13. “If you don't take this kind of stand,
your little children will grow up and
look at you and think "shame."…I
don't mean go out and get violent; but
at the same time you should never be
nonviolent unless you run into some
nonviolence. I'm nonviolent with
those who are nonviolent with me.
But when you drop that violence on
me, then you've made me go insane,
and I'm not responsible for what I do.
And that's the way every Negro
should get. Any time you know you're
within the law, within your legal rights,
within your moral rights, in accord
with justice, then die for what you
believe in.”
- The Ballot or the Bullet, 1964
14.
15.
16.
17. We must find new
lands from which we
can easily obtain raw
materials and at the
same time exploit the
cheap slave labor that
is available from the
natives of the
colonies. The colonies
would also provide a
dumping ground for
the surplus goods
produced in our
factories.
- Cecil Rhodes, British
businessman and
imperialist, 1890s
Today we’ll discuss some stories of race relations as the categorization we saw of 19th century imperialism was extended into the 20th century alongside Enlightenment ideas.
Give examples of racial tension in 20th century we’ve seen so far
Notice the mix of races – consider abolitionist movement of 19th century.
Fighting racism and segregation in the 1950s-60s
NAACP began its work using legal means to end the practice of lynching, when many perpetrators were not charged with crimes
Their legal work allowed for laws to be overturned, such as in the case of the Little Rock Nine in 1957. But the governor of Arkansas used the National Guard troops to block entrance to the high school, and the President sent in Federal troops to accompany the students.
MLK Jr grew up as a youth of the NAACP, and was a preacher in the Baptist church
Malcolm X, another civil rights activist, whose language was more radical. Converted to Islam and argued on an identity separate from whites. The ‘X’ represents the unknown name of his African ancestors and their culture that had been lost during slavery
On April 1968 he was assassinated. Here’s a photo taken right after his death with people pointing to where they thought the shooter was.
South Africa’s basic story is of ending apartheid, which in the Afrikaaner language means “separation”. It was a policy of strict segregation and racism between white settler descendents and the black African families that lived in the region.
What is the source of apartheid?
- Some historians view it as a 20th-century development, closely linked to the peculiar evolution of South African capitalism, with its strong reliance on cheap black labor as advocated by Cecil Rhodes in the quote.
- Other scholars believe apartheid was a product of earlier racial prejudices and policies imposed by Dutch and British settlers. Recent explanations point to a combination of several factors ─ colonial conquest, land dispossession, economic impoverishment, and exclusion from citizenship of Africans ─ that paved the way to apartheid.
Dutch since 17th century ( Boers)
Discovery of diamonds in 1870s intensified colonization by opportunists, both British and Dutch. Puts pressure on growing Zulu state
British invade and defeat Zulu
Boer War 1900s
By 1910 South Africa is independent of Britain, but the government was granted to a gov’t that was wholly controlled by a white settler minority, <20% of population. Black majority had no political rights whatsoever with central state.
Economically the most prominent whites were of British descent. Politically the most dominant whites were the Boers/Afrikaners of Dutch descent. South Africa by the early 20th century had developed a mature industrial economy, which was controlled by the white population but depended on the African population for human labor.
The most important law passed was the Natives’ Land Act of 1913. This law reserved 93 percent (revised to 87 percent in 1936) of the land in South Africa for whites; it prevented Africans—two-thirds of the population at the time—from freely buying land. This forced black Africans to live on designated ‘reserves’ where life was harsh, with illnesses and malnutrition rife. For many Africans, especially young men and women, migration to wage-earning jobs in cities and mines became one of the only ways to pay colonial taxes and survive.
By the 1930s, the government’s segregationist stance hardened further. Amendments to the Masters and Servants’ Act, for instance, legalized whipping
In 1948, the Reunited National Party, representing ethnic nationalist Afrikaners, won the national election on a platform of racism and segregation under the slogan of "apartheid"- or "apartness" in the Afrikaans language. Apartheid built upon earlier laws, but made segregation more rigid and enforced it more aggressively. It significantly extended the reach of the racist state and led to a systematic and fundamental deterioration of the position of black people in South Africa for the next four decades.
The mines, factories, and farms all depended on cheap black labor (here a diamond miner gives diamond). As a result, white-owned businesses accumulated huge profits by supporting a government that denied blacks the vote and paid artificially low wages. In addition to capitalist employers, white factory workers and World War II veterans voted for apartheid in 1948 to protect their economic advantages and to oppose black urbanization and social welfare. Furthermore, many white families benefited from the work of black domestic servants who provided childcare, cooking, and house care.
