Apartheid Notes

1. Apartheid Notes

2. Ethnic Groups in South Africa • Whites/Afrikaners (British and Dutch) • 17% of population • Blacks (various African descent) • 70% of population • Asian (mainly from India) • Mixed race groups

3. What is Apartheid? • Means “apartness” • Policy of all-white South African government • Separate, exploit and dominate various nonwhite ethnic groups

4. Nationalist Party • Pro-apartheid • Won 1984 election • Made apartheid official policy

5. Apartheid Separation in South Africa • White Society • Wealth, luxury, highest standard of living, attempted to recreate European society in S. African cities and towns • Black Society • Poverty, daily struggle to feed family, denied facilities and opportunities (education, housing, and high-paying jobs)

6. Rights & Roles of Racial Categories • Whites • Controlled government, industry, agriculture, education, the military and the press • Only 17% of population but owned 87% of land

7. Rights & Roles of Racial Categories • Asians and Mixed Race Groups • 13% of population • Generally treated better than blacks but worse than whites • Held skilled jobs and completed secondary education • Eventually got right to vote for representatives in their own assemblies • But could not live in white areas or use white facilities

8. Rights & Roles of Racial Categories • Blacks • Could not vote, received little education • Held menial jobs in mining, agriculture, industry or domestic service • Could not move around the country without “pass books” • Identification documents given by government declaring where each specific nonwhite could live

9. Discrimination & Segregation • Apartheid made marriage between races illegal until 1980s • Blacks forced to live on reserves called homelands • Poor land limited farming • Government built few facilities, such as factories, modern roads, schools and hospitals

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11. Impact on Black Families • Most men left homelands to work in white areas • Forced to live apart from families for as long as 11 months of the year • Women who worked outside reserves worked as domestic servants in white homes

12. Townships • Some black men illegally squatted in poor towns outside of white cities instead of living in reserves • These towns became centers for resistance movements • African National Congress, Pan-African Congress, Black Consciousness movement • Recruited blacks who were frustrated by racism of apartheid

13. Protests • Apartheid government often reacted violently to protests • Black South Africans resisted apartheid in mass numbers and through many ways • Civil disobedience, strikes, boycotts and nonviolent demonstrations