The Rise and Fall of Apartheid

1. The Rise and Fall of Apartheid Kevin J. Benoy

2. Introduction • Since World War II, white rule in Sub-Saharan Africa disappeared. • It persisted longest in the far south of the continent. • As in East and Central Africa, it was the presence of significant white settlement that complicated matters.

3. Portuguese Colonies • Portugal was the first European power to establish colonies in Africa; it was the last to leave. • Colonies in Guinea, Angola and Mozambique persisted into the 1970s. • While Portugal was ruled by right-wing dictator Dr. Salazar, nationalist demands in Africa were ignored. Indeed the colonies were so backward that nationalist groups did not form until quite late. • By 1956 nationalist movements existed in all three colonies, though their followings were relatively small.

4. Portuguese Decolonization • The trend elsewhere in Africa spurred on Black nationalists. • Portugal replied with repression. • Armed resistance broke out first in Angola – with AgustinhoNeto and his MPLA (Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola). • In Guinea, Amilcar Cabral led a similar movement. • Later, even Mozambique had a nationalist uprising, with Eduardo Mondlane leading the Frelimo Movement.

5. Portuguese Decolonization • Salazar was overthrown in 1974 – in no small part due to opposition to the endless African wars. • In 1975 the African colonies were granted independence. • Unity among nationalists made the transition easy in Guinea-Bissau.

6. Portuguese Decolonization • In Angola the MPLA found itself at war with two other groups – UNITA (backed by the USA) and the FNLA (National Front for the Liberation of Angola – backed by China). • The MPLA turned to the USSR for help and ultimately Cuba sent troops to assist. • Other factions turned to Zaire and South Africa – with the South Africans eager to tie up black nationalists away from their own borders. • The war continued, off and on, until 2002, when the MPLA emerged victorious.

7. Portuguese Decolonization • In Mozambique, Frelimo governed the newly independent country, but conflict with Renamo opposition led to civil war lasting from 1977-1992. • Renamo was backed by white supremacist Rhodesia and South Africa.

8. Rhodesia/Zimbabwe • White settlers were far more numerous here than in Portuguese Africa – numbering 200,000. • Yet the 1961 constitution allowed blacks only 15 of the 65 seats in the Parliament of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. • Sir Edgar Whitehead’s response to black protests was a banning of the African National Democratic Party. • Joshua Nkomo split off to form another party – the Zimbabwe African Peoples’ Party (ZAPU); it too was banned. • In 1962, Winston Field’s even more right-wing Rhodesian Front Party was elected.

9. Rhodesia/Zimbabwe • Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland prepared for independence in 1962. • Field requested the same for Southern Rhodesia – but the British refused unless the constitution were changed to allow blacks at least 1/3 of the seats in Parliament – enough to block further constitutional change that might exclude them completely.

10. Rhodesia/Zimbabwe • In 1964 Ian Smith became Prime Minister. • He was even more opposed to concessions to blacks than was Field. • Pointing to the troubles of many independent black states, he thought white rule essential to prevent chaos. He also pointed to the infighting between Nkomo’s ZAPU and Ndabaningi’s ZANU – which were often involved in violent clashes.

11. Rhodesia/Zimbabwe • Britain’s Labour Government, under Harold Wilson, continued to refuse independence unless Rhodesia would commit to ultimate black majority government. • Smith broke off negotiations and declared his Unilateral Declaration of Independence on November 11, 1965. • Britain condemned the action but decided not to use force to bring Smith to heel. • Instead, sanctions were applied.

12. Rhodesia/Zimbabwe • Britain cut off imports of Rhodesian tobacco and sugar. • The UN also condemned Rhodesia, calling on member states to place a complete trade embargo on the country. • However, South African support of Rhodesia made any embargo ineffective. • Portugal also remained sympathetic to the white supremacist regime. • Even Britain and the US applied sanctions unevenly. The US still bought cheap Rhodesian chrome and British Petroleum illegally shipped oil to Rhodesia.

13. Rhodesia/Zimbabwe • Black Commonwealth countries were disappointed with the lack of will on the part of Britain to bring Smith down. • Ghana and Nigeria both offered troops for an invasion. • Smith sometimes negotiated, but refused to give, entrenching white rule. • After his 1970 Constitution was passed, Zambia allowed black guerillas to operate from its territory.

