South Africa: From Union To The End Of Apartheid, 1948-94
Overview
Apartheid was not simply prejudice. It was a system of law, written down, debated in parliament and enforced by courts, police and bureaucrats, which classified every person in South Africa by race and then used that classification to decide where they could live, work, travel, learn, be treated in hospital and be buried. It governed a country in which the group holding all political power was a minority of the population.
This note follows the system from the National Party's election victory in 1948 through its expansion under Verwoerd, the campaigns that resisted it, the killings at Sharpeville and Soweto, the township revolt and international isolation of the 1980s, and the negotiated end that produced the election of April 1994. The resistance was led by South Africans making difficult strategic choices, and their reasoning is part of the history.
Objectives
- Setting up apartheid, 1948-54: nature of segregation in 1948, the election of 1948, origins and nature of apartheid including Population Registration Act, Group Areas Act, Pass System, Separate Amenities Act, Bantu Education Act, opposition and resistance
- The growth of apartheid, 1955-59: petty apartheid and segregation, development under Verwoerd and Vorster, the Bantu Self-Government Act (1959)
- Resisting apartheid, 1955-78: Nelson Mandela, ANC, Biko and Black Consciousness, anti-pass law demonstrations, Sharpeville, Spear of the Nation, Soweto, the Treason Trials, international reaction
- PW Botha - response to resistance, 1978-90: the United Democratic Front, Township Unrest, reasons for reforms and their consequences, Afrikaner resistance and the AWB, the State of Emergency, international opposition, boycotts and sanctions
- Dismantling Apartheid, 1990-94: reforms of FW de Klerk, the repeal of apartheid, the roles of de Klerk and Mandela, the multiracial Election of 1994
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Lesson Evaluation
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- Which 1950 law required every South African to be classified and registered by race? A) Group Areas Act B) Population Registration Act C) Bantu Education Act D) Suppression of Communism Act Answer: B
- How many people were killed by police at Sharpeville on 21 March 1960? A) 19 B) 69 C) 176 D) 600 Answer: B
- What was the immediate trigger of the Soweto Uprising in June 1976? A) The banning of the ANC B) A requirement that half of secondary school subjects be taught in Afrikaans C) The death of Steve Biko D) The tricameral constitution Answer: B
- The United Democratic Front, formed in 1983, was created mainly in response to: A) The Rivonia Trial B) The tricameral constitution C) The Freedom Charter D) The 1994 election Answer: B
- Roughly what share of South Africa's land was allocated to the homelands? A) 13 per cent B) 30 per cent C) 50 per cent D) 70 per cent Answer: A
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