South Africa 1600’s colonization by the Dutch. Establishing

the East India Co. in 1652.  Dutch farmers settle lands (Boers)  Britain takeover the colony in the early 1800’s.  By the 1900’s diamonds were discovered in

South Africa, as well as, gold.  Prospectors mainly from Britain arrive and

expand settlements pushing out native African tribes (Tswana, Zulu and Swazi)

“Diggers” as the British prospectors were called established shantytowns within these new territories.

 

The Anglo-Boer WarOf 1899 – 1902

Military conflict between British and Boer forces.   Often called “The white man’s war” all of South Africa was

involved in some way or another.  British torched Boer villages placed Boer women and children,

along with black African miners in concentration camps.  This was not a popular war amongst the British. British pro-

Boers had undermined the moral complacency of the victors.  Even though the British were successful in winning the war,

they gave generous peace terms to the Boers, including lands and the ability to govern those lands.

The Union of South Africa 1910 –1960

A white-run state. After the Boer War. The mood within Afrikanerdom after the return of self-government, was one of conciliation: 1st between the Boers and the King (whose

subjects agreed to become subjugated) 2nd between the Boers (republican Afrikaners)

and Cape (British) 3rd between the hensoppers (quitters) and the

Bittereinders (die-hards) in the Boer War.  

Louis Botha

Louis Botha—South African soldier and statesman

In 1884 he help found the New Republic in Vryheid district (KwaZulu-Natal)

  1897 enters the South African legislature

Botha joined the Boer army, becoming commander in chief in 1900

He help end the conflict with Britain in 1902

Elected premier of the Transvaal in 1907

1909 help establish the Union (now Republic) of South Africa

Headed the South African government from 1910-1919.

At the outbreak of WWI, in 1914, Botha committed South Africa to the Allied cause

This move aroused violent opposition   He defeated the ensuing insurrection in

Feb. 1915   Launched the successful takeover of

German South-West Africa (now Namibia)

Daniel Francois Malan

Daniel Francois Malan

Architect of white supremacy

1948 won election: he enacted the doctrines of Apartheid or racial separation

Resigned in 1954

APARTHEID

BANTUSTANS (black homeland or Bantus)   Majority black population of the territories in

South Africa   Policy of racial segregation.   Apartheid means “separateness” in Afrikaans

language.  

Introduced in 1948  Becomes the governing political

policy until the early 1990’s.  Apartheid laws classified people

into 3 major racial groupsWhiteBantuColored—mixed descent

Later a 4th class: Asians, Indians and Pakistanis.

  The laws determined where members of each

group could live, what jobs they could hold, and what type of education they could receive.

  Laws prohibited most social contact between

races, authorized segregated public facilities, and denied and representation of nonwhites in the national government.

  People who openly opposed apartheid

were considered communists.

VORSTER

Balthazar Johannes Vorster (1915-83)

  Prime minister (1966-78) and president

(1978-79) of South Africa   Son of an Afrikaner sheep farmer, was

trained as a lawyer   Founder of an anti-British extremist group

opposed to participation in WWII (interned 1942-1944)

 

Made minister of justice in1961  Sharpeville Shooting (1960) Black

dissidents are killed.

Vorster in charge and imposed drastic detention and security measures on black dissidents

  He further tightened security and

continued the apartheid policy, but did open dialogue with black African states

1978 as a result of a government scandal and cover-up he retired a year later.

BOTHA

P(ieter) W(illiem) Botha Born Paul Roux.

1966 succeeded Vorster as National Party leader and prime minister in 1978

  1970’s and 1980’s was deeply involved in

South Africa’s attempt to hold on to Namibia in defiance of the United Nations and a guerrilla insurgency.

 

1983 he pushed through a reform bill that extended representation in Parliament to “Coloureds” and Indians but not blacks.

