The 'history of South Africa' is viewed differently by various scholars and by its various population groups because
South Africa is a
multicultural country. The researchers' views heavily influence their perception of South African history (see the
demographics of South Africa and
culture of South Africa).
The
Khoisan peoples are the aboriginal people of the region who have lived there for millennia. Black African South Africans are believed to originate from the
Great Lakes region of Africa in prehistoric times.
Whites in South Africa, descendants of later European migrations, regard themselves equally as products of South Africa, as do South Africa's
Coloureds,
Indians, Asians and
Jews.
Ancient history
Main articles: Ancient History of South Africa
Around 2,500 years ago
Bantu peoples migrated into Southern Africa from the
Niger River Delta. The Bushmen and the Bantu lived mostly peacefully together, although since neither had any method of
writing, researchers know little of this period outside of
archaeological artifacts.
Beginning around 2,500 years ago, some Bushman groups acquired
livestock from further north. Gradually, hunting and gathering gave way to
herding as the dominant
economic activity as the Bushmen tended to small
herds of
cattle and
oxen. The arrival of livestock introduced concepts of personal
wealth and
property-
ownership into Bushman society. Community structures solidified and expanded, and
chieftaincies developed.
The pastoralist Bushmen, known as
Khoikhoi ("men of men"), began to move further south, reaching as far as the
cape now known as the
Cape of Good Hope. Along the way they intermarried with the hunter-gatherer Bushmen, whom they referred to as ''San'', to the point where drawing a clear line between the two groups became impossible (prompting the use of the term ''
Khoisan''). Over time the Khoikhoi established themselves along the coast, while small groups of Bushmen continued to inhabit the interior.
Bantu expansion
Main articles: Bantu expansion
At about this time,
Bantu-speaking peoples also began arriving in South Africa. Originally from the
Niger Delta area in
west Africa, they had started to make their way south and eastwards in about
1000 BC, reaching present-day
KwaZulu-Natal Province by
AD 500. The Bantu-speakers not only had
domestic animals, but also practiced agriculture, farming
wheat and other crops. They also displayed skill in working
iron, and lived in settled villages. The Bantu arrived in South Africa in small waves rather than in one cohesive migration. Some groups, the
ancestors of today's
Nguni peoples (the
Zulu,
Xhosa,
Swazi, and
Ndebele), preferred to live near the coast. Others, now known as the
Sotho-Tswana peoples (
Tswana,
Pedi, and
Basotho), settled in the Highveld, while today's
Venda,
Lemba, and
Shangaan-
Tsonga peoples made their homes in the northeastern areas of South Africa.
Bantu-speakers and Khoisan mixed, as evidenced by rock paintings showing the two different groups interacting. The type of contact remains unknown, although
linguistic proof of integration survives, as several
Bantu languages (notably
Xhosa and
Zulu) incorporated the
click consonant characteristic of earlier
Khoisan languages. Archaeologists have found numerous Khoisan
artifacts at the sites of Bantu settlements.
Colonization
Main articles: History of South Africa (1652-1815)
European expeditions
Main articles: History of Cape Colony
Although the Portuguese basked in the nautical achievement of successfully navigating the cape, they showed little interest in
colonization. The area's fierce weather and rocky shoreline posed a threat to their ships, and many of their attempts to trade with the local Khoikhoi ended in conflict. The Portuguese found the Mozambican coast more attractive, with appealing
bays to use as waystations,
prawns, and links to
gold ore in the interior.
The Portuguese had little competition in the region until the late 16th century, when the
English and
Dutch began to challenge them along their
trade routes. Stops at the continent's southern tip increased, and the cape became a regular stopover for
scurvy-ridden crews. In
1647, a Dutch vessel was wrecked in the present-day
Table Bay at
Cape Town. The marooned crew, the first Europeans to attempt settlement in the area, built a
fort and stayed for a year until they were rescued. Shortly thereafter, the
Dutch East India Company (in the Dutch of the day: ''Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie'', or VOC) decided to establish a permanent settlement. The VOC, one of the major European
trading houses sailing the
spice route to the East, had no intention of colonizing the area, instead wanting only to establish a secure base camp where passing ships could shelter, and where hungry sailors could stock up on fresh supplies of
meat,
fruit, and
vegetables. To this end, a small VOC expedition under the command of
Jan van Riebeeck reached Table Bay on
April 6,
1652.
Arrival of the Dutch
While the new settlement
traded out of necessity with the neighbouring Khoikhoi, it wasn't a friendly relationship, and the authorities made deliberate attempts to restrict contact. Partly as a consequence, VOC employees found themselves faced with a labour shortage. To remedy this, they released a small number of Dutch from their
contracts and permitted them to establish farms, with which they would supply the VOC settlement from their
harvests. This arrangement proved highly successful, producing abundant supplies of fruit, vegetables,
wheat, and
wine; they later raised livestock. The small initial group of free
burghers, as these farmers were known, steadily increased and began to expand their farms further north and east into the territory of the Khoikhoi.
The majority of burghers had Dutch ancestry and belonged to the
Calvinist Reformed Church of the Netherlands, but there were also numerous
Germans as well as some
Scandinavians. In
1688 the Dutch and the Germans were joined by the
French Huguenots, also
Calvinists, who were fleeing religious persecution under
King Louis XIV.
