Geography of South African Apartheid

PLACE

• South Africa was controlled by people of British descent, or Afrikaners, but the Black Africans made up 75% of the population.
• The South African government controlled by Afrikaners.
• There was a rich supply of gold and diamonds in South Africa.
• Zimbabwe (Rhodesia) was the richest country within Africa and was controlled by the Afrikaners.
• The White government passed laws of segregation, beginning a system of apartheid.

MOVEMENT

• In 1959, the parliament passed new laws extending racial segregation by creating separate bantusans, or homelands, for South Africa’s major black groups.
• 13% of the land was for the Black South Africans (75% of the population) and the Afrikaners (15% of the population) recieved the rest.
• The 87% of the land left for the Afrikaners was made up of all of the productive farming land and the rich gold and diamond mines.
• Parks, buses, benches, schools, universities, and cities were segregated.
• The Black Africans would not stand for such segregation.
• Sharpeville Massacre
• Police killed 69 people demonstrating against the system of passes.
• The government then banned tha ANC, African National Congress, and improisoned or exiled thousands of its members.
• Soweto Demonstrations
• 600 students were killed in Soweto whiile protesting the use of Afrikaner language in their classes.
• A ruthless government crackdown followed.
• Becuase of such acts, South Africa was excluded from the UN and the Olympics.
• Economic sanctions were placed on South Africa as well.
• Members of the UN were forbidden rto sell military weaponry to South Africa.
• Beginning in 1989, several South African countires won back black rights.
• Zimbabwe and Namibia raised bans on the ANC.
• Parliament repealed apartheid laws that had segregated public facilities and restricted black land ownership.
• Less than 1% blacks could afford to live in a white neighborhood.
• The average black worker earned just one-fifth as much as the average white worker.
• Black voting was still an unresolved issue.
• The black people were not represened in the government.

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