Apartheid, Inequality and Political Unrest in South Africa II

Beginning with the history of modern South Africa, we explore what happened when the Dutch arrived in 1652. Jumping ahead in time we explore the tribal groups that made-up 17th century South Africa and that today, make-up modern South Africa. The ANC and EFF parties both claim they have the answer to what to do with the land that was stolen from the native African populations by the white Europeans. Is land expropriation the answer, or will it lead to another Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe situation? 

The story then returns to South Africa in the 19th century. with the Boer wars and Britain's dominance on the continent. These events lead into the calamitous 20th century and 1st and 2nd World Wars, where an unwilling Dutch populace, sympathetic to Right-wing segregationist policies find themselves aligned with the British Crown.

Topics covered 
Die Groot Trek - The Great Trek
Empty Land Myth
Land Expropriation
Julius Malema 
Jacob Zuma
The First and Second Boer Wars

Transcript

APARTHEID II

Calling someone coloured is going to get you decked in the USA. However in South Africa its not offensive, it’s the name of an ethnic group. In fact genetic studies suggest that the coloured people of South Africa have the highest levels of mixed ancestry in the world.

Calling someone Coloured in the USA sounds like a derogatory comment from the 1960s but in South Africa its like saying “hey there’s that Mexican guy” (maybe we are a little more sensitive about race in the USA than they are over there.)

There is a word that will certainly get you decked, or maybe killed in the USA and that is the N-word… which I wont say here because… I hope to become famous someday and I wouldn’t want that taken out of context.

The N-word doesn’t hold the same negativity in South Africa, however they do have a word with the same societal undertones, the K-word
 Kaffir –

Just like how the N-word originates from the Spanish word for black, Kaffir or the K-Word originates from Arabic. It similarly has taken a new meaning

 (sorry if I am offending any of my audience in South Africa, I am an ignorant American.)

Just like in America, saying the K-word is how people describe it in South Africa (it is extremely offensive)

In America we occasionally have someone drop the N-Word and it shocks the populace all the while destroying that persons career, in South Africa Saying Kaffir can get you sentenced up to 10 years in jail, or more commonly you can get a hefty fine placed on you

But I digress, 

The Daily show Is a show that my generation (the millennial) grew up with, and as a teenager I remember first learning about the troubles of the world through the voice of John Stewart. Stewart has since retired and handed the mantle to the new host, Trevor Noah, who is a coloured south African.

he grew up in South Africa during the waning days of Apartheid and explains in his autobiography, Born a Crime in South Africa during Apartheid, mixing with other ethnic groups was illegal under a law called the immorality act of 1927,  The penalty was up to five years' imprisonment for the man and four years' imprisonment for the woman.

As a child he remembers his black Xhosa mother had to pretend to be a stranger with him when they were out in public, she had a coloured neighbor who would pretend to be Trevor’s mother so she could take him to the park without fear of harassment or getting arrested by the authorities. 

it wasn’t illegal to be a Coloured person of mixed ancestry but it was illegal to have a lover of a different race.

if the authorities, or for that matter another person in the Apartheid police state told the authorities about him His mother could have been arrested, and as a matter of fact she was numerous times for illegally entering white neighborhoods (which she did to be closer to Noahs white father, the two were segregated from one another)

Trevor Noahs father was a white Swiss man, and lived in a white neighborhood, Noahs African mother was unable to visit the neighborhood, it was illegal for a black person to visit a white neighborhood. So in order to see his father she would have to forge work documents or sneak in, It was illegal for non-whites to live in white neighborhoods but non-whites could still enter to clean and do menial labor.

 Sometimes Noah’s mother got caught and would spend weeks in jail. Normally she would bribe the authorities to get out.

Trevor recalls seeing his father as a young child and excitedly chasing him yelling “DADDDYYYY!!” and his father ran away out of fear of being arrested. The little coloured baby thought it was a game and would chase after his fleeing father.

Apartheid South Africa was like a police state, neighbors and random members of the community frequently worked with the police to make sure everything ran as it should. The goal in this Apartheid state, was to be white. The highest race, or top of the hierarchy. Leaving the other races, Coloured, Indian, and on the bottom black in their respective race based hierarchical positions.

PART 2??

HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA

In 1652 the Dutch founded Cape Town in the very south of Africa, the goal of this colony was to be used as a way station on the long trek to the Dutch East Indies, located in modern day Indonesia.

the KhoiKhoi or Khoisan people, were the first natives that made contact with the Dutch settlers. The Khoi and san people spoke the same language and shared the same ethnic group with similar tribal backgrounds, however they would often times war with one another and it wasn’t limited to Khoi vs San, they would fight within the many different tribes.