In addition to establishing the free burgher system, van Riebeeck and the VOC also began to import large numbers of
slaves, primarily from
Madagascar and
Indonesia. These slaves often married Dutch settlers, and their descendants became known as the
Cape Coloureds and the
Cape Malays. A significant number of the offspring from the White and slave unions were absorbed into the local proto
Afrikaans speaking White population. With this additional labour, the areas occupied by the VOC expanded further to the north and east, with inevitable clashes with the Khoikhoi. The newcomers drove the beleaguered Khoikhoi from their traditional lands, decimated them with introduced
diseases, and destroyed them with superior
weapons when they fought back, which they did in a number of major wars and with
guerrilla resistance movements which continued into the 19th century. Most survivors were left with no option but to work for the Europeans in an exploitative arrangement that differed little from
slavery. Over time, the Khoisan, their European overseers, and the imported slaves mixed, with the offspring of these unions forming the basis for today's
Coloured population.
The best-known Khoikhoi groups included the
Griqua, who had originally lived on the western coast between
St Helena Bay and the
Cederberg Range. In the late 18th century, they managed to acquire
guns and
horses and began
trekking northeast. En route other groups of Khoisan, Coloureds, and even white adventurers joined them, and they rapidly gained a reputation as a formidable
military force. Ultimately, the Griquas reached the Highveld around present-day
Kimberley, where they carved out territory that came to be known as
Griqualandalina.
Burgher expansion
As the burghers, too, continued to expand into the rugged hinterlands of the north and east, many began to take up a semi-nomadic pastoralist lifestyle, in some ways not far removed from that of the Khoikhoi they displaced. In addition to its herds, a family might have a
wagon, a
tent, a
Bible, and a few guns. As they became more settled, they would build a
mud-walled
cottage, frequently located, by choice, days of travel from the nearest European. These were the first of the
Trekboers (Wandering Farmers, later shortened to
Boers), completely independent of official controls, extraordinarily self-sufficient, and isolated. Their harsh lifestyle produced individualists who were well acquainted with the land. Like many pioneers with Christian backgrounds, the burghers attempted to live their lives based on teachings from the
Bible.
British at the cape
Main articles: History of South Africa (1815-1910)
As the 18th century drew to a close, Dutch mercantile power began to fade, and the
British moved in to fill the
vacuum. They seized the Cape in 1795 to prevent it from falling into rival French hands, then briefly relinquished it back to the Dutch (1803) before finally garnering recognition of their
sovereignty of the area in
1815.
At the tip of the continent the British found an established
colony with 25,000 slaves, 20,000 white colonists, 15,000 Khoisan, and 1,000 freed black slaves. Power resided solely with a white
élite in Cape Town, and differentiation on the basis of
race was deeply entrenched. Outside Cape Town and the immediate hinterland, isolated black and white pastoralists populated the country.
Like the Dutch before them, the British initially had little interest in the Cape Colony, other than as a strategically located port. As one of their first tasks they tried to resolve a troublesome
border dispute between the Boers and the Xhosa on the colony's eastern frontier. In
1820 the British authorities persuaded about 5,000
middle-class British
immigrants (most of them "in
trade") to leave England behind and settle on tracts of land between the feuding groups with the idea of providing a buffer zone. The plan was singularly unsuccessful. Within three years, almost half of these
1820 Settlers had retreated to the towns, notably
Grahamstown and
Port Elizabeth, to pursue the jobs they had held in Britain.
While doing nothing to resolve the border dispute, this influx of settlers solidified the British presence in the area, thus fracturing the relative unity of white South Africa. Where the Boers and their ideas had before gone largely unchallenged, European Southern Africa now had two language groups and two cultures. A pattern soon emerged whereby English-speakers became highly urbanised, and dominated
politics,
trade,
finance,
mining, and
manufacturing, while the largely uneducated Boers were relegated to their farms.
The gap between the British settlers and the Boers further widened with the abolition of slavery in
1833, a move that the Boers generally regarded as against the God-given ordering of the races. Yet the British settlers' conservatism and sense of racial superiority stopped any radical social reforms, and in
1841 the authorities passed a
Masters and Servants Ordinance, which perpetuated white control. Meanwhile, British numbers increased rapidly in Cape Town, in the area east of the Cape Colony (present-day
Eastern Cape Province), in
Natal and, after the discovery of
gold and
diamonds, in parts of the
Transvaal, mainly around present-day
Gauteng.
Difaqane and destruction
Main articles: Difaqane
The early 19th century saw a time of immense upheaval relating to the military expansion of the
Zulu kingdom.
Sotho-speakers know this period as the ''
difaqane'' ("
forced migration"); while
Zulu-speakers call it the ''mfecane'' ("crushing").
The full causes of the ''difaqane'' remain in dispute, although certain factors stand out. The rise of a unified Zulu kingdom had particular significance. In the early 19th century,
Nguni tribes in KwaZulu-Natal began to shift from a loosely-organised collection of kingdoms into a centralised, militaristic state.
Shaka Zulu, son of the chief of the small Zulu clan, became the driving force behind this shift. At first something of an
outcast, Shaka proved himself in battle and gradually succeeded in consolidating power in his own hands. He built large
armies, breaking from clan tradition by placing the armies under the control of his own officers rather than of the hereditary chiefs. Shaka then set out on a massive programme of expansion, killing or enslaving those who resisted in the territories he conquered. His ''
impis'' (warrior regiments) were rigorously disciplined: failure in battle meant death.
Peoples in the path of Shaka's armies moved out of his way, becoming in their turn aggressors against their neighbours. This wave of displacement spread throughout
Southern Africa and beyond. It also accelerated the formation of several states, notably those of the Sotho (present-day
Lesotho) and of the
Swazi (now
Swaziland).
