|
|
 |
History of South Africa: The Roots of Apartheid
By Obi. O. Akwani
MGV Editor
Return to Main Story
The roots of apartheid go back to the first decade of European presence on the Cape. The white settlers did not consider the prospect of sharing citizenship with Africans, but they well understood the advantages of exploiting non-white labor in capital development and wealth creation. They began using slave labor -- African and Asian -- within five years of setting foot on the Cape, in farming and other chores. The 1707 census listed 1,779 whites settlers with 1,107 slaves.
The Europeans' relationship with the Africans was defined by the former's goals in capital development and wealth creation. Cheap labor was coerced out of free Africans through war, attrition, destruction of African economies and restrictions, legalized and otherwise, on the scope of African independent social and commercial activities.
Independent Africans were banned from the infant colony, but pacified ones, like Hottentots, were allowed in under stringent conditions, like the Caledon Code (1809) and Cradock Code (1812), and a pass system was used to control their movement.
The methods of obtaining African labor when needed did not exclude outright banditry, kidnapping and raids on outlying communities. By the 1820s, "Anglo-Boer commandos units illegally captured San women and children (exterminating many of the men)." They also captured Africans prisoners, known as Mantatees, from across the eastern and northern frontiers and set them to work on farms. These practices were carried well into the 1840s and 50s. Cheap Indian, and later Chinese, labor were obtained more legally by inviting migrant indentured laborers from these countries, but their treatment was no better and sometimes worse than that of Africans.
As the colony expanded, it became simply impractical to exclude Africans, and so the reserve system was introduced -- first used in Natal. Africans were still banned from the cities, only being allowed in with passes to fulfill specific work contracts. These measures for extraordinary control and forced characterization of population groups were carried into the 20th century. They became codified and magnified when apartheid became government policy and ideological pillar in 1948.
Return to Main Story
Further Information
|
