   #copyright

History of South Africa

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: General history

          History of South Africa series
   History of Cape Town
   History of South Africa in the apartheid era
   History of the Jews in South Africa
   History of Cape Colony
   Union of South Africa
   Orange Free State
   Truth and Reconciliation Commission
   1820 Settlers
   King of South Africa
   Governor-General of the Union of South Africa
   Xhosa Wars
   Ndwandwe-Zulu War
   Anglo-Zulu War
   First Boer War
   Second Boer War
   South Africa Act 1909
                      Topics
   Economic History
   Military History
   Social History

   The history of South Africa is viewed differently by various scholars
   and by its various population groups because South Africa is a
   multicultural country. The researchers' views heavily influence their
   perception of South African history.(See the demographics of South
   Africa and culture of South Africa.)

   The Khoisan peoples are the aboriginal people of the region who have
   lived there for millennia. Black African South Africans, trace their
   origins to the Great Lakes region of Africa. Whites in South Africa,
   descendants of later European migrations, regard themselves as products
   of South Africa no less than their fellow citizens, as do South
   Africa's Coloureds, Indians, Asians and Jews.

Definitions: History and anthropology

   There are two divergent ways in which information about the past can be
   conveyed: The definition of "history" means the study of the past based
   almost exclusively on written records because it is "usually
   distinguished from prehistory by the widespread adoption of writing in
   the area under study" (see History article.) Prehistory, as studied in
   anthropology, "is concerned with all institutions of all societies, but
   in practice anthropologists have tended to concentrate on the seemingly
   more "traditional" institutions, usages, and customs of non-Western,
   often tribal, societies" (see Anthropology article.)

Modern history of South Africa

   European explorers "discovered" South Africa as a direct result of
   European countries' rivalry with each other for dominance and the
   subsequent need for wealth which lead to the efforts to "discover" (by
   exploration) sea routes to trade with Asia and the Far East during the
   Age of Discovery. Far-off places, whether they became colonies or not,
   were regarded as sources for raw materials to be processed or enjoyed
   by Europeans.

   Over time, for example, be it jewels, spices and textiles from India,
   foods and silver from the Americas; wool from Australia; fruits, gold,
   diamonds, coal, uranium, or iron from South Africa; wood and minerals
   from Africa - obtained as the result of voyages of discovery, these
   resources were located and shipped in huge quantities to Europe over
   the centuries, generating immense wealth in helping countries to move
   to become even more sophisticated as they developed into newly
   industrialized countries like Great Britain, Germany and France. In the
   1800s South Africa would become the world's leading producer of gold
   and diamonds as well as many other resources, which made it the envy
   and the play-thing of stronger imperial powers to the North.

   Once the route around the Cape of Good Hope, located at the
   southern-most tip of Africa in South Africa, had been discovered by a
   series of "discoverers" it has remained of key importance to global
   trade that is dependent on the free passage of ships around the world.
   This is related to another principle, that wealthy nations are usually
   great maritime naval powers, and the use of navies is tied in with
   protecting those great nations' trade and their military strength both
   of which result in geostrategic dominance. Essentially, the power that
   has the mightiest navy and prevails on the high seas becomes the
   world's greatest power which is something nations have known for a long
   time, hence their commercial and naval rivalry on the high seas.

   It is in this context that the position of the Cape of Good Hope, South
   Africa, and Southern Africa should be appreciated because in the
   Southern Hemisphere, only South Africa, the southern end of South
   America, and Australia have this key strategic position. In addition,
   from Europe - and also from the east coasts of the United States and
   South America (Brazil, Argentina), the route around South Africa's Cape
   is the shortest to Asia.

   All the modern natives have sought to ensure that they either control
   these three southern "gateways" or that they remain open at all times
   to the free flow of shipping and it is why South Africa's strategic
   position is important in a geopolitical sense. It is the reason that
   the British knocked out the Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, and French
   navies and influence not just in Southern Africa, but all over the
   world, and asserted their will and continued this policy against
   Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia. Since World War II it has been the
   United States Navy that has assumed the role of the world's most
   dominant fleet protecting America' trade and the free flow of goods in
   the global economy and South Africa's place in this scheme of things is
   no less significant than it was in the times of the Dutch who
   established South Africa's early economy and the British who developed
   it into a more sophisticated modern one.

   It should be noted that the Suez Canal did not exist for most of
   history. It was only completed in 1869, so that all shipping back and
   forth from Europe to Asia, Arabia, and to most of Africa had and has to
   be done by the long routes across the seas around South Africa's Cape.
   In addition, even after the Suez Canal's completion and modernization,
   it cannot accommodate larger vessels including many warships, tankers,
   and cargo vessels. Thus the Cape of Good Hope route remains one of the
   most important and highly desirable routes for free shipping when some
   of the world's other global choke points are closed off or in a state
   of turmoil such as war.
   Portugal's Bartolomeu Dias' voyage (1487-88)
   Enlarge
   Portugal's Bartolomeu Dias' voyage (1487-88)

   The Portuguese, the first Europeans to reach and land in South Africa,
   chose not to colonise the areas of present-day South Africa, instead
   they colonized Portuguese Guinea (present-day Guinea-Bissau) starting
   in 1446, Angola starting in 1483, Mozambique starting in 1498, and
   other colonies in the world.

   It had been Portugal in the Age of Discovery that sent Bartolomeu Dias
   sailing southwards in the Atlantic Ocean (in those days sailing ship
   tried to stay close to the coast of Western Africa as they did so)
   looking for a route to India. Dias sailed around the Cape of Good Hope,
   the southern tip of Africa into the Southern Indian Ocean, in 1488, the
   first European known to do so since ancient times.

   It should be noted that this is four years before another explorer by
   the name of Christopher Columbus set sail from rival Spain in order to
   find an even shorter route to India, but instead as he kept on sailing
   due West across the Northern Atlantic Ocean, he "discovered" America in
   1492 -- and hence the Native Americans were called by the name of
   "Indians" mistaking them for the people of India. Dias did not settle
   in South Africa but took back a report that the Cape could be rounded.
   It was Vasco da Gama who was the first person to sail directly from
   Europe to India during 1497- 1499.
   Portugal's Vasco da Gama's first voyage (1497 - 1499)
   Enlarge
   Portugal's Vasco da Gama's first voyage (1497 - 1499)

   Southern Africa was viewed as too dangerous and inhospitable for
   European sailors, let alone settlers. The Cape was known as "The Cape
   of Storms" because it was so dangerous for sailing ships, and it was
   only by 1652 that the Dutch finally saw fit to set up a permanent
   station at the Cape of Good Hope (it was not even a colony, just a
   station to supply passing ships with fresh water and vegetables.) This
   "supply depot" that was set up by the Dutch developed into the Cape
   Colony over the next two hundred years.

