South Africa’s history is one that can increasingly be seen as unique; nowhere else in the world have so many differing groups of people come together over different times to forge results from unusual circumstances. The fruits of division, diversity and hardship have all come together, giving birth in modern times to a dream of common purpose and unity which is coming to realisation.

Today, South Africa is principally known for it’s struggle for freedom and it’s breathtaking landscape – but after spending time getting to know the country, one cannot deny that there is so much more in terms of archaeology, culture, history and language, as well as the spirit of the people who live here. The Gauteng provincial crest bears the legend: “Unity in diversity”. And that is South Africa personified.

Genesis of a settlement

Evidence exists that modern man lived in Sub-Saharan Africa for at least a hundred millennia before the earliest identifiable inhabitants of the region: the hunter-gatherer San, and pastoral Khoekhoe (Bushmen, Hottentots or Khoikhoi; collectively called the Khoisan). Both these groups were resident in the southern tip of the continent for thousands of years before the arrival of white settlers.

The Thulamela site at the northern tip of the Kruger National Park is estimated to have been first occupied in the 13th century; Bantu-speaking people who had moved from the north were also predominant hundreds of years before the Europeans.

The San (whose direct-line descendants are today's Kalahari bushmen) ranged widely over the area; the Khoekhoe, by contrast, lived in areas along the southern and western coastal strips where grazing was to be found.

The early European settlers first came into contact with the Khoekhoe as a result of their landing near what is known today as Cape Town – and almost immediately began the unwitting destruction of that race.

As a result of European disease such as smallpox, of racial assimilation with the settlers and with slaves who arrived later on, and of extermination, the Khoekhoe have effectively disappeared as an identifiable group.

History began to be recorded in detail with the arrival of Jan van Riebeeck and 90 of his men in 1652 at the Cape of Good Hope. Van Riebeeck was a Dutch officer in bad standing, under effective temporary exile from Holland. He had instructions from the Vereendige Ooscht-Indiesche Compagnie (Dutch East India Company) to build a fort and develop a small portion of the local agriculture to provide supplies for ships which used the Cape as a stopping point.

The settlers initially carried out trade with the Khoekhoe, but animosity soon developed over issues such as cattle theft. This situation developed further when nine of the settlers, after being released from their contracts, were given land to farm in 1657, the same year that the first slaves were imported. When Van Riebeeck left, ten years after his arrival, 250 Europeans lived in what was beginning to look like a developing colony.

Immigration continued from Europe, and by the early 1700s independent farmers called trekboers (literally ‘travelling farmers’) began to travel north and east from the Cape. This placed more pressure upon the Khoisan, upon whose territory the trekboers began to encroach.

The gene pool formed by some of the Khoisan, slaves from central Africa and from the East (who introduced Islam), as well as white colonists, formed the basis of the mixed-race group known today as 'Cape Coloured' or 'Cape Malay'.

Return to top

Enter the Uitlanders

The Xhosa-speaking people living in the region known today as the Eastern Cape, encountered the colonists who came east from the Cape of Good Hope. This period was marked by uneasy trading and more-or-less continual warfare. By the mid to late 18th century, the white colonists - mainly Dutch, German and French Huguenots - were losing their sense of identification with Europe; it was around this time that the title "Afrikander" ('African') came into being. The conglomeration of European languages also resulted in a unique series of dialects, consolidating over the passing centuries into the language known today as Afrikaans.

At this time, Britain entered the picture. Territorial wrangling meant that the British wrested control of the Cape from the Dutch in 1795. Meanwhile, revolutionary French armies had aggressively taken control of the Netherlands and it's foreign mandates, including the Cape. The British forced a landing at Muizenberg, but were repelled from the Cape in 1802 when it fell under control of the Batavian Republic. It came under British rule again in 1806, by which time British military strength also began to tell in the Anglo-Xhosa conflict.

In 1820 some 5 000 newly-arrived British settlers were placed on the eastern frontier with the intention of forming a passive barrier against the Xhosa. However, many of those settlers gave up on the difficult and often infertile land, drifting away to Port Elizabeth and Grahamstown. The British established the territory's first elected parliament in 1854, and first responsible government in 1872. Meanwhile, the Xhosa defied pressure on their land and independence but in 1857, their fate took a disastrous turn.

