Overview
In 1948 the Afrikaner-led National Party Key term · 1948–1994 National Party The Afrikaner nationalist party that governed South Africa from 1948 and introduced apartheid. Why it matters Its victory in 1948, won with a minority of the (white) vote, began four decades of apartheid rule. See in glossary → won power in South Africa promising apartheid Key term · 1948–1994 Apartheid The system of racial segregation and white minority rule enforced by law in South Africa, from the Afrikaans word for "separateness". Why it matters It classified people by race and controlled every part of their lives. Resistance to it made South Africa a focus of international human rights campaigning. See in glossary → — “separateness”. Over the next decade it built a system of laws that classified every South African by race and controlled where they could live, work, study and travel. Resistance grew from mass nonviolent campaigns to sabotage, until the state banned the liberation movements and imprisoned their leaders. The Rivonia Trial Key term · 1963–1964 Rivonia Trial The trial of Nelson Mandela and other ANC and MK leaders for sabotage, which ended with sentences of life imprisonment. Why it matters It silenced the internal leadership of the liberation movement for years, while Mandela's speech from the dock made him an international symbol. See in glossary → of 1963–64 marks the end of this prescribed subject.
Key dates
- May 1948 The National Party wins the election under D. F. Malan.
- 1949–1953 Core apartheid laws, including the Population Registration Act Key term · 1950 Population Registration Act The law requiring every South African to be classified by race — for example as White, Coloured, or Native (Black African). Why it matters It was the foundation of apartheid — every other racial law depended on this classification, which was often arbitrary and split families. See in glossary → and Group Areas Act Key term · 1950 Group Areas Act The law assigning urban residential and business areas to specific racial groups. Why it matters It led to the forced removal of hundreds of thousands of people from areas such as Sophiatown and District Six. See in glossary → (1950) and the Bantu Education Act Key term · 1953 Bantu Education Act The law bringing Black African education under state control, with a separate, inferior curriculum. Why it matters It aimed to prepare Black Africans for manual labour. Opposition to it culminated in the Soweto uprising of 1976. See in glossary → (1953).
- 1952 The ANC’s Defiance Campaign Key term · 1952 Defiance Campaign The ANC-led campaign in which thousands of volunteers deliberately broke apartheid laws, such as by using "whites only" facilities, and accepted arrest. Why it matters It turned the ANC into a mass movement, increasing its membership dramatically, but the government responded with harsher laws. See in glossary → .
- 26 Jun 1955 The Congress of the People adopts the Freedom Charter Key term · 1955 Freedom Charter The statement of principles adopted by the Congress of the People at Kliptown, calling for a non-racial, democratic South Africa. Why it matters It became the ANC's core programme. The state used it as evidence in the Treason Trial, and Africanist opposition to it led to the PAC split. See in glossary → .
- 9 Aug 1956 Some 20,000 women march on Pretoria against the extension of the pass laws Key term · 1952 (in this form) Pass laws Laws requiring Black Africans to carry reference books ("passes") showing where they were allowed to live and work. Why it matters They controlled movement and labour and led to millions of arrests. Protests against them sparked the women's march of 1956 and the Sharpeville demonstration of 1960. See in glossary → to women.
- 1956–1961 The Treason Trial; all accused are eventually acquitted.
- 1959 The Pan Africanist Congress Key term · from 1959 Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) A movement founded by Robert Sobukwe and others who broke from the ANC, rejecting its multiracial alliances in favour of African leadership. Why it matters Its anti-pass campaign led to the Sharpeville massacre, and it was banned alongside the ANC in 1960. See in glossary → breaks away from the ANC; the law creating Bantustans Key term · 1959–1994 Bantustans Ethnic "homelands" created for Black South Africans, several of which were later declared "independent" by the government. Why it matters They were central to Verwoerd's "grand apartheid" — the aim of stripping Black South Africans of citizenship. No other country recognised their independence. See in glossary → is passed.
- 21 Mar 1960 The Sharpeville massacre Key term · 21 March 1960 Sharpeville massacre The killing of 69 unarmed protesters by police at a PAC demonstration against the pass laws. Why it matters It caused international outrage and led to the banning of the ANC and PAC and their turn to armed struggle. See in glossary → ; the ANC and PAC are banned.
- Dec 1961 The first sabotage attacks of Umkhonto we Sizwe Key term · from 1961 Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) The armed wing ("Spear of the Nation") co-founded by Nelson Mandela, which began a sabotage campaign in December 1961. Why it matters It marked the ANC's move from nonviolence to armed struggle; the capture of its leaders at Rivonia in 1963 crippled resistance inside South Africa. See in glossary → .
- Jul 1963 Police raid the MK high command at Liliesleaf Farm, Rivonia.
- 12 Jun 1964 Mandela and others are sentenced to life imprisonment.
Building apartheid
Segregation existed long before 1948, but apartheid made it systematic. The Population Registration Act classified everyone by race; the Group Areas Act assigned residential areas by race, leading to forced removals such as District Six and Sophiatown; marriages and sexual relations across racial lines were banned; the pass laws controlled Black Africans’ movement; and the Bantu Education Act gave Black children an education designed to prepare them for manual labour. Under Hendrik Verwoerd (Prime Minister from 1958) “grand apartheid” aimed to divide Black South Africans into separate ethnic “homelands”.
Resistance
Nonviolent mass action, 1949–1959. The ANC Youth League — Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu and Oliver Tambo among them — pushed the ANC towards boycotts, strikes and civil disobedience. The Defiance Campaign of 1952 saw thousands deliberately break apartheid laws. In 1955 the Congress Alliance adopted the Freedom Charter.
South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white, and that no government can justly claim authority unless it is based on the will of all the people.