14. Rhodesia/Zimbabwe • Mozambiquan independence changed the power balance. • Rhodesian forces were stretched too thinly to guard the borders and the cost of hiring mercenaries was crippling. • The US, fearing Soviet or Cuban involvement, began to push Smith harder. • In 1976, Smith realized the need to compromise. • By 1978, Smith conceded a two step transference of power to black majority rule. • In 1979 blacks got equal voting rights and only 28 of the 100 seats were reserved for whites. Bishop Muzorewa became Prime Minister. • After the Lancaster House Conference in London, Britain brokered a deal that brought the black politicians onside. Lord Soames became Governor during a transitional period. In new elections Robert Mugabe and his Zanu took 57 of the 80 black seats.

15. Rhodesia/Zimbabwe • At first, Mugabe was anxious to ensure white skills were not lost through massive emigration. • Tribal based voting kept Mugabe in power, but his rule was generally effective. • There was great hope for a multiracial cooperative state in the newly independent tri-lingual nation (Shona, Sindebele and English). • No white lands were expropriated.

16. Zimbabwe • Trouble began when a Matabele rally led to backlash known as the Entumbane Uprising. • White troops stopped the fighting. • Worse was to come. From 1982-1985 the Gukurahundi (Shona for “the early rain which washes away the chaff before the spring rains”) took place • Also known as the Matabeleland Massacres, it saw 20,000 killed at the hands of Mugabe’s new North-Korean trained black forces.

17. Zimbabwe • After the 1990 elections, student protest and trade union resistance grew. • So did economic trouble. • Worse was the HIV health crisis, affecting up to 25% of the population. • Mugabe looked for a diversion and found it in the issue of land (70% of which was still in white hands). • In 2000, Mugabe encouraged followers – supposedly former freedom fighters – to seize white farms in violent farm invasions. Whites fought in courts, but many simply left.

18. Zimbabwe • Economic dislocation turned into collapse as the white brain drain accelerated. • Blacks found themselves unemployed as the new black farmers knew too little about farming to be effective. • Foreign governments imposed sanctions to punish it for government lawlessness. • In 2002 Zimbabwe was suspended from the Commonwealth. • Since 2010 Mugabe regularly threatened to nationalize foreign companies in retaliation. • Zimbabwe is a disaster. • Life expectancy dropped from 60 to 42 since 1990. • Infant mortality climbed from 53 to 81 per 1000 births in the same time. • In 2009 fully 1.2 million Zimbabweans had HIV (out of 12.5 million total). • Zimbabwean money is worthless – echoing Germany’s 1923 hyperinflation disaster.

19. South Africa • The Union of South Africa was created in 1910, when the ex-Boer Republics of Transvaal and Orange Free state were joined to the British colonies of Natal and Cape Colony. • Power was held by whites, comprising a little under 20% of the population, with the whites divided racially and linguistically between British and Boers (the latter comprising 2/3 of the white population).

20. South Africa • Though racism subsided elsewhere in the world after WW2, the opposite occurred in South Africa. • Most whites did not approve of racial equality, but the Afrikaaner Nationalists, led by Dr. Malan, were of the opinion that the whites were a master race, intended by God to rule over inferior non-whites. • This view was upheld by the official state church, the Dutch Reformed Church. • In the 1948 election, Malan promised to save whites from the “black menace.”

21. Apartheid • Malan won the election and began to formulate a segregated Sough African Society. • The work was continued by Prime Ministers Strijdom (1954-58), Verwoerd (1958-66), and Vorster (1966-1978), with each building on Malan’s foundation.

22. Apartheid • Blacks were forced to live in separate areas – reserves in rural areas and townships in urban locations. • Wholesale uprooting of African households and communities took place.

23. Apartheid • Blacks could not use white services. There were: • Separate schools. • Separate buses. • Separate trains. • Separate benches. • Separate cafes and shops. • Separate beaches. • Separate sports. • Separate churches. • In non-Boer areas, blacks lost rights they once held.

24. Apartheid • The infamous pass laws demanded that everyone carry an identity card specifying their racial classification – white, coloured or black. • Non-whites were restricted to their own areas except when going to work. • The Police rigorously enforced the laws.

25. Apartheid • Inter-racial marriage was forbidden – to preserve the “purity” of the white race. • This was strictly enforced and not repealed until the mid 1980s.

