POLITICAL HISTORY OF SA

- 1652 – Dutch colonisation

- 1910 : 113 years ago SA became a nation state (history present before)
- Townships – reason to its presence/development ?
- Dichotomy between Eurocentric and Afrocentric interests
- 12 million square miles – landmass
- Geologic activity – oldest continent
- Darwin –
- Numerous diseases/illnesses due to habitat, however less dense pop.
The san and the khoi
o Oldest and genetically distinct population in the world
o Distinct genetics traits
o Northern Botswana due to climate migrated to SA
San or bushmen?
o Genetics studies have shown that the San of southern Africa are more
genetically diverse and therefore older than any other pop. Group
o They date back 150 000 years
o They speak click languages – the more clicks, the older the language
o San is not what they call themselves but what later Khoi pastoralists people
call “ without cattle “
o Egalitarian society – no hierarchy
o Modern world – debate of equality
o Afluence without abundance – book
- Last hunting license for hunting “freshmen “ was issued by the south African
governement in 1936,
- Pastorialism
o Sprend from the Zambezi
o Khoekhoe speakers
o 2000 years ago
o Khoekhoe became pastorialists
o Pastoralism – raising livestock, moving around to provide food
o Ceramic skills and domestication of animals
o Khoekhoe migrated SW

Khoisan
- German anthropologist Schulze coined the term “ Khoisan “ in 1928 to refer to both
the Khoe herders and the San hunter gatherers.
- With time, the term “ Khoisan” emerged as a catchall for the original hunter
gatherers of SA (the San) and the earliest pastoralists to arrive (the Khoekhoe, or
Khoi).
- Today, they are campaigning for “ first people” status
- SA has 12 official languages but this list does not include Khoekhoe and San
languages.
Great Bantu migration
- Created First “ complex” civilisation
- Mapungubwe
- 900-1300 AD
- Dug up “ gold rhino”
- The history Mapungubwe plays a key role in the African renaissance and the
rewriting of the southern African history.

1488 – Europeans contact

1492 – Columbus

The age of European exploration of the African coast – 15th century

- Mongol - largest empire
- Revival of global trade
o Black plague because of the trade made its way to Europe
o Silk route/ spice route

Papal Bulls – 15th century

- Lands ruled by Moors – lands that needed to be restored to ligtimate Christian rules
- Pagan lands in Africa - uninhabited lands in the sense that these people live without
civility or a polis
- Sana charissumus – 1418 Pope Martin V – appeals to Christian king

Henry the navigator : 1394 -1460

- Patron of Portuguese expansion
- Heard of Saharan trade routes with ended at ceuta
- Fascinated by stories of Preston John.
- Convinced his father to attack ceuta (today Gibraltar)
- Developed the caravel NBI \
- Had a holy revelation

Prestor John
- Mythological ruler
- Christian kingdom somewhere in the east
- Legend of queen Sheba, King Solomon and their son, Menelik
- Northeast Africa has a long Christian history (Egypt, Nubia, Aksum, Abyssina)
- With the later spread of Islam, Christianity in the region concentrated.

GROWING PORTUGUESE INTEREST

- Role of henry the navigator
- The Portuguese now had accurate info about the gold trade
 - They knew precisely where the trade routes were situated and where the sources of
gold were.
- The problem : navigating beyond Cape Boyador

THE MARITIME REVOLUTION OF THE 15TH CENTURY : TECHNOLOGY

- Greatest challenge was the return : the winds and currents were problematic
- The great caravel solved this
- Lateen sails – from arab vessels
- Square rigging (improved by Bretons)
- Carvel planking – probably Iberian innovation
- For armaments Turkish designated cannons utilising Chinese invented gunpowers
- Rationalisation of wind patterns and other knowledge

Exploring the coast

- Mouth of the Senegal river was reached in 1444
- Mende speaking societies in sierra leone were reached by 1460
- From 1460 the Portuguese state focused more on Morocco and exploration slacked
- By 1469 private merchandise

- The first Portuguese mariner to go round the cape – Bartholomew Diaz

- Treaty of Tordesillas – 1494

Feb, 3rd 1488

- Had some intelligence about the east african coast
- Previous furthest southern point reached was

Vasco da gama
- First Portuguese explorer to reach India via the southern route
- The roteiro
- November 1497 – meeting the khoi in modern day in mossel bay

Mozambique harbour
- Portuguese had nothing to trade
- North coastline a lot richer
- Had all in abundance
- Feared anti-Christian behaviour.

