Resistance and Protests

1. Resistance and Protests Apartheid is Challenged

2. On your Left Side: • If you were a black non-citizen in South Africa, how would you resist and protest against apartheid? Explain. • Or would you not resist and just accept and endure? Explain.

3. African National Congress

4. Protesting Apartheid Change of Philosophy • Early 1900s, African National Congress formed in South Africa • ANC petitioned government, held peaceful protests against apartheid • 1940s, younger, radical members joined, including Nelson Mandela • 1952, Mandela organized campaign urging blacks in South Africa to break apartheid laws • 1960, changed from peaceful philosophy after police killed demonstrators in Sharpeville Political Challenges • 1950s–1960s, many former European colonies ruled by dictators • Some nations fell into civil war • 1990s brought renewed hope with the return of democracy; end of the apartheid system in South Africa The Sharpeville Massacre was a turning point in anti-apartheid movement. http://www.watchknowlearn.org/Video.aspx?VideoID=32205&CategoryID=835 8

5. Early resistance: 1912-1948 • 1912 African National Congress founded (original name: South African Native National Congress) • Legal protests led by African elites Delegation from the South African Native National Congress that went to England in 1914 to convey the objections of the African people to the 1913 Land Act

6. The ANC • They advocated open resistance in the form of strikes, acts of public disobedience, and protest marches • They adopted a Freedom charter, which had a vision of non-racial democratic state

7. Role of Nelson Mandela

8. Nelson Mandelactivism • Joined African National Congress in 1944 • Formed Youth League with Oliver Tambo • Secretary of ANCYL in 1947 • National Party won election of 1948 • New ANC president approved by ANCYL • President of ANCYL in 1951 • Banned from ANC in 1952 • Prohibited from attending meetings or holding an office • Confined to Johannesburg area • ANC operated underground

9. The Treason Trial • 156 nationalists arrested December 5th, 1956 • Included Mandela and Albert Luthuli, President of ANC • Leaders of Congress Alliance • Combination of five major anti-apartheid organizations • Charged with high treason • Punishable by death • Acquitted in March of 1961

10. Human Rights – Nelson Mandela • Protest was outlawed. Anyone caught organising a demonstration, reading banned newspapers or speaking against the Apartheid system was in danger of being detained without trial, tortured, imprisoned, even sometimes murdered. • However, Mandela’s group, the African National Congress committed itself to using non-violent means to protest against this system • That is, until the Sharpeville Massacre in 1960.

11. The Pan Africanist Congress • Formed by more radical members of ANC • Rivalry between ANC and PAC • 69 demonstrators killed at Sharpeville on March 21, 1960 • Both groups formed military wings in 1961 • Umkhonto we Sizwe (“Spear of the Nation”) • Mandela appointed first commander of MK • PAC’s Poqo and MK prepare sabotage

12. Travel and Arrest • Mandela left country in secret in 1962 • Attended Conference of Pan-African Freedom Movement of East and Central Africa • Conference of African nationalist leaders in Addis Ababa • Provided with Ethiopian passport by Haile Selassie • Traveled to Algeria for military training • Guerilla warfare • Next to London to visit Tambo • Arrested upon return

13. The Rivonia Trial • Charged for leaving country • Sentenced to five years in prison • MK HQ at Lilieslief raided on July 11th, 1963 • Arrested leaders charged with 221 counts of sabotage • Mandela delivered four hour statement • “I am Prepared to Die” • Sentenced to life imprisonment plus five years

14. On your Left Side: What does Mandela mean by this speech? “ During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”

15. MK: Resistance Becomes Violent

16. Opposition to Apartheid • African National Congress • Founded in 1921 to fight for equal rights; the ANC’s most vocal leader Nelson Mandela • 1950s ANC launched program of nonviolent protest; annoyed government arrested and imprisoned ANC leaders • 1960 nonviolent protest against apartheid ended with the Sharpeville Massacre; police firing into crowd killed 70 people • Nonviolence Failed • ANC disbanded; worldwide attention and condemnation of government • Mandela and other leaders grew convinced that violent protests were necessary • Mandela formed Umkhonto we Sizwe (“Spear of the Nation”) underground militant branch of ANC • Dedicated to sabotage

17. As violence in this country was inevitable, it would be wrong and unrealistic for African leaders to continue preaching peace and nonviolence at a time when the government met our peaceful demands with force. Nelson Mandela and the ANC protested peacefully at first. However, in 1960 when police opened fire on a peaceful protest in Sharpeville, killing 69 black Africans and wounding 186, Nelson Mandela realised that non-violent protests would not end the system of apartheid. What do you think? Is it sometimes necessary to use violence to achieve something good? Most of the peaceful protestors had been shot in the back.