The Khoi Khoi were cattle keeers while the Sans were hunters and gatherers. The Khoi Khoi were led by chiefs and the San didn’t have a defined leader.

The Khoisan were an ancient people who inhabited the lands of South West Africa since before 150,00 years ago

In around 2300 BC, hunter-gatherers called the San acquired domestic stock in what is now modern day Botswana. Their population grew, and spread throughout the Western half of South Africa. They were the first pastoralists in southern Africa, and called themselves Khoikhoi (or Khoe), which means 'men of men' or 'the real people'. This name was chosen to show pride in their past and culture. The Khoikhoi brought a new way of life to South Africa and to the San, who were hunter-gatherers as opposed to herders. This led to misunderstandings and subsequent conflict between the two groups.

Khoisan is a collective term used to refer to both groups.

The KhoiKhoi people were enraged, when they went on their seasonal visit to graze cattle at the foot of the Table Mountain (located near modern day Cape Town where the Dutch had settled). They found European foreigners disrupting and farming their land. Leading to the KhoeKhoe-Dutch wars.

When they made contact with the Dutch many of the disunified tribes fought the Dutch however in a story far too common in history. The natives refused to set aside their differences and continued fighting each other instead of the European newcomer

 over the course of a few wars the Dutch eventually prevailed above the Khoisan. The Dutch not only defeated them with superior weaponry but also vassalized them. Defeating some tribes while others eventually began to work for the Europeans, feeding them with their advanced animal husbandry skills

The Europeans used their rifles to defend water positions, which in turn the many tribes would try to take, and fail to take. Eventually the remaining KhoiKhoi peoples submitted 

the final conclusion of the Khoikhoi-Dutch wars is that the Khoisan people along with their culture was completely wiped out in a complex struggle balancing potential prosperity with cultural identity. The complexity of the disappearance of the Khoisan from influence in Southern Africa is often seen as the Khoisan trading away their influence for livestock.[5] The truth is the resistance of the Khoisan was a response and reaction to the disposition of the Boers.[5] The downfall of the Khoisan came at the hands of violence that is often overlooked when considering the ethnic identities that vanished from the African continent in the 17th and 18th centuries

Only about 100,000 of them exist in south Africa today.

the Dutch brought in Boers, Dutch word for farmers, to supply the newly developing south African colony at the time known as the Cape Colony.

Dutch traditional practices left all land to the first male son, so an explosion of Dutch growth began expanding well past the borders of the cape colony. This annoyed the Dutch East India company who didn’t want to create more conflict with the Natives.

With the Europeans ability to farm land, the ancient way of life for the local African peoples was disrupted. Dutch became the most common language throughout the Area by Europeans and Natives alike.

African ethnicities

Now the native peoples of South Africa aren’t homogenous. Africa is the most genetically diverse continent on the planet, leading to more confusion in the story. In the USA for example during segregation you were either considered white or nonwhite. A 1st or 2nd class citizen. 

For example when the Irish came to the USA in mass numbers during the early 20th century they were treated as 2nd class citizens. However eventually they integrated and became “white”. 

Race/Ethnicity in South Africa isn’t that simple, a lot of it goes into tribal grounds which can be painstakingly confusing to downright impossible to understand. Ethnicity plays a major role even today in South African politics and can be divided among Racial, Ethnic, tribal, and linguistic grounds just in the black community.

Languages are not culture groups even though in the west we tend to generalize them as such. Languages can combine and hybridize with other languages over time.

For example lets take the Bantu peoples, who constitute the 2 largest ethnic groups of South Africa the Zulu and the Xhosa

The former makeup the largest ethnic group of South Africa and while growing up are taught about Zulu, who confusingly was the name of the ancestor who founded the Zulu royal line in about 1670. or they learn about the great Shaka-Zulu

Whereas the latter peoples believe 

the first person on Earth was a great leader called Xhosa. Another tradition stresses the essential unity of the Xhosa-speaking people by proclaiming that all the Xhosa subgroups are descendants of one ancestor, Tshawe.

Customs between the two are similar but both would consider themselves different 

The Zulu and Xhosa are similar enough linguistically to sometimes be considered dialects of one language, but the Zulu and Xhosa people consider themselves to be different people who speak different languages.

The Bantu languages are spoke across Africa, from Central Africa, to the great lakes in the east down to the southern tip of Africa in the South

The total number of Bantu languages ranges in the hundreds, depending on the definition of "language" or "dialect", estimated at between 440 and 680 distinct languages. 