COLONISATION

- European ships landed in the shores of table bay, came into contact with Khoikhoi
- Often led to conflict ( De Almeda, 1510 – had 67 men killed)
- Portuguese avoided table Bay as a result
- Summer months the Khoikhoi moved around btw the areas of Table Bay
DUTCH AND ENGLISH TRADING COMPANIES – 17TH CENTURIES

- In 1600 the east india company of the British was formed and followed by the
formation the VOC in Netherlands in 1602 – became the richest company
- Challenged Portuguese and Spanish domination of the trade with Asia
- The VOC acted as an agent of the dutch government in Asia by expanding the dutch
influence by taking possession of land, expanding trade routes and establishing trade
outposts
- Btw 1610 and 1669, the VOC took possession of colonies in Batavia, Indonesia,
Colombo in Sri Lanka …

PORTUGUSE AND SPANISH LOSE INFLUENCE BY MIDDLE OF 17TH CENTURY

- By 1620, VOC was the largest corporation in Europe trading in cotton and silk from
india to china
- In 1651 , the VOC issued instructions that a refreshment station – not settlement
should be established at the cape to provide fresh supplies of vegetables, fruit and
meat for VOC ships on their way to east indies
- Plenty of fresh water, which was scarce elsewhere
- Send Jan van Riebeck
o Divisive figute

6th April 1652

- Jan van Riebeck accompanied by 2 other ships arrived at the cape on the 6th April
1652
- A mud and wooden structure was erected in the table bay area for shelter and
defence
- That same year the VOC granted men permission to own land, build farms and
improve food and supply
- By 1655 some company employees were growing their own vegetables plots near the
castle but the settlement remained largely dependent on food supplies brought from
Amsterdam (in 1654 complete starvation was averted by the arrival of Tulp from
Madagascar with rice supplies).
- Dutch expansion around table Bay resulted in conflicts with the Khoikhoi who lost
grazing pastures as settlers occupied their land and in some instances seized their
cattle.
- Tensions over loss of pastures btw 1654 and 1659 resulted in open conflict in the first
Khoi Dutch war from 1659-60
- By the 1600s, the settlement showed growth in the number of buildings.
GROWING INFLUENCE OF THE British AND THE FRENCH

- 150 Years of dutch administration

- British them took over in 1806

Slaves on wine farms :

- Khoi people ended up on farms because their pop. Crumbled but weren’t bought so
aren’t technically classified as slaves
- Most were for wine farms, the VOC, small restaurants

28th march 1658

- 250 captured from a Portuguese route – only 170 survived the journey
- At that that time there were only 90 slaves that were on the cape so doubled the
slave pop.

Do you think apartheid was a result of race or class ?

- Philosophical question
- Tightly knitted to the need of labour

EARLY PART OF 18TH CENTURY

- Majority of slaves came from the Indian subcontinent

- 80% of slaves from India
- Over time slavery becomes an integrated part of the society structure
o Opposite of egalitarian society

Slavery  colonialism  apartheid

- SA was from the very start a society structured along racial lines in which black
people occupied a subordinate position.
- Increased demand in wine production during the Napoleon time (1806).
o 1806 : Cape stops being Dutch & starts being British ( new colonial master)
o 1807: British Parliament passes the abolition of slavery act after decades of
debates.
 Conservatives: old money were very dependent on slavery as they
made they money off the back of slavery
 New money: made money from factories in UK

RESISTANCE

- 18th century slaves outnumbered settlers

- Individual resistance and desertion was common
Cultural legacy :
- Common reciprocal legacy