In
1828 Shaka was killed by his half-brothers
Dingaan and
Umthlangana. The weaker and less-skilled Dingaan became king, relaxing military discipline while continuing the despotism. Dingaan also attempted to establish relations with the British traders on the Natal coast, but events had started to unfold that would see the demise of Zulu independence.
The Great Trek
Main articles: Great Trek
Meanwhile, the Boers had started to grow increasingly dissatisfied with British rule in the Cape Colony. The British proclamation of the equality of the races particularly angered them. Beginning in
1835, several groups of Boers, together with large numbers of Khoikhoi and black
servants, decided to trek off into the interior in search of greater
independence. North and east of the
Orange River (which formed the Cape Colony's frontier) these Boers or
Voortrekkers ("
Pioneers") found vast tracts of apparently uninhabited
grazing lands. They had, it seemed, entered their promised land, with space enough for their cattle to graze and their culture of anti-urban independence to flourish. Little did they know that what they found - deserted
pasture lands, disorganised bands of
refugees, and tales of
brutality - resulted from the ''difaqane'', rather than representing the normal state of affairs.
With the exception of the more powerful
Ndebele, the Voortrekkers encountered little resistance among the scattered peoples of the
plains. The ''difaqane'' had dispersed them, and the remnants lacked horses and
firearms. Their weakened condition also solidified the Boers' belief that European occupation meant the coming of civilisation to a savage land. However, the mountains where
King Moshoeshoe I had started to forge the Basotho nation that would later become Lesotho and the wooded valleys of
Zululand proved a more difficult proposition. Here the Boers met strong resistance, and their incursions set off a series of
skirmishes, squabbles, and flimsy
treaties that would litter the next 50 years of increasing white domination.
British vs. Boers vs. Zulus
The
Great Trek first halted at
Thaba Nchu, near present-day
Bloemfontein, where the trekkers established a
republic. Following disagreements among their
leadership, the various Voortrekker groups split apart. While some headed north, most crossed the
Drakensberg into Natal with the idea of establishing a republic there. Since the Zulus controlled this territory, the Voortrekker leader
Piet Retief paid a visit to King
Dingaan, where the suspicious Zulu promptly killed him. This killing triggered other attacks by Zulus on the Boer population, and a revenge attack by the Boers. The culmination came on
16 December 1838, in the
Battle of Blood River, fought at the
Ncome River in Natal. Though several Boers suffered injuries, they killed several thousand Zulus, reportedly causing the Ncome's waters to run red.
Zulu warriors, late 19th century
After this victory, which resulted from the possession of superior weapons, the Boers felt that their expansion really did have a long suspected stamp of
divine approval. Yet their hopes for establishing a Natal republic remained short lived. The British annexed the area in
1843, and founded their new Natal colony at present-day
Durban. Most of the Boers, feeling increasingly squeezed between the British on one side and the native African populations on the other, headed north.
The British set about establishing large
sugar plantations in Natal, but found few inhabitants of the neighbouring Zulu areas willing to provide labour. The British confronted stiff resistance to their encroachments from the
Zulus, a nation with well-established traditions of waging war, who inflicted one of the most humiliating defeats on the British army at the
Battle of Isandlwana in
1879, where over 1400 British soldiers were killed. During the ongoing
Anglo-Zulu Wars, the British eventually established their control over what was then named
Zululand, and is today known as
KwaZulu-Natal Province.
The British turned to
India to resolve their labour shortage, as Zulu men refused to adopt the servile position of labourers and in
1860 the
SS ''Truro'' arrived in Durban harbour with over 300 people on board. Over the next 50 years, 150,000 more
indentured Indians arrived, as well as numerous free "passenger Indians", building the base for what would become the largest Indian community outside of India. As early as
1893, when
Mahatma Gandhi arrived in Durban, Indians outnumbered whites in Natal. (See
Asians in South Africa.)
Growth of independent South Africa
The Boer republics
Main articles: South African Republic ,
Orange Free State
The Boers meanwhile persevered with their search for land and freedom, ultimately establishing themselves in various
Boer Republics, eg the
Transvaal or South African Republic and the
Orange Free State. For a while it seemed that these republics would develop into stable states, despite having thinly-spread populations of fiercely independent Boers, no industry, and minimal agriculture. The discovery of
diamonds near
Kimberley turned the Boers' world on its head (
1869). The first diamonds came from land belonging to the Griqua, but to which both the Transvaal and Orange Free State laid claim. Britain quickly stepped in and resolved the issue by annexing the area for itself.
The discovery of the Kimberley diamond-
mines unleashed a flood of European and black labourers into the area. Towns sprang up in which the inhabitants ignored the "proper" separation of whites and blacks, and the Boers expressed anger that their impoverished republics had missed out on the economic benefits of the mines.
The Anglo-Boer Wars
Main articles: Boer Wars
First Anglo-Boer War
Main articles: First Boer War
Long-standing Boer resentment turned into full-blown rebellion in the Transvaal (under British control from 1877), and the first
Anglo-Boer War, known to
Afrikaners as the "War of Independence", broke out in
1880. The conflict ended almost as soon as it began with a crushing Boer victory at
Battle of Majuba Hill (
27 February 1881). The republic regained its independence as the ''Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek'' ("
South African Republic"), or ZAR.