The Bantu peoples makeup 400 different ethnic groups like Xhosa and Zulu with 350 million speakers of Bantu languages

under apartheid you were classed as either, White, Indian, Coloured or black but the native blacks had numerous tribes. Including the Zulu, Xhosa, Sotho, Nugni Khoe, San among many others. They often times fought with one another as well as the Europeans. 

As put by one redditer

The tribalist stuff is complicated. The category "Xhosa" and "Zulu" are sort of colonial era classifications. Prior to colonization, there was more clan identity than this ethnic group identity. The missionaries grouped people based on their flawed understanding of history and language, and so very disparate groups were grouped together, which is part of why the Bantustans failed. They also failed because they were racist enterprises designed to oppress people, but internally they struggled with internal issues between clans and traditional leadership.

For example, there are "Zulu" people today whose ancestors fought against Shaka Zulu and the Zulu empire. They're Zulu today because that's what the government has told them for a century. Having a common enemy can be a source of identity.

Shaka even hired Boer mercenaries for some of his battles.

My background and family are all Nguni, so that's where I have the most knowledge and experience. There are countless other "Black" native groups in South Africa though, each with their own history. The Sotho people for instance are one of the only groups to become Catholic (most Black churches in ZA are Zion churches, which is an off-shoot of American Pentecostalism).

About 150 years after the Dutch and the Khoisan first made contact the Dutch and the French went to war with each other (during the Napoleonic times) and the British took the Cape colony from the Dutch in order to prevent their rival the French from taking it.

The British and the Dutch didn’t mix, the Dutch had numerous restrictions placed on them including the banning of their language Dutch, actually they spoke a Dutch dialect called Afrikaans. Another thing that infuriated the Dutch was that when the Boer Farmers were attacked by Natives the British did little to protect them. The Dutch loathed the British so approximately 1/10th of the cape colony escaped north and East in something called Die Groot Trek or the Great Trek, where they ran into the Bantu peoples

Now this is where things can get a bit controversial, depending on who you ask in South Africa, White descendant Europeans or Black Natives. The Europeans aka Afrikaners or British developed a theory called “The Empty Land Myth” whereby 

The lands north of cape colony had been heavily depopulated in the years prior to this by a Zulu warrior named Shaka-Zulu, it has been estimated that between 1-5 million Africans had been killed as a result of the conquest of ShakaZulu. This paved the way for the Dutch to set up new states, free of British rule.

Shaka-Zulu’s Mfecane, which in Zulu means “The Crushing” or “forced migration” was a period of widespread chaos and warfare among indigenous ethnic communities in the east of southern Africa during the period between 1815 and about 1840

right at the beginning of the Boer, Great Trek

The Europeans claim that the lands of northern and eastern South Africa had been depopulated and were therefore vacant or deserted and thus the land was free to claim and in turn today theirs.

However black south Africans using archeological evidence have claimed this is not true, pointing that the Bantu peoples had been in the region since at least 300 AD and that a greater mass migration of Bantu peoples occurred in 1200 AD

According to Professor John Wright of Columbia university - Although the Mfecane caused a decrease in the population of the eastern part of South Africa, the resulting consolidation of larger settlements and political power is not, according to some sources, believed to have left the vast stretches of pastureland uncontested.[2] How many people died as a result of all the conflict is unknown but the death toll estimates cited most frequently are 1 to 2 million.[3][4][5][6][7] "In the seventy years or so after 1760, the political face of the region north of the Orange (River) and east of the Kalahari was profoundly changed," 

Probably the truth lies somewhere in the middle, 

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Another aspect of the Empty Land Myth is that it silences the existence of the Khoisan. However South African scholars tend to struggle along tribal and race lines even to this day to where academia has disputes among a centralized black majority or tribal lines. 

This has become a crucial part of South African history, heated debates occur in the South African Parliament over what to do with the Land of South Africa

Land Expropriation is a major dispute 

White Farmers own 73% of the farmland in South Africa and makeup 9% of the population

Where the majority of the black population lives in absolute poverty a direct result of Apartheid era policies which saw Native blacks dispossessed of their land, without compensation.

Julius Malema's Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) who we quoted in the previous episode, wants to expropriate land (as well as mines and banks) without compensation.

The white minority owns most of the country's best land because of the Land Act of 1913.

At the stroke of a pen, black people were dispossessed of their farms - they were left with just 13% of the land.

-INSERT MALEMA

Malema has been accused by the White minority of instigating black youth to attack White farmers
 -INSERT FARMER

 Malema himself was convicted in 2011 for singing the song "Shoot the Boer".