   The British had long known about the importance of the Cape as a route
   to and from the East and had their eyes on it from the time that one of
   their own explorers, Sir Francis Drake rounded the Cape of Good Hope,
   in 1580 in his ship the Golden Hind. Drake was so enchanted by Table
   Mountain in the bay of what is today Cape Town, that he is reputed to
   have declared, that "No longer shall this be called the Cape of Storms,
   for it is the fairest Cape of them all."
   Britain's Sir Francis Drake rounded the Cape in 1580
   Enlarge
   Britain's Sir Francis Drake rounded the Cape in 1580

   The British seized the Cape Colony from the Dutch at the end of the
   18th century because they feared French fleets would take control
   following Napoleon's victories over much of mainland Europe. The United
   Kingdom invaded and occupied the Cape Colony in 1795 ("The First
   Occupation") but relinquished control of the territory in 1803.
   However, British forces returned on January 19, 1806 and occupied the
   Cape once again ("The Second Occupation"). The territory was ceded to
   the UK in the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814 and was henceforth
   administered as the Cape Colony. It remained a British colony until
   incorporated into the independent Union of South Africa in 1910, now
   known as the Republic of South Africa.

   The ever-expanding number of European settlers led to conflicts with
   the natives over the rights to land and farming, which caused numerous
   fatalities on both sides. Hostilities also emerged between the Dutch
   and the British, and many Dutch people packed up their ox-wagons and
   trekked into the central Highveld in order to establish their own
   self-governing colonies.

   The Dutch (by then known as Boers) and the British went to war twice in
   the Anglo-Boer Wars in the late 1800s, which ended in the defeat of the
   Boers and of their independent republics.
   Dutch Jan van Riebeeck, first Dutch East India Company commander of
   Cape Colony 1652-1662.
   Enlarge
   Dutch Jan van Riebeeck, first Dutch East India Company commander of
   Cape Colony 1652-1662.

   The Cape Colony, Natal and the two Boer republics united in 1910 as the
   Union of South Africa. The Boer republics did not grant Black people
   the suffrage, and the rights of Black, Coloured, and Asian people
   continued to erode in the Union.

   The National Party came to power ( 1948), on a platform of racial
   discrimination which became known as apartheid. As a rising tide of
   national liberation grew in the Third World receiving support, arms,
   and training from the newly dominant Soviet Union and the People's
   Republic of China, South Africa's Blacks demanded freedom and political
   rights that white South Africa had not granted them. Instead, the
   Afrikaner-dominated government answered with increased Apartheid
   policies which then became deeply entrenched in South African society,
   despite continued resistance.

   When Commonwealth nations began to threaten South Africa with economic
   and political sanctions, white South Africa headed by Prime Minister HF
   Verwoerd decided to leave the commonwealth, and chose to become a
   republic in 1961, with its own State President CR Swart. This was the
   first that there was a South African president in sixty years, since
   the days of the old Transvaal South African Republic when President
   Paul Kruger was exiled by the British in 1900.

   The African National Congress offered the most active black-run
   opposition to apartheid, and after two decades of repression and
   increasing economic pressures, the government of F.W. de Klerk
   dismantled the apartheid system in 1992. The first fully-inclusive
   election, in which blacks from the entire South Africa could vote, took
   place in 1994, electing Nelson Mandela as President. South Africa now
   sees itself as a multiracial democracy.

Pre-historic anthropology of South Africa

   Ape-like hominids who migrated to South Africa around 3 million years
   ago became the first human-like inhabitants of the area now known as
   South Africa. Representatives of homo erectus gradually replaced them
   around a million years ago when they also spread across Africa and into
   Europe and Asia. Homo erectus gave way to homo sapiens around 100,000
   years ago. The first homo sapiens formed the Bushman culture of skilled
   hunter-gatherers.

   South Africa prior to the emergence of modern humans (Homo sapiens)
   remains shrouded in mystery. A major archaeological find in 1998 at
   Sterkfontein near Johannesburg revealed that hominids roamed across the
   Highveld at least three million years ago. About a million years ago,
   Homo erectus had emerged and ranged well beyond Africa, leaving traces
   in Europe and in Asia. Somewhere around 100,000 years ago, modern man
   replaced the hominids. Although archaeologists continue to debate the
   details, fossils found near the mouth of the Klasies River in Eastern
   Cape Province indicate that Homo sapiens may have lived in South Africa
   as early as 90,000 years ago.

   The Bushmen probably became the first modern people to migrate to the
   southern tip of the African continent. Skilled hunter-gatherers and
   nomads, the Bushmen had great respect for the land, and their lifestyle
   had low environmental impact, allowing them to sustain their way of
   life for years without leaving much archaeological evidence. Other than
   a series of striking rock paintings, the Bushmen left few traces of
   their early culture. Attempts to analyse the existing samples by
   radiocarbon dating indicate that the Bushmen lived in the area of
   modern-day South Africa at least as early as 25,000 years ago, and
   possibly as early as 40,000 years ago. Small numbers of Bushmen still
   live in South Africa today, making their culture one of the oldest
   continuously existing in the world, along with that of the Indigenous
   Australians.

Ancient history

   Around 2,500 years ago Bantu peoples migrated into Southern Africa from
   the Niger River Delta. The Bushmen and the Bantu lived mostly
   peacefully together, although since neither had any method of writing,
   researchers know little of this period outside of archaeological
   artefacts.

   Beginning around 2,500 years ago, some Bushman groups acquired
   livestock from further north. Gradually, hunting and gathering gave way
   to herding as the dominant economic activity as the Bushmen tended to
   small herds of cattle and oxen. The arrival of livestock introduced
   concepts of personal wealth and property- ownership into Bushman
   society. Community structures solidified and expanded, and
   chieftaincies developed.

   The pastoralist Bushmen, known as Khoikhoi ("men of men"), began to
   move further south, reaching as far as the cape now known as the Cape
   of Good Hope. Along the way they intermarried with the hunter-gatherer
   Bushmen, whom they referred to as San, to the point where drawing a
   clear line between the two groups became impossible (prompting the use
   of the term Khoisan). Over time the Khoikhoi established themselves
   along the coast, while small groups of Bushmen continued to inhabit the
   interior.

Bantu expansion

   At about this time, Bantu-speaking peoples also began arriving in South
   Africa. Originally from the Niger Delta area in west Africa, they had
   started to make their way south and eastwards in about 1000 BC,
   reaching present-day KwaZulu-Natal Province by 500 AD. The
   Bantu-speakers not only had domestic animals, but also practised
   agriculture, farming wheat and other crops. They also displayed skill
   in working iron, and lived in settled villages. The Bantu arrived in
   South Africa in small waves rather than in one cohesive migration. Some
   groups, the ancestors of today's Nguni peoples (the Zulu, Xhosa, Swazi,
   and Ndebele), preferred to live near the coast. Others, now known as
   the Sotho-Tswana peoples ( Tswana, Pedi, and Basotho), settled in the
   Highveld, while today's Venda, Lemba, and Shangaan- Tsonga peoples made
   their homes in the northeastern areas of South Africa.

