South Africa

B

The Establishment of the Afrikaner Republics

In Natal the Afrikaners who had migrated during the Great Trek were confronted with the Zulu kingdom. On December 16, 1838, an important battle between the Afrikaners and the Zulu, the Battle of Blood River, led to the defeat of the Zulu and the establishment of the Republic of Natalia by 1840. The battle remains of symbolic importance to many Afrikaners because their ancestors were said to have made a covenant with God for victory.

After the British declared the coastal region of Natal a crown colony in 1843 and annexed it to the Cape Colony in 1845, most of the Afrikaners left and headed west and north where they joined other Voortrekkers (Afrikaans for “pioneers”). They settled inland, north of the Orange River, and further north in the Transvaal region (north of the Vaal River). The governor of the Cape Colony, Sir Harry Smith, gained control of the region between the Orange and Vaal rivers in 1848, and the territory was renamed the Orange River Sovereignty. Smith’s move was overturned by the British government, however. The British government recognized the independence of the Transvaal territories in 1852 at the Sand River Convention, and recognized the former Orange River Sovereignty as the Orange Free State in 1854 at the Bloemfontein Convention. By the late 1850s the Transvaal territories beyond the Vaal River had coalesced into the South African Republic. Although attempts to unite the two Afrikaner republics were unsuccessful, they maintained a close relationship in the following years. They shared policies that separated blacks and whites and allowed no equality between the races.

The Afrikaners in the Orange Free State encountered the Basotho king Moshoeshoe, who was ruling a loose group of chieftaincies from the mountain of Thaba Bosiu (in present-day west central Lesotho). From the 1830s when Afrikaners and British began settling the surrounding territory, Moshoeshoe demonstrated great skill in protecting his land and subjects by playing one group of white settlers against the other. After the Orange Free State was established in 1854, the Afrikaners and the Basotho fought extensively over the boundaries of their territories. Although the Basotho had also fought with the British in the late 1840s and early 1850s, Moshoeshoe asked the British to incorporate Basotho lands into a protectorate to prevent further attacks by Afrikaners. The protectorate of Basutoland was created in 1868. This area ultimately became the independent nation of Lesotho.

In 1856 Natal was split from the Cape Colony and reestablished as a separate colony, with representative government. In 1872 the Cape Colony received self-government from Britain, which meant the government was independent except in foreign and economic affairs. After the discovery of diamonds in 1867 in Griqualand West, an area claimed by the South African Republic, Britain renewed its expansionist policy into Afrikaner territory, annexing Griqualand West in 1871 and the nearly bankrupt, politically unstable South African Republic in 1877.

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The British were unresponsive to Afrikaner needs and there were fundamental differences over taxes. The Transvaal Afrikaners decided to fight for independence. The British were defeated at the battle of Majuba in February 1881, which led to the British decision to restore self-government. In 1883 Afrikaner leader Paul Kruger was elected president of the republic.

B

1

The British in Natal

Before 1879 the Thukela (Tugela) River was the boundary between Zululand and Natal. Cetshwayo, who became the Zulu king in the 1870s, assembled an army estimated at 60,000 and refused to disband it when the British insisted that he do so. British troops invaded in January 1879 but were not prepared for the terrain, and a large number of them were killed in the Battle of Isandlwana. In July 1879, however, the British won a battle in the Zulu capital of Ulundi. This defeat permanently neutralized the Zulu military.

B

2

The Boer War

In 1885 Britain annexed Bechuanaland (now Botswana), thwarting President Kruger’s plan to expand Afrikaner territory to the west. Vast gold deposits were discovered in the southern Transvaal in 1886. The mining industry was financed by the British and thousands of English miners, called Uitlanders (foreigners) by the Afrikaners, entered the Transvaal.

Kruger refused to grant civil equality to Uitlanders and taxed them and foreign companies heavily. After negotiations failed, British financier Cecil Rhodes, prime minister of the Cape Colony, encouraged the Uitlanders to revolt in 1895. They were supported by a small invading force under the command of Leander Starr Jameson. The raid was a failure and although Rhodes was absolved of any involvement, he was forced to resign as prime minister.

Relations between the Cape Colony and the two Afrikaner republics worsened after British statesman Alfred Milner became governor of the Cape Colony in 1897. In October 1899 Kruger declared war. The Boer War (also known as the South African War), which lasted for two and a half years, pitted the might of the British Empire against the Afrikaners. After some initial success, the British forces occupied all major urban centers by mid-1900. British forces, which have been estimated at 500,000, far outnumbered a force of about 90,000 in the Afrikaner armies.

