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Home , Cape Colony, Culture of South Africa, First Boer War, History of South Africa, Recorded history, San people

15 Key Moments in South African

A Timeline of Events that Shaped South

David Gladson - Marketing Manager, Amor -

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Timeline Table of Contents

1400’s Pre‐Recorded History 1955 ‐ Mandela 1836 The Imprisoned 1 1899‐1902 5 Second 1990 Mandela 10 Boer Released 1779 The First 1948 1976 of the Xhosa 7 Soweto Formalized Riots 14

3 9 12

2 8 15 13

1652 The 6 1910 Union of 1994 A New Arrival of the 11 South Africa Dutch 1985 Botha 4 1843‐1899 The Crosses the Chess Game of Rubicon 1961 South Africa 1806 Britain Withdrawals from Permanently the Commonwealth Occupies Cape f t in

1400’s Pre-Recorded History

Although our recorded begins with the arrival of the first European explorers, this is not the beginning of the story. There were three sophisticated people groups living in the area that is now South Africa who left a rich legacy of oral history that continues to influence modern South Africa.

Praag.org

The were a hunter-gather that lived in the drier lands near the Khalahari and the higher areas of the mountains. The San people had rich oral, musical, and rock traditions. The Khoikhoi people practiced a mix of herding and some farming. The Khoikhoi lived across the southern and western areas of modern South Africa, and were the first to encounter the Dutch colonists.

The third people group were the Xhosa, a collection of Bantu speaking peoples who are the ancestors of the majority of modern day South Africans. The Xhosa inhabited the eastern side of modern day South Africa and practiced intensive agriculture. The Xhosa had been gradually expanding west and south for generations when the first European colonists arrived.

The Arrival of the Dutch

Suid‐Afrikaanse Geskiedenis in Beeld (1989) by Anthony Preston. Bion Books: Printed in South Africa The first Portuguese explorers arrived at the in 1487 seeking a trade route to . It wasn’t until 1652 that the Dutch built a permanent colony. The Dutch originally authorized the construction of as a station where fleets traveling to and from their in Indonesia could restock their provisions and shelter from the fierce winter storms. The mandate quickly changed as some of the company employees started farming the countryside; a small but steady stream of Dutch immigrants expanded the fledgling colony over the next 150 years. However, the colony remained small. In 1793 there were only 14,000 colonists, in comparison to 4 million residents in the newly formed United States of America.

Despite their small numbers, the colonists had a major impact on the neighboring native populations. Many of the Dutch colonists struggled at farming, and took up a semi-nomadic lifestyle raising sheep and cattle over vast tracks of land. The Khoikhoi who lived in the adjacent territory tried to resist Dutch encroachments, but slowly succumbed to the continual pressure of the colonists’ advance to the north and east. Some fell to the new diseases which were introduced by the colonists, others died in frontier disputes which flared up periodically, and others were absorbed into the Dutch colony as laborers on the farm estates.

Slavery was not practiced by any of the native people groups who lived in South Africa. The Dutch colony imported slaves during the first years of the colony to provide labor to build infrastructure and work farms. As more colonists came and started farms, more slaves were imported, many from India and East Asia. These slaves, as well as the remnants of the Khoikhoi peoples, formed the “colored” class of the highly stratified Dutch system.

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The First of the

By the late 1700’s the Dutch expansion eastward had brought them into contact with the territory of the . The Xhosa practiced intensive agriculture and were much more numerous than the Khoikhoi people the Dutch had fought up to this point, but the technological superiority of the Dutch weaponry was insurmountable. Over the next century a long series of wars, punctuated by peace treaties and broken treaties, slowly eroded the power of the Xhosa kingdoms. The pattern was similar to that in North America where the United States slowly expanded westward, except that in South Africa the white settlers were always the minority numerically.

Zuluculture.co.za

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Britain Permanently Occupies Cape Colony

The European politics of the would forever change the course of South African history in 1806, when Britain seized Cape Colony. Afraid that the Dutch colonies would fall into French hands, Britain sent in a force and seized Cape Colony for themselves.