18. Nelson Mandela on the New Militant Approach • As violence in this country was inevitable, it would be wrong and unrealistic for African leaders to continue preaching peace and nonviolence at a time when the government met our peaceful demands with force.

19. Resistance Underground • The ANC decided to take up armed resistance to the government • They still had peaceful protests, but also took on terrorist tactics, such as intimidation, bombing, murder and sabotage • The Prime Minister declared a state of emergency and forces could detain people without a trial. • Over 18,000 demonstrators were arrested, including many leaders of the ANC and PAC • Together with ANC leader Nelson Mandela, they were charged with treason in 1964 and sentenced to life imprisonment.

20. Spear of the Nation • A militant wing of the ANC • Its leaders included Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, & Govan Mbeki. • All were arrested for sabotage against the government, put on trial, & given lifetime imprisonment

21. MK attacks • 1960s MK relatively quiet • Problems: no internal support structure • Dramatic increase in actions in late ’70s and ’80s • Reasons: new regional bases, new internal support structures • Main repertoires: from sabotage to bombings • 190 acts of sabotage between October 1961 and July 1963. • 1976-1982: 150 attacks • 1980s- 100s of bombings • 1983- MK bombs air force headquarters. • 19 people killed and more than 200 injured.

22. MK Targets: • “"(e) Selection of targets to be tackled in initial phase of guerrilla operations with a view to causing maximum damage to the enemy as well as preventing quick deployment of reinforcements. In its study the Committee should bear in mind the following main targets: • Strategic road, railways and other communications. • power stations • police stations, camps and military forces • irredeemable Government stooges." (1969)

23. Mandela went on the run after the ANC was banned. He was arrested in 1962, after secretly returning to South Africa, and was imprisoned for five years for organizing strikes. • In 1963, Mandela was linked to a sabotage campaign in Rivonia near Johannesburg. He was sentenced for life. • 1973, Mandela was offered a shorter sentence if he would support the bantustan program – he refused! • In 1974, South Africa was banned from the United Nations General Assembly.

24. Nelson Mandela • Nelson Mandela peacefully fought to end apartheid. He served 27 years in prison for such “treason.” • Thousands of other South African non-whites were imprisoned and executed for their resistance against apartheid.

25. The ANC and Nelson Mandela were listed as terrorists by the US government until 2008. In many countries around the world, people fighting for justice and equality are considered to be terrorists. What do you think this famous saying means? One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.

26. On your Left Side: What does Mandela mean? “I was made by the law, a criminal, not because of what I had done, but because of what I stood for, because of what I thought, because of my conscious. Can it be any wonder to anybody that such conditions make a man an outlaw of society?” Nelson Mandela

27. Nelson Mandela in Prison • Would you be willing to spend 27 years in jail for a cause? • Why or why not? Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in solitary confinement in this cell.

28. Human Rights – Nelson Mandela • “During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to the struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.” • Nelson Mandela’s speech from the dock, Pretoria Courthouse, 1964

29. Protests

30. The shanty towns became centers for black groups who resisted the white government. Thousands resisted apartheid by refusing to work, refusing to buy white products, going into “white only” areas, and marching in nonviolent demonstrations.

31. Sharpeville Protest

32. The Protest of March 21,1960: Sharpeville • Black Protestors • Protested against pass laws • Wanted possession of passbooks unrequired • Passbooks are booklets that contain your ID  • Were discriminated by race • Treated like second class citizens

33. 1960: Sharpeville Massacre  • March 21 -- At least 180 black Africans were injured and 69 killed when South African police opened fire on approximately 300 demonstrators, who were protesting against apartheid pass laws, at the township of Sharpeville in the Transvaal. • The event came to be known as the Sharpeville Massacre. In response to Sharpeville, the government outlawed the African National Congress (ANC). 