It had been prophesized that the whites would return to the sea if the Xhosa slaughtered their cattle and destroyed their crops. When they did so, this action led very effectively to mass starvation.

Return to top

Road to the North-east

After 1806, Christian missionaries began to arrive, among them John Philip, whose activities contributed to the emancipation of slaves in 1834. Developments such as this precipitated the Great Trek, an emigration north and east of about 12 000 Afrikaner boere (farmers), who had determined that they would live independently of colonial rule, and the racial egalitarianism which they saw as unacceptable.

Meanwhile, Shaka, the great Zulu king, had risen to power. His wars of conquest, along with those of Mzilikazi – one of Shaka’s generals who broke away on a northern path of conquest - caused calamity in the mfecane (interior.)

The Trekkers settled in this area with a belief that they were occupying vacant territory, but soon came into conflict with vengeful Zulu forces.

Initially, many Trekkers moved east into the Natal area (today the province of KwaZulu-Natal) under the leadership of Piet Retief. After successfully negotiating for land, Retief was murdered along with followers and servants at the kraal of Dingane, who succeeded Shaka. Supporting Boer forces - outraged and bent on revenge - launched several unsuccessful offensives against the Zulu before the resulting war ended in Boer victory at the Battle of Blood River. The Boers began to settle in Natal, but other smaller conflicts followed. Observing these developments, the British - fearing repercussions in the Cape Colony - annexed Natal, where a small English settlement called Port Natal (today Durban) had already been established. Meanwhile, two Boer republics were formed on the Highveld: the central Orange Free State (today the Free State Province) and Transvaal, also known as ZAR – Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (a part of which is today Gauteng) – to its north.

By the mid-1800s the tiny post at the Cape of Good Hope had grown into an area of white settlement that reached over most of what is today South Africa. In some areas the indigenous Bantu-speakers maintained their independence - mostly in the northern Natal territories which were still unmistakably a Zulu kingdom. Almost all were eventually to lose the struggle against the white invaders, whether British or Boer. One territory that has retained independence more or less unchanged to the present day was King Moshoeshoe’s Basotho nation. Clashing with the Free Staters, he asked Britain to annex Basotholand, which was done in 1868. The country is today known as Lesotho.

Return to top

Rich Pickings

The Cape colony was granted representative legislature in 1853, and self-government in 1872. In these nineteen years, a new wild variable changed the economic and political arenas: the discovery of diamonds in the Orange Free State, culminating in the establishment of Kimberley.

The realisation that there was wealth for the taking in the subcontinent had predictably far-reaching effects. Claims by rival territories were defeated, and in 1880 the area was incorporated into the Cape colony. Thousands of prospectors were attracted by the diggings and made their fortunes there.

The Cape colony had taken tentative – but misleading – steps towards universal political equality. It was decided that the political franchise would be based on economic qualifications, making it theoretically non-racial, but practically excluding the vast majority of African and coloured people. Many who did qualify became politically active across the colour line. At the time, the promise still existed of progress towards full political inclusion of the population.

Return to top

Natalian discontent

Natal, however, was developing along somewhat different lines, and an ingenious political loophole had materialized.

The Zulu nation in particular appeared to threaten the colonists. Reserves were created under traditional African law for refugees from Zulu military conquest; outside those reserves British law held sway. As nearly all blacks were deemed to fall under the rule of the chiefs in their reserves, almost none had any chance of political rights outside their borders.

Natal held an economic advantage: the climate was ideal for the cultivation of sugar cane. Labour requirements led to the importation of indentured workers from India, many of whom – even in the face of discrimination - remained in the country after their contracts had expired. These men and women were the first generation of today's significant and influential Indian population in Natal.

This was a time of aggressive colonial expansion, during which clashes between Zulu and Englishman were unavoidable. The Zulu / British battle at Isandhlwana in 1879 proved that the British army could be beaten; however, the Zulus were defeated in the following year, leading to Zululand eventually being incorporated into Natal in 1897.

