More than , black South Africans were arrested each year under these Pass Laws. In , the first significant, non-violent political campaign took place — the Defiance Campaign. For four months, more than 8, volunteers deliberately flouted the laws of apartheid by refusing to carry passes, violating curfews and using public places and facilities designated for white-use only.
Other episodes of resistance took place throughout the period, including demonstrations, protests, strikes, political action and eventually armed resistance. In , one act of protest saw at least 69 unarmed black people killed and wounded when the police opened fire at a protest in the poor black township of Sharpesville. His story became famous around the world. In , the UN had denounced apartheid, but things came to a head in , when police opened fire with tear gas and bullets against school children in Soweto.
The Great Depression and World War II brought increasing economic woes to South Africa, and convinced the government to strengthen its policies of racial segregation. By , the government had banned marriages between whites and people of other races, and prohibited sexual relations between black and white South Africans. The Population Registration Act of provided the basic framework for apartheid by classifying all South Africans by race, including Bantu black Africans , Coloured mixed race and white.
A fourth category, Asian meaning Indian and Pakistani was later added. In some cases, the legislation split families; parents could be classified as white, while their children were classified as colored. In order to limit contact between the races, the government established separate public facilities for whites and non-whites, limited the activity of nonwhite labor unions and denied non-white participation in national government.
Separating black South Africans from each other enabled the government to claim there was no black majority and reduced the possibility that blacks would unify into one nationalist organization.
From to , more than 3. Resistance to apartheid within South Africa took many forms over the years, from non-violent demonstrations, protests and strikes to political action and eventually to armed resistance. Together with the South Indian National Congress, the ANC organized a mass meeting in , during which attendees burned their pass books. The group had arrived at the police station without passes, inviting arrest as an act of resistance. At least 67 blacks were killed and more than wounded.
Sharpesville convinced many anti-apartheid leaders that they could not achieve their objectives by peaceful means, and both the PAC and ANC established military wings, neither of which ever posed a serious military threat to the state. By , most resistance leaders had been captured and sentenced to long prison terms or executed.
In , when thousands of black children in Soweto, a black township outside Johannesburg, demonstrated against the Afrikaans language requirement for black African students, the police opened fire with tear gas and bullets.
The protests and government crackdowns that followed, combined with a national economic recession, drew more international attention to South Africa and shattered all illusions that apartheid had brought peace or prosperity to the nation. In , the United Kingdom and United States imposed economic sanctions on the country. Under pressure from the international community, the National Party government of Pieter Botha sought to institute some reforms, including abolition of the pass laws and the ban on interracial sex and marriage.
People would then be treated differently according to their population group, and so this law formed the basis of apartheid. It was however not always that easy to decide what racial group a person was part of, and this caused some problems. Group Areas Act, This was the act that started physical separation between races, especially in urban areas. The act also called for the removal of some groups of people into areas set aside for their racial group.
Promotion of Bantu Self-Government Act, This Act said that different racial groups had to live in different areas. Only a small percentage of South Africa was left for black people who comprised the vast majority to form their 'homelands'. This Act also got rid of 'black spots' inside white areas, by moving all black people out of the city. Well known removals were those in District 6, Sophiatown and Lady Selborne.
These black people were then placed in townships outside of the town. They could not own property here, only rent it, as the land could only be white owned.
This Act caused much hardship and resentment. People lost their homes, were moved off land they had owned for many years and were moved to undeveloped areas far away from their place of work. Resistance to apartheid came from all circles, and not only, as is often presumed, from those who suffered the negative effects of discrimination.
Criticism also came from other countries, and some of these gave support to the South African freedom movements. There were also Indian and Coloured organized resistance movements e.
We shall consider the ANC. It was started as a movement for the Black elite, that is those Blacks who were educated. In , the ANC sent a deputation to London to plead for a new deal for South African blacks, but there was no change to their position. The history of resistance by the ANC goes through three phases. The first was dialogue and petition; the second direct opposition and the last the period of exiled armed struggle. In , just after apartheid was introduced, the ANC started on a more militant path, with the Youth League playing a more important role.
The ANC introduced their Programme of Action in , supporting strike action, protests and other forms of non-violent resistance.
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