Mandela & Apartheid

1. Apartheid Defined, David Livingstone, 1857

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• “The great objection many of the Boers had and still have to English law is that it makes no distinction between [B]lack men and white. They felt aggrieved by their supposed losses in the emancipation for their Hottentot slaves, and determined to erect themselves into a republic, in which they might pursue without molestation, the 'proper treatment of the [B]lacks.'

• “It is almost needless to add that the 'proper treatment' has always contained in it the essential element of [enslavement], namely, compulsory unpaid labour.”

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2. High-Level Definitions

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• Afrikaans for “apartness” – legal segregation by “race”

• Officially introduced in 1948 by South Africa’s National Party

• The idea of “separate but equal”

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3. Some Laws to Uphold White Supremacy (Apartheid)

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• Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act, 1949

  • Must marry within your “race”

• Population Registrations Act 1950

  • Defining “race”

• Immorality Acts, 1927, 1950, 1957

  • Sexual  intercourse between whites and “non-whites” illegal

• Group Areas Act 1950

  • Physical exclusion by “race”

• Bantu Education Act, 1953

  • Inferior (assimilative) education for Indigenous people

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Mandela & Education to fight anti-Black racism

1. Bantu Education Act

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• Afrikaaner nationalist government took over control of Indigenous education (that was dominated by foreign churches and missionaries)

• Dr. Hendrik Verwoerd, minister of Bantu education:

  • Education “must train and teach people in accordance with their opportunities in life.”

  • “There is no place for the Bantu in the European community above the level of certain forms of labor.”

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2. Mandela

• “Education is the great engine of personal development. It is through education that the daughter of a peasant can become a doctor, that the song of a mineworker can become the head of the mine, that the child of farmworkers can become the president of a great nation. It is what we make out of what we have, not what we are given, that separates one person from another.” 

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3. However racist education system – government spent 6 times as much on educating white students vs Indigenous peoples (early to mid- twentieth century).

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4. Education not compulsory for Indigenous peoples, only free at the primary level

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5. Fewer than half of Indigenous children of school age attended, and a “tiny number” graduated secondary school.

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Mandela & Violence to fight anti-Black racism/Apartheid

1. Mandela (from a Long Walk to Freedom):

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• “…it is always the oppressor, not the oppressed, who dictates the form of the struggle. If the oppressor uses violence, the oppressed have no alternative but to respond violently.” 

• “The idea that history progresses through struggle and change occurs in revolutionary jumps was similarly appealing.” 

• “I called for nonviolent protest for as long as it was effective.”

• 1961 following his acquittal in the 1950s Treason Trial: 

  • “Old African expression”: “Sebatana ha se bokwe ka diatla (The attacks of the wild beast cannot be averted with only bare hands)”

  • “…the state had given us no alternative to violence…it was wrong and immoral to subject our people to armed attacks by the state without offering them some kind of alternative.” 

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2. Umkhonto we Sizwe (The Spear of the Nation) – Military Organization (“MK”)

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• Mandate to “wage acts of violence against the state…our intention was to begin with what was least violent to individuals but most damaging to the state.”

• Among others, Mandela studied South African history on how to start a (violent) revolution.

• Considered four types of violent activities: 

  • Sabotage

  • Guerrilla warfare

  • Terrorism

  • Open revolution

• Chose sabotage

  • “it did not involve loss of life [so] it offered the best hope for reconciliation among the races afterward.”

• MK manifesto:

  • “The time comes in life of any nation when there remain only two choices: submit or fight. That time has now come to South Africa. We shall not submit and we have no choice but to hit back by all means within our power in defence of our people, our future and our freedom…”

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Some Revolutionary Tips to Challenge Anti-Black Racism Learned from Mandela

• Education

• Understanding the system (using the law as a means for change)

  • Legal systems

  • Revolutionary systems

    • The ANC

• People systems

  • Individuals

  • Collective groups

  • Traditional (African)

  • Colonial

  • White supremacist system

  • International aid

  • Pan African 

• Prison systems

• Political systems

• Use of different tactics when needed (violence)

• Patience

• Listening to others

• Collaboration but steadfast to his principles

• Standing up, and speaking on behalf of, others

• Family ties

• Foresight

• Strategy

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