Paul Kruger, one of the leaders of the uprising, became President of the ZAR in
1883. Meanwhile, the British, who viewed their defeat at Majuba as an aberration, forged ahead with their desire to
federate the Southern African colonies and republics. They saw this as the best way to come to terms with the fact of a white Afrikaner majority, as well as to promote their larger strategic interests in the area.
Inter-war period
In
1879, Zululand came under British control. Then in
1886, an Australian prospector
discovered gold in the
Witwatersrand, accelerating the federation process and dealing the Boers yet another blow.
Johannesburg's population exploded to about 100,000 by the mid-
1890s, and the ZAR suddenly found itself hosting thousands of ''
uitlanders'', both black and white, with the Boers squeezed to the sidelines. The influx of Black labour in particular worried the Boers, many of whom suffered economic hardship and resented the black wage-earners.
The enormous wealth of the mines, largely controlled by European "
Randlords", soon became irresistible for British
imperialists. In
1895, a group of renegades led by Captain
Leander Starr Jameson entered the ZAR with the intention of sparking an uprising on the Witwatersrand and installing a British administration. This incursion became known as the
Jameson Raid. The scheme ended in fiasco, but it seemed obvious to Kruger that it had at least the tacit approval of the Cape Colony government, and that his republic faced danger. He reacted by forming an alliance with Orange Free State.
Second Anglo-Boer War
Main articles: Second Boer War
The situation peaked in
1899, when the British demanded voting rights for the 60,000 foreign whites on the Witwatersrand. Until that point, Kruger's government had excluded all foreigners from the
franchise. Kruger rejected the British demand and called for the withdrawal of British troops from the ZAR's borders. When the British refused, Kruger declared war. This
Second Anglo-Boer War lasted longer, and the British preparedness surpassed that of Majuba Hill. By June
1900,
Pretoria, the last of the major Boer towns, had surrendered. Yet resistance by Boer ''
bittereinders'' continued for two more years with guerrilla-style battles, which the British met in turn with
scorched earth tactics. By
1902 26,000 Boers had died of
disease and neglect in
concentration camps. On
31 May 1902 a superficial peace came with the signing of the
Treaty of Vereeniging. Under its terms, the Boer republics acknowledged British sovereignty, while the British in turn committed themselves to reconstruction of the areas under their control.
Roots of union
During the immediate post-war years the British focussed their attention on rebuilding the country, in particular the mining industry. By
1907 the mines of the Witwatersrand produced almost one-third of the world's annual gold production. But the peace brought by the treaty remained fragile and challenged on all sides. The Afrikaners found themselves in the ignominious position of poor farmers in a country where big mining ventures and foreign
capital rendered them irrelevant. Britain's unsuccessful attempts to anglicise them, and to impose English as the official language in schools and the
workplace particularly incensed them. Partly as a backlash to this, the Boers came to see
Afrikaans as the ''volkstaal'' ("people's language") and as a symbol of Afrikaner nationhood. Several nationalist organisations sprang up.
The system left Blacks and Coloureds completely marginalised. The authorities imposed harsh
taxes and reduced wages, while the British caretaker administrator encouraged the immigration of thousands of
Chinese to undercut any resistance. Resentment exploded in the
Bambatha Rebellion of
1906, in which 4,000 Zulus lost their lives after protesting against onerous tax legislation.
The British meanwhile moved ahead with their plans for union. After several years of negotiations, the
South Africa Act 1909 brought the colonies and republics — Cape Colony, Natal, Transvaal, and Orange Free State — together as the
Union of South Africa. Under the provisions of the act, the Union remained British territory, but with
home-rule for Afrikaners. The
British High Commission territories of
Basutoland (now
Lesotho),
Bechuanaland (now
Botswana),
Swaziland, and
Rhodesia (now
Zambia and
Zimbabwe) continued under direct rule from Britain.
English and Dutch became the official languages. Afrikaans did not gain recognition as an official language until
1925. Despite a major campaign by Blacks and Coloureds, the voter franchise remained as in the pre-Union republics and colonies, and only whites could gain election to
parliament.
1910 Union of South Africa
Main articles: Union of South Africa
In 1910 the
Union of South Africa was created by the unification of four areas, by joining the two former independent Boer republics of the
South African Republic (''Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek'') and the
Orange Free State (''Oranje Vrystaat'') with the British dominated
Cape Province and
Natal. Most significantly, the new Union of South Africa gained international respect with British
Dominion status putting it on par with three other important British dominions and allies:
Canada,
Australia, and
New Zealand.
World War I
Main articles: History of South Africa (1910-1948)
The Union of South Africa was tied closely to the
British Empire, and automatically joined with Great Britain and the allies against the
German Empire. Both Prime Minister
Louis Botha and Defence Minister of South Africa were part of significant military operations against Germany. In spite of Boer resistance at home, the Afrikaner-led government of
Louis Botha unhestitatingly joined the side of the
Allies of World War I and fought alongside its armies. The South African Government agreed to the withdrawal of British Army units so that they were free to join the European war, and laid plans to invade
German South-West Africa. Elements of the South African army refused to fight against the Germans and along with other opponents of the Government rose in open revolt. The government declared martial law on
14 October 1914, and forces loyal to the government under the command of General Louis Botha and Jan Smuts proceeded to destroy the
Maritz Rebellion. The leading Boer rebels got off lightly with terms of imprisonment of six-seven years and heavy fines. (See
World War I and the Maritz Rebellion.)