   Bantu-speakers and Khoisan mixed, as evidenced by rock paintings
   showing the two different groups interacting. The type of contact
   remains unknown, although linguistic proof of integration survives, as
   several Bantu languages (notably Xhosa and Zulu) incorporated the click
   consonant characteristic of earlier Khoisan languages. Archaeologists
   have found numerous Khoisan artifacts at the sites of Bantu
   settlements.

Colonization

European expeditions

   Bartolomeu Dias rounding the Cape of Good Hope.
   Enlarge
   Bartolomeu Dias rounding the Cape of Good Hope.

   Although the Portuguese basked in the nautical achievement of
   successfully navigating the cape, they showed little interest in
   colonization. The area's fierce weather and rocky shoreline posed a
   threat to their ships, and many of their attempts to trade with the
   local Khoikhoi ended in conflict. The Portuguese found the Mozambican
   coast more attractive, with appealing bays to use as waystations,
   prawns, and links with gold ore in the interior.

   The Portuguese had little competition in the region until the late 16th
   century, when the English and Dutch began to challenge them along their
   trade routes. Stops at the continent's southern tip increased, and the
   cape became a regular stopover for scurvy-ridden crews. In 1647, a
   Dutch vessel got wrecked in the present-day Table Bay at Cape Town. The
   marooned crew, the first Europeans to attempt settlement in the area,
   built a fort and stayed for a year until they were rescued. Shortly
   thereafter, the Dutch East India Company (in the Dutch of the day:
   Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie, or VOC) decided to establish a
   permanent settlement. The VOC, one of the major European trading houses
   sailing the spice route to the East, had no intent of colonizing the
   area, but only wanted to establish a secure base camp where passing
   ships could shelter, and where hungry sailors could stock up on fresh
   supplies of meat, fruit, and vegetables. To this end, a small VOC
   expedition under the command of Jan van Riebeeck reached Table Bay on
   April 6, 1652.

Arrival of the Dutch

   Painting of an account of the arrival of Jan van Riebeeck, by Charles
   Bell.
   Enlarge
   Painting of an account of the arrival of Jan van Riebeeck, by Charles
   Bell.

   While the new settlement traded out of necessity with the neighbouring
   Khoikhoi, one could hardly describe the relationship as friendly, and
   the authorities made deliberate attempts to restrict contact. Partly as
   a consequence, VOC employees found themselves faced with a labour
   shortage. To remedy this, they released a small number of Dutch from
   their contracts and permitted them to establish farms, with which they
   would supply the VOC settlement from their harvests. This arrangement
   proved highly successful, producing abundant supplies of fruit,
   vegetables, wheat, and wine; they later raised livestock. The small
   initial group of free burghers, as these farmers were known, steadily
   increased and began to expand their farms further north and east into
   the territory of the Khoikhoi.

   The majority of burghers had Dutch ancestry and belonged to the
   Calvinist Reformed Church of the Netherlands, but there were also
   numerous Germans as well as some Scandinavians. In 1688 the Dutch and
   the Germans were joined by the French Huguenots, also Calvinists, who
   were fleeing religious persecution under King Louis XIV.

   In addition to establishing the free burgher system, van Riebeeck and
   the VOC also began to import large numbers of slaves, primarily from
   Madagascar and Indonesia. These slaves often married Dutch settlers,
   and their descendants became known as the Cape Coloureds and the Cape
   Malays. A significant number of the offspring from the White and slave
   unions were absorbed into the local proto Afrikaans speaking White
   population. With this additional labour, the areas occupied by the VOC
   expanded further to the north and east, with inevitable clashes with
   the Khoikhoi. The newcomers drove the beleaguered Khoikhoi from their
   traditional lands, decimated them with introduced diseases, and
   destroyed them with superior weapons when they fought back, which they
   did in a number of major wars and with guerrilla resistance movements
   which continued into the 19th century. Most survivors were left with no
   option but to work for the Europeans in an exploitative arrangement
   that differed little from slavery. Over time, the Khoisan, their
   European overseers, and the imported slaves mixed, with the offspring
   of these unions forming the basis for today's Coloured population.

   The best-known Khoikhoi groups included the Griqua, who had originally
   lived on the western coast between St Helena Bay and the Cederberg
   Range. In the late 18th century, they managed to acquire guns and
   horses and began trekking northeast. En route other groups of Khoisan,
   Coloureds, and even white adventurers joined them, and they rapidly
   gained a reputation as a formidable military force. Ultimately, the
   Griquas reached the Highveld around present-day Kimberley, where they
   carved out territory that came to be known as Griqualand.

Burgher expansion

   An account of the first trekboers.
   Enlarge
   An account of the first trekboers.

   As the burghers, too, continued to expand into the rugged hinterlands
   of the north and east, many began to take up a semi-nomadic pastoralist
   lifestyle, in some ways not far removed from that of the Khoikhoi they
   displaced. In addition to its herds, a family might have a wagon, a
   tent, a Bible, and a few guns. As they became more settled, they would
   build a mud-walled cottage, frequently located, by choice, days of
   travel from the nearest European. These were the first of the Trekboers
   (Wandering Farmers, later shortened to Boers), completely independent
   of official controls, extraordinarily self-sufficient, and isolated.
   Their harsh lifestyle produced courageous individualists, who knew the
   veld and nature intimately, and based their lives on their main source
   of guidance, the Bible.

The British at the Cape

   As the 18th century drew to a close, Dutch mercantile power began to
   fade, and the British moved in to fill the vacuum. They seized the Cape
   in 1795 to prevent it from falling into rival French hands, then
   briefly relinquished it back to the Dutch (1803) before finally
   garnering recognition of their sovereignty of the area in 1814.

   At the tip of the continent the British found an established colony
   with 25,000 slaves, 20,000 white colonists, 15,000 Khoisan, and 1,000
   freed black slaves. Power resided solely with a white élite in Cape
   Town, and differentiation on the basis of race was deeply entrenched.
   Outside Cape Town and the immediate hinterland, isolated black and
   white pastoralists populated the country.

   Like the Dutch before them, the British initially had little interest
   in the Cape Colony, other than as a strategically located port. As one
   of their first tasks they tried to resolve a troublesome border dispute
   between the Boers and the Xhosa on the colony's eastern frontier. In
   1820 the British authorities persuaded about 5,000 middle-class British
   immigrants (most of them "in trade") to leave England behind and settle
   on tracts of land between the feuding groups with the idea of providing
   a buffer zone. The plan was singularly unsuccessful. Within three
   years, almost half of these 1820 Settlers had retreated to the towns,
   notably Grahamstown and Port Elizabeth, to pursue the jobs they had
   held in Britain.

   While doing nothing to resolve the border dispute, this influx of
   settlers solidified the British presence in the area, thus fracturing
   the relative unity of white South Africa. Where the Boers and their
   ideas had before gone largely unchallenged, European Southern Africa
   now had two language groups and two cultures. A pattern soon emerged
   whereby English-speakers became highly urbanised, and dominated
   politics, trade, finance, mining, and manufacturing, while the largely
   uneducated Boers were relegated to their farms.

