African ethnic groups

2. African ethnic groups • Xhosa, Nguni, Pedi, Sotho, Tswana, Griqua • Various military campaigns, but British and Boers had guns

3. Shaka Zulu, great military leader (1816-28) • Short stabbing spear, military formation • Scattered or absorbed other ethnic groups

4. Ethnic Breakdown--current • Black or African 74% • White or European 14% • Coloured 9% • Asian 3%

5. “White” • 60% are descendants of 17th century settlers from Holland, Germany and France • Called themselves Boers or Afrikaners • Spoke Afrikaans language • Others are of British descent and speak English • Some mixtures with Asian and Coloureds

6. “Asian” • Mostly Indian • Chinese classified as Asian • Japanese classified as white

7. “Coloureds” • Descendants of whites, slaves, and Khoi • Slaves were from Malagasy, East Indian Bengali, and Indonesia

8. “Blacks” • So-called Bantu tribes: Zulu, Ngoni, Xhosa, Ponde, etc. • Bantu is a language group • Was used as a racial slur

9. South Africa: historical overview • 1652 Dutch East India Company in Capetown • Khoisan peoples--”Civilization of the Bow” • Formation of the so-called “coloureds” • Britain annexed Capetown from the Dutch in 1806 • about 17,000 Boers • Great Trek 1835-43

10. Discovery of Diamonds in 1870 • Flood of European immigrants • Africans recruited to dig in mines for 6 months • Single sex barracks, long hours, low wages • Earned money for clothes, tools, cooking utensils, and guns • Basotho and Bechuanaland • fought off British, • outside boundaries of South Africa • later became independent

11. During 1880s • Most of the individual ethnic groups or confederacies were conquered and annexed by the British colonies (Cape and Natal) • The Boer Republics (Orange Free State and Transvaal)

12. Mohandas Gandhi • 1893-1913 in Natal and Transvaal • Idea of non-violent protest • Organized the South African Indian Congress Party

13. African National Congress (ANC) • 1912 • Non-violence for all people

14. Afrikaner nationalism • 1880s • Gold discovered in the “Rand”--became city of Johannesburg

15. Two Anglo-Boer Wars • 1880-81 Britain fought Cape Colony, Natal and Orange Free State and won • 1899-1902 Same places plus Transvaal. Britain won and forced the Boers into concentration camps

16. Resulted in an agreement for Union • South African party assumed leadership • 1910 • Beginning of white-only policies and voter segregation • Only a few thousand Africans could vote

17. Afrikaner Nationalist Party, 1912 • Pass laws • Men only

18. Legislation • Residential separation • Women and non-whites couldn’t vote • Coloureds and Asians could vote for whites to represent them

19. Laying the foundation for Apartheid • Means “separate development” • Carried out through legislation

20. Legislation • Native Lands Act, 1912-3 • Mines and Works Act, 1911--limited skilled mining jobs to Whites and Coloureds • Divided the country into African (reserves) and European areas Group Areas Act • Refined in 1936, Bantu Trust and Land Act

21. Afrikaners--1948 • Apartheid made a policy • All rights and privileges flowed from differences • 1949 Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act • 1950--Population Registration Act classified everyone

22. Legislation • Native Land Act of 1913 “refined” by Bantu Self-Government Act, 1959 • Set up Homelands • White people had a responsibility to guide Africans towards self-government

24. Legislation • Reservation of Separate Amenities Act, 1953

25. Legislation • Bantu Education Act • Publication and Entertainment Act, 1963

26. Draconian Security • Legislation to empower authorities to declare organizations subversive and ban them • Detain people without due process • Forbid people to gather

28. African Resistance • ANC--1912, used non-violence for 40 years but never reversed any legislation • Advocated racial equality, liberalizing the vote • 1944 Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu and Oliver Tambo founded the ANC Youth League • strikes, demonstrations and civil disobedience • leaders were convicted under the Suppression of Communism Act

29. Women Protest Pass Laws: 1958

30. Liberal Whites • Congress of Democrats • South African Liberal Party

31. Cracks in the ANC • Mandela formed military wing “Spear of the Nation” • Rival party--Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC)-- racial exclusiveness • passive resistance at first • Mandela went underground, but then arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment

32. Sharpeville 1960 Police fired on unarmed citizens killing 69 and wounding 200

33. 1970s • Steve Biko • “Black” included Coloured and Asians • White liberals against apartheid

34. Soweto 1976 • Youth rebelled (Movie: “Sarafina”) • Refused to learn Afrikaans

35. International Dimensions Against Apartheid • South African unique --racial supremacy had a constitutional sanction • No other state (except Nazi Germany) maintained that • a group of people were an inferior race • therefore not entitled to equal rights • No other country said--a section of its people had no historical claim on its territory

36. United Nations • Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948 • International Convention of the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination: 1965, 1969

37. African Nations • Moral support • Guerrilla bases

38. Soviet Union and Eastern Europe • Training and material support

39. United States • Until the 1970s followed Great Britain • Then serious debate • Carry on business or the people will be hurt versus boycott or divest investments

40. Shifts in US policy • Nixon-Kissinger--believed whites in firm control, so secure long term interests • Ford--Portugal lost its colonies • Carter--recognized African nationalism was stronger than communism • supported policy of human rights • Reagan--apartheid is an internal matter • constructive engagement

41. Sanctions 1986 • Against Reagan objections • Prohibited • new investments, except black-owned firms • loans • importation of goods, minerals, gold coins, defense equipment • opening of bank account • promotion of tourism • exports of US know-how, computers • military cooperation

42. Lifting of Sanctions • Release of Mandela and political prisoners • Repeal of state of emergency and detainees • Unbanning of political parties • Repeal of Groups Areas and Population Registration Acts • Begin negotiations with representatives of the Black majority

43. Apartheid • Ideology backed by an elaborate legal system • Socio-economic system • Set of political institutions

44. End of Apartheid • Ideology gone about 10 years ago (most whites) • Legal system--200 statutes repealed • including Popn. Act, Native Land Act, Group Areas Act and Pass Laws

45. Vestiges of Apartheid • Problem with education • Desegregation of services and housing • Discriminatory local ordinances

46. Apartheid Unravels • Mandela released in Feb. 1990 • Negotiations between government and anti- apartheid opposition (face to face)

47. 1989: Botha rejected and de Klerk as head of the National Party • 1990: de Klerk unbanned organizations (ANC, PAC, communist party) • Supported negotiations for a new constitution • Freed Nelson Mandela • ANC-communist party renounced armed struggle (communism was collapsing in Eastern Europe) • NP open to all races • ANC had to transform itself from a secret liberation movement to a mass party

48. Government of National Unity • 1991 Mandela along with de Klerk, and another NP: new rainbow nation • Still the big conflict with Kwazulu-Batal- Inkatha Freedom party (Buthelezi), but linked with NP • ANC’s sunset clause allowing all parties at least 5 yr role in cabinet. • Truth and Reconciliation Commission-- Bishop Desmond Tutu

49. Why now? • Internal factors as important as external factors • Demographic changes • Increasing education and expanding Black professional class • Majority of Blacks in urban areas • Bantustans, so poor, unsustainable • S.A. economy changed from agriculture to manufacturing

50. Elections April 20-28, 1994 • Mandela reassured whites and blacks and won