Describe the treatment of black Africans in South Africa in the 1930s and 1940s.

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Describe the treatment of black Africans in South Africa in the 1930s and 1940s.

This assignment will describe how black South Africans were treated in the 1930s and 1940s before the system of apartheid begun in 1948. In this assignment I will describe come ways in which the life for the blacks became worse during this period of time.

In 1910 the four colonies of South Africa these were Natal, The Transvaal, Cape Colony and the Orange Free State had joined up to make self governing dominion called the Union of South Africa. The colonies had different beliefs about political rights. Mainly the Afrikaner Orange Free State and The Transvaal had no voting rights at all. In Natal some blacks could vote in elections but the rules were so complicated. In Cape Colony however things were different any man who owned £50 a year or had a property worth £70 or more had a right to vote. These were clear differences in the treatment of blacks at the turn of this century.

Towards the ends of the 19th century a new educated middle class of blacks emerged some of these were traders, clerks, interpreters and priests. Most of these people were usually educated in mission schools, which were set up especially for coloured people such as blacks. No whites were allowed to come into these mission schools however many of these blacks were wealthy enough to vote in Cape, and so they did vote. There weren’t many of these wealthy blacks but there was enough to make some white candidates in Cape elections take note of the blacks needs. Many poor blacks wanted a job, so they became sharecroppers, which meant they farmed a piece of land, which belonged to a white farmer and paid a bit of rent in the form of sharing their crops. Many blacks liked this as it gave them more freedom and if there were successful it enabled them to have their farming equipments and small herds.

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However the Land Act of 1913 stopped the blacks from buying land from the whites. Things became worse for the blacks because they could only own the land that was in native reserves, which amounted them to only 7% of South Africa. The Land Act also said that blacks were not allowed to live on white farms only if they wanted to live as full-time labourers. This meant that sharecropping became illegal. This caused problems and great sufferings to many of the black families. This left them to only one option, which was to work as servants or labourers ...

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