South Africa — apartheid and resistance
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Question
What was the Natives' Land Act (1913)?
Answer
A law banning Black South Africans from buying or renting land outside small reserves, restricting them to about 7% of the country.
Question
Why did the National Party win the 1948 election?
Answer
It promised apartheid — total legal racial separation — appealing to white voters (especially Afrikaners) fearful of losing jobs and land to Black South Africans.
Question
Petty Apartheid vs Grand Apartheid
Answer
Petty Apartheid = everyday segregation (benches, buses, entrances). Grand Apartheid = large-scale laws restructuring land, citizenship and education (Group Areas Act, Bantu Education, Bantustans).
Question
What did the Population Registration Act (1950) do?
Answer
Classified every South African at birth into a racial category, which then determined where they could live, work and go to school.
Question
What was the Freedom Charter (1955)?
Answer
A declaration adopted by the ANC and allies at the Congress of the People, stating 'South Africa belongs to all who live in it' and demanding equal rights and land reform.
Question
What happened at Sharpeville on 21 March 1960?
Answer
Police shot dead 69 people protesting the pass laws; it led to the ANC and PAC being banned and pushed the ANC toward armed struggle.
Question
What was Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK)?
Answer
The ANC's armed wing, formed in 1961 with Nelson Mandela as first commander, which used sabotage against property to avoid civilian casualties.
Question
What happened at the Rivonia Trial (1963–64)?
Answer
Nelson Mandela and other ANC/MK leaders were tried after a raid on their Rivonia headquarters; Mandela gave his famous dock speech and was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Question
What did Steve Biko and Black Consciousness argue?
Answer
That Black South Africans needed to overcome psychological oppression and build pride ('Black is beautiful') before political liberation was possible; Biko co-founded SASO in 1968.
Question
What triggered the Soweto uprising (16 June 1976)?
Answer
Student protests against a rule forcing Afrikaans as a teaching language in Black schools; police opened fire, and unrest spread nationwide for months.
Question
How did Steve Biko die?
Answer
He was arrested in August 1977 and died in police custody after being beaten and driven while injured, becoming an international symbol of apartheid's brutality.
Question
How did resistance strategy change over time?
Answer
It shifted from ANC petitions, to the 1952 Defiance Campaign (civil disobedience), to armed struggle after 1960, to Black Consciousness and mass township uprisings from the 1970s–80s.
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Topic 10.6 hub
Developments in South Africa (1867–2020)
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