Return to top

Gold-digging and the English nemesis

Britain annexed the Transvaal in 1877; being able to do this due to the unpopularity of President T.F. Burgers; however it lost control again after the Majuba rebellion. The British realised that the granting of qualified independence in 1881 was the only practical way to avoid constant animosity from the Boer sector. This was followed by full internal autonomy in 1884. By this time Paul Kruger, a conservative and hard-lining pro-Afrikaner, had been elected president. However, Kruger and the new republic faced a pressing problem: lack of financial stability.

In 1886, gold was discovered on the Witwatersrand and the republic experienced a financial turnaround of spectacular proportions. However, Kruger was troubled by the unfolding of a serious threat to Afrikaner independence: huge numbers of newcomers, mostly British, were descending on the goldfields. If prompt action was not taken, these uitlanders (foreigners) would soon qualify for the vote. Strict gold-franchise qualifications were stipulated, among them a requirement for 14-year residence.

Cecil J. Rhodes had become Prime Minister in the Cape. His overriding vision was of a federation of British-controlled states in southern Africa – this vision was well served by the growing discontent of the uitlanders and exasperation of the mining magnates in the ZAR. But Rhodes’ first attempt at a coup was doomed to fail: a plan to have Dr. Leander S. Jameson lead a raid into Johannesburg in response to a planned British uprising failed. The uprising did not happen: Jameson was forced to surrender on arrival in the Transvaal. Rhodes resigned as Prime Minister.

The abortive Jameson Raid had negative and far-reaching repercussions for the British. Afrikaners in the Cape and the Orange Free State, previously anti-Kruger, became more sympathetic to his anti-British stance. President M.T. Steyn’s Orange Free State formed a military alliance with the Transvaal. In Britain, however, Rhodes and Jameson were still popular heroes. The stage was set for the Anglo-Boer (also called the South African) War, which began in October 1899. Up to half a million British soldiers squared off against 65 000 Boers; black South Africans were involved in the conflict on both sides.

Britain's military reputation suffered repeated blows as the Boers set siege to Ladysmith, Kimberley and Mafeking (today Mafikeng.) But under leadership of the ruthless Major General Herbert Kitchener and Field Marshal Frederick Sleigh Roberts, the British offensive gained momentum and by 1900 Bloemfontein, Johannesburg and Pretoria were British-occupied. Paul Kruger fled to the Portuguese East African port of Lourenco Marques (today Maputo in Mozambique), en route to Europe.

Outnumbered and outgunned, and smarting under British declaration that the war was "practically over", the Boers retaliated with guerilla tactics; using these strike-from-nowhere methods, General Jan Smuts, who had been Kruger's state attorney, eventually led his troops to within 190km of Cape Town. In response, Kitchener adopted a scorched-earth policy, setting up civilian concentration camps with intent to break the Boer soldiers' morale. Some 26 000 Boer women and children (mostly the Boers’ immediate families) and 14 000 black and coloured people died in appalling conditions in these camps. The war ended with the divided, demoralised Boers accepting defeat at the Peace of Vereeniging in 1902.

Return to top

The Union of South Africa

Many blacks saw British victory as the hoped-for opportunity to put all four colonies on an equal and just footing, but the treaty that ended the war left their franchise rights to be decided by whites.

The ex-Boer republics retained the whites-only franchise. In 1909 a delegation appointed by the South African Native Convention, including representatives of the coloured and Indian communities, arrived in London to plead the case of the country's non-white population. But when the Union of South Africa came into being on 31 May 1910, the only province with a non-racial franchise was the Cape, and blacks were barred from being members of parliament. Of the estimated 6 million inhabitants of the Union in that year, 67% were black African, 9% coloured and 2,5% Asian.

The South African Party (a conglomeration of the Afrikaner parties) was entrenched, with General Louis Botha at the helm. Repressive measures to entrench white power were introduced – among them the Masters and Servants Act, the reservation of skilled work for whites, pass laws, the Native Poll Tax and the 1913 Land Act which allocated just 8.5% of South African land to non-whites - 78.5% of the total population.

Return to top

The Enfant Terrible

The African National Congress (ANC) had come into being on January 8 1912, in Bloemfontein under it's first president, the Rev. John L. Dube. Sol Plaatje was the party’s first secretary. Both men formed part of a second unsuccessful delegation to London, this time to protest the land grab by the S.A.P.

