Answers to a Few Questions:

How did the colonization affect the people of your country and the relationships between different ethnic groups?

When Jan van Riebeeck of the Dutch East India Company landed first landed in the Cape of Good Hope in 1652, he had no idea that that area would one day be the site of racism and ethnocentricity the intensity of which the world had never seen, and hopefully will never see again. Van Riebeeck was sent to the Cape of Good Hope because it was an important stop on the Europe/Asia trade route. Once there, he and his crew subjugated the Khoikhoi natives. Then, the boatful of single men mixed with Khoikhoi women and had mixed children, called “Coloureds.” The Coloureds were a separate race- neither black nor white; centuries later, they would choose to be called black. The Dutch were joined by Germans and Huguenots (French Protestants who were fleeing from religious persecution). They created a language called Afrikaans and considered themselves Afrikaners (people of Africa). Although they were farmers and manual laborers, they still considered race a dominant factor in how society should operate. They brought in other African natives and Asians as slaves because the Khoikhois refused to do hard labor.

Then, in 1795, British settlers came, supposedly to stop the strategic port from falling to the French. Haughty and ethnocentric, they dubbed the Afrikaners “Boers.” Boer meant farmer in Afrikaans, but although it was meant as an insult, the Afrikaners decided to use their new name with pride. To further alienate the Afrikaners, the British stopped the global slave trade in 1807, and then outlawed slavery completely in 1833. The equality-seeking British clashed with the race-dominated society of Boers. During the 1830’s, 12,000 Afrikaners left Cape Colony for “The Great Trek”- they migrated to escape British subjugation.

The Boers had land conflicts with the native Xhosa and Zulu peoples. The Boers struggled with the Xhosa, but were able to defeat them. Their struggles with the Zulu, however, were far more memorable. Though the struggles gave birth to such eternal warrior kings as Shaka, the temptation of power caused bitter, ruthless struggles for the crown that involved fratricide, treachery, and blood among the Zulus. In the end, Cetshwayo, the last of the Zulu warrior kings, was defeated in battle.

 The discovery of diamonds in 1866 and gold in 1886 launched a control struggle for the resources. This started the Anglo-Boer War. Fought from 1899-1902, the Boers’ homeland advantage did not hold strong. During the war, the British put 116,000 Boers in concentration camps, as well as 115,000 native Africans who were sympathetic with the Afrikaners. In the end, the British were lenient with their fellow Caucasians. They gave into the Boer demand that the blacks be denied the vote and denied equal rights.

The Boers had been bitter about the occupation of the British because it had demoted them to second-class citizens. Because they were second-class, they wanted a third class so that their own fragile egos would not be harmed too greatly. So, they treated the natives as inferior. The bigoted nature of the Afrikaners caused the destruction of the Xhosa and Zulu peoples, the creation of an entirely different race (the Coloureds), and an unspeakably frightening amount of blood to be shed. Their beliefs carried on until the close of the 20^th century, preventing equality and fairness for Africans. Indeed, the Boers and their descendants rejected progress and new ideas so much that the name for their set of laws- apartheid- is now cloaked with the connotation of raw, brutal acts of complete and utter inhumanity. The laws and customs enacted in South Africa that lasted from the Middle Ages into recent history have made the segregation faced in the United States during and before the ‘60’s seem like a time of peace and parity. The people of South Africa were murdered by their own government, the descendants of the once-great ethnic groups torn down, and a constant feeling of humiliation and inferiority felt amongst all people whose skin tone was not as fair as others’.     - Audrey Z.

Fight for independence: basic information, characteristics. Was there a civil war and why?

In 1948, the apartheid started. Apartheid means separateness in Afrikaans and it signifies segregation, living apart or separation. The apartheid started when the National Party (NP) won all-white elections and enforced a stricter policy of white domination and racial separation. The apartheid lasted for 50 years, and represented a dark period of South African history. When apartheid began, blacks resisted with non-violent protests. However, some of these peaceful protests led to violence from the police. In the Sharpeville Protest of 1960, 69 blacks were killed and 180 were injured. Later, in 1976, black students led a protest because the government took away their right to speak their native language. All of the 600 protestors were killed. That led to one and a half years of violence from blacks and whites. However, the blacks were not alone in their outrage at their complete and utter lack of rights due to apartheid laws. There were many multi-racial groups that were against apartheid regulations. A few examples of these are the ANC (African Native Congress) and the PAC (Pan-African Congress). Those organizations publicly protested, went on strikes, and boycotted the government in the fight for equality. However, the PAC was banned, and the ANC was turned into the African National Congress- an all-white group that was pro-apartheid.

The apartheid laws were completely and utterly unjust, inhumane, and most of the time pointless. Blacks were resettled in black "homelands" (Bantustans), which were isolated from where the whites resided. The ANC, now a white government group, as well as the MK (a similar anti-black group), targeted the leaders of the resistance. One of the most horrific violent acts committed against black leaders was putting a gasoline-filled tire around the leader’s neck and then lighting it on fire. During the apartheid, blacks had no rights, couldn’t travel, they lived in slums and cheap living quarters (many lived in camps and suffered nightly raids that included the complete destruction of their flimsy tents), they were completely cut off from semi-decent jobs, and even basic human rights. They were considered inferior foreigners in their own land. Additionally, public transportation, restrooms, restaurants, and schools were segregated. Furthermore, blacks and whites were forbidden to marry. Also, similarly to the Nazi practice of tagging Jews with Stars of David, the government issued passes to blacks. If you were caught without your pass, you were subject to severe punishment. Blacks were not the only ones to suffer, although their suffering was tenfold worse than that of which whites had to endure. The economy stalled when apartheid started, and the west completely cut off trade with South Africa in protest of their appalling actions. Because of the economic crisis, whites not have many opportunities for jobs, although they were still better off than the blacks.

There were many individuals who were against apartheid and did their best to stop it. One man named Nelson Mandela was an anti-apartheid leader. He was arrested and imprisoned for 27 years because of his beliefs. Finally, in 1994, the first multi-racial election was held, and effectively ended the apartheid and brought majority rule.     - Clifford Y.

What is the current political situation?

Because of increasing outside pressure from egalitarian nations of the U.N., as well as an economic crisis because all of the educated people had fled the country, South Africa held its first democratic, multiracial election in 1994. Nelson Mandela (a national hero who preached the peaceful attainment of equality and was imprisoned for 27 years because of his beliefs) won the 1994 election. However, Mandela declined to run for a second term in the ’99 election because he thought that South Africa needed to experience a peaceful transition. Thabo Mbeki won the 1999 election, as well as the 2004. He was scheduled to leave office in 2009, but resigned on September 25, 2008 due to infighting and corruption within the African National Congress (the current dominant party). Kgalema Motlanthe, who was the General-Secretary, will be the president until the next election, which is coming up soon on April 22. South Africa now faces the dilemma of bridging the two socioeconomic classes- there is an enormous gap between the whites and the blacks, which is the remnant of the apartheid laws. Despite this colossal task before them, South Africa faces the future with a bright face. They have enacted so much positive change in little more than a decade that it can definitely be said that much can be expected from South Africa in the future.     - Audrey Z.

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Bibliography

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