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History
The country is a result of two main strands of history: that
of the European settlers; and the movements of the Africans.
The name Azania was used by several African organizations, although
historically the term was first used in the ancient Greek Periplus
of the Erythraean Sea for the pre-colonial culture of the East
African coast - Kenya and Tanzania.
Africans
The whole area is populated mainly by people speaking two
groups of Bantu languages: the Sotho group in the west; and the
Ngoni in the east. The languages of the latter group are characterized
by click sounds believed to be derived from the original inhabitants,
the San (Bushmen). Both Bantu groups are believed to have migrated
from the north in distant times, probably as early as the 10th
century. The Bantu speakers occupied the eastern coast and hills,
as well as some of the western plains. The San occupied most
of this area before the arrival of the Bantu and had a similar
culture to that of the early Australians.
The bases of the economy and culture of the Bantu speakers
were cattle herding and agriculture. The Transvaal area was part
of the empire of the Mwenumatapa based on Zimbabwe. The other
areas formed small states based on the clans.
Shaka
The most important event in modern southern African history is
the Mfecane
(the Crushing), the disruption to traditional life which occurred
when Shaka the
Zulu (1787-1828), introduced the innovation of mass armies
of warriors and total war in 1816. It is not known whether he
was imitating the European way of organizing armies or whether
he made an independent discovery. (It is speculated that the
mysterious Zimba people who devastated the Swahili coast in 1587
might have been a similar example of sudden militarization.)
It was an event comparable with Jengis Khan and the explosion
of the Mongols in the 13th century and one of the great human
political disasters.
Shaka turned his Zulu clan (initially with about 1500 warriors)
into a great power which conquered large parts of southern Africa
and released disturbances to traditional life which reached as
far north as southern Tanzania where eventually one group of
Ngoni warriors disturbed by Shaka ended up. The political legacies
include: the kingdoms of Lesotho and Swaziland, and the presence
of the Ndebele in Zimbabwe, as well as the present pattern of
settlement in Botswana. Groups of Angoni settled in Malawi. In
Tanganyika it is possible that the militarized kingdoms made
possible the resistance to the Germans when they colonized the
area. By the time he was murdered as an obvious psychopath in
1828, the Mfecane had left the area now called Transvaal and
the Orange Free State depopulated because people had fled from
Shaka's armies and never became permanently re-established. The
area now called Natal was disorganized and weakened so that it
was more easily conquered by the British who began arriving about
this time. Gangs of brigands remained in the disturbed lands.
The Inkatha Freedom Party appear to be nostalgic for the past.
Dutch
The other history is that of the Europeans. The Dutch established
a base at the Cape of Good Hope in 1652 in order to service the
ships of the Dutch East India Company. A small settlement was
planted there under Jan Van Riebeck as the first governor to
provide fresh meat, vegetables, water and repairs. The people
living there at the time were a nomadic cattle-herding group
known nowadays as the Khoikhoi and then as the Hottentots. They
were the furthest south cattle herders. There were also the San
(Bushmen). The small colony grew to become the ancestors of the
people now known as Afrikaners. The British called them the Boers
(Dutch for farmers). Their language developed from Dutch to become
what is now known as Afrikaans (altered spelling, new vocabulary
and simplified grammar). Linguists now classify it as a Creole
language, showing influence from African and Asian languages
as well as the original Dutch. With them there came into being
- "nine months after Jan Van Riebeck's arrival" , as
they say - a community of mixed race people who also came to
speak Afrikaans, but who were never allowed political and social
equality. The Dutch brought as slaves Malays from Indonesia.
These are the ancestors of the Muslim community at the Cape.
Together these people were called the Coloureds during the Apartheid
period.
There was also a group of French Protestants following the
prohibition of their religion in France in 1685. These have become
assimilated into the Afrikaner group but their family names remain
common among Afrikaners.
British
The British captured the Cape in 1795 during the Napoleonic
War, left in 1802 and returned in 1806. At the Treaty of Amiens
in 1802 the Cape settlement was transferred to the control of
Britain. When in 1833 slavery in the British Empire was outlawed
some of the Dutch settlers decided to escape from British law
into territory not controlled by Britain. This was the Great
Trek in the 1830s when with their ox wagon carts they traveled
into what are now the northern Cape Province, the Orange Free
State and the Transvaal where they formed republics. A few reached
as far as southern Angola.