Resistance started to assume a more outspoken and militant form. Several hundred black women marched in Bloemfontein to protest against being forced to buy passes every month. Similar protests were held elsewhere in South Africa, and participants were arrested. All were harshly treated in jail.

The Indian community were also suffering badly under racist treatment - in 1891 they had been summarily expelled from the Orange Free State. Mohandas Gandhi, then a young lawyer, had become a leading figure in Indian resistance. The struggle against the £3 Indian poll tax in Natal involved a mass strike in which a number of Indians were killed, but achieved success when the tax was abolished in 1914 - the year Gandhi, then known as Mahatma, left the country.

The flawed, racially biased South Africa Act formally became the consitution of the Union of South Africa in 1910. In the white camp, Louis Botha and Jan Smuts were in favour of reconciliation with English South Africans. But they did not represent the whole of the embittered Afrikaner nation. Afrikaner polarisation reached a head when South Africa entered the First World War in support of Britain, and anti-British Afrikaners unsuccessfully rebelled.

Still hoping for support from the British government, the ANC endorsed involvement in the war; the only tangible result was the death of unknown numbers of black soldiers.

As a result of British victory in the war, South Africa gained control over the previously German-held South West Africa (today Namibia); the territory became a Union mandate.

The early post-war period was marked by strike action. In 1918 a million black mine workers, inspired by the October Revolution in Russia, went on strike for higher wages, and 71 000 did the same in 1920 - the latter strike successfully extracting a wage increase. Between those strikes, 1919 saw the formation of the Industrial and Commercial Workers' Union of South Africa and the convening of the SA Indian Congress. In the same year, Louis Botha died and Jan Smuts became Prime Minister.

If white South Africa was taking its place in the wider world as a result of the First World War, the ANC was beginning to see itself as part of the effort against colonialism in Africa. In its 1918 constitution it referred to itself as a "Pan-African Association" and the organisation attended the second congress of the international Pan African Movement in 1921.

Meanwhile, rising costs and a falling gold price led the Chamber of Mines to allow the lower-paid black miners to do semi-skilled work. White miners reacted violently in a 1922 strike which was militarily suppressed by Smuts. J.B.M. Hertzog's Nationalists and the Labour Party realised their common ideals, and an election pact saw Smuts ousted and Hertzog as Prime Minister by 1924.

The next decade saw Hertzog successfully working for increased independence from British control and greater job-reservation security for whites. Franchise acts extended the vote to all white men and women, but the existing black vote in the Cape was still restricted to men only.

Economic depression in the early 1930s reduced the government's popularity with voters. This forced Hertzog into a Smuts coalition government in 1933, with their parties merging as the United Party. This period also saw the formation of D.F. Malan's right-wing Nationalist Party, catering to the more extreme Afrikaner nationalists.

Return to top

Independence – and suppression.

In 1934, South Africa declared it's independence from Great Britain. Segregatory pressures were increased: in 1936 black Cape voters were removed from the common roll; in 1937, laws were passed to stem black urbanisation and compel municipalities to segregate black African and white residents.

The Hertzog-Smuts coalition fell apart with the Second World War. Smuts won leadership, forming a government that took South Africa into the war in support of the Allied nations, but Afrikaner opposition to the war strengthened the Nationalist support base. At the same time, developments within the ANC symbolically marked the start of what was to be nearly 50 years of conflict with the Nationalist Party.

In April 1944 the ANC Youth League was formed. Its first president was A.M. Lembede (who died three years later); Nelson Mandela was its secretary. Oliver Tambo and Walter Sisulu were charismatic figures who would also make their mark.

It was a time of rapid industrial expansion, but skilled work remained the exclusive domain of whites. On the other hand the inevitable black influx into urban areas, and their continuing repression, increased black resistance.

A Bill introduced by Smuts in 1946, aimed at curtailing the movement, residence and property ownership of Indians led to mass defiance and the rapid expansion of the Natal Indian Congress. The United Nations also criticised the country's racial inequity and the first of many attacks on South Africa in the UN General Assembly came from the Indian government in 1946.

