South Africa: The Rise and Fall of Apartheid
... the remainder of this assignment. The roots of apartheid trace back to the early years of the 20th century. Since the secession of their nation from British rule in 1910, Blacks were not allowed membership in the parliament, leaving them unrepresented in the national government. In 1913, the Natives Land Act limited blacks to buying land that was outside of designated “reserves”. The amount of land available to blacks as a result of this was only 7% of the actual land in South Africa. In response to the unjust government policies, the African National Congress (ANC) was formed. This group opposed and continually fought the segregation of South Africa. In 1914 a political party was formed called the National Party. This group was made up of Afrikaners who were fervent advocates of the Afrikaans culture and language. This group fought to get Afrikaans recognized as a major culture by the primarily still British government. The National Party would eventually take control of the South African government in 1948, as Prime Minister Daniel F. Malan came to power. The apartheid at this point became an official policy in South Africa. “It was, of course, the Nationalists who were responsible for the institutionalizing apartheid. The result was… [South Africa] embarking through apartheid on entrenching white supremacy even more systematically and fully than it had been in the pre-1948 segregation era. (Davis 10)” Once they gained their power, the National Party did everything they could to make sure that the political inferiority and economic manipulation of non-Whites was maximized and legal as well. Everything was done to ensure that all social privileges belonged to the whites. Anybody who opposed them faced the brutality of an unrestricted police force and military. Anyone who fought for social, economic, or political change were labeled as Communists and because of anti-Communism laws were arrested and imprisoned. This social unrest created with the implementation of the apartheid was only a glimpse as to what would occur over the next four decades. The years following the creation of the apartheid were a time of great conflict and struggle. As oppression of blacks became more and more intolerable, the ANC began its “Defiance Campaign” in 1952. The same year, Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo opened the first black law practice. Mandela and Tambo were also very active members of the ANC and led the organization in a plan to create small units of proletariat semi-militant groups. His involvement with the ANC led Mandela to be charged with treason in 1956 however he was acquitted after a five-year trial. In 1959 a new organization formed out of unhappy members of the ANC, called the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC). The PAC looked to take an even more militant direction against discrimination that focused primarily on right of blacks only, instead of all non-Whites. In 1960, the two groups came together to protest “pass laws”, laws that required blacks to carry identification and controlled there movement throughout the country. The demonstration was held in Sharpeville on March 21st in front of the Sharpeville police station. A call was sent out for “African males in every city and village... to leave their passes at home, join demonstrations and, if arrested, [to] offer no bail, no defense, [and] no fine. (Mazrui 259)” A crowd gathered and began to burn their identification papers. The police then opened fire on the crowd, killing 69 demonstrators and wounding over 180. “Somewhere between 50 and 75 of the police opened fire. The crowd initially confused, and perhaps thinking the police were using blanks, stood still. It was not until the bodies started to fall that they ran. The police continued to shoot the protesters even as they fled from the site. Of the 180 injured, only 30 had been shot from the front. The injured included 31 women and 19 children, while among the 69 killed, eight were women and ten children. (http://africanhistory.about.com/library/weekly/aa-SharpevilleMassacre-b.htm)” As a result, demonstrations, protests, and riots ensued almost immediately around the country. The South African government in fear of rebellion, called a state of emergency on March 30th detaining over 18,000 people. In addition, they banned all black political organizations. In response, the PAC and ANC became even more militant. Mandela formed a wing of the ANC, called the “Spear of the Nation.” “The principle of armed struggle through guerilla warfare to overthrow the South African regime superseded the goal of gaining political rights for all citizens. ANC sabotage and attacks between 1960 and 1962 led to the arrest of many party leaders. (Byrnes 277)” In 1962, Mandela was arrested and later found guilty in 1964 for sabotage, treason, and violent conspiracy. He was sentenced to life in prison. Following the imprisonment of Nelson Mandela, the South African government continued its racist regime. During the 1960’s ethnics blacks were being moved into Bantustans, destitute areas of the country in which blacks were forced to live according to their ethnic group. At this point, whites owned over 80 percent of the land but made up only a small majority of the population. Throughout the next decade, the South African government was determined not to let leaders like Mandela rise up and have the impact that was seen in the previous years: “…new black leaders were silenced as soon as the emerged; the most famous of them, Steve Biko, died in detention in 1977. (Mallaby 115)” Steve Biko was a student who had started the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) and was also a leader of the South African Student Organization (SASO). The BCM was a movement by students that aimed to unite all the victim of white racism, including Coloureds and Asians. As more and more BCM groups came to rise, the government began to realize that they were a threat to the apartheid. In 1976, school children began to protest the decision that all education be done in the Afrikaans language. In the town of Soweto, riots that’s occurred by school children gave the government reason enough to kill nearly 600 people over the course of a year. The government then placed a ban on BCM groups and arrested many of the BCM leaders including Steve Biko. Biko was detained by the police and beaten and tortured until he slipped into a coma and died while imprisoned in August 1977. At this point in time, the world had begun to take notice to the events unfolding in this troubled nation. In ...