History Essay: The Beginning of Apartheid and the Two leading Parties

Many races, religions and people have influenced South Africa. We have eleven different languages and ten different racial groups. Through many different governmental policies our people have been involved in a racial segregation period and this is one of the main reasons South Africans are such proud and nationalistic people. In this essay I will be reviewing the rise of two nationalistic movements; Afrikaner Nationalism and Black Nationalism, the reasons for their development as well as the actions they took in response to their differing frustrations focusing mainly on the time period 1912-1940, which saw a lot of political movement and change, and how the African National Congress (ANC) of today started to develop into a formidable political party.

History prior to this particular time had a major influence on the rise of apartheid, with South Africa being colonised by different countries – this ultimately led to European whites fighting for land in our country. This affected the natives of our country and led to their involvement. The first to colonise and set a solid foot hold in South Africa were the Dutch, whose sole purpose was to use the Cape Peninsula as a stop-off point for the Dutch East Indian Trading Company - who were the dominant shipping company of that time. Increasing numbers of Dutch people started to take residence here and when the English started to take a particular interest in South Africa, the Dutch; who were currently living here started to venture further inland so as to avoid conflict. As time passed, a particular group of people started to form a nationalistic pride as they felt that they were a different kind of people and developed into what we know them as today as the; Afrikaans. For a long time period, the Afrikaans people who were referred to as ‘The Boere’ were in conflict with the English and many battles took place. This caused the black people to either flee or fight and in most times the blacks approached the different sides to swear legions. Black people were forced to work for the Afrikaans or they were not protected and this could have resulted in execution by the English. The Afrikaans saw an opportunity, which gave them the upper hand: they made the black people do large amounts of manual labour for very little pay.

Over a few decades Afrikaner Nationalism continued to grow with greater passion and patriotism – they felt that they had the right to govern the country and underwent various actions to gain control. Frustrations with British rule and the infliction of their heritage on South Africans led to the formation of the National Party in 1914. The party was led by JBM Hertzog and was later voted into power in 1924. The National Party aimed to promote white Afrikaner interests. The Afrikaans language was recognized as an official language and a South African flag was established, therefore Hertzog led the varying Boer groups into unity as an Afrikaans culture. They also protected their own by implementing policies that protected white workers and assisted the ‘poor whites’ and many white people were given powerful positions in government. This resulted in many black people being oppressed in the employment sector.
The implementation of these policies earned them greater support among white males – the voting public and therefore greater control over many more areas.
The policies that the National Party made were effective in spurring on the rise of Black Nationalism and led to more radical responses to the oppressive laws that were passed. The NP influenced the public through media coverage and legislative procedures – this was a pivotal tactical move made by the Afrikaners to expand their control and increase Afrikanerdom.

A handful of the educated black elite developed a political party SANNC that we now know as today as the ANC. The men who were running this party were all very well educated and boasted high standard degrees such as lawyers, professors and teachers. Unfortunately they did not appeal to the mass of the black people as the majority saw them as inferior because they believed that the SANNC did not understand what they were going through. In 1913 the Black (0r natives) land act was developed. This meant that no black people or other natives had the right to own or rent their property outside designated reserves. In 1923 the SANNC changed their name to ANC. In this year the native (black) urban areas act was developed which tightly controlled the way black people were allowed to move around. The areas were segregated into ‘urban’ and ‘rural’ areas, and if a black person wanted to cross into the ‘urban’ area, he or she had to carry a pass or the police had the right to arrest him or her. The areas were controlled by a committee and if a black person was not employed in a certain area he or she was forcefully removed. These unemployed blacks were known as ‘surplus’.

In 1936 the Representation of blacks act commenced which meant black people were not allowed to vote, which meant that the ANC could not run for the presidential seat. This then led to the ANC being infuriated and they approached other leading black political parties and requested they all fight for the ban of apartheid.

In conclusion this was all a domino effect as the British discriminated against the Afrikaner, which led to the Afrikaner turning against and inflicting their anger against the blacks. The black South Africans and the Afrikaners are both very nationalistic people because of too very similar causes, they were both undermined and discriminated against and treated unfairly. Nelson Mandela turned the anger that these two types of people had against each other and turned it into a positive fight for the whole of South Africa, and that is why we are such proud people.