   The gap between the British settlers and the Boers further widened with
   the abolition of slavery in 1833, a move that the Boers generally
   regarded as against the God-given ordering of the races. Yet, the
   British settlers' conservatism and sense of racial superiority stopped
   any radical social reforms, and in 1841 the authorities passed a
   Masters and Servants Ordinance, which perpetuated white control.
   Meanwhile, British numbers increased rapidly in Cape Town, in the area
   east of the Cape Colony (present-day Eastern Cape Province), in Natal
   and, after the discovery of gold and diamonds, in parts of the
   Transvaal, mainly around present-day Gauteng.

Difaqane and destruction

   Shaka Zulu in traditional Zulu military garb.
   Enlarge
   Shaka Zulu in traditional Zulu military garb.

   The early 19th century saw a time of immense upheaval relating to the
   military expansion of the Zulu kingdom. Sotho-speakers know this period
   as the difaqane (" forced migration"); while Zulu-speakers call it the
   mfecane ("crushing").

   The full causes of the difaqane remain in dispute, although certain
   factors stand out. The rise of a unified Zulu kingdom had particular
   significance. In the early 19th century, Nguni tribes in KwaZulu-Natal
   began to shift from a loosely-organised collection of kingdoms into a
   centralised, militaristic state. Shaka Zulu, son of the chief of the
   small Zulu clan, became the driving force behind this shift. At first
   something of an outcast, Shaka proved himself in battle and gradually
   succeeded in consolidating power in his own hands. He built large
   armies, breaking from clan tradition by placing the armies under the
   control of his own officers rather than of the hereditary chiefs. Shaka
   then set out on a massive programme of expansion, killing or enslaving
   those who resisted in the territories he conquered. His impis (warrior
   regiments) were rigorously disciplined: failure in battle meant death.

   Peoples in the path of Shaka's armies moved out of his way, becoming in
   their turn aggressors against their neighbours. This wave of
   displacement spread throughout Southern Africa and beyond. It also
   accelerated the formation of several states, notably those of the Sotho
   (present-day Lesotho) and of the Swazi (now Swaziland).

   In 1828 Shaka was killed by his half-brothers Dingaan and Umthlangana.
   The weaker and less-skilled Dingaan became king, relaxing military
   discipline while continuing the despotism. Dingaan also attempted to
   establish relations with the British traders on the Natal coast, but
   events had started to unfold that would see the demise of Zulu
   independence.

The Great Trek

   Trekboers on the karoo.
   Enlarge
   Trekboers on the karoo.

   Meanwhile, the Boers had started to grow increasingly dissatisfied with
   British rule in the Cape Colony. The British proclamation of the
   equality of the races particularly angered them. Beginning in 1835,
   several groups of Boers, together with large numbers of Khoikhoi and
   black servants, decided to trek off into the interior in search of
   greater independence. North and east of the Orange River (which formed
   the Cape Colony's frontier) these Boers or Voortrekkers (" Pioneers")
   found vast tracts of apparently uninhabited grazing lands. They had, it
   seemed, entered their promised land, with space enough for their cattle
   to graze and their culture of anti-urban independence to flourish.
   Little did they know that what they found — deserted pasture lands,
   disorganised bands of refugees, and tales of brutality — resulted from
   the difaqane, rather than representing the normal state of affairs.

   With the exception of the more powerful Ndebele, the Voortrekkers
   encountered little resistance among the scattered peoples of the
   plains. The difaqane had dispersed them, and the remnants lacked horses
   and firearms. Their weakened condition also solidified the Boers'
   belief that European occupation meant the coming of civilisation to a
   savage land. However, the mountains where King Moshoeshoe I had started
   to forge the Basotho nation that would later become Lesotho and the
   wooded valleys of Zululand proved a more difficult proposition. Here
   the Boers met strong resistance, and their incursions set off a series
   of skirmishes, squabbles, and flimsy treaties that would litter the
   next 50 years of increasing white domination.

British vs. Boers vs. Zulus

   Indians arriving in Durban for the first time.
   Enlarge
   Indians arriving in Durban for the first time.

   The Great Trek first halted at Thaba Nchu, near present-day
   Bloemfontein, where the trekkers established a republic. Following
   disagreements among their leadership, the various Voortrekker groups
   split apart. While some headed north, most crossed the Drakensberg into
   Natal with the idea of establishing a republic there. Since the Zulus
   controlled this territory, the Voortrekker leader Piet Retief paid a
   visit to King Dingaan: the suspicious Zulu promptly killed him. This
   massacre triggered others, as well as a revenge attack by the Boers.
   The culmination came on 16 December 1838, in the Battle of Blood River,
   fought at the Ncome River in Natal. Though several Boers suffered
   injuries, they killed several thousand Zulus, reportedly causing the
   Ncome's waters to run red.
   Zulu warriors, late 19th century
   Enlarge
   Zulu warriors, late 19th century

   After this victory, which resulted from the possession of superior
   weapons, the Boers felt that their expansion really did have a
   long-suspected stamp of divine approval. Yet their hopes for
   establishing a Natal republic remained short-lived. The British annexed
   the area in 1843, and founded their new Natal colony at present-day
   Durban. Most of the Boers, feeling increasingly squeezed between the
   British on one side and the African populations on the other, headed
   north, adding yet another grievance against the British.
   British casualties fighting against the Zulus at The Battle of Rorke's
   Drift during the Anglo-Zulu Wars
   Enlarge
   British casualties fighting against the Zulus at The Battle of Rorke's
   Drift during the Anglo-Zulu Wars

   The British set about establishing large sugar- plantations in Natal,
   but found few inhabitants of the neighbouring Zulu areas willing to
   provide labour. The British confronted stiff resistance to their
   encroachments from the Zulus, a nation with well-established traditions
   of waging war, who inflicted one of the most humiliating defeats on the
   British army at the Battle of Isandlwana in 1879 when it killed over
   1400 British soldiers. In ongoing Anglo-Zulu Wars, the British
   eventually established their control over then-named Zululand in large
   areas of present-day Natal.

   The British turned to India to resolve their labour shortage, as Zulu
   men refused to adopt the servile position of laborers and in 1860 the
   SS Truro arrived in Durban harbour with over 300 people on board. Over
   the next 50 years, 150,000 more indentured Indians arrived, as well as
   numerous free "passenger Indians", building the base for what would
   become the largest Indian community outside of India. As early as 1893,
   when Mahatma Gandhi arrived in Durban, Indians outnumbered whites in
   Natal. (See Asians in South Africa.)

Growth of independent South Africa

The Boer republics

   The farm outside of Johannesburg on the Witwatersrand — site of the
   first discovery of gold in 1886.
   Enlarge
   The farm outside of Johannesburg on the Witwatersrand — site of the
   first discovery of gold in 1886.

