labor union, even one recognized by the State. Africans cannot
agitate and
cannot go on strike in order to better their working conditions
and pay (Tambo,
1968, p.29). In reaction to being excluded from political
power by the 1910 Act
of Union, due to the color of their skin, a group of
chiefs, Christian
ministers, and intellectuals came together to form the
South African Native
National Congress. In 1923 this organization changed
its name to become the
African National Congress (ANC). The ANC believed
that Africans should work
together as a united force to bring about political
change and racial equality
(Mandela, 1995, pp. 12-15). Initially, the ANC
stuck to a strict policy of
pacifist resistance. However, frustration with a
lack of results led the ANC's
militant "Youth League," formed in 1944 under
the leadership of Nelson
Mandela, Oliver Tambo, and Walter Sisulu, to
advocate becoming more aggressive
in the struggle. At an ANC conference in
1949, Mandela and his colleagues passed
the Program of Resistance that was to
change the nature of the ANC. The Program
of Resistance called for boycotts,
strikes, and civil disobedience to bring an
end to racial discrimination
(Thompson, 1996, p. 65). The fundamental principles
of the Program of Action
of the African National Congress were inspired by the
desire to achieve
national freedom. By national freedom, they meant freedom from
white
domination and the attainment of political independence. That implied
the
rejection of the conception of segregation, apartheid, trusteeship, or
white
leadership, which were all, in one way or another, motivated by the
idea of
white domination or domination of the whites over the Blacks
(Thompson, 1996,
pp. 13-21). In 1955, opponents of apartheid, including "The
South African
Indian Congress," "The Colored People's organization," the
white's
"Congress of Democrats," and the ANC, met at the "Congress of
the
People" where they drafted the Freedom Charter. The Freedom Charter
became the
declaration for all of these organizations fighting for democracy
and human
rights. It declared that "We, the People of South Africa, declare
for all our
country and the world to know: that South Africa belongs to all
who live in it,
black and white, and that no government can justly claim
authority unless it is
based on the will of all the people" (Porter, 1991,
p.31). In 1949 the
National Party led government set up the "Eislen
Commission," a
specially appointed commission given the task of restructuring
the education
system according to the apartheid philosophy. The commission
recommended that
different races should receive different forms of education.
For example, Black
children were to be taught in such a way that the Bantu
child will be able to
find his way in European communities, to follow oral or
written instructions,
and to carry on a simple conversation with Europeans
about his work and other
subjects of common interest. These recommendations
became law in the 1955 Bantu
Education Act. In short, Blacks were to be
trained to do manual labor and to
follow the instructions of whites (Porter,
1991, pp.25-45). In response to the
Bantu Education Act, the ANC held a
boycott of government schools, and set up
their own schools. Nelson Mandela
spoke out against the introduction of Bantu
Education, calling for
community activists to "make every home, every shack
or rickety structure a
center of learning" (Mandela, 1995, p. 45). However
government, forces
cracked down on these private schools, declaring unlicensed
schools illegal
and forcing the students to return to the public schools.
Education
became a major rallying point for the fight against apartheid as
the
Nationalist government's racist policies radicalized the youth. Black
youth
became reluctant to participate in an educational system designed to
create a
menial labor force for the white economy (Elder, 1993, pp.12-26). In
1959, a
militant group of "Africanists" split from the ANC and formed the
Pan
African Congress (PAC), led by Robert Sobukwe. For the first time,
the ANC was
challenged as the leading voice against apartheid. On March 21,
1960, Robert
Sobukwe initiated widespread anti-pass law demonstrations.
People gathered in
thousands at the police station where passes were to be
destroyed. As the
morning wore on, the crowd, which journalists found
"perfectly
amiable," appeared to the police increasingly menacing (Thompson,
1996, pp.
74-82). In the early afternoon, seventy-five policemen fired
some 700 shots into
the crowd, killing 69 Africans and wounding 180. Among
them were women and
children. Most of the dead had been shot in the back.
That evening, a thousand
miles away, outside Cape Town, the protest drew
10,000 people: again the panic,
again the shooting. Two Africans were killed,
and 49 injured. Outrage swept the
country, precipitating riots, strikes, and
mass demonstrations. The government
declared a state of emergency. Both the
African National Congress and the Pan
African Congress were outlawed.
Some 20,000 people were detained. Most were
African men, both leaders and
so-called "vagrants." Men and women of
all races were rounded up, not just
members of the Congress Alliance, but
members of the Liberal Party (Jackson,
1987, pp. 27-45). It seemed that the
liberation movement must surely be
crushed, but detainees were able to conspire
while in jail. One group of
whites, including members of the multi-racial
Liberal Party, agreed that
after Sharpeville non-violent protest was futile.