The song is an Apartheid era struggle song that has been accused of promoting violence against white South Africans

-InSERT SHOOT THE BOER

Malema after being convicted still continued to sing the song with the modified lyrics, “Kiss the Boer”

Many White South Africans, especially farmers, fear they are being targeted based on Race and that the attacks are increasing in the ex-apartheid country where race has played such a key factor.

The African National Congress and other analysts maintain that farm attacks are part of a broader crime problem in South Africa and do not have a racial motivation.

According to South African police statistics, there were 21,325 murder victims in 2019 of which 49 were white farmers. White South Africans make up approximately 9% of the country's population.

These accusations of race based “white Farm murders” have been linked to far right conspiracy theories such as The great replacement or replacement theory. A theory used by white nationalists that claims the white European ethnic group is being systematically replaced, bred out, or killed by non white groups. 

Scholars have generally dismissed the claims of a "great replacement" as being rooted in an exaggerated reading of immigration statistics and unscientific, racist views.

South Africa has the 9th highest rate of intentional homicide in the world. Statistics would agree with the ANC’s comments on the matter. 

Many in South Africa Blame Nelson Mandela and the ANC for not going far enough on land redistribution or expropriation.

The story of Robert Mugabe and Zimbabwe are often brought up.

When the ANC took over after the fall of the Apartheid regime, they sought to provide compensation for land disposed from natives in the past, by providing monetary compensation. 

The same redditer as previously mentioned explained the situation in his family.

The other example would be my grandmother. She was forcibly relocated from uMkhumbane to KwaMashu, and then about 10 years ago the government said they could compensate her for her land being stolen. They gave her something like R15,000, which is about USD $1000. For her entire life being uplifted. For her family being moved in the middle of the night with no notice. For tanks demolishing her house and land. The land that was stolen is worth easily 100-200x that amount, but she was also deprived of an education and lived in dire poverty, so she accepted this offer. These situations are why Malema's EFF is so popular.

These monetary compensation plans were largely seen as failures leading to more anger.

As of early 2006, the ANC government announced that it will start expropriating the land, but according to the country's chief land claims commissioner, Tozi Gwanya, unlike in Zimbabwe, there will be compensation to those whose land is expropriated, "but it must be a just amount, not inflated sums."

On 20 December 2017, the ANC-led government announced at the 54th National Conference that it will seek to amend Section 25 of the South African Constitution regarding property rights to implement land expropriation without compensation (EWC). At the conference, a resolution was passed to grant ownership of traditional land to the respective communities, about 13% of the country, usually registered in trust like the Ingonyama Trust under the name of traditional leaders to the respective communities.[12]

In February 2018, the Parliament of South Africa passed a motion to review the property ownership clause of the constitution, to allow for the expropriation of land, in the public interest, without compensation,[13][14][15] which was widely supported within South Africa's ruling party on the grounds that the land was originally seized by whites without just compensation.[16] South African officials claim that the land reforms will be different from Zimbabwe's land reforms in that South Africa's plan is "constitutional" and "subject to laws and the constitution," unlike Zimbabwe's process, which was overseen by Robert Mugabe.[17] However, the process in Zimbabwe was also carried out by a constitutional amendment, signed into law on 12 September 2005, that nationalised farmland acquired through the "Fast Track" process and deprived original landowners of the right to challenge in court the government's decision to expropriate their land.

Insert Audio clips of black an white farmers

###############

In 1834 slavery was banned all throughout the British empire including the Cape Colony

To get around this the remaining Dutch in the British regions of the Cape Colony (located in the south) instituted the Cape Articles of Capitulation, which effectively changed the status of slaves to indentured laborer’s

However some decided to claim the “quote end quote” empty land to the north

The Dutch set up two republics, Transvaal (so named because it was north of the Vaal river) and the Orange Free State. Both states would later show up on the Apartheid era flag of South Africa.

After diamonds and gold were discovered in the Dutch Republics in the late 1800s the British wanted to form a union over all of the regions of modern day South Africa, including the Dutch Republics.

The Boer states by the 1870s were entering bankruptcy from constantly having to fight off neighboring African tribes. The British annexed Transvaal in response and after a few years the Dutch rose in rebellion leading to the 1st Boer war.

The 1st Boer war was dominated by Guerilla warfare from the Dutch Boer Afrikaners

By the way, I want to note these 3 names can and will be used Synonymously from here on out. Dutch, Boer and Afrikaners are all the same people.

 All Boers between the ages 16-60 could be conscripted into the army, which was more of a militia. They would have to bring with them a horse, and enough food for 8 days. The Boers were excellent marksmen, made even better by the British wearing their Bright red uniforms making them easy targets.