   The Boers meanwhile persevered with their search for land and freedom,
   ultimately establishing themselves in the Transvaal and in the Orange
   Free State. For a while it seemed that these republics would develop
   into stable states, despite having thinly-spread populations of
   fiercely independent Boers, no industry, and minimal agriculture. Then
   the discovery of diamonds near Kimberley turned the Boers' world on its
   head ( 1869). The first diamonds came from land belonging to the
   Griqua, but to which both the Transvaal and Orange Free State laid
   claim. Britain quickly stepped in and resolved the issue by annexing
   the area for itself.

   The discovery of the Kimberley diamond-mines unleashed a flood of
   European and black labourers into the area. Towns sprang up in which
   the inhabitants ignored the "proper" separation of whites and blacks,
   and the Boers expressed anger that their impoverished republics had
   missed out on the economic benefits of the mines.

The Anglo-Boer Wars

   The Relief of Ladysmith. Sir George White greets Major Hubert Gough on
   28 February. Painting by John Henry Frederick Bacon (1868-1914)
   Enlarge
   The Relief of Ladysmith. Sir George White greets Major Hubert Gough on
   28 February. Painting by John Henry Frederick Bacon ( 1868- 1914)
   Boer women and children in a concentration camp.
   Enlarge
   Boer women and children in a concentration camp.

First Anglo-Boer War

   Long-standing Boer resentment turned into full-blown rebellion in the
   Transvaal (under British control from 1877), and the first Anglo-Boer
   War, known to Afrikaners as the "War of Independence", broke out in
   1880. The conflict ended almost as soon as it began with a crushing
   Boer victory at Battle of Majuba Hill ( 27 February 1881). The republic
   regained its independence as the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (" South
   African Republic"), or ZAR. Paul Kruger, one of the leaders of the
   uprising, became President of the ZAR in 1883. Meanwhile, the British,
   who viewed their defeat at Majuba as an aberration, forged ahead with
   their desire to federate the Southern African colonies and republics.
   They saw this as the best way to come to terms with the fact of a white
   Afrikaner majority, as well as to promote their larger strategic
   interests in the area.

Inter-war period

   In 1879, Zululand came under British control. Then in 1886, an
   Australian prospector discovered gold in the Witwatersrand,
   accelerating the federation process and dealing the Boers yet another
   blow. Johannesburg's population exploded to about 100,000 by the mid-
   1890s, and the ZAR suddenly found itself hosting thousands of
   uitlanders, both black and white, with the Boers squeezed to the
   sidelines. The influx of Black labour in particular worried the Boers,
   many of whom suffered economic hardship and resented the black
   wage-earners.

   The enormous wealth of the mines, largely controlled by European "
   Randlords", soon became irresistible for British imperialists. In 1895,
   a group of renegades led by Captain Leander Starr Jameson entered the
   ZAR with the intention of sparking an uprising on the Witwatersrand and
   installing a British administration. This incursion became known as the
   Jameson Raid. The scheme ended in fiasco, but it seemed obvious to
   Kruger that it had at least the tacit approval of the Cape Colony
   government, and that his republic faced danger. He reacted by forming
   an alliance with Orange Free State.

Second Anglo-Boer War

   Boer guerillas during the Second Boer War.
   Enlarge
   Boer guerillas during the Second Boer War.

   The situation peaked in 1899, when the British demanded voting rights
   for the 60,000 foreign whites on the Witwatersrand. Until that point,
   Kruger's government had excluded all foreigners from the franchise.
   Kruger rejected the British demand and called for the withdrawal of
   British troops from the ZAR's borders. When the British refused, Kruger
   declared war. This Second Anglo-Boer War lasted longer, and the British
   preparedness surpassed that of Majuba Hill. By June 1900, Pretoria, the
   last of the major Boer towns, had surrendered. Yet resistance by Boer
   bittereinders continued for two more years with guerrilla-style
   battles, which the British met in turn with scorched earth tactics. By
   1902 26,000 Boers had died of disease and neglect in concentration
   camps. On 31 May 1902 a superficial peace came with the signing of the
   Treaty of Vereeniging. Under its terms, the Boer republics acknowledged
   British sovereignty, while the British in turn committed themselves to
   reconstruction of the areas under their control.

Roots of union

   Johannesburg around 1890
   Enlarge
   Johannesburg around 1890

   During the immediate post-war years the British focussed their
   attention on rebuilding the country, in particular the mining industry.
   By 1907 the mines of the Witwatersrand produced almost one-third of the
   world's annual gold production. But the peace brought by the treaty
   remained fragile and challenged on all sides. The Afrikaners found
   themselves in the ignominious position of poor farmers in a country
   where big mining ventures and foreign capital rendered them irrelevant.
   Britain's unsuccessful attempts to anglicise them, and to impose
   English as the official language in schools and the workplace
   particularly incensed them. Partly as a backlash to this, the Boers
   came to see Afrikaans as the volkstaal ("people's language") and as a
   symbol of Afrikaner nationhood. Several nationalist organisations
   sprang up.

   The system left Blacks and Coloureds completely marginalised. The
   authorities imposed harsh taxes and reduced wages, while the British
   caretaker administrator encouraged the immigration of thousands of
   Chinese to undercut any resistance. Resentment exploded in the Bambatha
   Rebellion of 1906, in which 4,000 Zulus lost their lives after
   protesting against onerous tax legislation.

   The British meanwhile moved ahead with their plans for union. After
   several years of negotiations, the South Africa Act 1909 brought the
   colonies and republics — Cape Colony, Natal, Transvaal, and Orange Free
   State — together as the Union of South Africa. Under the provisions of
   the act, the Union remained British territory, but with home-rule for
   Afrikaners. The British High Commission territories of Basutoland (now
   Lesotho), Bechuanaland (now Botswana), Swaziland, and Rhodesia (now
   Zambia and Zimbabwe) continued under direct rule from Britain.

   English and Dutch became the official languages. Afrikaans did not gain
   recognition as an official language until 1925. Despite a major
   campaign by Blacks and Coloureds, the voter franchise remained as in
   the pre-Union republics and colonies, and only whites could gain
   election to parliament.

1910 Union of South Africa

   In 1910 the Union of South Africa was created by the unification of
   four areas, by joining the two former independent Boer republics of the
   South African Republic (Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek) and the Orange
   Free State (Oranje Vrystaat) with the the British dominated Cape
   Province and Natal. Most significantly, the new Union of South Africa
   gained international respect with British Dominion status putting it on
   par with three other important British dominions and allies: Canada,
   Australia, and New Zealand.

World War I

Bonds with the British Empire

   During the First World War, Smuts (right) and Botha were key members of
   the British Imperial War Cabinet.
   Enlarge
   During the First World War, Smuts (right) and Botha were key members of
   the British Imperial War Cabinet.

