Apartheid in South Africa A TIMELINE OVERVIEW


1652 1833


1899 –1902


1910s 1912 1923 1944 1948


1952 –1955


1955 1960 1963 1964 1970s 1974 1983 1989 1991 1993 1994


Dutch arrival in South Africa End of Slavery in South Africa Anglo-Boer War, ending in Peace Treaty at Vereniging Prime Minister Louis Botha passes racist legislations Formation of South African Native National Congress


SANNC renamed African National Congress; they declare that they believe it was intention of government to enslave all black South Africans


ANC Youth League formed with Nelson Mandela as secretary


Election of Extreme National Party to control government; D.F. Malan, who formed the party, becomes Prime Minister


Defi ance Campaigns of the ANC ANC’s Freedom Charter signed at the Congress of the People in Soweto Sharpeville Massacre; 69 black demonstrators killed by police


Leaders of ANC’s military wing Umkhonto we Sizwe (Speak of the Nation) arrested


Rivonia Trial, eight ANC leaders (including Nelson Mandela) arrested A wave of strikes and revolts The year in which The Road to Mecca is set Church Street bombing by Umkhonto we Sizwe in the capital city of Pretoria Cape Town peace march; release of all political prisoners Convention for a Democratic South Africa New constitution and formation of Government of National Unity


First free elections of South Africa; Nelson Mandela voted in to presidency and the fi rst multiracial parliament


10 ROUNDABOUTTHEATRECOMPANY


Over the fi rst half of the 20th century, Prime Ministers enacted laws further removing the rights of the black citizens. In retaliation, the black people formed the African National Congress. After World War II, an extreme right-wing government introduced the Homeland Policy, dividing the black ethnic groups into several reserves. Each Homeland was designed to be an independent state where black groups could have citizenship, thus eliminating their claims to South African citizenship. In the 1980s, the outside world became more and more aware of the injustice. The 1990s fi nally saw an offi cial end to Apartheid. In 1994, South Africa had its fi rst free elections and its fi rst black president, Nelson Mandela. It is only over the last 17 years that South Africa has become a country with a free, racially–integrated democracy.


WHAT IS APARTHEID? According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, Apartheid is: racial segregation; specifi cally, a former policy of segregation and political and economic discrimination against non-European groups in the Republic of South Africa.


A BRIEF HISTORY OF APARTHEID From the very fi rst day the Europeans arrived in South Africa in the 17th century, they began to dominate and control the native Khoi and San peoples. Even after the outlaw of slavery, during the 20th century the South African government created legalized mistreatment through a class system based on race, with the native black people at the very bottom. Services for the blacks were not only separate but also radically inferior to those of the whites, and, to a lesser extent, to those of the other races (labeled as “Coloured,” Indian, and Asian). The government created this divide to encourage the blacks to move back to their homelands and out of white South Africa.


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