Military action against Germany during World War I
The South African ''Union Defence Force'' saw action in a number of areas:
# It dispatched its army to
German South-West Africa (later known as
South West Africa and now known as
Namibia). The South Africans expelled German forces and gained control of the former German colony. (See
German South-West Africa in World War I.)
# A military expedition under General
Jan Smuts was dispatched to
German East Africa (later known as
Tanganyika and now known as
Tanzania). The objective was to fight German forces in that colony and to try to capture the elusive German General
von Lettow-Vorbeck. Ultimately, Lettow-Vorbeck fought his tiny force out of German East Africa into
Mozambique, where he surrendered a few weeks after the end of the war. (See
German East Africa in First World War.)
# ''1st South African Brigade'' troops were shipped to
France to fight on the
Western Front. The most costly battle that the South African forces on the Western Front fought in was the
Battle of Delville Wood in
1916. (See
South African Army in World War I.)
# South Africans also saw action with the
Cape Corps as part of the
Egyptian Expeditionary Force in
Palestine. (See
Cape Corps 1915 - 1991)
Military contributions and casualties in World War I
More than 146,000 whites, 83,000 blacks and 2,500 people of mixed race ("
Coloureds") and
Asians served in
South African military units during the war, including 43,000 in German South-West Africa and 30,000 on the Western Front. An estimated 3,000 South Africans also joined the
Royal Flying Corps. The total South African casualties during the war was about 18,600 with over 12,452 killed - more than 4,600 in the European theater alone.
There is no question that South Africa greatly assisted the Allies, and Great Britain in particular, in capturing the two German colonies of German-West-Africa and German-East-Africa as well as in battles in Western Europe and the Middle East. South Africa's ports and harbors, such as at
Cape Town,
Durban, and
Simon's Town, were also important rest-stops, refueling-stations, and served as strategic assets to the British
Royal Navy during the war, helping to keep the vital
sea lanes to the
British Raj open.
World War II
Political choices at outbreak of war
On the eve of World War II the Union of South Africa found itself in a unique political and military quandary. While it was closely allied with Great Britain, being a co-equal
Dominion under the
1931 Statute of Westminster with its head of state being the British king, the South African Prime Minister on September 1, 1939 was none other than
Barry Hertzog the leader of the pro-Afrikaner anti-British
National party that had joined in a unity government as the
United Party.
Herzog's problem was that South Africa was constitutionally obligated to support Great Britain against
Nazi Germany. The
Polish-British Common Defence Pact obligated Britain, and in turn its dominions, to help Poland if attacked by the Nazis. After Hitler's forces attacked Poland on the night of August 31, 1939, Britain declared war on Germany within a few days. A short but furious debate unfolded in South Africa, especially in the halls of power in the
Parliament of South Africa, that pitted those who sought to enter the war on Britain's side, led by the pro-
Allied, pro-British Afrikaner, ex-General, and former Prime Minister
Jan Smuts ''against'' then-current Prime Minister Barry Hertzog who wished to keep South Africa "neutral", if not pro-
Axis.
Declaration of war against the Axis
On September 4,
1939, the United Party caucus refused to accept Hertzog's stance of neutrality in
World War II and deposed him in favor of Smuts. Upon becoming Prime Minister of South Africa, Smuts declared South Africa officially at war with Germany and the Axis. Smuts immediately set about fortifying South Africa against any possible German sea invasion because of South Africa's global strategic importance controlling the long sea route around the
Cape of Good Hope.
Smuts took severe action against the pro-Nazi South African
Ossewabrandwag movement (they were caught committing acts of sabotage) and jailed its leaders for the duration of the war. (One of them,
John Vorster, was to become future Prime Minister of South Africa.) (See
Jan Smuts during World War II.)
Prime Minister and Field Marshal Smuts
Prime Minister
Jan Smuts was the only important non-British general whose advice was constantly sought by Britain's war-time Prime Minister
Winston Churchill. Smuts was invited to the
Imperial War Cabinet in
1939 as the most senior South African in favour of war. In
28 May 1941, Smuts was appointed a
Field Marshal of the
British Army, becoming the first South African to hold that rank. Ultimately, Smuts would pay a steep political price for his closeness to the British establishment, to the King, and to Churchill which had made Smuts very unpopular among the conservative nationalistic
Afrikaners, leading to his eventual downfall, whereas most
English-speaking whites and a minority of liberal Afrikaners in South Africa remained loyal to him. (See
Jan Smuts during World War II.)
Military contributions and casualties in World War II
South Africa and its military forces contributed in many theaters of war.
South Africa's contribution consisted mainly of supplying troops, men and material for the
North African campaign (the Desert War) and the
Italian Campaign as well as to Allied ships that docked at its crucial ports adjoining the
Atlantic Ocean and
Indian Ocean that converge at the tip of
Southern Africa. Numerous volunteers also flew for the
Royal Air Force. (See:
South African Army in World War II;
South African Air Force in World War II;
South African Navy in World War II;
South Africa's contribution in World War II.)
# The South African Army and
Air Force helped defeat the Italian army of the Fascist
Benito Mussolini that had
invaded Abyssinia (now known as
Ethiopia) in 1935. During the 1941
East African Campaign South African forces made important contribution to this early Allied victory.
# Another important victory that the South African's participated in was the liberation of
Malagasy (now known as
Madagascar) from the control of the
Vichy French who were allies of the Nazis. British troops aided by South African soldiers, staged their attack from South Africa, occupied the strategic island in
1942 to preclude its seizure by the Japanese.
