Primary Documents: Apartheid
Directions: Read the following primary documents (documents written at the time we are studying) and answer the questions on a separate sheet of paper. The questions do follow the reading in order, though some will require some thought and critical analysis and cannot simply be found directly in the text.
1. According to the statement what were the two basic options for South Africa going forward?
2. Upon what does the statement say apartheid was based?
3. What was the goal of apartheid as outlined in the third paragraph?
4. As outlined in the document, what rules would be established about marriage?
5. What cannot be permitted to happen in regard to the "racial problems" in South Africa?
6. What does the policy say non-whites should be encouraged to do religiously?
7. Who will represent the "coloured community" in the government?
8. What three things will the "coloured representatives" not be permitted to vote on?
9. The members of Umkhonto we Sizwe says they are armed and trained freedom fighters not terrorists. Do you think there is a difference? Explain.
10. Based on the actions described in the first few paragraphs, is Umkhonto we Sizwe an organization of freedom fighters or terrorists? Explain.
11. Umkhonto we Sizwe lists seven reasons why they fight in the first eight statements under "Why We Fight". Put those reasons into your own words.
12. What happened to their leaders and spokesmen?
13. What does SASO say is the purpose of a university (and education in general)?
14. What does SASO say that means?
15. How does SASO say white-run universities have affected their black students? In other words, what do white-run universities teach their black students?
16. What does SASO say university means to them?
17. What does SASO say black university students should be doing?
18. What does SASO identify as their goals for universities?
Statement by the National Party of South Africa (March 29, 1948)
In this brief policy statement the National Party outlines why it endorses a policy of separation (Apartheid) for South Africa. It also outlines what the proposed policy of Apartheid would look like upon implementation in South Africa. Just two months later, on May 26, 1948 members of the National Party won a majority of the seats in the House of Assembly and the office of Prime Minister and the path toward Apartheid began. In 1950 the first official Apartheid laws were passed.
There are two sections of thought in South Africa in regard to the policy affecting the non-European community. On the one hand there is the policy of equality, which advocates equal rights within the same political structure for all civilized and educated persons, irrespective of race or colour, and the gradual granting of the franchise to non-Europeans as they become qualified to make use of democratic rights.
On the other hand there is the policy of separation (apartheid) which has grown from the experience of established European population of the country, and which is based on the Christian principles of Justice and reasonableness.
Its aim is the maintenance and protection of the European population of the country as a pure White race, the maintenance and protection of the indigenous racial groups as separate communities, with prospects of developing into self-supporting communities within their own areas, and the stimulation of national pride, self-respect, and mutual respect among the various races of the country.
We can act in only, one of two directions. Either we must follow the course of equality-, which must eventually mean national suicide for the White race, or we must take the course of separation (apartheid) through which the character and the future of every race will be protected and safeguarded with full opportunities for development and self-maintenance in their own ideas, without the interests of one clashing with the interests of the other, and without one regarding the development of the other as undermining or a threat to himself.
The party therefore undertakes to protect the White race properly and effectively against any policy, doctrine or attack which might undermine or threaten its continued existence. At the same time the party rejects any policy of oppression and exploitation of the non-Europeans by the Europeans as being in conflict with the Christian basis of our national life and irreconcilable with our policy.
The party believes that a definite policy of separation (apartheid) between the White races and the non-White racial groups, and the application of the policy of separation also in the case of the non-White racial groups, is the only basis on which the character and future of each race can be protected and safeguarded and on which each race can be guided so as to develop his own national character, aptitude and calling.
All marriages between Europeans and non-Europeans will be prohibited.
In their areas the non-European racial groups will have full opportunities for development in every sphere and will be able to develop their own institutions and social services whereby the forces of the progressive non-Europeans can be harnessed for their own national development. The policy of the country must be so planned that it will eventually promote the ideal of complete separation in a national way.
A permanent advisory body of experts on non-European affairs will be established.
The State will exercise complete supervision over the moulding of the youth. The party will not tolerate interference from without or destructive propaganda from the outside world in regard to the racial problems of South Africa.