   The Union of South Africa tied closely to the British Empire,
   automatically joined Great Britain and the allies against the German
   Empire. Both Prime Minister Louis Botha and Defence Minister Jan Smuts,
   both former Second Boer War generals who had fought against the British
   then, but who now became active and respected members of the Imperial
   War Cabinet. (See Jan Smuts during World War I.)

   South Africa was part of significant military operations against
   Germany. In spite of Boer resistance at home, the Afrikaner-led
   government of Louis Botha unhestitatingly joined the side of the Allies
   of World War I and fought alongside its armies. The South African
   Government agreed to the withdrawal of British Army units so that they
   were free to join the European war, and laid plans to invade German
   South-West Africa. Elements of the South African army refused to fight
   against the Germans and along with other opponents of the Government
   rose in open revolt. The government declared martial law on 14 October
   1914, and forces loyal to the government under the command of General
   Louis Botha and Jan Smuts proceeded to destroy the Maritz Rebellion.
   The leading Boer rebels got off lightly with terms of imprisonment of
   six and seven years and heavy fines. (See World War I and the Maritz
   Rebellion.)

Military action against Germany during World War I

   The South African Union Defence Force saw action in a number areas:
    1. It dispatched its army to German South-West Africa (later known as
       South West Africa) and now known as Namibia. The South Africans
       expelled German forces and gained control of the former German
       colony. (See German South-West Africa in World War I.)
    2. A military expedition under General Jan Smuts was dispatched to
       German East Africa (later known as Tanganyika) and now known as
       Tanzania. The objective was to fight German forces in that colony
       and to try to capture the elusive German General von
       Lettow-Vorbeck. Ultimately, Lettow-Vorbeck fought his tiny force
       out of German East Africa into Mozambique, where he surrendered a
       few weeks after the end of the war. (See German East Africa in
       First World War.)
    3. 1st South African Brigade troops were shipped to France to fight on
       the Western Front. The most costly battle that the South African
       forces on the Western Front fought in was the Battle of Delville
       Wood in 1916. (See South African Army in World War I.)
    4. South Africans also saw action with the Cape Corps as part of the
       Egyptian Expeditionary Force in Palestine. (See Cape Corps 1915 -
       1991)

Military contributions and casualties in World War I

   More than 146,000 whites, 83,000 blacks and 2,500 people of mixed race
   (" Coloureds") and Asians served in South African military units during
   the war, including 43,000 in German South-West Africa and 30,000 on the
   Western Front. An estimated 3,000 South Africans also joined the Royal
   Flying Corps. The total South African casualties during the war was
   about 18,600 with over 12,452 killed - more than 4,600 in the European
   theatre alone.
   The British Empire is red on the map, at its zenith in 1919. (India
   highlighted in purple.) South Africa, bottom center, lies between both
   halves of the Empire.
   Enlarge
   The British Empire is red on the map, at its zenith in 1919. (India
   highlighted in purple.) South Africa, bottom centre, lies between both
   halves of the Empire.

   There is no question that South Africa greatly assisted the Allies, and
   Great Britain in particular, in capturing the two German colonies of
   German-West-Africa and German-East-Africa as well as in battles in
   Western Europe and the Middle East. South Africa's ports and harbors,
   such as at Cape Town, Durban, and Simon's Town, were also important
   rest-stops, refueling-stations, and served as strategic assets to the
   British Royal Navy during the war, helping to keep the vital sea lanes
   to the British Raj open.

World War II

Political choices at outbreak of war

   On the eve of World War II the Union of South Africa found itself in a
   unique political and military quandary. While it was closely allied
   with Great Britain, being a co-equal Dominion under the 1931 Statute of
   Westminster with its head of state being the British king, the South
   African Prime Minister on September 1, 1939 was none other than Barry
   Hertzog the leader of the pro-Afrikaner anti-British National party
   that had joined in a unity government as the United Party.

   Herzog's problem was that South Africa was constitutionally obligated
   to support Great Britain against Nazi Germany. The Polish-British
   Common Defence Pact obligated Britain, and in turn its dominions, to
   help Poland if attacked by the Nazis. After Hitler's forces attacked
   Poland on the night of August 31, 1939, Britain declared war on Germany
   within a few days. A short but furious debate unfolded in South Africa,
   especially in the halls of power in the Parliament of South Africa,
   that pitted those who sought to enter the war on Britain's side, led by
   the pro- Allied pro-British Afrikaner and former Prime Minister Jan
   Smuts and General against then-current Prime Minister Barry Hertzog who
   wished to keep South Africa "neutral", if not pro- Axis.

Declaration of war against the Axis

   B. J. Vorster, member of Ossewabrandwag, imprisoned during WWII. Later
   became Prime Minister of South Africa, and briefly its President.
   Enlarge
   B. J. Vorster, member of Ossewabrandwag, imprisoned during WWII. Later
   became Prime Minister of South Africa, and briefly its President.

   On September 4, 1939, the United Party caucus refused to accept
   Hertzog's stance of neutrality in World War II and deposed him in
   favour of Smuts. Upon becoming Prime Minister of South Africa, Smuts
   declared South Africa officially at war with Germany and the Axis.
   Smuts immediately set about fortifying South Africa against any
   possible German sea invasion because of South Africa's global strategic
   importance controlling the long sea route around the Cape of Good Hope.

   Smuts took severe action against the pro-Nazi South African
   Ossewabrandwag movement (they were caught committing acts of sabotage)
   and jailed its leaders for the duration of the war. (One of them, John
   Vorster, was to become future Prime Minister of South Africa.) (See Jan
   Smuts during World War II.)

Prime Minister and Field Marshal Smuts

   Prime Minister Jan Smuts was the only important non-British general
   whose advice was constantly sought by Britain's war-time Prime Minister
   Winston Churchill. Smuts was invited to the Imperial War Cabinet in
   1939 as the most senior South African in favour of war. In 28 May 1941,
   Smuts was appointed a Field Marshal of the British Army, becoming the
   first South African to hold that rank. Ultimately, Smuts would pay a
   steep political price for his closeness to the British establishment,
   to the King, and to Churchill which had made Smuts very unpopular among
   the conservative nationalistic Afrikaners, leading to his eventual
   downfall, whereas most English-speaking whites and a minority of
   liberal Afrikaners in South Africa remained loyal to him. (See Jan
   Smuts during World War II.)