# The
South African 1st Infantry Division took part in several actions in North Africa in
1941 and
1942, including the
Battle of El Alamein, before being withdrawn to South Africa.
# The
South African 2nd Infantry Division also took part in a number of actions in North Africa during 1942, but on
21 June 1942 two complete infantry brigades of the division as well as most of the supporting units were captured at the fall of
Tobruk.
# The
South African 3rd Infantry Division never took an active part in any battles but instead organised and trained the South African home defence forces, performed garrison duties and supplied replacements for the South African 1st Infantry Division and the South African 2nd Infantry Division. However, one of this division's constituent brigades - ''7 SA Motorised Brigade'' - did take part in the invasion of
Madagascar in 1942.
# The
South African 6th Armoured Division fought in numerous actions in
Italy from
1944 to
1945.
# South Africa contributed to the war effort against Japan, supplying men and manning ships in naval engagements against the Japanese.
[1]
Of the
334,000 men volunteered for full time service in the South African Army during the war (including some 211,000 whites, 77,000 blacks and 46,000 "coloureds" and Asians), nearly 9,000 were killed in action.
Aftermath of World War II
South Africa emerged from the Allied victory with its prestige and national honor enhanced as it had fought tirelessly for the Western Allies. South Africa's standing in the international community was rising, at a time when the Third World's struggle against colonialism had still not taken center stage. In May
1945, Prime Minister Smuts represented South Africa in
San Francisco at the drafting of the
United Nations Charter. Just as he did in 1919, Smuts urged the delegates to create a powerful international body to preserve peace; he was determined that, unlike the
League of Nations, the
United Nations would have teeth. Smuts signed the
Paris Peace Treaty, resolving the peace in Europe, thus becoming the only signatory of both the treaty ending the First World War, and that ending the Second.
However, internal political struggles in the disgruntled and essentially impoverished Afrikaner community would soon come to the fore leading to Smuts' defeat at the polls in the
1948 elections (in which only whites and coloroureds could vote) at the hands of a resurgent National Party after the war. This began the road to South Africa's eventual isolation from a world that would no longer tolerate any forms of political discrimination or differentiation based on race only.
General elections and the slow evolution of democracy
Main articles: Elections in South Africa ,
South African general elections
From
1910 until the present time, a series of important
general elections have been held in a united South Africa. From 1910 until 1948 the
franchise to vote was given to whites and to
Cape Coloreds (people of
mixed race) only. After the ascent of the Nationalist Party in 1948, the Cape Coloreds were taken off the voters' role. Only eligible whites were permitted to vote from 1948 until 1994 when the vote was granted to South Africans of every racial group. The
1994 general election was the first post-apartheid vote based on
universal suffrage.
There have been three
referendums in South Africa:
1960 referendum on becoming a republic;
1983 referendum on implementing the tricameral parliament; and
1992 referendum on becoming a multiracial democracy all of which were held during the era of Nationalist Party control.
Apartheid era
Five representatives of the South African Native National Congress traveling to England in 1914 to protest against the 1913 Land Act.
Afrikaner nationalism
General
Louis Botha headed the first government of the new Union, with General
Jan Smuts as his deputy. Their
South African National Party, later known as the
South African Party or SAP, followed a generally pro-British, white-unity line. The more radical Boers split away under the leadership of
General Barry Hertzog, forming the
National Party (NP) in
1914. The NP championed Afrikaner interests, advocating separate development for the two white groups and independence from Britain.
The new Union had no place for Blacks, despite their constituting over 75 percent of the population. The Act of Union denied them voting-rights in the Transvaal and Orange Free State areas, and in
Cape Province Blacks gained the vote only if they met a property-ownership qualification. Blacks saw the failure to grant the franchise, coming on the heels of British wartime
propaganda promoting freedom from "Boer slavery", as a blatant betrayal. Before long the Union passed a barrage of oppressive legislation, making it
illegal for black workers to
strike, reserving skilled jobs for whites, barring blacks from military service, and instituting restrictive
pass laws. In
1913 parliament enacted the
Natives Land Act, setting aside eight percent of South Africa's land for black occupancy. Whites, who made up only 20 percent of the population, held 90 percent of the land. Black Africans could not buy or rent land or even work as sharecroppers outside their designated area. The authorities
evicted thousands of
squatters from farms and forced them into increasingly overcrowded and impoverished reserves, or into the cities. Those who remained sank to the status of landless labourers.
The original architects of apartheid gathered around a map of a planned
township.
Black and Coloured opposition began to coalesce, and leading figures such as
John Jabavu,
Walter Rubusana and
Abdullah Abdurahman laid the foundations for new non-tribal black political groups. Most significantly, a
Columbia University-educated
attorney,
Pixley ka Isaka Seme, called together representatives of the various African tribes to form a unified, national organisation to represent the interests of blacks, and to ensure that they had an effective voice in the new Union. Thus there originated the South African Native National Congress, known from
1923 as the
African National Congress (ANC). Parallel to this,
Mahatma Gandhi worked with the Indian populations of Natal and the Transvaal to fight against the ever-increasing encroachment on their rights.
The international recession which followed
World War I put pressures on mine-owners, and they sought to reduce costs by recruiting lower-paid, black, semi-skilled workers. White mine-workers saw this as a threat and in
1922 rose in the armed
Rand Rebellion, supported by the new
Communist Party of South Africa under the slogan "''Workers of the World, unite and fight for a white South Africa''". Smuts suppressed the rising violently, but the failure led to a convergence of views between Afrikaner nationalists and white English-speaking trade-unionists. The Communists saw the failure as having resulted from a lack of mobilisation by black workers, and re-oriented their recruitment.