In a surprise result, the Nationalist Party gained power in the 1948 election - power that it would not relinquish for forty-six years. Apartheid became official government ideology.

Return to top

The stormclouds gather

The 1950’s brought increasingly repressive laws against black South Africans – as well as their increased anger and defiance.

The Group Areas Act (legislating racial division of land) and the Population Registration Act (classifying all citizens by race) were passed in 1950. The Separate Amenities Act (enforcing public segregation, for example on buses and in post offices) came in 1953; that year, Malan retired and J.G. Strijdom became Prime Minister.

The Defiance Campaign was mobilized in 1952. Based on non-violent resistance, it nonetheless led to the detention of thousands of participants. The result was the formation of the Congress Alliance, which included black, coloured, Indian and white resistance organisations as well as the South African Congress of Trade Unions. In 1954 a campaign was launched against the inferior Bantu Education System and it’s perpetuation of black ignorance.

The following year saw two of the most influential events of the decade:

The ANC Freedom Charter - based on the principles of human rights and non-racialism - was signed on June 26 1955 at the Congress of the People in Soweto (SOuth WEstern TOwnship – south of Johannesburg.)

Meanwhile, unable to gain the two-thirds majority required by the 1910 constitution to remove coloured people from the common voters' roll, the government achieved the required composition of it’s Senate by increasing its size (and thus Nationalist percentage) to give it the required majority in a joint sitting of the Senate and the House of Assembly in 1956.

Nationalist reaction to the ANC Freedom Charter was swift: the following year 156 ANC members and allies were charged with high treason. The longest trial in South African history was to lead to the acquittal of all accused in 1961.

J.G. Strijdom died in 1958 and was succeeded by H.F. Verwoerd. In 1959, representatives of black and coloured Africans were removed from both houses of parliament and the Cape provincial council. At the same time, the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC), founded by Robert Sobukwe, broke away from the Congress Alliance.

Return to top

''As ye sow, so shall ye reap''...

The '50s had still offered opportunities for the peaceful resolution of South Africa's racial inequity. However, official ideology dictated otherwise. Apartheid transmuted itself into the policy of "separate development": the goal was the division of the black population into ethnic "nations", each of which was to have its own "homeland" and eventual independence from South African territory.

The most serious turning point came at Sharpeville, South-west of Vereeniging, on March 21 1960. A PAC-organised passive anti-pass campaign came to a bloody conclusion when, under circumstances which remain controversial to this day, police opened fire on the crowd. 69 unarmed protesters died. A State of Emergency was declared and 90-day detention without trial introduced. The ANC, PAC and other organisations were proclaimed illegal and forced underground.

South Africa's isolation increased in 1961 when, following a white referendum, the Republic of South Africa (RSA) was formed and Verwoerd broke the country away from the British Commonwealth. A general strike was called to coincide with the May 31 institution of the republic. At the end of that year, Umkhonto we Sizwe (The Spear of the Nation - the guerilla-military wing of the ANC, formed by a group of individuals including Nelson Mandela) emerged with acts of sabotage against government installations.

A new level of international pressure was reached when the United Nations General Assembly called on its members to institute economic sanctions against South Africa. Mandela, meanwhile, had travelled through Africa making contact with numerous leaders. Going underground on his return, he was arrested in Natal in August 1962 and received a three-year jail term for sedition.

In July 1963 a police raid on the Rivonia farm ‘Lilliesleaf’ led to the arrest of several of Mandela's senior ANC colleagues, including Walter Sisulu. They were charged with sabotage, Mandela being brought from prison to stand trial with them. All were sentenced in 1964 to life imprisonment on Robben Island.

In September 1966 B.J. Vorster (after whom Vorster Square – Johannesburg’s notorious police headquarters – were named) became Prime Minister after the assassination in parliament of Verwoerd. Segregation became even more strictly enforced. Reeling under the blow of the "Rivonia Trial", the ANC nevertheless continued to operate, regrouping at the Morogoro Conference in Tanzania in 1969.

The first half of the 1970s was marked by escalating repression, increasing militancy among the resistance movements, and extensive strike action. Events came to a head on June 16 1976, when the youth of Soweto marched in protest against being taught in Afrikaans. Police forces fired on them, precipitating a flood of violence that overwhelmed the country. Nevertheless, an attempt was made to further the "homeland" policy with Transkei being the first to accept nominal independence later that year.