26. Apartheid • The Bantu Self-Government Act established 7 reserve areas, called Bantustans, which were to be granted independence. • They were invariable the least desirable areas and comprised about 13% of South Africa’s land – though they were ultimately to become the legal residences of all South Africa’s blacks. • In 1976, Transkei was given independence, followed by Bophuthatswana and Venda in 1980.

27. Apartheid • The rest of the world did not recognize these “countries.” • Essentially, they were little more than rural slums, whose independence allowed South Africa to strip its black inhabitants of what few citizenship rights they still had. • With homeland independence, blacks became “guest workers” who could be ejected at any time.

28. Opposition to Apartheid • Opposing apartheid was difficult and often dangerous. • Most whites accepted the government’s condemnation of all opponents as “communist subversives” who should be punished under the Suppression of Communism Act. • Despite the difficulties, protest did take place.

29. Opposition to Apartheid • Chief Albert Luthuli, leader of the African National Congress, arranged work stoppages on certain days, along with acts of civil disobedience – like having blacks enter white shops and public facilities. • The government responded with arrests and beatings. • Nonetheless, thousands supported his 1957 bus boycott, walking miles to and from the townships to work.

30. Opposition to Apartheid • 1960 events hardened black and white attitudes. • At Sharpeville, a black township of Johannesburg, a pass law protest was broken up by police firing into the crowd. • 67 were killed and many more wounded. • Hundreds were arrested, including Luthuli. • The ANC was banned.

31. Opposition to Apartheid • Chief Luthuli maintained his non-violent position. • For his efforts he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1961, after the publication of his autobiography, Let My People Go. • Few believe the official account of his death – that he deliberately stepped in front of a moving train.

32. Opposition to Apartheid • On a 1960 state visit to South Africa, British Prime Minister MacMillan spoke out against apartheid, saying “the wind of change is blowing across the continent.” • In the 1961 Commonwealth Conference, South Africa came under intense criticism. • Verwoerd pulled out rather than face probable expulsion.

33. Opposition to Apartheid • As the UN came to represent more and more newly independent nations, international criticism of South Africa grew more intense within the organization. • The UN repeatedly called for South Africa to give up its mandate of Namibia, but the South Africans instead extended apartheid to this territory too. • A 1962 UN vote called for sanctions against South Africa, but many countries were reluctant to follow through. The US, Britain and France vocally condemned South African actions but felt the country too strategically important to allow it to fall into instability. It was also a key customer in the international arms market.

34. Opposition to Apartheid • South Africa’s troubles increased in the 1970s as living conditions worsened for blacks. • In 1976 a decision of the Transvaal education authorities to make Afrikaans the official language of instruction, replacing English, set off demonstrations as school children struck and demonstrated in Soweto township (Johannesburg). • 200 blacks, mostly children, were killed when police fired on the crowd.

35. Opposition to Apartheid • In the years following the Portuguese pull-out from Mozambique and Angola, guerrilla groups began to launch cross-border raids into South Africa and Namibia. • Zimbabwean independence put all of South Africa’s northern borderlands at risk. • To forestall this, South Africa deliberately destabilized its northern neighbours, even launching commando raids as far away as Zambia. • South Africa also used economic aid to seduce poor African countries – like Malawi.

36. Opposition to Apartheid • In the 1980s, problems deepened. • On the one hand, South African security forces increasingly clamped down, perfecting their techniques. Black activist Steven Biko (subject of the film Cry Freedom) died “accidentally” in police custody in 1977 after beating himself to death.” • On the other hand, Nationalist Prime Minister P.W. Botha said that “a revolution in South Africa is no longer just a remote possibility, either we adapt or we perish.”

37. Opposition to Apartheid • Botha removed some apartheid legislation, but the hated pass laws and homeland policies remained in effect. • Strikes and terrorist acts increased tensions throughout the 1980s. • The 1984 constitution gave limited political power to coloured people, but continued to exclude blacks. • With gatherings of more than 3 people banned, funerals became venues for political demonstrations – and they were often violently broken up by security forces. • Reporting of political dissent was also banned.

38. Opposition to Apartheid • International opposition to apartheid grew. • American and British firms found stockholders demanding they pull out of South Africa. • White moderates might be silenced in the country, but men like newspaper editor Donald Woods continued criticism from exile. • Musician Johnny Clegg gained global fame – breaking South African laws regularly by going into Zulu work camps and by performing with black musicians.