In
1924 the NP, under Hertzog, came to power in a
coalition government with the
Labour Party, and Afrikaner
nationalism gained greater hold. Afrikaans, previously regarded only as a low-class dialect of Dutch, replaced Dutch as an official language of the Union, and the so-called ''swart gevaar'' (black threat) became the dominant issue of the
1929 election. In the mid-
1930s, Hertzog joined the NP with the more moderate SAP of Jan Smuts to form the
United Party; this coalition fell apart at the start
World War II when Smuts took the reins and, amid much controversy, led South Africa into war on the side of the
Allies. However, any hopes of turning the tide of Afrikaner nationalism faded when
Daniel François Malan led a radical break-away movement, the Purified National Party, to the central position in Afrikaner political life. The
Afrikaner Broederbond, a secret Afrikaner brotherhood formed in
1918 to protect Afrikaner culture, soon became an extraordinarily influential force behind both the NP and other organisations designed to promote the ''volk'' ("people", the Afrikaners).
Due to the booming wartime economy, black labour became increasingly important to the mining and manufacturing industries, and the black urban population nearly doubled. Enormous
squatter camps grew up on the outskirts of Johannesburg and (though to a lesser extent) outside the other major cities. Despite the appalling conditions in the
townships, not only blacks knew poverty: wartime surveys found that 40 percent of white schoolchildren suffered from
malnutrition.
Legalised discrimination
Main articles: History of South Africa in the apartheid era
From 1948 successive
National Party administrations formalised and extended the existing system of segregation and denial of rights into the legal system of ''apartheid'', which lasted until the 1990s. Although many important events occurred during this period, apartheid remained the central system around which most of the historical issues of this period revolved.
Dismantling
With increasing opposition to apartheid in the final decades of the 20th century — including an
armed struggle, economic and cultural sanctions by the
international community, pressure from the
anti-apartheid movement around the world, a rebellion amongst Afrikaner and English-speaking youth as well as open revolt within the ruling
National Party —
State President F.W. de Klerk announced the unbanning of the
African National Congress and
Pan Africanist Congress as well as the release of
Nelson Mandela on
2 February 1990, which signaled the beginning of a transition to
democracy. In the
referendum held on
17 March 1992, a white electorate voted 68% in favour of dismantling apartheid through negotiations.
After years of negotiations under the auspices of the
Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA), a draft
constitution appeared on
26 July 1993, containing concessions towards all sides: a federal system of regional
legislatures, equal voting-rights regardless of race, and a bicameral legislature.
From 26 to 29 April
1994, the South African population voted in the first
universal suffrage general elections. The African National Congress won election to govern for the very first time, leaving the
National Party and the
Inkatha Freedom Party behind it and parties such as the
Democratic Party and Pan Africanist Congress took up their seats as part of the
parliamentary opposition in the first genuine multiracial
parliament.
Nelson Mandela was elected as President on 9 May 1994 and formed -according to the interim constitution of 1993- a government of national unity, consisting of the ANC, the NP and the Inkatha. On 10 May Mandela was inaugurated as South Africas new President in Pretoria and
Thabo Mbeki and FW De Klerk as his vice-presidents.
Following the elections, the fostering of a culture that recognised human rights became important. After considerable debate, and following submissions from
special-interest groups, individuals and ordinary citizens, the
Parliament enacted a new
Constitution and
Bill of Rights as legislation in
1996.
After apartheid
Main articles: History of South Africa since 1994
After the enactment of the constitution, focus turned to the
Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which was established in 1995 to expose crimes of the apartheid era under the dictum of Archbishop
Desmond Tutu: "Without forgiveness there is no future, but without confession there can be no forgiveness". The commission heard many stories of horrific brutality and injustice from all sides of the struggle, and offered some
catharsis to people and communities shattered by their past experiences.
The Commission operated by allowing victims to tell their stories and by allowing perpetrators to confess their guilt; with amnesty on offer to those who made a full confession. Those who chose not to appear before the commission would face criminal prosecution if the authorities could prove their guilt. But while some soldiers, police, and ordinary citizens confessed their crimes, few of those who had given the orders or commanded the police presented themselves. For example, State President
P.W. Botha himself, notably, refused to appear before the Commission. It has proven difficult to gather evidence against these alleged higher-level criminals.
Refining democracy
In
1999, South Africa held its
second universal-suffrage elections. In
1997,
Mandela had handed over leadership of the ANC to his deputy,
Thabo Mbeki, and speculation grew that the ANC vote might therefore drop. In fact, it increased, putting the party within one seat of the two-thirds majority that would allow it to alter the constitution.
The NP, restyled as the
New National Party (NNP), lost two-thirds of its seats, as well as official
opposition status to the
Democratic Party (DP). The DP had traditionally functioned as a stronghold of liberal whites, and now gained new support from conservatives disenchanted with the NP, and from some middle-class blacks. Just behind the DP came the KwaZulu-Natal
Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), historically the voice of Zulu nationalism. While the IFP lost some support, its leader,
Chief Buthelezi, continued to exercise power as the national
Home Affairs minister.
While the ANC grassroots hold Mbeki in far less affection than the beloved "Madiba" (Mandela), he has proven himself a shrewd politician, maintaining his political pre-eminence by isolating or co-opting opposition parties. In
2003, Mbeki manoeuvred the ANC to a two-thirds majority in parliament for the first time.
