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History   >   South Africa – The Codification of Apartheid and Responses to the Regime, 1948-94

The Codification and Implementation of the Apartheid Regime

 
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South Africa – The Codification of Apartheid and Responses to the Regime, 1948-94

In this course, Dr Elizabeth Williams (University of Edinburgh) explores the codification and key outcomes of South Africa’s apartheid regime. In the first lecture, we think about the codification and implementation of the apartheid regime. In the second lecture, we think about the Tomlinson Report, published in 1954. In the third lecture, we think about the increases in police powers during the period of apartheid. Next, we think about the presence of torture, banishment and banning in apartheid South Africa. In the fifth and final lecture, we think about the British Anti-Apartheid Movement.

The Codification and Implementation of the Apartheid Regime

In this lecture, we think about the codification and implementation of apartheid, focusing in particular on: (i) the National Party’s ascension to power in 1948, implementing their policy of apartheid; (ii) a key motivation for apartheid being fear from White South Africans of the fact that they were greatly outnumbered by Black South Africans; (iii) the racial categories defined under the National Party being White, Bantu/African, ‘Coloured’, Indian/Asian and Chinese/’Honorary White’; (iv) the Union of South Africa (aka. Act of Union) from 1910, which introduced the idea and practice of segregation by race when unifying the Cape, Natal, Transvaal and Orange River colonies; (v) the out-of-date nature of apartheid, from a post-Second World War social perspective; (vi) the implementation of the Group Areas (1950), Reservation of Separate Amenities (1953) and Immorality (1950/57) Acts; (vii) the role of the African National Congress (ANC), formed in 1912, in anti-apartheid activity; (viii) the roles of the South African Indian Congress (SAIC) and the South African Coloured People’s Organisation (SACPO), renamed the Coloured People’s Congress (CPO) in 1959; (ix) the Natives Land Act of 1913, which allowed only 13% of the land for non-White South Africans, inspiring the terms of the Group Areas Act of 1950; (x) the ANC’s Programme of Action, adopted in 1949, which outlined their proposed anti-apartheid activity in the form of civil disobedience; (xi) the 1952 Defiance Campaign, led by the ANC, which began this series of civil disobediences; (xii) other key organisations that were a part of the defiance campaign; (xiii) key ways in which the Defiance Campaign manifested, including in boycotting buses and work stayaways; (xiv) a key outcome of the Defiance Campaign being international recognition of the injustice of apartheid; (xv) the publication of the Freedom Charter at the Congress of the People on 26 June 1955, in Kliptown; (xvi) the Treason Trial (1956-61) of 156 anti-apartheid activists, resulting in a rejection of the original treason charge.

Cite this Lecture

APA style

Williams, E. (2025, January 29). South Africa – The Codification of Apartheid and Responses to the Regime, 1948-94 - The Codification and Implementation of the Apartheid Regime [Video]. MASSOLIT. https://massolit.io/courses/south-africa-the-codification-of-apartheid-and-responses-to-the-regime

MLA style

Williams, E. "South Africa – The Codification of Apartheid and Responses to the Regime, 1948-94 – The Codification and Implementation of the Apartheid Regime." MASSOLIT, uploaded by MASSOLIT, 29 Jan 2025, https://massolit.io/courses/south-africa-the-codification-of-apartheid-and-responses-to-the-regime

Lecturer

Dr Elizabeth Williams

Dr Elizabeth Williams

Edinburgh University