Unlike other regions in African, South Africa has such Unique History that, can be traced from the early inhabitants of South Africa who included the Bushmen, San and Khoikhoi, the Bantu who started entering south African as early 300A.D, these Bantu were such as Ndebele, Zulu, Nguni, Sotho, Tswana and the Zulu, however; the History of South Africa started changing in the year 1652 when the Dutch East Indian Company led by Jan Van Riebeck Established permanent settlement, from that period there arose chaotic relationship between African and Whites in South Africa.
Example from 1779 to 1803 there were Kaffir Wars (Anglo-Boer Wars) in South Africa. The War was fought between the Boers and Xhosa. However, in 1795, the British occupied the Cape and introduced many changes forcing the Boers to move northwards to the interior of south Africa starting from 1836, the two colonialists lived in conflicts caused by land and minerals of South Africa, For Example after the Discovery of Diamond at Orange Free State (Kimberley) in 1867 and Gold in Transvaal (Witwatersrand) in 1886 both Boer Republics.
PEACE AT LAST A NEW WHITE DOMINATED SOUTH AFRICA
Following the discovery of these two potential mineral deposits in south Africa, there arose the 1899 to 1902 Anglo-Boer War also called the South African War, the War ended in 1902 leading to peaceful negotiations between Alfred Milner, the commander of British in South Africa and Jan Smuts the commander of Dutch Forces in South Africa, the two White conflicting sides came to good terms and South Africa minority was instituted in 1910 in what is called as the Union of South Africa.
From this time south Africa introduced a system that aimed at glorifying minority rule in South Africa and Africans were made subjects to White minority in South Africa. For Example, in 1948, Daniel Francois Malan (simply Dr. Malan) of the National Party won the election and introduced the new racial policy called APARTHEID POLICY that called for separate development among different racial groups of south Africa.
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| Nelson Mandela |
THE BEGINNING OF ANTI-COLONIAL STRUGGLES IN SOUTH AFRICA.
The African nationalistic struggles in south Africa were very complicated and took a long time. The political movement started in 1912 when South Africa Native National Congress (S.A.N.N.C) was formed. In 1910 British gave the government power to Boers. They passed a low (act of union in 1910) which gave power to the white minority and excluded nonwhites in the parliament. In 1913, the Boers enacted the new Land Act which prohibited Africans to own land. For example, South Africans were about 80% of the total population but they were to own only 20% of the land.
In 1925 SANNC was transformed into Africans National Congress (ANC). The ANC Youth League was formed in 1943 under the leadership of Walter Sisulu, Nelson Mandela, Anthon Lembede, A.P.Mda and Oliver Tambo. There were conflicting ideas among ANC members between those who favoured armed struggle and those who favoured peaceful means in the sruggle for independence, but in 1952, the ANC extremists staged a DEFIANCE CAMPAIGN
Defiance Campaign was a campaign calling all Africans in South Africa to deliberately defy (go against) all of Apartheid’s segregationist Laws and refusing to carry Pass Books. In 1955 party conference the freedom charter was adopted, a blue print for creating a new non-racist South Africa and partially Socialist South Africa.
The Charter advocated for a multi-racial South Africa.
This made the radical Africanists of ANC led by Robert Mangaliso Sobhukwe break away from ANC in 1959 ANC to form another political organization known as Pan African Congress (PAC) under the chairmanship of Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe. PAC believed that African Nationalism can be won by themselves and without any assistance from other racial groups which made the population of South Africa. The party membership was very racist as only black Africans were allowed to join this party. The white ruling party (National Party) intensified Apartheid regime which was imposed in 1948.
On 21st march 1960 PAC and ANC organized peaceful demonstration against apartheid at Langa cape town and Sharpeville in Transvaal. The police opened fire on unarmed demonstrators, killing 69 and wounding 180, most of them shot on the back as they were fleeing. This mass killing is popularly known as THE SHARPEVILLE MASSACRE. Shortly after the 1960, Sharpeville Massacre, fearing revolution the government banned both ANC and PAC and thousands of their members were arrested. ANC started underground movements, it formed an armed Wing of the party, The UMKHONTO WE SIZWE (MK) a Xhosa statement meaning “THE SPEAR OF THE NATION” that carried underground military operations up to 1962 when the High Commission of Umkhonto We Sizwe was captured in Rivonia a suburb of Johannesburg.
Mandela and other comrades like Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, Ahmed Kathraba, Dennis Goldberg, Raymond Mhlaba, Ellias Motsoaledi and Andrew Mlangeni were all sentenced to life imprisonment. Goldberg being a White man was returned to Pretoria central Prison while the rest were taken to Robben Island.