Yet not everything has gone the ANC's way. In the early days of his presidency, Mbeki's effective denial of the
HIV crisis invited global criticism, and his conspicuous failure to condemn the forced reclamation of white-owned farms in neighbouring
Zimbabwe unnerved both South African landowners and foreign
investors.
Violent crime escalated dramatically in the early 90's. ''
The Economist'' reports the killing of approximately 1,500 white farmers in non-political attacks since
1991. In
1998,
South Africa led the world in reported murders and robberies.
From
1994 onwards and more recently, the
South African Police Service and
South African Medical Research Council respectively have published statistics showing a decrease in homicides at national and city level.
[2][3][4] A widely used estimate of over 32,000 homicides was reported by the
South African Medical Research Council for the 2000/01 financial year. This, however, has been scrutinized and is now considered erroneous.
[5]
According to ''The Economist'', an estimated 250,000 white South Africans have emigrated since
1994.
[6]
Notes
1. South Africa and the War against Japan 1941-1945
2. SAPS: Crime Statistics
3. Crime Statistics
4. VIOLENT DEATHS IN SA
5. SA CRIME QUARTERLY
6. "If only the adults would behave like the children", ''The Economist'', April 21, 2005 (accessed June 15, 2005).
References
Printed
★ ''A History of South Africa, Third Edition''. Leonard Thompson.
Yale University Press.
1 March 2001. 384 pages. ISBN 0-300-08776-4.
★ ''South Africa: A Narrative History''.
Frank Welsh. Kodansha America.
1 February 1999. 606 pages. ISBN 1-56836-258-7.
★ ''The Atlas of Changing South Africa''. A. J. Christopher.
1 October 2000. 216 pages. ISBN 0-415-21178-6.
★ ''The Politics of the New South Africa''. Heather Deegan.
28 December 2000. 256 pages. ISBN 0-582-38227-0.
★ ''Making of Modern South Africa: Conquest, Segregation and Apartheid''. Nigel Worden.
1 July 2000. 194 pages. ISBN 0-631-21661-8.
★ ''Emerging Johannesburg: Perspectives on the Postapartheid City''. Richard Tomlinson, et al.
1 January 2003. 336 pages. ISBN 0-415-93559-8.
★ ''Twentieth-Century South Africa''. William Beinart.
Oxford University Press.
2001.
★ ''The Migant Farmer in the History of the Cape Colony''.P.J. Van Der Merwe, Roger B. Beck.
Ohio University Press.
1 January 1995. 333 pages. ISBN 0-8214-1090-3.
★ ''History of the Boers in South Africa; Or, the Wanderings and Wars of the Emigrant Farmers from Their Leaving the Cape Colony to the Acknowledgment of Their Independence by Great Britain''. George McCall Theal. Greenwood Press.
28 February 1970. 392 pages. ISBN 0-8371-1661-9.
★ ''Status and Respectability in the Cape Colony, 1750-1870 : A Tragedy of Manners''. Robert Ross, David Anderson.
Cambridge University Press.
1 July 1999. 220 pages. ISBN 0-521-62122-4.
★ ''The War of the Axe, 1847: Correspondence between the governor of the Cape Colony, Sir Henry Pottinger, and the commander of the British forces at the Cape, Sir George Berkeley, and others''. Basil Alexander Le Cordeur. Brenthurst Press.
1981. 287 pages. ISBN 0-909079-14-5.
★ ''Blood Ground: Colonialism, Missions, and the Contest for Christianity in the Cape Colony and Britain, 1799-1853''. Elizabeth Elbourne. McGill-Queen's University Press. December
2002. 560 pages. ISBN 0-7735-2229-8.
★ ''Recession and its aftermath: The Cape Colony in the eighteen eighties''. Alan Mabin. University of the Witwatersrand, African Studies Institute.
1983. 27 pages.
★ ''Early Johannesburg, Its Buildings and People'', Hannes Meiring, Human & Rousseau, 1986, 143 pages, ISBN 0-7981-1456-8
★ ''Gold! Gold! Gold! The Johannesburg Gold Rush'', Eric Rosenthal, AD. Donker, 1970, ISBN 0-949937-64-9
★ ''Südafrika im Spiegel der Schweizer Botschaft. Die politische Berichterstattung der Schweizer Botschaft in Südafrika während der Apartheidära 1952-1990'', Bischof Michael H. et al, Chronos, 2006. ISBN 3-0340-0756-6
Internet
★
Dr Cyril Hromník on research into ancient history of Africa - an article written by Maré Mouton.
★
"The History of Apartheid in South Africa" - an article written by a student at Stanford
★
"The Museum of The Apartheid" - the travel-blog of a motorcyclist around the world
★
''Bearer of an Ideal'' - a public-release document of the Afrikanerbond (formerly ''Afrikaner Broederbond''): think-tank which influenced policies of separate development in South Africa
★
Full text of the UN convention
★
South Africa, 10 years later from
National Public Radio
★
South Africa Government Online. Accessed
20 February 2005.
★
SouthAfrica.info. Accessed
12 February 2005.
Film
★ ''The Life and Death of Steve Biko''. Malcolm Clarke.
1978
★ ''The Color of Friendship''.
★ "Gandhi".
See also
★
Timeline of South African history
★
Timeline of liberal parties in South Africa
★
History of Johannesburg
★
History of Cape Colony
★
List of South Africa-related topics
★
Military history of South Africa
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