The word Apartheid means “a policy or system of segregation or discrimination
on grounds of race,” a literal description for South Africa’s segregation
system that legally lasted for 50 years, but socially the system ruled South
Africa since the Dutch first arrived in 1652.
As the Dutch began to colonize the land, they used the native Africans
as labors (basically slaves) to mine many precious minerals in order to trade
them in the Dutch Trading Company. The Africans
were paid but the wages too low to live off of, and thus began the process of white
dominance as the Dutch we began to gain power by treating the Africans as a
lower class of human beings. Soon the
white Dutch colonizers gained a new name known as “Afrikaners” and their unique
language became known as “Afrikaans.” The apartheid system began to take root in
1936 when the government passed The Representation of Voters Act that weakened
the political rights for Africans and allowed them to vote only for white representatives
in the government. Soon other acts
followed: The Population Registration Act of 1950, which classified people into
three racial groups of white, colored (mixed race or Indian), and native (African/black),
the Preservation of Amenities Act of 1953 declaring “separate but not
necessarily equal” amongst whites and all other races, the Group Areas Act of
1951 which set aside specific communities for natives, coloreds or Indians, and
the Bantu Homelands Act also of 1951, which essentially stripped millions of
blacks of their citizenship rights considering them foreigners in white territories,
and forcing them off their homelands as the government declared their land
officially white property. This intense
system of segregation became the official in 1951 when the National Party of
Afrikaners won the general election and established Apartheid as the supreme
law of the land.
-Here is a great source if wanting to read more on the Apartheid!
That same year the National Party
came into power, many Africans united together to establish the African
National Congress (ANC) as a political organization designed to resist white supremacy. The ANC’s freedom charter stated “South
Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white, and that no government
can justly claim authority unless it is based on the will of the people.” These words caused several hundred Africans
to be arrested and harsher segregation laws enacted. Nelson Mandela lead the ANC with great force
by organizing resistance and protest movements in order to defy the laws set
against Africans. In one instance, the
National Party established a law that required all Africans, mixed and Indians
to carry identification passes which allowed them to pass through white
populated areas. Mandela and Albert Luthuli
called ANC followers in the town Sharpeville to burn their passes in protest
against this law. Police opened fire on
the crowd and 69 people were killed. Instances
such as these occurred regularly as the ANC attempted to protest in a somewhat
peaceful way, but the Apartheid government and police would not tolerate their
resistance. Music was used as a way to
not only unite Africans in their movement, but speak out against the government
and their corruption. The fight for
freedom took a dramatic change when Nelson Mandela was imprisoned in 1963 and a
season of discouragement set in amongst Africans. The fight reignited in the 1970s when the
youth began to take on the fight in a more aggressive and violent tone. A man known as Stephen Biko developed groups
that fought Apartheid through violence but still worked through the ANC. Africans began to realize the government
would not negotiate through peaceful tactics, therefore violence and ultimate aggression
became the next steps in changing South Africa.
-Nelson Mandela
-Sharpeville Massacre
Various songs were used in rallies
and protest movements to defy the Apartheid, and musicians wrote music that targeted
specific issues of the Apartheid in order to advertise its corruption
nationally and internationally. With the
change from peaceful protest into violent protests, a transition occurred from
singing and dancing peacefully to more aggressive music and dancing. A dance known as the “Toyi-Toyi” was taught
to the youth as they trained in Zimbabwe.
Often it was danced in marches and thousands of people would participate
in the dance. It brought energy, unity
and power to Africans as they performed it.
-Great Video on the History of the Toyi-Toyi and "how to."
A man named Vuhisile Mini was a
serious activist and leader in the ANC.
He often protested against the labor situations for Africans, the pay
and the working conditions. At one time
he entered a railway property reserved for whites only, was arrested and lost
his job. Most importantly Vuhisile Mini
wrote music and poems that spoke out against the Apartheid system, songs which
were repeatedly sung by ANC activists and those who marched in protests. In 1964, Mini was sentenced to death after
being charged with sabotage and other political crimes, and was executed not
long after. His legacy reigns strong in
South Africa and globally as a political activist who consistently put his life
on the life in order to break down the corruption of the Apartheid. His music is most evident of this.
-Vuhisile Mini
Not surprisingly, there are many
similarities between South Africa’s resistance movements and the Civil Rights movements
of the American South most evidently found in freedom songs. The songs in each nation brought unity to the
movements, clearer purpose to the individuals who sacrificed their lives for
the cause and edified cultural heritage that was evident in each group. However, one significant different is the
change in songs the ANC experienced.
Throughout the Civil Rights movement, the songs showed passion and
outcry but the movement remained constantly peaceful and non-violent. In South Africa after peaceful protests were
attempted, the movement took a more aggressive and violent tone and the songs
demonstrated this in their words and the way they were sung. The freedom songs of the Apartheid motivated
South Africans in their fight for freedom; they continuously reminded Africans of
the reason they fought, and of their ancestors who never saw the day of freedom
come. Freedom songs kept the fight
against the Apartheid going until the day it ended.
-Nelson Mandela's speech after being elected President.
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