CAUSES / FACTORS FOR THE SHARPVILLE MASSACRE
1. Africans were opposing apartheid policy
2. Africans were against introduction of passbook.
3. Africans were opposing social and racial segregation
4. Africans wanted to regain their lost land.
5. Africans were against exploitation.
6. Police were careless. They shot purposely instead of promoting peace
EFFECTS OF SHARPEVILLE MASSACRE
1. Banning of political parties. ANC and PAC were banned in April 1961. PAC leader, Mr. Robert Mangonso Sobokwe was arrested and taken to detention on Robbin island.
2. Formation of armed wing. The freedom fighters decided to embark on armed struggle associated with violence and sabotage in June 1961, ANC, led by Nelson Mandela established its armed wing known as “UMKHONTO WE SIZWE” (spear of the nation)
3. Political parties operate in exile. Due to banning of political parties ANC and PAC opened their offices in Dar es Salaam and other African countries.
4. Imprisonment of leaders. In 1963 Mandela was arrested and imprisoned for life in the Robben Island.
The Period of Great Crisis in South Africa
But the imprisonment of these key ANC leaders did not mean the end of anti-colonial movements in South Africa, the struggle continued. The colonial government had enacted the 1953, Bantu Education Act that actually cemented segregation in the provision of Education, Black students resisted poor and low quality as well as racist education that was given to them starting from 1950s. South Africans began operating from exile, MK soldiers began operating from Mozambique throughout the 1970s and from early 1980s this made the Boer Leader called P.W. Botha signed the Nkomati Accord of 1984 with Mozambican president Samora Machel.
N.B THE NKOMATI ACCORD( officially known as, agreement on non-Aggression and Good Neighbourhoodliness between Mozambique and South Africa) was the agreement signed between the Boer government of Pieter Willlem Botha (P.W. Botha) and Mozambican government of Samora Machel in order to stop the M.K soldiers from using Mozambique as their military base.
The treaty was signed in south Africa at a place called KOMATIPOORT with the signatories being President of Mozambique, Samora Machel and South African prime minister Pieter Willem Botha.
In between 1970 and 1980’s there were so many crisis leading to the end of apartheid and minority government.
Steve Bantu Biko came up with Black Consciousness that influenced the ideological change among many South African from universities and schools to the communities, the immediate impact of this movement was to be seen in SOWETO where Black south Africans rose up with consciousness against the Boer regime in South Africa.
THE SOWETO MASSACRE
On 16th June 1976, black students in a Township or Bantu so called SOWETO demonstrated against the poor education and the use of Afrikaans as language of instruction and medium of communication at school, Police brutality was seen once again as they opened fire to the unarmed students. The government passed a decree that Math and Social Studies should be taught in Afrikaans. Young students some aging as young as six or seven years old gathered to protest against this new rule.
They were holding placards which were reading, “If we must do Afrikaans, Vorster (the Prime Minister) must do Zulu”, “we don’t want to learn the language of our oppressors”, and “We want Equal Education not slave Education”, as they marched, they chanted, “Amandla! Awethu! Amandla Awethu!” (Power is Ours!) the harsh Boer government police killed 176 black students leaving over 1, 000 black students wounded.
The anti-colonial and political unrest grew even worse in south Africa throughout the 1980s. couple with the defiance campaign, the international communities like FIFA, IMF, UNO, OAU and the like, the pressure from donor countries, the role of Front-line states and economic Sanctions, the Boer government led the De Klerk released Nelson Mandela and some political prisoners in 1990 ready for reconciliation and preparation for Majority rule. Negotiations were conducted from 1990 to 1993 and in 1994 general election was held in South Africa and Nelson Mandela won the election and was sworn-in as the first ever black president of South Africa.
REASONS FOR ARMED STRUGGLE IN SOUTH AFRICA
1. Presence of settlers
2. The Banning of political Parties
3. The rise of military leaders like Oliver Tambo and Nelson Mandela
4. The role played by front-line states
5. The role played by socialist countries including China, Cuba and USSR
6. Harsh and brutal Boer republic of south Africa.
7. Intensive exploitation and oppression
FACTORS FOR THE COLLAPSE OF APARTHEID POLICY AND ATTAINMENT OF MAJORITY RULE IN SOUTH AFRICA.
1. The Role played by the defiance campaign
2. The role played by international communities
3. The role played by the United Nations Organization (UNO)
4. The role played by donor countries
5. The role played by individual leaders like Nelson Mandela and the likes of Oliver Tambo, Walter Sisulu, Robert Mangaliso Sobhukwe, Govan Mbeki the father to Thabo Mbeki and the like.
6. The role played by Front-line states like Mozambique and Tanzania
7. The role played by OAU.
8. The role played by OAU