Upon release, a group
of African men began to recruit like-minded men and women,
among them former
leaders of the National Union of South African Students and
journalists. They
formed a sabotage group, recruited black members, and called
themselves the
National Committee of Liberation (later changed to African
Resistance
Movement). Their first action in December 1960 went unnoticed, and it
was not
until October 1961 that their sabotage was reported. During the
following two
years, such actions continued sporadically (Jackson, 1987, pp.
45-69).
Among black detainees, it was decided to make one last attempt at
non-violent
protest. After their release, they called an "All African
Conference" in
March of 1961. Nelson Mandela, momentarily free of bans, was
elected to lead
a National Action Council, and to renew the demand for a
National
Convention in order to establish a new union of all South Africans.
In
support of the demand, a nationwide stay-at-home strike was to take place
over
two days in May. Organizing from the underground, Mandela was assisted
in his
clandestine existence by comrades of all races. In the days leading up
to the
strike, the government called out police and army. A massive display
of force
was directed at the African townships. On the second day, Mandela
was obliged to
call off the strike. Nevertheless, hundreds of thousands of
Africans had
responded to his call, and in Durban they had been joined by
Indian workers. In
Cape Town, for the first time, there was a substantial
response from the Colored
people. Mandela spoke of the immense courage this
took, and he declared,
"If the Government reaction is to crush by naked force
our non-violent
struggle, we will have to reconsider our tactics" (Mandela,
1995, pp.
76-92) Early in June 1961, Mandela took part in secret
deliberations with a
small group from the outlawed African National Congress.
The crucial decision
was made: after half a century of non-violence, the
policy of the African
National Congress must change. The main
organization would continue its
underground organizing and would remain
non-violent, but a select few of the
African National Congress would
unite to undertake controlled violence. Umkhonto
we Sizwe (Spear of the
Nation) was formed. Sabotage was to be their first form
of action because, as
Mandela was to explain, "It did not involve loss of
life, and it offered the
most hope for future race relations." (Mandela,
1995, pp. 78-79).
Umkhonto`s first acts of sabotage took place on December 16,
1961. A few
days earlier, Chief Albert Lutuli had received the Nobel Peace Prize
in Oslo.
It was as though this event set the seal on a long and extraordinary
history
for, as he said in his address, the honor must be accepted in the name
of the
"true patriots of South Africa," all those in the African
National
Congress who had "set the organization steadfastly against
racial
vain-gloriousness" (Tambo, 1968, pp. 56-60). The shootings at
Sharpeville
had sent waves of outrage around the world. It was as if the
international
community had suddenly realized the full horror of apartheid
and had seen how
police violence had escalated through the long years of
oppression. The award of
the prize to Lutuli was a measure of the world’s
sympathy, admiration, and
perhaps its guilt (Robinson, 1990, pp. 135-162). In
the 1980s, people took the
liberation struggle to new heights. In the
workplace, in the community, and in
the schools, the people aimed to take
control of their situation. All areas of
life became areas of political
struggle. These strugglers were linked to the
demand for political power.
Botha, the president back then, was powerless and
was forced to resign. The
senate then appointed F.W. De Klerk (Robinson, 1990,
p. 8). To end apartheid
was a decision by President F.W. De Klerk, who then
released the imprisoned
ANC leader Nelson Mandela unconditionally in February
1990, after he had
served 27 years in jail. At this point, the ANC's consistent
adherence to the
principle of non-racial democracy paid enormous dividends. It
created a
ground base of trust that enabled all political parties, black and
white, to
meet and to hammer out a transitional constitution (Mandela, 1995,
pp.
140-152). The end of Apratheid led to a Government of National Unity
far wider
and more explicit than the attempts to heal political breaches made
by previous
South African presidents South Africa then reached a turning
point in its
history after the first democratic elections in 1994 and the
rise to political
power of Nelson Mandela. Still, one cannot begin to
understand the history of
South Africa without considering the effects of
four and a half decades of
Apartheid. Most black people working today are
engaged in dealing with the
legacy of the past as retold to them weekly in
the South African press reportage
on the Truth and Reconciliation Committee.
For many, the new era in South Africa
has brought little appreciable change
in the standard of living partially
because foreign industries that divested
their interests there during the 1980s
have been slow to return despite the
dramatic political changes that have taken
place (Elder, 1993, pp.152-163).
The time of post-revolutionary euphoria is
coming to a close in South Africa.
Continued poverty, inadequate housing, an
overburdened education system, and
many other leftovers from the Apartheid era
still hamper the forging of a new
nation and the remaking of ideas about
society. South African history has
shown how effectively a distorted, but
legalized distribution of power can
bring about a warped social system when
backed by strong-willed security
forces, how the moral authority of a determined
opposition, even outside the
legalized structures, can challenge that power if
it can operate from a
secure base and receive support from outside. Let’s
therefore unite our
forces, fight, and challenge each one of us for a better
future of South
African children and let apartheid be no more.
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