The party wishes all non-Europeans to be strongly encouraged to make the Christian religion the basis of their lives and will assist churches in this task in every possible way. Churches and societies which undermine the policy of apartheid and propagate doctrines foreign to the nation will be checked.
The Coloured community takes a middle position between the European and the Natives. A policy of separation (apartheid) between the Europeans and Coloureds and between Natives and Coloureds will be applied in the social, residential, industrial and political spheres. No marriage between Europeans and Coloureds will be permitted. The Coloureds will be protected against unfair competition from the Natives in so far as where they are already established.
The Coloured community will be represented in the Senate by a European representative to be appointed by the Government by reason of his knowledge of Coloured affairs.
The present unhealthy system which allows Coloureds in the Cape to be registered on the same voters' roll as Europeans and to vote for the same candidate as Europeans will be abolished and the Coloureds will be represcritcd in the House of Assembly by three European representatives.
These Coloured representatives will be elected by a Coloured representative council. They will not vote on:
(1) Votes on confidence in the Government.
(2) A declaration of war, and
(3) A change in the political rights of non-Europeans.
We Are at War! - Umkhonto we Sizwe (December 16, 1961)
Umkhonto We Sizwe ("Spear of the Nation"), the armed wing of the African National Congress (or ANC) was founded partly in response to the notorious Sharpeville Massacre of March 1960. Its leader, Nelson Mandela, was to be arrested shortly after this manifesto was published, eventually being sentenced to life in prison, though he was released in 1990, with the end of apartheid.
On 16th December, 1961, Umkhonto We Sizwe, military wing of the ANC, made it known that we, the oppressed people of South Africa, would fight for our rights. We made this known not only with words. Dynamite blasts announced it.
From 13th August, 1967, our men of Umkhonto We Sizwe, together with our brothers of ZAPU (Zimbabwe African People's Union) have been fighting the oppressors in Matabeleland, Wankie and further south.
The Vorster [John Vorster, Prime Minister from 1966-1975] government, through the radio and newspapers, continues to lie bout this fighting.
The truth is very different from what these newspapers have reported. Our men are armed and trained freedom-fighters, not "terrorists." They are fighting with courage, discipline and skill. The forces of the Rhodesian racialists suffered heavy losses. So also did the white soldiers sent to Rhodesia by Vorster to save the Smith regime from collapse.
The freedom-fighters have inflicted heavy losses on the enemy. Apart from those who have been ambushed and killed, hospitals at Bulawayo and Wankie are crowded with wounded Smith and Vorster forces. Several South African helicopters and military transport planes have been brought down over the past three months.
The fighting will go on in Rhodesia and South Africa. We will fight until we have one, however long it takes and however much it will cost;
Why We Fight
To you, the sons and daughters of the soil, our case is clear.
The white oppressors have stolen our land. They have destroyed our families. They have taken for themselves the best that there is in our rich country and have left us the worst. They have the fruits and the riches. We have the backbreaking toil and the poverty.
We burrow into the belly of the earth to dig out gold, diamonds, coal, uranium. The white oppressors and foreign investors grab all this wealth. It is used for their enrichment and to buy arms to suppress and kill us.
In the factories, on the farms, on the railways, wherever you go, the hard, dirty, dangerous, badly paid jobs are ours. The best jobs are for whites only.
In our own land we have to carry passes; we are restricted and banished while the white oppressors move about freely.
Our homes are hovels; those of the whites are luxury mansions, flats and farmsteads.
There are not enough schools for our children; the standard of education is low, and we have to pay for it. But the government uses our taxes and the wealth we create to provide free education for white children.
We have suffered long enough.
Over 300 years ago the white invaders began a ceaseless war of aggression against us, murdered our forefathers, stole our land and enslaved our people.
Today they still rule by force. They murder our people. They still enslave us.
Only by meeting force with force can we win back our motherland.
We have tried every way to reason with the white supremacists. For many years our leaders and organizations sent petitions and deputations to Cape Town and Pretoria, even overseas, to London and the United Nations in New York. We organized mass demonstrations, pass-burnings, peaceful stay-at-homes.
What answer was given by the government?