  Became President in 1984 1989 suffered a stroke and was forced to

resign as President

De Klerk

F(rederik) W(illiam) De Klerk President from (1989-1994)   His reforms lead to the end of Apartheid   1990 ended the ban on the African

National Congress (ANC). A largely black South African nationalist group

 

Ordered the release of ANC leader Nelson Mandela-who has been in prison since 1962

  Repealed the last of the laws that formed

the legal basis of apartheid in 1992  1993 Jointly awarded the Nobel Peace

Prize with Nelson Mandela  1997 stepped down as leader of the

National Party and retired from politics  Nelson Mandela succeeded him as

president

African National Congress (ANC) Founded in 1912 as a nonviolent

organization that worked to promote the interest of black Africans

  Most members were of middle-class

backgrounds   Stressed constitutional change through

the use of delegations, petitions, and peaceful protest

MANDELA FREEMAN

1940 Alfred B. Xuma became ANC president and began to recruit younger, more outspoken men---Nelson Mandela

  By the mid-1940 he becomes one of the

ANC leaders   1948 Apartheid is instated: ANC actively

opposes and by 1955 issues its Freedom Charter which states that

“South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white”

  South Africans who believed that it

belonged only to black Africans form a rival party, the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC) in 1959

The PAC organize a mass demonstration that led to the massacre of black protesters in Sharpsville in March of 1960 (69 blacks were killed)

  The governments response is to ban all

black political organizations (ANC) (PAC)

After Sharpsville the ANC abandons its nonviolent ways. Mandela is in charge of the ANC’s military wing

  1962 Mandela is sentence to live in

prison

Next 30 years the ANC operate underground

  1976 a revolt in Soweto, just outside

Johannesburg, led to a reawakening of black African politics and renewed assault on apartheid

  1990 the ban was lifted on the ANC

1990 Mandela is released from prison (27 years)

  1993 ANC and the government agree to a

plan that would form a transitional government to rule for five years

  April 27-30,1994, millions of South

Africans of all races participated in the country’s first democratic elections

 

May 2, 1994 Nelson Mandela becomes president of South Africa

  He establishes a multiracial government   1997 Mandela steps down—due to age   1999 Thabo Mbeki becomes 2nd black

President and ANC member.  

Desmond Tutu

Anglican Archbishop

Opposed Apartheid

Called for a worldwide boycott of South Africa

All nations followed

Reagan broke— Congress overrode Reagan

Won Nobel Peace Prize in 1984

Winnie Mandela

Winnie Mandela Wife of Nelson who advocated militant

resistant to apartheid

1958 married Nelson Mandela  Imprisoned for her work in the ANC from

1969-1970

In 1988 was implicated, when members of the Mandela United Football Club (who served as her bodyguards) beat four young black men, one of whom died in the Mandela home

1991 was convicted of kidnapping and assault in relation to the incident and sentenced to six years in prison

1992 new evidence surfaced, regarding these charges, as well as others, she resigned her position as head of the ANC’s National Executive Committee.

1993 successfully appealed the charges, but her kidnapping charges remained—court waived her prison term and ordered her to pay a fine

 

Despite all of this she was elected to the president of the ANC’s Women’s League

  1992 separated from her husband   1994 was appointed by her husband, as

deputy minister of arts, culture, science, and technology

1995 resigned her post due to ongoing conflicts with the administrations

  1996 was divorced from Nelson.  

BIKO

Bantu Stephen Biko Medical School in 1966—this is where he

decides to be proactive in the liberation of black people

  1968 organizes the South African

Students’ Organization (SASO)   Also founded or help found:  

National Association of Youth Organizations (NAYO)

Black Worker’s Project (BWP)

Left Medical School in1972-was expelled  

1973 was restricted to King Williams Town.  

1975 set-up the Zimele Trust Fund – assist political prisoners and their families

  August 18, 1977 was arrested in a police road

block and detained under the Terrorism Act

He died in detention. Government claims it was a hunger strike that killed him.

at the inquests of a number of detainees who died under suspicious circumstances magistrates declined to examine the interrogation methods used and attributed death to natural causes, suicides or prison accidents. At the inquest into Biko's death no government official was prepared to condemn the treatment meted out to Biko. The circumstances of his death were said to be inconclusive and death was attributed to a prison accident. Yet, evidence led during the 15-day inquest into Biko's death revealed otherwise. During his detention in a Port Elizabeth police cell

He had been chained to a grill at night and left to lie in urine-soaked blankets. He had been stripped naked and kept in leg-irons for 48 hours in his cell. A blow in a scuffle with security police led to him suffering brain damage by the time he was driven naked and manacled in the back of a police van to Pretoria, where, on 12 September 1977, he died. BECOMES A MARTYR