Military contributions and casualties in World War II

   South Africa and its military forces contributed in many theaters of
   war. South Africa's contribution consisted mainly of supplying troops,
   men and material for the North African campaign (the Desert War) and
   the Italian Campaign as well as to Allied ships that docked at its
   crucial ports adjoining the Atlantic Ocean and Indian Ocean that
   converge at the tip of Southern Africa. Numerous volunteers also flew
   for the Royal Air Force. (See: South African Army in World War II;
   South African Air Force in World War II; South African Navy in World
   War II.)
    1. The South African Army and Air Force helped defeat the Italian army
       of the Fascist Benito Mussolini that had invaded Abyssinia (now
       known as Ethiopia) in 1935. During the 1941 East African Campaign
       South African forces made important contribution to this early
       Allied victory.
    2. Another important victory that the South African's participated in
       was the liberation of Malagasy (now known as Madagascar) from the
       control of the Vichy French who were allies of the Nazis. British
       troops aided by South African soldiers, staged their attack from
       South Africa, occupied the strategic island in 1942 to preclude its
       seizure by the Japanese.
    3. The South African 1st Infantry Division took part in several
       actions in North Africa in 1941 and 1942, including the Battle of
       El Alamein, before being withdrawn to South Africa.
    4. The South African 2nd Infantry Division also took part in a number
       of actions in North Africa during 1942, but on 21 June 1942 two
       complete infantry brigades of the division as well as most of the
       supporting units were captured at the fall of Tobruk.
    5. The South African 3rd Infantry Division never took an active part
       in any battles but instead organised and trained the South African
       home defence forces, performed garrison duties and supplied
       replacements for the South African 1st Infantry Division and the
       South African 2nd Infantry Division. However, one of this
       division's constituent brigades - 7 SA Motorised Brigade - did take
       part in the invasion of Madagascar in 1942.
    6. The South African 6th Armoured Division fought in numerous actions
       in Italy from 1944 to 1945.
    7. South Africa contributed to the war effort against Japan, supplying
       men and manning ships in naval engagements against the Japanese.

   Of the 334,000 men volunteered for full time service in the South
   African Army during the war (including some 211,000 whites, 77,000
   blacks and 46,000 "coloureds" and Asians), nearly 9,000 were killed in
   action.

Aftermath of World War II

   South Africa emerged from the Allied victory with its prestige and
   national honor enhanced as it had fought tirelessly for the Western
   Allies. South Africa's standing in the international community was
   rising, at a time when the Third World's struggle against colonialism
   had still not taken centre stage. In May 1945, Prime Minister Smuts
   represented South Africa in San Francisco at the drafting of the United
   Nations Charter. Just as he did in 1919, Smuts urged the delegates to
   create a powerful international body to preserve peace; he was
   determined that, unlike the League of Nations, the United Nations would
   have teeth. Smuts signed the Paris Peace Treaty, resolving the peace in
   Europe, thus becoming the only signatory of both the treaty ending the
   First World War, and that ending the Second.

   However, internal political struggles in the disgruntled and
   essentially impoverished Afrikaner community would soon come to the
   fore leading to Smuts' defeat at the polls in the 1948 elections (in
   which only whites and coloroureds could vote) at the hands of a
   resurgent National Party after the war. This began the road to South
   Africa's eventual isolation from a world that would no longer tolerate
   any forms of political discrimination or differentiation based on race
   only.

General elections and the slow evolution of democracy

   From 1910 until the present time, a series of important general
   elections have been held in a united South Africa. From 1910 until 1948
   the franchise to vote was given to whites and to Cape Coloreds (people
   of mixed race) only. After the ascent of the Nationalist Party in 1948,
   the Cape Coloreds were taken off the voters' role. Only eligible whites
   were permited to vote from 1948 until 1994 when the vote was granted to
   South Africans of every racial group. The 1994 general election was the
   first post-apartheid vote based on universal suffrage.

   There have been three referendums in South Africa: 1960 referendum on
   becoming a republic; 1983 referendum on implementing the tricameral
   parliament; and 1992 referendum on becoming a multiracial democracy all
   of which were held during the era of Nationalist Party control.

Apartheid era

   Five representatives of the South African Native National Congress
   traveling to England in 1914 to protest against the 1913 Land Act.
   Enlarge
   Five representatives of the South African Native National Congress
   traveling to England in 1914 to protest against the 1913 Land Act.

Afrikaner nationalism

   General Louis Botha headed the first government of the new Union, with
   General Jan Smuts as his deputy. Their South African National Party,
   later known as the South African Party or SAP, followed a generally
   pro-British, white-unity line. The more radical Boers split away under
   the leadership of General Barry Hertzog, forming the National Party
   (NP) in 1914. The NP championed Afrikaner interests, advocating
   separate development for the two white groups and independence from
   Britain.

   The new Union had no place for Blacks, despite their constituting over
   75 percent of the population. The Act of Union denied them
   voting-rights in the Transvaal and Orange Free State areas, and in Cape
   Province Blacks gained the vote only if they met a property-ownership
   qualification. Blacks saw the failure to grant the franchise, coming on
   the heels of British wartime propaganda promoting freedom from "Boer
   slavery", as a blatant betrayal. Before long the Union passed a barrage
   of oppressive legislation, making it illegal for black workers to
   strike, reserving skilled jobs for whites, barring blacks from military
   service, and instituting restrictive pass laws. In 1913 parliament
   enacted the Natives Land Act, setting aside eight percent of South
   Africa's land for black occupancy. Whites, who made up only 20 percent
   of the population, held 90 percent of the land. Black Africans could
   not buy or rent land or even work as sharecroppers outside their
   designated area. The authorities evicted thousands of squatters from
   farms and forced them into increasingly overcrowded and impoverished
   reserves, or into the cities. Those who remained sank to the status of
   landless labourers.
   The original architects of apartheid gathered around a map of a planned
   township.
   Enlarge
   The original architects of apartheid gathered around a map of a planned
   township.

   Black and Coloured opposition began to coalesce, and leading figures
   such as John Jabavu, Walter Rubusana and Abdullah Abdurahman laid the
   foundations for new non-tribal black political groups. Most
   significantly, a Columbia University-educated attorney, Pixley ka Isaka
   Seme, called together representatives of the various African tribes to
   form a unified, national organisation to represent the interests of
   blacks, and to ensure that they had an effective voice in the new
   Union. Thus there originated the South African Native National
   Congress, known from 1923 as the African National Congress (ANC).
   Parallel to this, Mahatma Gandhi worked with the Indian populations of
   Natal and the Transvaal to fight against the ever-increasing
   encroachment on their rights.

   The international recession which followed World War I put pressures on
   mine-owners, and they sought to reduce costs by recruiting lower-paid,
   black, semi-skilled workers. White mine-workers saw this as a threat
   and in 1922 rose in the armed Rand Rebellion, supported by the new
   Communist Party of South Africa under the slogan "Workers of the World,
   unite and fight for a white South Africa". Smuts suppressed the rising
   violently, but the failure led to a convergence of views between
   Afrikaner nationalists and white English-speaking trade-unionists. The
   Communists saw the failure as having resulted from a lack of
   mobilisation by black workers, and re-oriented their recruitment.