Strikers and demonstrators were shot in cold blood. New acts of oppression and injustice were heaped upon us. Our leaders and spokesmen were banned, gagged, jailed, banished--even murdered. Our organization, the African National Congress, was outlawed. Our meetings, journals and leaflets were prohibited...
Black Students and the University - SASO (1972)
The South African Students' Organization (SASO) was a body of South African students who resisted apartheid through political action. The organization was formed in 1969, spearheaded by Steve Biko, and played a major role in the Black Consciousness Movement. Up until SASO's formation, the National Union of South African Students (NUSAS) considered multi-racialism to be the solution to racism and apartheid. The SASO differed from this viewpoint, advocating a black identity separate from any white or multi-racial identity, and succeeded in attracting large numbers of black, coloured, and Indian youths. In 1974, nine leaders from SASO were arrested and tried for conspiring to overthrow the state by unconstitutional means. After a 17-month trial, the so-called "SASO Nine" were convicted and sentenced to between 5 and 10 years on Robben Island (where Nelson Mandela was already in prison). This short publication explains SASO's beliefs about the university system.
Not many of us are thinking seriously about a university among our people except to suggest a craving for higher education. To many of us this is a passport, a key to affluent living, and a university degree bestows us with a status and earns us the respect of the community. Beyond just thinking about the university we need to discover its relevance to us black people and place it in context with the entire black community it purports to serve (in our case).
A bird’s-eye view of a university and one commonly held is that a university is simply a school of idealists, dreamers who have no desire to be anything else but that. Yet it must be realized that a university is a community of people involved in a common search for the truth. TRUTH, this is the operative word. This entails a search for the self and an awareness of your community. Hence it would be quite easy to define TRUTH in terms of the needs, goals and aspirations of a people.
University education for blacks has had the effect of creating a black elitist middle class that is far removed from the true aspirations of the people. Thus the result is a poor imitation of white values and they have become blurred images of their white master. The universities have produced graduates who would never understand themselves and their people. These universities have been ‘the secular refuge of mediocrity ... the safe hospital of all intellectual invalids—and what is worse—the place where all forms of tyranny and insensibility found the chair where they could be taught’. You will, no doubt, agree that they are the faithful mirrors of this decadent society.
Is it worth it?
Black students are today faced with a value system. They seek to understand why a particular human model which they identify as ‘part of the problem’ should be imposed upon them by a white society which has never exhibited any profound love for them. Universities today are extensions of ‘the system’. They do not offer black students an attitude of intimacy with the masses. In order for the social structure to be maintained in existence it is necessary for blacks to acquire the kind of behavior pattern which is consistent with its survival. Thus the university, as it is, is there to entrench the exploitative system and white culture models. Black students have rejected this.
What then does a university mean to us?
To blacks, university students are part of a wider suffering community. To them, the meaning of a university projects the idea of a community. Love and cooperation with one’s fellows is a participation in a human model of fulfillment through creative involvement in the social processes.
The university offers oneness and intimacy with the people. Black students must take over the responsibility of the people’s destiny and devote themselves to the task of eradicating all evils, resolving all problems and generally transforming the spirit of the people. This is the leadership role black students are destined to play towards the development of their people.
With the emergence of SASO and its aim ‘to heighten the sense of awareness and encourage them to become involved in the political, economic and social development of the black people’ has come the idealism of the black revolution, a revolution of ideas, of values and standards. To us this is a challenge and a commitment to put our ideas into practice. This involves making a community conscious of a need to undertake a venture jointly in order to meet those needs and priorities which are essential for its survival. Community development is the direction which black students must take if they are to transform their idealism into stark realism.
This is the era in which we must make the mission of the university real to the world it serves. We face new realities, we are the new peoples with vast possibilities and vast horizons between us. Within our frontiers lives true humanity. We have to bring forth a new humanity with a higher conscience. This is the challenge of the university. Are you with us?
Source: http://www.cvhs.cv.k12.ca.us/staff/kbatchelor/CCG/Unit%2005/Lesson%2003%20-%20Apartheid%20Primary%20Documents.doc
Web site to visit: http://www.cvhs.cv.k12.ca.us
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