Key Idea: In 1948 South Africa's National Party won a whites-only election and turned scattered racial inequality into a single legal system called apartheid (an Afrikaans word meaning 'apartness'). It classified everyone by race, then controlled where people lived, worked, learned and married. Black South Africans fought back: peaceful protest in the 1950s, then, after police killed 69 protesters at Sharpeville in 1960, a turn to armed struggle, until the leaders were jailed at the Rivonia Trial in 1964.
⚖️ 4.2.1 — The nature of apartheid discrimination
Racial inequality existed in South Africa before 1948, but it was patchy and left to local custom. What changed after the National Party won the whites-only election of May 1948 under D.F. Malan was that discrimination became one national system written into law.
Everything started with the Population Registration Act (1950), which sorted every person into a racial group, because every other law depended on knowing your official race. White people, only about one in five, held nearly all the power, land and wealth, while the black majority got the fewest rights of all. Historians split the system into petty apartheid (small everyday separations like split benches and beaches) and grand apartheid (the big structures of where you could live, work and vote).
- 1950 Population Registration Act — classified everyone by race; all other laws depended on it.
- 1950 Group Areas Act — split towns into racial zones and forced families out of their homes.
- 1953 Bantu Education Act — deliberately under-funded black schooling to prepare children only for low-paid labour.
- Pass laws — black South Africans had to carry a pass book to move through white areas; hundreds of thousands were arrested each year.
- Petty vs grand: petty = benches, buses, beaches; grand = land, movement, political power.
✊ 4.2.2 — Protest and action, 1948–1964
Black South Africans did not accept apartheid quietly, and the resistance followed a clear arc: peaceful protest, then a violent crackdown, then armed struggle. The main group leading it was the ANC (African National Congress), the oldest black political movement.
It began peacefully. In the 1952 Defiance Campaign volunteers broke apartheid laws on purpose and let themselves be arrested; around 8,000 were jailed and ANC membership shot up to about 100,000. In 1955 delegates adopted the Freedom Charter, declaring 'South Africa belongs to all who live in it'. Then in 1960 police shot dead 69 peaceful protesters at Sharpeville and banned the ANC and PAC. With legal protest now impossible, the ANC formed its armed wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe ('Spear of the Nation'), in 1961 and began sabotage. In 1964 the Rivonia Trial sentenced Mandela and seven others to life in prison.
- 1952 Defiance Campaign — mass peaceful law-breaking; ANC grows to ~100,000 members.
- 1955 Freedom Charter — adopted at Kliptown; a vision of an equal, non-racial South Africa.
- 21 March 1960 Sharpeville — police kill 69; ANC and PAC banned days later.
- 1961 Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) — the ANC's armed wing chooses sabotage over attacks on people.
- 1964 Rivonia Trial — Mandela jailed for life, leaving resistance leaderless inside the country.
🤝 4.2.3 — Who was on each side
To answer Paper 1 questions you need to know the key actors and what each wanted. On the government side stood the National Party (in power from 1948), led first by D.F. Malan and later by Hendrik Verwoerd, the 'architect of apartheid', who made the system far harsher.
On the resistance side the two big movements agreed apartheid was wrong but disagreed on how to fight. The ANC, founded in 1912, wanted a non-racial South Africa and worked with Indian, Coloured and white allies in the Congress Alliance. The PAC (Pan Africanist Congress) broke away in 1959 under Robert Sobukwe, rejected those allies, and wanted 'Africa for the Africans' with a bolder, faster fight; it was the PAC that called the anti-pass protest that led to Sharpeville.
- National Party — built apartheid from 1948; Malan launched it, Verwoerd made it harsher.
- ANC — older, larger, non-racial; led the Defiance Campaign and backed the Freedom Charter.
- PAC — broke away in 1959 under Sobukwe; wanted Africans alone to lead.
- Sharpeville (1960) was the turning point: bans followed, and the ANC's MK turned to armed struggle in 1961.
- In sources, 'the regime' or 'the Nationalists' means the National Party; 'the liberation movements' means the ANC and PAC.
✍️ Exam-ready answers
A source is a photograph, taken by a foreign news reporter in 1955, showing a park bench in a South African city with a painted sign reserving it for white people only. With reference to its origin, purpose and content, assess the value and limitations of this source for a historian studying the nature of apartheid discrimination. [4 marks]
🔒 Model answer plan
See the mark-by-mark plan — for / against / judgement, with marking guidance — in study mode.
Using your own knowledge, evaluate the effectiveness of protests against apartheid in South Africa between 1948 and 1964. [9 marks]
🔒 Model answer plan
See the mark-by-mark plan — for / against / judgement, with marking guidance — in study mode.
🎯 One-glance recall
How did apartheid begin and work? The National Party won the May 1948 whites-only election under D.F. Malan. The 1950 Population Registration Act classified everyone by race first; other laws then controlled homes (Group Areas Act), schools (Bantu Education) and movement (pass laws). Split it into petty and grand apartheid.
The arc of resistance Peaceful protest (1952 Defiance Campaign, 1955 Freedom Charter) → crackdown (1960 Sharpeville, ANC and PAC banned) → armed struggle (1961 Umkhonto we Sizwe) → leaders jailed (1964 Rivonia Trial).
ANC vs PAC The ANC (from 1912) wanted a non-racial South Africa and worked with allies in the Congress Alliance. The PAC broke away in 1959 under Robert Sobukwe, rejected those allies, and wanted Africans alone to lead. This split explains many source differences.
Why Sharpeville mattered + the OPVL move On 21 March 1960 police killed about 69 unarmed anti-pass protesters; the bans that followed pushed the ANC into armed struggle. For 4-mark source questions, always tie a value AND a limitation to origin, purpose or content.