D@dalos education server - Human Rights: Advanced subject of aparthied in South Africa

Human Rights

Apartheid

Characteristics of the apartheid system (I): Homelands

The foundations for South Africa's spatial segregation of the races were set down as early as 1923 with the 'Black Urban Areas Act'. This act introduced a nationwide system of identification passes and access controls as a main element in the development of spatial segregation and legal discrimination. This act was expanded upon in 1950 with the 'Group Areas Act', which allocated the nation's four ethnic groups different residential areas in the cities and which made it unlawful for each and every South African to live in a residential area occupied by a different race or to have property in that area. The first prime minister of the National Party, a preacher by the name of Malan, described the Group Areas Act as being the 'heart of apartheid'.

During the 50s the identification pass became a comprehensive document. This hated passport, officially referred to bilingually as 'the reverence book - bewysboek', allocated each black South African a tribal identity and, with it, a reserve, regardless of how loose the connections to the tribe. Each individual was given a residence permit, a monthly registration date and the address of his place of work, as well as details as to taxes paid and police record. Hundreds of thousands were sentenced to imprisonment or fines, or to deportation out of white areas because an entry in their passport was incorrect or they had forgotten to carry their passport. A study by British activists against apartheid revealed that between 1960 and 1967, 4.5 million people had been sentenced for crimes against racist laws!

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In reality, however, the Group Area Act made up only one chamber of the 'heart of apartheid'; the second chamber was created in 1959 by the 'Promotion of Black Self-Government Act'. From now on, black South Africans were to be free to act out their traditions and political rights in their own nations, the so-called homelands

To this end, black South Africans were allocated around 100 areas of land in the form of reservations: 13% of South Africa's total area for almost 75% of its population! The map below clearly illustrates the distribution of land (the homelands are presented in dark blue)

[The homelands in South Africa during apartheid]

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"Black areas" in residential areas which were populated mainly by whites were declared "white" overnight and the black residents dispossessed. Multiracial residential areas were torn down and their residents were forced to move into the homelands. Access for blacks into the cities was further restricted: Only those who had lived in one of the city's residential areas for more than ten years or had worked for one employer for more than fifteen years were allowed legal residence in the city. All others, the surplus people, as they were called, were sent 'home'; that meant that they were transported out into the homelands without any say in the matter and without being consulted. When, how and where the regime felt fit. 3.5 million people were uprooted in this way over the years

The aim of the homeland policy was to achieve step-by-step expatriation of almost 25 million blacks. In a first step, the 'Black Homelands Citizenship Act' of 1971 caused all black South Africans to lose their citizenship and become citizens of one of the ten homelands created by the whites. During a second step - a one hoped for by the government - the homelands could become independent self-governing nations.

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Indeed, four of the homelands did actually become 'independent states' with their own governments financed from

	The governments in the homelands were mostly made up of the black elite and were often authoritarian regimes, which found little acceptance among the people
	Agricultural production was not sufficient to support the populations of the homelands.
	The homelands were not developed industrially. This led to a situation in which working men would migrate into white South Africa, work there for 11 months and return once a year to their families for four weeks. This resulted in the homelands becoming 'camps', which were populated almost entirely by women, children and the elderly

[A small collection of photos provides an impression of life in the homelands]

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The following poem (translated from German) gives an impression of life in the homelands:

Life for women in the homelands

She wakes every morning to the sound of the drilling wood beetles or with a start from a false alarm.

The ashes in the oven are cold and she remembers the daily menu:
An evening meal that fills no one.

Stranger, do you still know how it feels when a hungry stomach rumbles?

She washes her face
with a few drops of spit

Can you image, stranger,
how a body can burn,
when there's no water to wash?

[Lindiwe Mabuza]

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[You will find some powerful pictures on a special page that illustrate the hopelessness of the homelands much better than words can do. This page may take longer to load than normal, since it contains several images.]

[Other characteristics of the apartheid regime: Classification, society, economy, politics]

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Subjects: Human Rights I Democracy  I Parties I Examples I Europe I Globalisation I United Nations I Sustainability

Methods:    Teaching Politics    II    Peace Education    II    Methods

This online service on the subject of political education was developed by agora-wissen, the Stuttgart-based Gesellschaft für Wissensvermittlung über neue Medien und politische Bildung (GbR) (Partnership for the Exchange of Information Using New Media and Political Education). Please contact us with your questions or comments. Translation from German into English by twigg's Übersetzung deutsch-englisch.