Why this quote matters
The Charter's non-racial vision — South Africa for all its peoples — defined the ANC's aims. Africanists who rejected cooperation with white, Indian and coloured allies broke away to form the PAC in 1959.
Sharpeville and its aftermath. On 21 March 1960 police opened fire on a PAC demonstration against the pass laws at Sharpeville, killing 69 people. The government declared a state of emergency and banned the ANC and PAC. South Africa became a republic in 1961 and left the Commonwealth. Weeks before Sharpeville, the British Prime Minister had warned the South African parliament of the changes sweeping Africa:
The wind of change is blowing through this continent, and, whether we like it or not, this growth of national consciousness is a political fact.
Why this quote matters
Macmillan signalled that Britain would not support white minority rule against African nationalism — a sign of South Africa's growing international isolation.
Armed struggle. With peaceful protest banned, Mandela and others formed Umkhonto we Sizwe (“Spear of the Nation”) in 1961, beginning a sabotage campaign against infrastructure while trying to avoid loss of life. The PAC’s armed wing, Poqo, was prepared to kill. The state responded with detention without trial and torture. At the Rivonia Trial, Mandela ended his statement from the dock:
I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.
Why this quote matters
Mandela used the trial to explain to the world why the ANC had turned to armed struggle. The speech made him an international symbol of resistance — even as the verdict crushed the movement inside South Africa for a decade.
Historians’ debate
Liberal historians explained apartheid mainly through Afrikaner nationalism and racial ideology, which they saw as at odds with economic growth.
Radical historians argued that apartheid served capitalism by guaranteeing a supply of cheap, controlled Black labour.
Posel showed that apartheid was not a single master plan but was shaped by conflicts within the state and between different white interests.
Test yourself
Name three apartheid laws and what they did. Reveal
The Population Registration Act (1950) classified everyone by race; the Group Areas Act (1950) assigned separate residential areas, enabling forced removals; the Bantu Education Act (1953) gave Black Africans an inferior, state-controlled education. Others include the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act and the pass laws.
Why was Sharpeville a turning point? Reveal
The killing of 69 protesters brought international condemnation, a state of emergency and the banning of the ANC and PAC. With legal protest impossible, the movements turned to armed struggle.
How did the ANC justify turning to violence in 1961? Reveal
Decades of nonviolent protest had brought only harsher repression, and the movement had been banned. Umkhonto we Sizwe targeted infrastructure through sabotage, aiming to avoid loss of life while pressuring the government.
Key terms
- Apartheid 1948–1994
-
The system of racial segregation and white minority rule enforced by law in South Africa, from the Afrikaans word for "separateness".
Significance: It classified people by race and controlled every part of their lives. Resistance to it made South Africa a focus of international human rights campaigning.
- Bantu Education Act 1953
-
The law bringing Black African education under state control, with a separate, inferior curriculum.
Significance: It aimed to prepare Black Africans for manual labour. Opposition to it culminated in the Soweto uprising of 1976.
- Bantustans 1959–1994
-
Ethnic "homelands" created for Black South Africans, several of which were later declared "independent" by the government.
Significance: They were central to Verwoerd's "grand apartheid" — the aim of stripping Black South Africans of citizenship. No other country recognised their independence.
- Defiance Campaign 1952
-
The ANC-led campaign in which thousands of volunteers deliberately broke apartheid laws, such as by using "whites only" facilities, and accepted arrest.
Significance: It turned the ANC into a mass movement, increasing its membership dramatically, but the government responded with harsher laws.
- Freedom Charter 1955
-
The statement of principles adopted by the Congress of the People at Kliptown, calling for a non-racial, democratic South Africa.
Significance: It became the ANC's core programme. The state used it as evidence in the Treason Trial, and Africanist opposition to it led to the PAC split.
- Group Areas Act 1950
-
The law assigning urban residential and business areas to specific racial groups.
Significance: It led to the forced removal of hundreds of thousands of people from areas such as Sophiatown and District Six.
- National Party 1948–1994
-
The Afrikaner nationalist party that governed South Africa from 1948 and introduced apartheid.
Significance: Its victory in 1948, won with a minority of the (white) vote, began four decades of apartheid rule.
- Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) from 1959
-
A movement founded by Robert Sobukwe and others who broke from the ANC, rejecting its multiracial alliances in favour of African leadership.
Significance: Its anti-pass campaign led to the Sharpeville massacre, and it was banned alongside the ANC in 1960.
- Pass laws 1952 (in this form)
-
Laws requiring Black Africans to carry reference books ("passes") showing where they were allowed to live and work.
Significance: They controlled movement and labour and led to millions of arrests. Protests against them sparked the women's march of 1956 and the Sharpeville demonstration of 1960.
- Population Registration Act 1950
-
The law requiring every South African to be classified by race — for example as White, Coloured, or Native (Black African).
Significance: It was the foundation of apartheid — every other racial law depended on this classification, which was often arbitrary and split families.
- Rivonia Trial 1963–1964
-
The trial of Nelson Mandela and other ANC and MK leaders for sabotage, which ended with sentences of life imprisonment.
Significance: It silenced the internal leadership of the liberation movement for years, while Mandela's speech from the dock made him an international symbol.
- Sharpeville massacre 21 March 1960
-
The killing of 69 unarmed protesters by police at a PAC demonstration against the pass laws.
Significance: It caused international outrage and led to the banning of the ANC and PAC and their turn to armed struggle.
- Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) from 1961
-
The armed wing ("Spear of the Nation") co-founded by Nelson Mandela, which began a sabotage campaign in December 1961.
Significance: It marked the ANC's move from nonviolence to armed struggle; the capture of its leaders at Rivonia in 1963 crippled resistance inside South Africa.