In what geopolitical context did apartheid emerge?

South Africa – Establishing Apartheid, 1910-63

In this course, Dr Mori Ram (University of Newcastle) explores the establishment of the apartheid regime in South Africa. In the first lecture, we think about the social and geopolitical context in which the apartheid regime emerged. In the second lecture, we think about the role of Afrikaner nationalism in the establishment of apartheid. In the third lecture, we think about how apartheid policies represented an intensification of existing segregation. Next, we think about how the features of apartheid were experienced by South African people. In the fifth lecture, we think about the implementation of and response to pass laws. In the sixth lecture, we think about the role of Bantustans in the wider apartheid agenda. In the seventh and final lecture, we think about what early resistance to apartheid looked like and how it began the steady decline in support for the regime.

In what geopolitical context did apartheid emerge?

In this lecture, we think about the social and geopolitical context in which the apartheid regime in South Africa emerged, focusing in particular on: (i) the race-based societal grouping present in South Africa in the 1940s; (ii) the amalgamation of the many African peoples present in South Africa under the name Bantu; (iii) the origin of the European settlers in South Africa being the Dutch Cape Colony, established in 1652; (iv) British settlers from the latter part of the 18th century which, when combined with the earlier Dutch settlers, make up the European settler group; (v) a third group in South Africa being descendants of those who arrived in the country as servants or slaves; (vi) a fourth group being mainly indentured labourers from India and other regions of South Asia, originally brought in to work on sugar cane plantations; (vii) the transition of South Africa from a trading stop to a source of rare raw materials after the discovery of accessible precious metals in the country; (viii) the subjugation and loss of sovereignty suffered by the native Africa populations throughout the late 19th and early 20th century, at the hands of the British Empire and Afrikaner republics; (ix) the labour demands brought about by mineral discoveries leading to the migration of native African people into the cities previously almost entirely devoid of African people; (x) the establishment of the Union of South Africa in 1910, which reoriented race relations in the country to divide South Africa into its Black and White populations; (xi) the implantation of racial segregation policies prior to apartheid; (xii) Saul Dubow’s Racial Segregation and the Origins of Apartheid in South Africa; (xiii) labour exploitation being a key motivating factor for racial segregation in South Africa, limiting African people in their career fields and workplace support; (xiv) the Rand Rebellion of 1922, where White miners revolted against the promotion of Black miners to more senior positions as a cost saving measure in the wake of a drop in gold prices; (xv) territorial dispossession as a second dimension of racial segregation, with the passing of the Natives’ Land Act in 1913; (xvi) political disenfranchisement as a third dimension of racial segregation, which banned native African people from voting or being elected; (xvii) different voting allowances for native African people in each of the four colonies prior to the establishment of the Union of South Africa in 1910; (xviii) the mass migration of native African people into cities after the implementation of racial segregation; (xix) the debate present in the wake of African mass migration around whether revoking or increasing racial segregation was the best course of action for the White political elite.