South Africa

A case study in Africa, the people who live there

Located at the Southern tip of Africa, the area that would become known as the country of South Africa originally attracted European settlers as a refueling station because of it’s strategic location along the trade routes between Europe and Asia.

The arrival of the Dutch

The first colonists in South Africa were from Holland. Very similar to the Pilgrims who settled in America the Boers (or Afrikanners) as they called themselves came to South Africa to begin a new life of religious freedom. When they arrived at “the Cape” the Boers found the native

Khoisan living and farming in the area.

The leader of the Dutch was a man named Jan Van Riebeeck. In 1660, in a gesture that takes on awful symbolism, van Riebeeck planted a bitter-almond hedge to separate the Khoisan and the Europeans. It ran around the western foot of Table Mountain down to Table Bay The hedge may have protected the 120 Europeans but, having excluded the Khoisan, the settlement suffered a chronic labor shortage. In another wonderfully perverse move, van Riebeeck proceeded to import slaves from Madagascar, India, Ceylon, Malaya and Indonesia.

The population of South Africa continued to grow in the Cape and new immigrants pushed out beyond the almond hedge. Conflicts between the new arrivals and the Khoisan led to violence and the Dutch through their superior weapons proceeded to annihilate the Khoisan. The survivors became slaves and dependent on the Dutch.

The Arrival of the British

Dutch power was fading by the end of the 18th century and in response to the Napoleonic Wars, the British decided to secure the Cape. The British defeated the Dutch and the colony was permanently ceded to the England in 1814.

Cape Town’s economy benefited from the British takeover, as the British allowed free trade. The slave trade was abolished and the remaining Khoisan were finally given the protection of the law in 1828.

The Great TrekUnhappy with British rule the colonies Dutch inhabitants moved out north.

As the Dutch moved the encountered more problems with their new African neighbors the Xhosa and the Zulu.

The Boers were primarily upset with equality being grated to South Africa’s black population by the English.

Colonial WarsThe British and the Dutch and the native Africans fought many battles for control of the interior of South Africa between the time of the Great Trek and the outbreak of World War I. However it was the discovery of Diamonds and Gold that caused the most conflict. Eventually the superiority of the British military settled the issue and the whole of South Africa became a British colony. The Boers and the British grew wealthy as mining replaced raising cattle as the colony’s dominant industry.

The Union of South Africa

Soon after the Union of South Africa was established in 1910, a barrage of racist legislation was passed restricting black's rights. After a last flutter with military rebellion during WWI, the Afrikaners got on with the business of controlling South Africa politically. In 1948 elections the Afrikaner-dominated and ultra-right National Party took the reins and didn't let the white charger slow down until 1994. Under apartheid, every individual was classified by race, and race determined where you could live, work, pray and learn. Irrespective of where they had been born, blacks were divided into one of 10 tribal groups, forcibly dispossessed and dumped in rural backwaters, the so-called Homelands. The plan was to restrict blacks to Homelands that were, according to the propaganda, to become self-sufficient, self-governing states. In reality, these lands had virtually no infrastructure, no industry and were therefore incapable of producing sufficient food for the black population. There was intense, widespread suffering and many families returned to squalid squatter camps in the cities from which they had been evicted.

Apartheid

The legal separation of the races in South Africa.

Racial Composition of South Africa

1988

                                                                                 

Income Distribution by Race1988

                                                                                 

Racial Inequality of Apartheid

Racial composition of population versus distribution of income among races. 1970s, 1980s, 1990s

                                                                                 

Typical shanty settlement where Africans lived

                                                                                 

White home outside of Kimberly

Typical shanty settlement where

African lived

Typical White home in South Africa outside the city of

Kimberly

• South African Act 1909 - Established the South African Union, consolidated the power in all-white parliament.

• Mines & Works Act 1911 & 1926 - Imposed a color ban on certain jobs, white people should have higher salaries than blacks at all times.

• Natives Land Acts 1913 & 1936 - Limited black people use of land to 13%.

• Natives (Urban Areas) Act 1923 - Established segregation in the cities, forced blacks to carry special papers at all times to be allowed to stay in the cities.

• Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act 1949 - Banned marriages between the races.

• Population Registration Act 1950 - Forced all South Africans to register as Black, White, Asian or Colored.

• Immortality Act 1950 - Banned sexual relations between people from different races.

• Bantu Education Act 1953 - Enforced racial segregation of schools.

A sample of some Apartheid laws

Key figures in the end of Apartheid and the rise of a new South Africa

F.W. De Klerk Bishop Desmond Tutu

Nelson Mandela