Apartheid (an Afrikaans word meaning separateness or literally, apartness) was but a reflection of Jim Crow Laws in America and Aboriginal peoples‘ suppression in Australia 🇦🇺. The Dutch East India Company that founded the Cape (of Good Hope) Colony (modern-day Cape Town and Western Cape), began making laws in the 18th century to restrict the movement and settlement of non-whites in the Cape Colony.
Later on, when the British acquired the Cape Colony, many Africans were forcibly expelled from the Cape Colony to make way for more British settlers in the 19th century and create a white-only colony. However, this created a labour shortage. To make up for this labour shortage without incorporating Africans into the colony, “Pass” policies were enacted. As early as 1828, Ordinance 49 was passed by the Cape Colony to allow Black labourers with the pass to enter and work within the colony.
When slavery was abolished in 1807 and they were finally freed in 1838 in the British Empire, the Afrikaners (Dutch settlers who first settled in the Cape Colony) became angry and resisted British rule. They, therefore, moved inwards to found two Afrikaans (Dutch) States: the Orange Free State with its capital in Bloemfontein and the Transvaal, with its capital in Pretoria (Johannesburg was also within Transvaal).
These two separate Dutch/Boer (Afrikaner) republics were recognized by the British, who kept the Cape Colony and added Zululand (Natal) to the colony. The Dutch/Boer republics did not like foreigners (called Uitlanders), especially the British, coming within their territory. Within these two Dutch republics, Africans were prevented from buying land or partaking in political life. They were only used as labourers.
With the founding of gold in Johannesburg and diamonds 💎 in Kimberly, the British planned to take over the Boer republics and incorporate them into the Empire. This resulted in the Boer wars. The British lost the 1st Boer War and won the 2nd Boer War. As a result, the whole of South Africa became united under the British in 1902. Although the Boers got their freedom, the Africans, who largely fought on the side of the British, got nothing out of the war.
Rather, the new South African constitution prevented them from voting and reduced them to 2nd-class citizens. They were not allowed to live with, marry, or share the same trains🚆or cars 🚘 with Europeans and they were removed from their lands with reckless abandon. This was before Apartheid was introduced in 1948.
Between the 17th and 19th centuries, a large population of Indians were brought into South Africa, first by the Dutch East Indian Company, and later by the British. After the British took Natal (Zululand) and displaced the Zulus from their land, they needed labour to work the land. The Zulu men were warriors (who only fought wars) while their women worked. Hence, the Zulu men refused to work for the British. Hence, the British brought in thousands of Indians as Indentured slaves and workers to work on their sugarcane farms.
These Indians, who were mostly concentrated in Natal (Zululand), were also treated just like the Africans: 2nd-class citizens. Around this time, a young Indian Lawyer called Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi, who later returned to India to champion and ensure the independence of India 🇮🇳, lived and worked in South Africa as a lawyer; he was trained in Britain 🇬🇧. Gandhi came to South Africa around 1893 and championed the concept of nonviolent demonstrations against oppression.
He successfully organized nonviolent protests and disobedience (called Satyagraha) against unjust suppression laws in both South Africa and India. His nonviolent civil actions were adopted by Martin Luther King Jr. in America against the Jim Crow laws. Gandhi also drew attention to the plight of Indians in South Africa. However, Gandhi’s views of the Africans were that they
“are very troublesome, very dirty, and live like animals.”
Despite all these demonstrations, nothing changed until 1948, when the National Party took power in South Africa. The new government then began to institute a more radical form of Apartheid, which will be our focus next week.
Further reading:
Encyclopedia.com/people/history/southern-African-history/
Encyclopedia Brittanica