When they entered these lands they found the population much
less than it had been fifty years earlier because the Mfecane
had cleared it. From this arose their myth that they were not
taking the land from its owners but were competing with the Africans
for settling new land.
Indians and British settlers
In 1820 a deliberate settlement of English speaking people
began at Port Elizabeth, along the lines of the contemporary
settling of Australia and New Zealand. Another settlement took
place at Port Natal, later Durban in Natal. Much of Natal was
suitable for sugar growing and the British did what they practiced
in the rest of their empire - they brought Indians to work the
sugar plantations. Their descendants are still there. Mahatma
Gandhi the Indian leader worked there first as a lawyer.
Gold Rush
The next important event was the discovery of diamonds at
Kimberley in 1868 and gold in 1886 on a farm in the South African
Republic (the Transvaal) at what is now Johannesburg. During
the nineteenth century gold discoveries anywhere in the world
attracted large numbers of gold seekers from Europe and America.
The result was that there was soon a large community of English
speakers in the heart of the Afrikaans speaking area.
As the number of English-speakers grew the Afrikaner inhabitants
and their government resented their presence. The pro-imperial
policy in Britain and at the Cape Colony led to the belief that
the gold ought to be controlled by Britain. The treatment of
the foreign miners by the South African government was used as
an excuse to start a war.
There were several Anglo-Boer wars but the last began in 1899
and lasted till 1902. It was one of the first modern total wars
and, as the Afrikaners frequently point out, included the invention
of the Concentration Camp when the British rounded up the wives
and children of the fighting Boers. Many died of disease in the
camps. The British won and incorporated the two Boer republics,
Transvaal and Orange Free State, as British colonies alongside
the Cape Colony and Natal.
Dominion Status
In 1910 the four colonies were put together by the British
as the Union of South Africa to form a state similar to the federations
of Australia and Canada, known as Dominions, a state in which
the British government was responsible for external relations
and defense but which gradually moved towards independence. The
head of state was a Governor General with the same relation to
the elected Prime Minister as the British Monarch had to the
British Prime Minister. The Governor General was appointed by
the British Monarch on the advice of the South African Prime
Minister.
This new state had one important difference from Canada and
Australia. There were two populations and only the immigrant
Europeans had the vote in it (except for the Cape where the so-called
Coloured Community had the vote and there were four elected representatives
for the Africans). This fatal flaw contained the seeds of the
future. Although the existing voters' roll in the Cape (not entirely
European) was entrenched in the constitution there was no provision
for extending it to the other provinces.
In 1912 the Africans formed a representative organization,
the African National Congress, to demand representation in the
new state (they were emulating the Indian National Congress in
British India). Their demands were refused and Africans were
compelled to obey laws which they had no part in forming. These
included restrictions on the right to own land, to live where
they chose and do the jobs they wished. Certain work was reserved
for "Whites" (especially after White Trade Unions led
strikes against Africans doing skilled work in the mines).
Along with the other dominions South Africa was recognized
as fully independent in 1931.
The defeated Afrikaners in 1910 found themselves in theory
equal citizens (with the English) in a British designed state.
They spent the next thirty eight years trying to take it over.
They formed a Nationalist Party which finally won the election
in 1948 with a platform of cutting all links with Britain, making
Afrikaans the national language, and dealing firmly with the
African majority.
Apartheid
The most important changes came about when Dutch-born Hendrick
Verwoerd became Prime Minister. He had been a sympathizer with
Hitler and his racist theories
during the second world war and came to power with a comprehensive
plan (Apartheid=Separateness) to segregate the "Whites"
from Africans at all levels of society. This was an extension
of traditional customary segregation but much more rigorous.
Separate facilities were to be provided in all aspects of life.
The theory was said to be that every cultural group would have
its own state (even in these terms Verwoerd never worked out
what to do with the Indians and people of mixed race who lived
in every area). Some of the most extreme proponents of the theory
of Apartheid wanted to see the Whites do all their own work in
their own all-white state. However, as far as the Africans were
concerned it amounted to much the same as before, the Whites
were to remain in charge and a condition of quasi-slavery continued.