The Group Areas Act imposed strict residential racial segregation. Government created Racial Classification Boards to officially determine a person’s "race." The absurdity of this system is exemplified by the story of Vic Wilkinson, who was alternatively classified as Coloured, then White, and finally back to Coloured again. But these classifications forced people to live with certain homelands. Any neighborhoods that had been racially diverse were bulldozed and rebuilt for white communities. *Situated in the most unproductive regions of the country, Bantustans were inhabited largely by poverty-stricken women and children since men migrated annually to work in South African cities and towns, and farms as well. Generally, government-approved "tribal" leaders ruled over the Bantustans in violent and corrupt fashion with the full support of the South African government, which was responsible for their entire budgets and provided military assistance. Education was weak in these areas as the South African gov’t hoped to create a docile community
In order to enforce a supply of cheap and servile black labor the apartheid regime made passes, common under segregation, more restrictive; it was a criminal offense for Africans to be without a pass and made movement and residence dependent upon a pass
The African National Congress (ANC) was established in 1912 by educated, professional, middle-class Africans who sought not to overthrow the existing order but to be accepted as ‘civilized men’ within it. For forty years the ANC pursued peaceful and moderate protest, including petitions, conferences, and using delegations, to no real success.
In the 1950s, with leadership that included Nelson Mandela, the ANC broadened its base of support and launched non-violent protests (boycotts, strikes, demonstrations, burning of passes that Africans were required to carry. Influenced by Gandhi tactics used 20 years earlier). Mandela clung to a romantic vision of a golden age before the arrival of the white man, when “the land belonged to the whole tribe and there was no individual ownership whatever. There were no classes, no rich or poor, and no exploitation of man by man. He was from a more well-to-do family who had enough status so that he got an improved education before 1948 apartheid policies.
The photograph shows blind trade union leader Violet Hashe addressing a crowd in Johannesburg at the start of the 1951 Defiance Campaign; photo of Mandela giving speech
The government responded with tremendous repression, including shooting unarmed protesters, banning the ANC, and imprisoning leadership (including Mandela).
Photo of Sharpeville Massacre, where 69 unarmed demonstrators were shot to death.
Underground nationalist leaders then turned to armed struggle, authorizing selected acts of sabotage and assassination, while preparing for guerrilla warfare as well. Active opposition came into the hands of student groups that were part of the Black Consciousness movement, an effort to foster pride, unity, and political awareness among the country’s African majority.
In 1976 there was an explosion of protests in the black neighborhood of Soweto outside Johannesburg in which hundreds were killed. The initial trigger for the uprising was the government’s decision to enforce education for Africans in Afrikaners rather than English. By the mid-1980s, spreading urban violence and the radicalization of the urban young had forced the government to declare a state of emergency.* The involvement of the youth was critical in boycotts as well as strikes to slow down the economy (2 million workers in 1986).
Beyond growing internal pressure, South Africa faced mounting international demands to end apartheid as well. It was forbidden from participating in the Olympics; many artists refused to perform in the country; there were economic boycotts and the withdrawal of investment funds. ANC and other organizations looked to put pressure on international community for South Africa to change its policies.*
By the late 1980s apartheid was abandoned, Mandela was released from prison in 1990, the ANC was legalized, and a prolonged process of negotiations led to national elections in 1994 resulting in the ANC bring brought to power
The 1995 Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act established the TRC to investigate politically motivated gross human rights violations perpetrated between 1960 and 1994. The intent was to prevent such atrocities from reoccurring and to unify a divided nation scarred by past conflicts. South Africa's TRC was the first truth commission to offer amnesty to individuals who fully disclosed in public their involvement in politically motivated crimes. In doing so, the democratic government embraced the juridical concept of "restorative justice" instead of the "retributive justice" embodied by a Nuremberg-style trial.
Testimonies revealed many cases of rape, torture, deaths in detention, political assassinations, and even human burnings. The TRC granted amnesty to qualified perpetrators in a gesture of peace and reconciliation. In some cases, relatives of victims forgave individuals who admitted killing their loved ones. The combined effects of ordinary people telling stories of human rights abuses and the commission's call for reconciliation and forgiveness began a process of healing for many people who experienced the brutality of apartheid oppression. The commission received criticism for emphasizing amnesty over punishment, for being religious, and not all aspects of apartheid regime were fully covered (women failed to testify re: rape), but it was cathartic and many have hailed it as a necessary step in South Africa’s healing process.
But there wasn’t completely unity in all of this, and South Africa’s successes reveal a democracy in progress.