34. March 21,1960: Sharpeville Massacre A large crowd of Black South Africans assembled in front of the Sharpeville police station to protest the pass laws imposed by apartheid. The Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC), led by Robert Sobukwe, together with Nelson Mandela's African National Congress (ANC), organized the protest for the nation's blacks to join together to demonstrate peacefully against apartheid. Rarely in South Africa before 1960 had so many black people demonstrated their defiance of the laws in any way. The police were highly apprehensive, not knowing what to expect. Suddenly, tensions were released: the crowd pelted the policemen with stones, and the edgy policemen retaliated with gunfire. In the end, sixty-nine protesters were killed and one hundred and eighty were wounded (some shot while trying to flee)

35. 1960 Sharpeville Massacre • In 1960, during a peaceful protest in the city of Sharpeville, 69 people were killed • This massacre ignited additional demonstrations and protests against the unfair treatment of non-whites

36. Black Protested Did not want pass laws  Threw stones Mostly Black People White Police controlled situation  Did not think blacks deserved same rights as whites  Shot at blacks White Government Black vs. White

38. Sharpeville Uprising

39. Government • Declared state of emergency • Detained 18,000 people • Changed from passive resistance to armed • More security for enforcing racist laws • Sharpeville was a turning point in South Africa 

40. After the Sharpeville Massacre, the government banned (exile) all black African political organization, including the ANC and the PAC.

41. Reaction to the Sharpeville Massacre • Countries gave South Africa sympathy • UN condemned the government • Called for Resolution 134 • Resolution is a plan to make both government and the citizens happy • Stated start of racial harmony throughout South Africa 

42. Conclusion •  The Sharpeville Massacre was the start of a new beginning for South Africa, although it came with the loss of many innocent people. • The bravery displayed by the blacks is outstanding. • The protests, the riots, the strikes all led up to the racial harmony throughout South Africa. • With the help of the UN, other countries, and brave government officials, the Sharpeville Massacre was the start of a new chapter in South Africa.   

43. Soweto Uprising

44. Cause of the Riot in Soweto in 1976 • When black students went to high school, they had to learn a language. • Most students wanted to learn English because it was a general language that people spoke. • However, the government forced the students to learn Afrikaans, the language of Apartheid. • The blacks were angry, so they boycotted the classes and went to protest in Soweto.

45. Bantu Education “There is no place for [the Bantu] in the European community above the level of certain forms of labour ... What is the use of teaching the Bantu child mathematics when it cannot use it in practice? That is quite absurd. Education must train people in accordance with their opportunities in life, according to the sphere in which they live.” - Henrik Verwoerd, Minister of Education, 1958 "We shall reject the whole system of Bantu Education whose aim is to reduce us, mentally and physically, into 'hewers of wood and drawers of water'."Soweto Students Representative Council, 1976

46. Apartheid in South Africa • Soweto Riots- 1976 • Township near Johannesberg with over 1 million blacks • Centered around the teaching of Afrikaans • Started with class boycotts, led to largest riots in South African history

47. The riot in Soweto • The march in Soweto spread to other towns in South Africa.  • The march in Soweto was meant to be peaceful and nonviolent. • However, it wasn't taken as a march to make a point nonviolently.  • Many people were killed, including thirteen year old children. 

48. The Soweto Uprising • Young people had been forced to learn Afrikaans in school, the language of the Dutch settlers. • They were not allowed to speak or learn in their own language. • June 16, 1976, school-children protesting the right to be taught in their own language were shot by police. 69 school-kids died. The day is now commemorated in South Africa as Youth Day. • People around the world were outraged. But it was to be almost 20 years until the Apartheid system collapsed. • At the time, Nelson Mandela was serving his time in prison for what the government called ‘terrorist’ activities.

49. 1976: Soweto When high-school students in Soweto started protesting for better education on June 16, 1976,police responded with teargas and live bullets. In the aftermath, the plan for schooling in Afrikaans was dropped and the UN banned sales of weapons to South Africa in 1977.

50. Riot in Soweto