In 1820, Britain began sending settlers to the Cape. This did not sit well with the Dutch colonists, who considered the British to be invaders who had interfered in their affairs. The Dutch began to refer to themselves as “” to distinguish themselves from the recently arrived British “Settlers”. In turn, the British settlers derisively referred to the Dutch colonists as “”.

Legacy.history.co.uk

f t in The Great Trek

In 1833, the British government outlawed throughout its empire, including the colonies. This had a major impact on the Afrikaner economy, particularly the farm estates. In 1836, several thousand Afrikaners set out on the “Great Trek”, seeking to found a new independent colony outside the British sphere of influence. In the eyes of the Afrikaners themselves, they were fleeing oppression and seeking freedom to live out their . This brought them into conflict with the surrounding Xhosa kingdoms, as well as Zulu kingdoms expanding from the north.

Risingsouthernstar‐africa.de.tl

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The Chess Game of Annexation

History.howstuffworks.com The competing British and Afrikaner interests touched off a series of land grabs across modern day South Africa. Britain feared that the Afrikaners would align themselves with Germany or one of the other European powers. In 1843 Britain annexed the newly formed Afrikaner of . Over the following decades Britain continued to annex territory to prevent the two remaining Afrikaner states of Transvaal and River State from gaining access to their own seaport.

The discovery of diamonds, and later , within the Afrikaner territories was a mixed blessing. On the one hand, the natural resources provided the states with the money to develop railroads and purchase weaponry. On the other hand, the two remaining Afrikaner states were not populous enough to exploit these resources on their own. An influx of British settlers to run the mining operations created further tensions between the two groups of colonists. The British made a botched attempt to annex the Transvaal in 1881 (known as the ), but were soundly defeated.

The native populations did not fare well during the constant warfare and political maneuvering. Both the British and the Afrikaners exploited political differences between native groups, using them as pawns in their various wars. The last Xhosa kingdoms were defeated in 1870; after initial humiliating defeats, the British destroyed the Zulu in 1880.

Further gold discoveries in the Transvaal in the , and rising tensions between the two groups of colonists set the stage for the coming storm. f t in

The

Outmaneuvered by the British, and essentially surrounded, the Transvaal and state declared war on Britain in 1899. The forces won a string of initial victories, stunning Britain, but the final outcome of the war was inevitable. Britain brought in reinforcements from around their global empire, eventually fielding 10 times as many soldiers as the two Boer could muster. The Boers were unable to bring in any additional weaponry, and after the fall of their two capitals, resorted to guerilla warfare.

British troops, unable to match the speed and maneuverability of the Boer guerillas, used a policy to force the two states to surrender. The British burned down 30,000 homesteads, poisoned wells, and sowed fields with salt to make them unable to produce crops. Civilians were rounded up and placed in concentration camps, where 28,000 Afrikaner civilians died of disease and starvation, mostly children. More than 100,000 native Africans were also placed in concentration camps, of whom another 20,000 died. By 1902 the last of the Boer forces surrendered. The British was determined to transform South Africa into a loyal British colony by swamping the region with new British immigrants and uniting the four states of Cape Colony, Natal, Transvaal, and Orange River State into one country. Only half of his plan came to fruition.

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The

The flood of new immigrants which the British high commissioner envisioned to help him transform the did not materialize. Despite some immigration, only Natal state had more whites of British descent than Afrikaans. The economic policies of the British administration alienated many of the British colonists, causing them to vote with the Boer parties on unification. In 1910, with the Act of Union, the British government effectively handed control of the now unified state to the same leaders they had just defeated in the Boer war. The modern state of South Africa was born.

These decisions about the of the nation were made without the input or consent of the majority of South Africa’s people. Each of the 4 states had different laws regarding who was allowed to vote. Transvaal and Orange River State specifically restricted the vote to whites, whereas Cape Colony had voting qualifications that were, at least theoretically, non-racial. These different voting regimes were embedded in the new constitution, and would remain in place until Apartheid was formalized in 1948.