39. Opposition to Apartheid • Each new strike and demonstration took a little more out of an economy growing at only 0.8% in the mid 1980s. • Foreign investment dried up. • The education system, which spent 6 times as much educating white students as black, was producing too few people to meet business needs.

40. Opposition to Apartheid • The border war required more and more men and money. • Terrorist acts worried many. • Naturally, many whites emigrated, increasing the burden on those who remained. • The system simply could not continue. • The final catalyst for change came with the collapse of the Soviet Union. The Cold War over, the argument that the ANC and other black organizations were communist fronts no longer mattered. Even the Cuban presence in Angola evaporated as Soviet financial support of the Caribbean country dried up. Communism in South Africa was rendered a straw man.

41. Breakthrough • When change came, it was from an unlikely source. • New President F.W. DeKlerk, a product of ultraconservative Potchefstroom University and longtime Nationalist Party stalwart, broke the logjam. • He met with imprisoned ANC leader Nelson Mandela in 1989, and a year later he lifted the 30 year old ban on the ANC and released Mandela unconditionally from his jail cell on Robben Island.

42. Breakthrough • Change came rapidly. • Apartheid was dismantled. • ANC prisoners were freed. • Desegregation was announced – on beaches, in public facilities and even in living areas. • The state of emergency was lifted. • Exiles returned from abroad.

43. Breakthrough • In 1990 Nelson Mandela replaced ailing Oliver Tambo as President of the ANC and he agreed to sit down with De Klerk to jointly plan South Africa’s future. • A majority of whites assented to negotiations in a 1992 referendum – even though both white and black extremists tried to derail the process.

44. A New South Africa • In 1993 a new, interim, constitution was approved. • In 1994 the historic first universal suffrage election was held. Everyone over 18 could vote. • The homelands were abolished and 9 new provinces established. • Human rights were guaranteed. • The new Parliament took on the task of drafting a new constitution. • Mandela and De Klerk were awarded the 1993 Nobel Prize for Peace.

45. A New South Africa • The ANC took 63% of the vote, winning majorities in 7 of 9 provinces and gaining 20 cabinet seats. • The National Party took 20% of the vote and 7 cabinet positions – with a majority in Western Cape Province. • The Zulu Inkatha Party took 10% of the vote, 3 cabinet seats, and had a majority in Kwazulu/Natal Province.

46. A New South Africa • Mandela became President in an atmosphere of euphoria. • Hopes were high for a renewed country, where people of all colours could live and work, side by side, in harmony. • It was a nice dream, but a hard reality to achieve. • A change in government and a nice new flag did not put an end to South Africa’s problems.

47. A New South Africa • Blacks expected an immediate improvement in their standard of living; it didn’t happen overnight. • A flood of expected foreign investment did not materialize. • Whites were suspicious of the new black administration, fearing for their property. • In a new world of affirmative action hiring – what were the prospects for white children? • Most felt Mandela could be trusted, but what of his successors?

48. A New South Africa • Old hatreds festered. • Truth and Reconciliation Commissions were set up to be a venue where people could find out about what happened in the bad old days. • Amnesty would be granted to those who admitted to their crimes and demonstrated remorse. • Not all could do so. • People like ex-security chief Pik Botha and even Mandela’s first wife, Winnie, were accused of terrible crimes but were completely unrepentant.

49. A New South Africa • Black extremists demand that the government strip wealth from the whites. • White extremists prepare for a race war to come. • South Africa continues to bleed skilled whites who are emigrating to Britain, Canada and Australia in particular. • Life is improving for blacks, but at a snail’s pace.

50. A New South Africa • Nelson Mandela retired from politics in 1999 and was replaced by Thabo Mbeki. • Problems persisted and were compounded by the effect of an Aids epidemic which swept Southern Africa. • Mbeki clearly did not understand the problem and he denied the connection between HIV and Aids. In 2008 the New York Times reported that 365,000 South Africans died of Aids, many of them because proper treatment was denied them. • He also claimed crime was decreasing in South Africa, when the opposite was obvious. • A dispute with ANC rival Jacob Zuma led ultimately to Mbeke’s resignation in 2008.