The Afrikaners, however, continued to wage a costly guerrilla war until 1902. Toward the end of the war the British used a “scorched-earth policy” in which Afrikaner farms were destroyed and thousands of women and children were held in concentration camps. More than 20,000 Afrikaners were said to have died in the camps. In addition, more than 14,000 blacks from the region died in concentration camps during the war. Under the terms of the Treaty of Vereeniging, signed on May 31, 1902, the Transvaal territories and the Orange River Colony (as the Orange Free State became known in 1900) became British crown colonies. In 1906 and 1907 they were given constitutions as self-governing colonies.

C

A Segregated Nation

With the South Africa Act of 1910 the British parliament established the dominion of the Union of South Africa with the four colonies as its provinces. A clause in the act provided that the policies of the provinces toward blacks would be retained and could be changed only by a two-thirds majority vote of parliament. In Cape Province (formerly the Cape Colony), Coloureds and a few blacks could vote, a right not available to them in the other three provinces.

Discrimination against nonwhites was inherent in South African society from the earliest days. Before World War I, Indian leader Mohandas K. Gandhi led the struggle to assure civil rights for Indian residents. Despite some government concessions, including abolition of the poll tax, the Indian population retained second-class status after the war. South African blacks had an even lower status in the white-dominated state. Urban blacks lived in segregated areas and could not hold office. They had no viable unions, and technical and administrative positions were closed to them.

Politics were focused on differences between English-speaking South Africans and Afrikaners as well as racial differences. Party politics gathered momentum after elections were held in 1910, and the first parliament was formed. The South African Party (SAP) was formed by members of the coalition who won the 1910 election. A former Afrikaner commander, Louis Botha, became prime minister. General Botha and the SAP tried to bridge the differences between the two major white groups, but Afrikaners, particularly those in the Transvaal and Orange River Colony, rejected these efforts.

One of the first moves of the new parliament was to pass the Natives Land Act of 1913 which prevented blacks, except those living in Cape Province, from buying land outside so-called reserves. The land allotted to these reserves made up 7 percent of the total land of the country. Because of the limited amount of land available to blacks, the act also ensured that the migratory labor system would continue and cheap black labor would be available in the mines and industries.

C

1

Politics During the Two World Wars

In 1914 General J. B. M. Hertzog founded the National Party (NP), which emphasized Afrikaner language and culture. It used as one of its slogans “South Africa First,” in contrast to the SAP, which appeared more strongly tied to the interests of the British Empire. Botha’s commitment to Britain in World War I increased Afrikaner resentment, and in the 1915 election the NP received relatively strong support. Botha himself led the South African forces that conquered German South-West Africa in 1915. This former German colony eventually became a League of Nations mandate under South African supervision in 1920.

While the SAP won the largest number of votes, it only controlled 54 seats in the parliament while the NP controlled 27. Botha was therefore forced to enter a coalition with the smaller Unionist Party in order to govern. After Botha died in 1919, he was succeeded by General Jan Christiaan Smuts.

Official politics in South Africa from the 1920s continued to be dominated by the conflicting positions of the two white groups. Hertzog and the NP insisted that reconciliation between Afrikaners and British be based on full equality between the two groups. His party therefore demanded that the Afrikaans language be given equal status with English, that the country have a separate flag, not the British Union Jack, and that South Africa have the right to secede from the British Empire.

In 1918 a secret organization known as the Broederbond (Afrikaans for “association of brothers”) was established to advance the Afrikaner cause and interests. This organization became a powerful vehicle for the preservation of Afrikaner language, culture, and traditions. Above all, its aim was to find ways for Afrikaners to attain positions of power throughout the society. The Broederbond was exclusively for Afrikaners who were over 25 years old, male, Protestant, and specially invited to join.

In 1921 leaders of the country’s gold-mining industry decided to replace white labor with black labor in an effort to cut costs. This move led to a major uprising in March 1922 called the Rand Revolt. Prime Minister Smuts declared martial law and used the military to contain the revolt. The revolt resulted in 200 dead. The real impact of the Rand Revolt came in 1924 when Hertzog’s NP, with the help of white labor, unseated Smuts at a time of rising black militancy. The result was the protection of white workers and the exclusion of blacks from managerial positions.

During the economic depression of the 1930s a coalition was formed, and Hertzog and Smuts became dual leaders of the new United Party. Britain’s declaration of war against Germany in 1939, however, split the coalition. Hertzog, who tried to keep South Africa neutral, was replaced as prime minister by Smuts, and the Union declared war on Germany on September 6, 1939, thereby entering World War II. Because of pro-German sentiment among Afrikaners, however, the Union did not quickly pass a draft law. All members of the Union’s armed forces were volunteers and their only combat action occurred in East and North Africa and Italy.

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