In 1912, leaders of the “colored” and black majority classes in the former Cape Colony came together to form the South African Native National Congress (SANNC), with the express purpose of protecting their voting rights within the territory of the former Cape Colony. In 1923 the organization renamed itself the African National Congress, or ANC, and expanded their mandate to include obtaining the equal voting rights of all citizens of South Africa. The ANC would be the major player in the struggle against the white minority government until the fall of apartheid some 80 years later.

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Apartheid Formalized

The decision to join Britain in World War II to fight against Nazi Germany spilt the political party that was leading South Africa in 1939. The atrocities committed by the British during the Boer war were still in the living memory of many South Africans. South Africa joined the allied side, and soldiers of all races fought and died alongside allied forces. South Africa also played a major economic role in the struggle, providing raw materials and an industrial base to support the allied side.

Economic expansion during the war years, with the explosion of jobs in the cities and corresponding decline of rural jobs, drew hundreds of thousands of black South Africans into the cities, despite the minority government’s attempts to keep blacks in rural reserves. The mainly black townships which surround all major cities in South Africa saw explosive growth during the war years. The white minority reacted to these developments with fear in the elections of 1948.

The National Party was elected with the promise to forever segregate the racial groups of South Africa. In theory apartheid was to be a regime of “separate but equal”; in practice it was far from equal. The black majority, approximately 70% of the nation in 1948, was assigned to live in just 13% of the nation, with the remainder of the nation set aside for white, colored (people of mixed race), and citizens. Non-white citizens were given “passbooks” which were meant to restrict their movement within the country. Anyone found to be away from their place of residence without proper reason could be arrested; more than 3 million South Africans were violently uprooted from their homes and sent to live in other areas.

The ANC led the opposition to the apartheid government with a campaign of strikes, non-violent opposition, and civil disobedience. became a leading figure in the opposition movement, becoming president of the ANC youth league in 1950. The government responded to the ANC’s campaign of defiance with force and further tightened down the apartheid laws.

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Freedom Charter- Mandela Imprisoned

In 1955 the ANC forged a coalition of opposition groups from across the racial spectrum, including whites who opposed the policies of the apartheid government, to produce the Freedom Charter. The Freedom Charter was essentially a Bill of Rights for a united society that would recognize the equal rights of all regardless of race. The apartheid government responded by arresting the leaders and charging them with treason. Despite the government dragging the trial out for 5 years, the courts refused to convict these leaders due to the non-violent policies of the ANC.

Sahistory.org.za

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South Africa Withdraws from the Commonwealth

In the 1950s and 60s, Britain was attempting to withdraw from its former colonial empire. When the British prime minister visited South Africa in 1960, he made it clear that Britain would not support the white South African government’s policies of oppression. In response, the white government defiantly withdrew from the British Commonwealth in 1961. The black majority countered this move with further non-violent resistance in the form of a national strike, in addition to a campaign of armed resistance. Many members of the ANC leadership were arrested in 1962-63, and in 1964 Mandela and many others were sentenced to life imprisonment on .

The United Nations had been officially opposed to the apartheid government since 1952. In 1973 the UN declared apartheid a “crime against humanity”, and in 1977 the United Nations placed an arms embargo on South Africa, the first time the UN had taken this step against one of its own members. In the United States, the policy towards South Africa varied from president to president, but the US remained a major trading partner with South Africa throughout the apartheid era. Cold War fears of a communist take-over of Africa led the US to collaborate with the apartheid government in various wars and revolutions in the nations surrounding South Africa, right up into the 1980s.

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Soweto Riots

In 1976 the apartheid government attempted to enforce a law requiring schools to teach in the Afrikaans language rather than English or any African language. Both teachers and students responded with anger and condemnation. Spontaneous rioting broke out across Soweto (near ). The photograph of 13 year old being carried by a fellow protestor, one of more than 300 students killed in the riots, became the image which defined the Soweto riots. The UN arms embargo of South Africa in 1977 was a direct response to the government’s brutal crackdown.