Mfecane in Zulu people: 1815-1840

- Most well-known indigenous clan from abroad
- Mfecane – crushing
- Time of military expansion
- Previous president was Zulu
o Came into presidency by presenting the Zulu people

Zulu early 19th century

Causes for MFECANE :

- The need for land
- Pop. Growth in Natal
- Shakas military and expansionist strategy
- The profitable slave trades through Delagoa Bay (modern day , Maputo)

1820 Settlers :

Battle of blood river, 1838

- The Voorktrekkers ( early migrants) and the Zulus culminated at the battle of blood
river – 16 december 1838
- This is seen as the great betrayal
- Trekkers defeat Zulu

Anglo-Zulu war

ALL CHANGED IN 1867

- When diamonds where discovered

- Don’t have to mine diamonds
- Before most came from inida and brasil

DIAMON RUSH AND SOCIO-POLITICAL CHANGE

- Emerging mining diamond town

 - Within one year 50 thousands people moved to a city where these diamonds where
a year before didn’t exist.

DE BEERS CONSOLIDATED MINES

- One of the companies that controlled the mines and diamonds
- 95% of all the diamonds taken out of the mines over time ( massive amount)

Gold at the Witwatersrand

- Advantages of the gold mining on the Rand
o No deadly disease
o Rich ore, which lay close to the surface
o Capital and expertise from Kimberley and elsewhere readily available
o NB ! Available labour force

Massive labour migration

- Labour and labour control imperative
- Division and labour according to race
- White workers favoured
- Mining compounds – single sex compounds for black migrant workers from
homelands and Bantustans became an important feature from the 1870s onwards
- A form of control

Origins of segregation
- Mid 19th century – in the world of European colonies, SA was unique

- Not essentially white and self-sufficient (Australia) – hunted indigenous people in

Australia till where superior in numbers

- Nor did whites play a limited role as rulers (India).

- Reality : whites had achieved dominance but relied on black labour + the white pop.
Was ethically divided btw Dutch and English

o Diff. political aspirations

o Only united when to ensure white supremacy.

AFRIKANER NATIONALISM / Politics

- SA war 1899-1902 : anti-imperial war
- Union of SA a self-governing dominion of the British empire
- Louie Botha – first prime minister forms SA party (SAP) in 1911
- Keeps a good relation with Britain – but critisiced within Afrikaner circle.
OUTBREAK OF WW1 -1914

- Louie Botha and Jan Smuths join war on side of Britain

- National Party – 1914 under Herzog
- 1914 – Rebellion
- Botha dies in 1919 - Smuth succeeds him
- Rand Revolt in 1922 – white workers
- National party wins

Afrikaner identity : building a nation from words ?

- Afrikaans became a badge of social identity
- Main symbol of social identity

Die burger – newspaper

- Jannie Marais bought shares

Where does apartheid come from?

- Product from changing social, economical, political circumstances of industrialising
SA

FUSION – 1934

NP – SAP :merge to form united party

- This forms the RNP : consisting of more radical Afrikaaners

- 1930s/ 40s : emerging concept of race apartheid

- Growing urban social problems : stimulated concept
- Academics, Afrikaner churches justified apartheid
- 1938 : Oxwagon sentinel and active sabotage.

OXWAGEN SENTINEL
- Link to Nazis
- Alien volk – white supremacy
- Concocted fake stories

CENTENARY TREK – 1938

- Re-imagining the Afrikaner past
- Nationalist myth
- Afrikaner populist moment
1948 – official start of apartheid

3 pillars of apartheid
1. Communal apartheid
2. Political supremacy
3. Labour regulation

Ironic – didn’t want black people in the system unless for work

First laws :
- Prohibition of mixed marriage - 1949
- Prohibition sexual relations -1950
- Registration and classification of white, coloured, black, Indian – 1950
- Group areas act – 1950 : living areas according to racial groups

Destruction of Sophiatown

- Social construct

Black nationalism – 20th century