Clandestine incursions into neighbouring territories by South Africa's armed forces became routine, and the country secretly engaged in a nuclear weapons development program.

A new movement known as Black Consciousness had become increasingly influential. The death of its charismatic founder, Steve Biko - as a result of police brutality – shocked the world in 1977.

P.W. Botha, who became Prime Minister in 1978 after Vorster's retirement, tried to co-opt the coloured and Indian population in 1983 with a new constitution establishing a Tricameral Parliament, with separate houses for these groups. The constitution also did away with the post of Prime Minister and provided for an executive State President. Though the new constitution was endorsed by a white referendum, opposition came from both left and right, a section of the right wing splitting off from the Nationalists to form the Konservatiewe Party (Conservative Party.) The United Democratic Front, an internal coalition of anti-apartheid groups, organised highly successful boycotts of the coloured and Indian elections in 1984. There was a further escalation of violence, with the country being governed - as far as it was governable - under a state of emergency in a spiral of revolution, counter-revolution and repression.

P.W. Botha, by now bearing the nickname "Die Groot Krokodil" (in context: The Dread Crocodile) gave the infamous 'Rubicon speech' at Durban in August 1985, in which he balefully warned the world ''...not to push (South Africa) too far.'' International reaction was swift, and included the flight of foreign capital and even greater economic pressure being brought to bear on South Africa.

Among the other organisations in the spotlight at this time were COSATU (The Congress of South African Trade Unions) and Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi's Inkatha Freedom Party, the latter involved in bloody conflict with pro-ANC factions.

Return to top

Apartheid's Deathbed

The storm broke in 1989. Seeking an end to the crippling perpetual state of emergency, P.W. Botha had previously entered into secret negotiations with Nelson Mandela. Dissension within the Nationalist Party, in combination with Botha suffering a stroke led to his resignation as head of the party, but his retention of the post of State President.

Botha's role as head of the NP was taken up by F.W. de Klerk. After his successful bid for election to State President in September, De Klerk released Walter Sisulu and seven other political prisoners.

On February 2 1990, De Klerk lifted restrictions on 33 opposition groups, including the ANC, the PAC and the South African Communist Party, at the opening of Parliament. On February 11 Nelson Mandela was released after 27 years in prison. The state of emergency, which had shadowed the country more-or-less constantly since 1960, was lifted in all provinces except Natal.

The dismantling of restrictive legislation began. Political groups began to negotiate the end of white minority rule.

However, violence continued unabated as black groups fought savagely for control of the townships; a massacre at Boipatong even causing the ANC to withdraw temporarily from constitutional talks.

In 1992, however, almost 70% of white South Africans endorsed De Klerk's reform initiative in a referendum: an encouraging sign that the democratic process was proceeding, albeit slowly. In 1993 an agreement was reached for the formation of a Government of National Unity which would allow a partnership of the old and new regimes. This optimism was sorely tested by the assassination of Chris Hani, the secretary-general of the South African Communist Party. Only a prompt appeal to the nation by Mandela averted a massive reaction.

At the end of the year an interim constitution was agreed to by 21 political parties. South Africa's first democratic election was held on April 26-29 1994, with victory going to the ANC in an alliance with the Communist Party and COSATU. Nelson Mandela was sworn in as State President on May 10 with the NP’s F.W. de Klerk and the ANC's Thabo Mbeki as Deputy Presidents.

Mandela's presidency was characterised by the successful negotiation of a new liberalised constitution; the beginning of civil service restructuring, attempts to redirect national priorities to address the results of apartheid; and formation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, set up primarily to investigate the past misdeeds of white minority rule.

In the country's second democratic election on 2 June 1999 the ANC marginally increased its majority and Thabo Mbeki succeeded Mandela as State President. The New Nationalist Party, previously the official opposition and at this point headed by Marthinus Van Schalkwyk, lost ground and ceded that position to Tony Leon's Democratic Party. They later merged to form the Democratic Alliance, but opposition politics remain highly fluid even today.

Return to top