The British were crushed by the Boers, this was the first British defeat since the American war of independence.

 In 1881 a treaty was signed that recognized the Boer republic.

However just 3 to 4 years later the Europeans began meeting in Berlin to discuss colonization of the “Dark Continent” (called so because It, Africa, was unknown not because of skin color) With the Berlin conference the Scramble for Africa was underway. No colonial power wanted to miss out on the vast riches and Prestige to be had in Africa.

THE 2nd BOER WAR

On a summer's day in 1886, two prospectors discovered gold on a Transvaal farm called Langlaagte. Gold was not new to the Transvaal. African’s had mined gold hundreds of years earlier. More recently, gold had been found in the Eastern Transvaal. In most cases this gold ran out, forcing small mining towns to close down. The gold found at langlaagte was different. The gold discovered there ran for miles and miles underground, 'an endless treasure of gold'.

The small town of Langlaagte became part of a big mining camp called Johannesburg, where many other mining camps had been set up. Soon Johannesburg became the biggest town in the Transvaal, bigger even than Pretoria, the capital.

The Bankrupt Republic of Transvaal was no longer bankrupt, it was now the richest gold mining area in the world. Men travelled in mass to Transvaal.

They walked, rode on horse back, or came by ox-wagon. Ships no longer passed South Africa on their to Australia and New Zealand. Instead, boatloads of men arrived at ports and hurried to catch the next coach to the Transvaal, hoping to find the riches of their dreams.

 This gold led Transvaal to rival The British for power and dominance in South Africa. The British who saw themselves haughtily as the supreme power couldn’t have this.

Kaiser Wilhelm the emperor of Germany at the time sent a letter of congratulation to The Boer republics for their victory in defiance of the British during the first Boer war. this Worried the British who foresaw a Boer-German alliance.

Starting in 1899 the British began raiding the Boers.

The British who went by the nickname Kakis (due to their recently changed Khaki colored uniforms) They learned from the first Boer war that bright red uniforms wasn’t the best for combat.

Both Winston Churchill and Mahatma Gandhi saw action in this war. At the battle of Spionkop Churchill served as a war correspondent, Gandhi was there as well working as an auxiliary to the British volunteer ambulance corps. About 9,000 Indians saw combat on the side of the British

Eventually the raids turned into a full blown invasion, the British wanted control of the Boer gold.

The native black tribes found themselves mosltly on the side of the British, however some did fight for the Boers. Some 10,000 Blacks fought for the Dutch Boers.

And on the side of the British it is estimated that 100,000 Black natives fought for the crown

The war was a particularly brutal one

The 2nd Boer war turned into a Guerrilla nightmare where the Boer peoples eventually became convinced the British were trying to eradicate them.  This feeling was exacerbated by the Boer civilians who declared neutrality and would then become targets of the Boer militias who saw them as traitors. The British responded by erecting proto-concentration camps to protect the civilians. This became a propogandist dream (or depending on your side in the war) nightmare

To add to the propaganda, General Koos De La Ray a Boer, who won an important battle at Magersfontein returned the British prisoners of war because he was unable to feed them. (including a captured British general Methuen). Once again this added to the nationalistic Boer mentality of We are the good guys they are the Evil British trying to enslave and exterminate us.

The British used scorched earth tactics, this forced the Boer civilians into the concentration camps where the conditions become more horrid day by day.

For the native Blacks coniditons were even worse, they were forced into segregated camps which received even less resources than their White counterparts. Many Black men joined the British army in order to get rations of food to survive on.

In 1901 the British camps were overrun with disease, Lung infections, measles , Typhoid among others. While the men fought in kommando formations, where the English word Commando comes from, mostly the elderly Children and women suffered in these camps

A report after the war concluded that 27,927 Boers (of whom 24,074 [50 percent of the Boer child population] were children under 16) had died in the camps. In all, about one in four (25 percent) of the Boer inmates, mostly children, died.

These people were a victim of both negligence and the lack of information about these diseases at the time. (concentration camps were a new thing and the world was unaware of what happens when a large number of people were shoved into a small dirty place)

Even the british considered the conditions of the camps to be horrid.

The Boer war ended with an agreement between the Boers and the British, where the Boers swore allegiance to the British crown and in return they were given complete domination over the natives. Afrikaans (the Dutch dialect) would remain the language used in the new British colony and the Black and coloured native Africans would be forced into subservience to the Dutch colonists.

The conditions of the 2nd Boer war led to a resentment towards the British that never went away… and played heavily into the Anti-British resentment that carried itself into the 20th century including the 1st and 2nd World Wars, where the South Africans found themselves fighting for the British crown…