In 1961 the Nationalist government declared a republic with
the intention of removing the symbolic link with the British
Crown. SA was then expelled from the Commonwealth
(strictly, was not invited to rejoin). The "Coloured"
voters in the Cape Province were removed from the voters' roll.
Racism
Under the Population Registration Act all residents of the
Republic were to be classified into one of the several racial
classifications (White, Coloured, Bantu, Indian, Other Asian,
Cape Malay). (Japanese, because their money and trade were needed,
were classified as "Honorary White" .) As the genetic
origin of the population is in reality very mixed - many so-called
Whites have African ancestors - this caused immense suffering
when members of one family might be classified into different
racial groups and be forbidden to live in the same area. Inter-marriage
and extra-marital sex between "Whites" and other races
were also forbidden, a law which gave rise to a certain amount
of blackmail. These laws were apparently based on similar laws
passed by the Nazis prohibiting
marriage between Jews and non-Jews. Although racial discrimination
is also found in several other societies, such as India, Fiji
and Japan, South Africa was the only modern society, apart from
Hitler's Germany, to pursue it so fanatically and thoroughly
with all the resources of a modern police state.
Some of the rural areas where many of the Africans lived were
declared to be independent states: Transkei, Ciskei, Boputhatswana,
Venda, Kwandebele. These had previously had the same status as
Indian Reservations in the United States. However, no state other
than South Africa recognized the independence of these Bantustans
and they were reincorporated into South Africa after democracy
was agreed, and Apartheid came to an end.
Throughout the Apartheid period the ANC organized resistance
and began to organize a low key guerrilla war, after many years
of attempting non-violent resistance. Other countries imposed
sanctions on South Africa,
refusing sporting contacts and many types of trade. A banking
boycott prevented investment in the country. These sanctions
weakened the white government by inducing a recession and preventing
the economy growing sufficiently to employ the mass of urban
workers. Eventually the ruling group appears to have realized
that Apartheid could not be maintained in isolation from the
rest of the world.
Negotiations
In 1990 with the release of Nelson Mandela and the legalization
of the African National Congress South African history entered
an unpredictable phase. It may become a country like Brazil where
race is less rigidly determined, or possibly most of the people
of European descent may leave, causing the economy to decline
due to the poor education and training which has been allowed
to the majority.
The immediate result seems to have been a great increase in
violence probably by the young men who had been denied education
under the former regime. There were rumors of white death
squads formed by admirers of Hitler who wished to return to Apartheid.
Others were formed by members of the security forces: police
and army.
Does the West still need South Africa?
South Africa was part of the Cold War western alliance. Until
the ending of communism in the Soviet Union, South Africa was
the only source of certain important minerals, such as Chromium
and Platinum, to the western countries. But Russia also has many
of these minerals and could replace South Africa as a supplier.
Western governments also wanted to control the use of the Cape
sea route and prevent Soviet fleets using it during a war. The
end of the Cold War might have allowed the majority to gain political
control, but of an economy starved of investment and no longer
considered vital to the western industrial powers.
The most important sign of the end of apartheid was the repeal
of the Group Areas Act partitioning land into areas allowed for
ownership and settlement by the different racial groups.
The Population Registration Act was repealed in June 1991.
Thus, no further racial classifications of new born people were
to be made, though the existing population register remained
in force and the voters' roll remained restricted to those classified
"White" until 1994. One of the first of the Apartheid
laws to be repealed was the Sexual Immorality Act, in 1985. But
families of mixed races still could not legally live in "White"
areas. However, the law ceased to be enforced from about 1990
and blacks began to move into the former white areas.
An increase in violence during 1992 suggested the danger that
neither the white government nor the ANC would be able to maintain
control. The "Third Force" of police death
squads and provocateurs caused violence to get worse. Yugoslavia
has shown how quickly a peaceful state can deteriorate if there
are strong political hatreds. South Africa was not peaceful to
start with. Following the election political violence reduced
but crime increased.
A power-sharing agreement was signed between the National
Party and the ANC on 12 February 1993. A new interim constitution
was signed in November 1993 to lead to elections on 27 April
1994 and a power sharing Transitional Executive Council in the
interim to supervise the government. Nelson Mandela was sworn
in as president on 10 May 1994. His successor Thabo Mbeki was
elected in the second General Election.
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