South Africa

1. The system of apartheid **2. National Resistance to apartheid3. Repression and Control by South African

governments4. End of apartheid** = complete

• Sharpeville Massacre Footage:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVMPlVBm29Y

The ANC

• The African National Congress was established in 1912

• In 1944 the ANC Youth was created and they changed their approach to mass protest, organising boycotts, protests and passive resistance

• This mass protest was called – Programme of Action (Nelson Mandela, Anton Lembede, Oliver Tambo and Walter Sisulu)

The PAC• A splinter group, the Pan Africanists Congress started in 1959• They organised a protests against the Pass Laws on 21 March

1960 in Sharpeville• 5000 protestors marched on a police station• Police opened fire and killed 69 protestors (8 women and 10

children)• 180 were injured• The PAC were also demonstrating at Langa• 20,000 protestors• 2 killed• 49 wounded

Consequences• South Africa received international condemnation and calls

for apartheid to end.• Trouble erupted in Cape Town when Phillip Kgosana, the local PAC

leader led 30,000 protestors to the House of Parliament in Cape Town to protest police violence. The police did not have the numbers to hold back the protestors and a compromise was reached where pass laws were suspended. The following day however, Kgosana was arrested and the suspension order lifted.

• Both the ANC and PAC were banned, and immediately went under ground and some members went into exile.

• Non violent protests changed to military style action.• PAC president Robert Sobukwe and other leaders were arrested.• Mandela and Oliver Tambo of the ANC fled overseas.

Sabotage!What is

sabotage?

Have you ever

sabotaged someone or something?

Did it work?

Nelson Mandela and the ANC

• The ANC had a military unit – MK• Mandela pushed the ANC and MK to sabotage• In 1961 they attacked: power stations,

government buildings and offices• The objective: harm the economy, bring

national and international attention to apartheid

Mandela’s movements• Mandela operated the MK and the ANC for 2

years underground, moving around South Africa and training in Ethiopia

• Mandela also went to Britain• Given the nickname: the black pimpernel• August 1962: arrested in Natal – given a three

year sentenceThe Scarlet

Pimpernel was a novel about British

spies in France

Rivonia 1963

• Police arrested MK leaders in Rivonia in 1963• The police found they were planning a wide

scale military operation• They were charged with treason and sabotage

and Mandela was brought from prison to stand trial with them

• They were sentenced to life in prison on Robben Island

Mandela’s words during the trial:

“During my life I have dedicated my life to the struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the idea of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony, and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But, if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die”

Steve Biko

• Watch this interview with Steve Biko - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNmAcgdO2Ck

• The banning of the ANC and PAC left a political vacuum for black leadership

• The BCM – Black Consciousness Movement began (led by Steve Biko)

• Was a writer and formed the South African Students Assosciation

• Wrote a newsletter: “I write what I like”

• Expressed the viewpoint that blacks must end all economic dependence on whites

• Nicholas Southey (historian): “Black Consciousness was the promotion of the view that South Africa was a black country on a black continent and that black leadership, interest and values had to be asserted and had to dominate”

• Set up community health clinics• Received international attention• Banned in 1973• Arrested in 1977, held naked in a cell for 18 days,

beaten into a coma• Driven to a hospital 1000 kilometres away• Dead on arrival• Death labelled an “accident” and a “mystery” by

South African government

1976 Soweto Uprising

• Biko’s death fuelled the youth of South Africa to protest• 1975: official education policy to teach half the

curriculum in Afrikaners ( a language blacks couldn’t speak)

• In June 1976, school children in Soweto protested the policy

• 20,000 protestors marched• Police opened fire• A 13 year old boy, Hector, was the first to die in this

protest

Consequences

• Nationally: The PM (JB Vorster) and white society could no longer ignore resistance

• Internationally – The world was paying attention to South Africa’s racial problems

• Historically, it is thought of as the turning point in the struggle against apartheid

Historical Debate

Did internal pressure and resistance OR international attention bring about the end of apartheid?

Essay: Was national resistance to apartheid effective in South Africa in the 1960s and

1970s?National resistance to apartheid created both national and

international pressure on the South Africa government to being apartheid to an end.

(1) Non violent protests and the Sharpeville Massacre

(2) Sabotage (3) The Black Consciousness Movement(4) The Soweto Uprising