The iconic photo captured by Sam Nzima

The apartheid government was in crisis. The economy began to falter, and for the first time the white population of South Africa began to shrink as young people sought better opportunities in other countries. The black population continued to grow at an accelerating rate, leaving the white population feeling increasingly isolated. In 1980, South Africa’s closest ally, the white-run state of , collapsed, leaving the apartheid government isolated and alone.

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Botha Crosses the Rubicon

With the economy reeling and international pressure against the Apartheid regime increasing, the international community expected that the 1984 South African elections would bring at least some steps towards a compromise. Instead, the newly elected President Botha shocked the world defiantly by digging in his heals. Instead of reforms, the apartheid government tried to solidify their hold on the country with force. The opposition likewise responded with force. Violence in South Africa increased six-fold between 1984 and 1985. A state of emergency was declared and the media was censored.

Odwonder.com

Nelson Mandela, in prison for more than 26 years at this point, was still considered the leader of the ANC. The apartheid government attempted to placate the opposition by offering an ailing Mandela his release from prison if he would cease opposition to apartheid. Mandela’s response was concise: “I cannot and will not give any undertaking at a time when I and you, the people, are not free. Your freedom and mine cannot be separated. I will return.”

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In August 1989, a new president came into office in South Africa, F.W. de Clerk. De Clerk was a pragmatist who could see the writing on the wall. During his first six-months in office de Clerk released Mandela from prison, reversed the ban on the ANC and other opposition parties, and lifted media censorship. Other reforms quickly followed.

Alexander Joe/AFP/Getty Images

In 1992, a referendum was held among white voters, asking whether the dismantling of apartheid should continue. Sixty-nine percent of voted yes, marginalizing the hardliners and giving de Clerk the political capital to continue the tough negotiations.

In 1993, white extremists, attempting to de-rail the negotiations, assassinated a leading member of the ANC . Only an impassioned speech by Nelson Mandela was able to hold back the violence and prevent a civil war from breaking out.

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A New South Africa

After the close call following the assassination of Chris Hani, the negotiations resumed with a renewed sense of urgency. Nelson Mandela and de Clerk were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in December 1993, and in April 1994 the first open, multi-racial elections were held in South Africa.

Forty six years of apartheid rule, and the centuries of history that preceeded those events, left a scarred nation in desperate need of healing. Some of this healing came in the form of gestures President Mandela made to show South Africa that it was a new nation. As portrayed in the recent movie Invictus the World Rugby Championship was held in 1995. Mandela’s support of White South African’s beloved team helped assure the white minority that their culture would continue to remain an important part of the new South Africa’s future.

Symbols alone could not reconcile the nation. In 1995 Archbishop was asked to lead a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, or TRC. The TRC was tasked not with bringing justice to the crimes of the past, but rather healing. Anyone who had committed crimes during the apartheid era, either on behalf of the apartheid government or in opposition to it, was allowed to apply to the TRC for amnesty. Those who did so were required to fully and honestly admit their actions. Apartheid was a system built upon self- justifications, standing before the TRC required participants to discard those justifications and face the full weight of their crimes . The TRC received much criticism for being too lenient, or for being ineffective. However, Mandela, Desmond Tutu, and the other leaders wisely recognized that forgiveness was the only path forward for the new, united South Africa.

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Resources

A History of South Africa, by Leonard Thompson, 3rd edition, 2001 from Yale University Press. 358 pages

A Concise History of South Africa, by Robert Ross, 2nd edition, 2008, from Cambridge University Press. 251 pages

The History of South Africa, by Roger B. Beck, 2000, by Greenwood Press. 248 pages

History in an Hour: South Africa, by Anthony Holmes, kindle edition, 2012, Harper Collins Publishers Ltd.

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Amor’s Role in South Africa

As Amor works in South Africa, we seek to meet the needs of people who have been left without adequate housing. The South African government has made great efforts to provide for people who have been left with nothing, but there is a long way left to go. But we also seek something greater. As Amor brings together people from different nations and different races for the common cause of helping families living in poverty, we hope to play a role in continuing the reconciliation and creating a new, united future for the people of South Africa.

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