   In 1924 the NP, under Hertzog, came to power in a coalition government
   with the Labour Party, and Afrikaner nationalism gained greater hold.
   Afrikaans, previously regarded only as a low-class dialect of Dutch,
   replaced Dutch as an official language of the Union, and the so-called
   swart gevaar (black threat) became the dominant issue of the 1929
   election. In the mid- 1930s, Hertzog joined the NP with the more
   moderate SAP of Jan Smuts to form the United Party; this coalition fell
   apart at the start World War II when Smuts took the reins and, amid
   much controversy, led South Africa into war on the side of the Allies.
   However, any hopes of turning the tide of Afrikaner nationalism faded
   when Daniel François Malan led a radical break-away movement, the
   Purified National Party, to the central position in Afrikaner political
   life. The Afrikaner Broederbond, a secret Afrikaner brotherhood formed
   in 1918 to protect Afrikaner culture, soon became an extraordinarily
   influential force behind both the NP and other organisations designed
   to promote the volk ("people", the Afrikaners).

   Due to the booming wartime economy, black labour became increasingly
   important to the mining and manufacturing industries, and the black
   urban population nearly doubled. Enormous squatter camps grew up on the
   outskirts of Johannesburg and (though to a lesser extent) outside the
   other major cities. Despite the appalling conditions in the townships,
   not only blacks knew poverty: wartime surveys found that 40 percent of
   white schoolchildren suffered from malnutrition.

Legalised discrimination

   From 1948 successive National Party administrations formalised and
   extended the existing system of segregation and denial of rights into
   the legal system of apartheid, which lasted until the 1990s. Although
   many important events occurred during this period, apartheid remained
   the central system around which most of the historical issues of this
   period revolved.

Dismantling

   With increasing opposition to apartheid in the final decades of the
   20th century — including an armed struggle, economic and cultural
   sanctions by the international community, pressure from the
   anti-apartheid movement around the world, a rebellion amongst Afrikaner
   and English-speaking youth as well as open revolt within the ruling
   National Party — State President F.W. de Klerk announced the unbanning
   of the African National Congress and Pan Africanist Congress as well as
   the release of Nelson Mandela on 2 February 1990, which signaled the
   beginning of a transition to democracy. In the referendum held on 17
   March 1992, a white electorate voted 68% in favour of dismantling
   apartheid through negotiations.

   After years of negotiations under the auspices of the Convention for a
   Democratic South Africa (CODESA), a draft constitution appeared on 26
   July 1993, containing concessions towards all sides: a federal system
   of regional legislatures, equal voting-rights regardless of race, and a
   bicameral legislature.

   From 26 to 29 April 1994, the South African population voted in the
   first universal suffrage general elections. The African National
   Congress won election to govern for the very first time, leaving the
   National Party and the Inkatha Freedom Party behind it and parties such
   as the Democratic Party and Pan Africanist Congress took up their seats
   as part of the parliamentary opposition in the first genuine
   multiracial parliament. Nelson Mandela was elected as President on 9
   May 1994 and formed -according to the interim constitution of 1993- a
   government of national unity, consisting of the ANC, the NP and the
   Inkatha. On 10 May Mandela was inaugurated as South Africas new
   President in Pretoria and Thabo Mbeki and FW De Klerk as his
   vice-presidents.

   Following the elections, the fostering of a culture that recognised
   human rights became important. After considerable debate, and following
   submissions from special-interest groups, individuals and ordinary
   citizens, the Parliament enacted a new Constitution and Bill of Rights
   as legislation in 1996.

After apartheid

   After the enactment of the constitution, focus turned to the Truth and
   Reconciliation Commission, which was established in 1995 to expose
   crimes of the apartheid era under the dictum of Archbishop Desmond
   Tutu: "Without forgiveness there is no future, but without confession
   there can be no forgiveness". The commission heard many stories of
   horrific brutality and injustice from all sides of the struggle, and
   offered some catharsis to people and communities shattered by their
   past experiences.

   The Commission operated by allowing victims to tell their stories and
   by allowing perpetrators to confess their guilt; with amnesty on offer
   to those who made a full confession. Those who chose not to appear
   before the commission would face criminal prosecution if the
   authorities could prove their guilt. But while some soldiers, police,
   and ordinary citizens confessed their crimes, few of those who had
   given the orders or commanded the police presented themselves. For
   example, State President P.W. Botha himself, notably, refused to appear
   before the Commission. It has proven difficult to gather evidence
   against these alleged higher-level criminals.

Refining democracy

   President Thabo Mbeki
   Enlarge
   President Thabo Mbeki

   In 1999, South Africa held its second universal-suffrage elections. In
   1997, Mandela had handed over leadership of the ANC to his deputy,
   Thabo Mbeki, and speculation grew that the ANC vote might therefore
   drop. In fact, it increased, putting the party within one seat of the
   two-thirds majority that would allow it to alter the constitution.

   The NP, restyled as the New National Party (NNP), lost two-thirds of
   its seats, as well as official opposition status to the Democratic
   Party (DP). The DP had traditionally functioned as a stronghold of
   liberal whites, and now gained new support from conservatives
   disenchanted with the NP, and from some middle-class blacks. Just
   behind the DP came the KwaZulu-Natal Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP),
   historically the voice of Zulu nationalism. While the IFP lost some
   support, its leader, Chief Buthelezi, continued to exercise power as
   the national Home Affairs minister.

Into the future

   While the ANC grassroots hold Mbeki in far less affection than the
   beloved "Madiba" (Mandela), he has proven himself a shrewd politician,
   maintaining his political pre-eminence by isolating or co-opting
   opposition parties. In 2003, Mbeki manoeuvred the ANC to a two-thirds
   majority in parliament for the first time.

   Yet not everything has gone the ANC's way. In the early days of his
   presidency, Mbeki's effective denial of the HIV crisis invited global
   criticism, and his conspicuous failure to condemn the forced
   reclamation of white-owned farms in neighbouring Zimbabwe unnerved both
   South African landowners and foreign investors.

   Non-political crime has increased dramatically since the end of
   apartheid. According to a report by Sibusiso Masuku, in the seven years
   between 1994 and 2001, "violent crime increased by 33%". The Economist
   reports the killing of approximately 1,500 white farmers in
   non-political attacks since 1991. Interpol figures showed that, in
   2002, South Africa experienced 114.8 murders per 100,000 inhabitants,
   the world's highest murder-rate and around five times higher than that
   of the second-highest country, Brazil. As of 1998, South Africa led the
   world, although by a smaller margin, in reported murders and robberies.
   A 2001 report by the Institute for Security Studies concluded that
   "South Africa has high but manageable levels of property crime but an
   extraordinary high level of violent crime. It is South Africa’s high
   level of violent crime which sets the country apart from other crime
   ridden societies."

   In 2004 the government of South Africa published statistics showing a
   decrease in crime, although some observers cast doubt on their
   veracity. In 2003, Interpol reported murder levels nearly double those
   given in government statistics. Mbeki has accused his critics in this
   regard of racism. Others note that varying rates of crime-reporting by
   victims and the difficulties in interpreting crime data for nations
   involved in active military conflicts may explain variant statistics.

   According to The Economist, an estimated 250,000 white South Africans
   have emigrated since 1994. .
   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_South_Africa"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
   of authors and sources) and is available under the GNU Free
   Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.
