Many laws were passed during Apartheid in the 1950’s this era was called “the petty apartheid” which segregated everyday places. There was the Separate Amenities Act, this was allowing the white people to have better facilities to blacks, there was the Group Areas Act, and this restricted “non-whites” from restraunts, concerts, and cinemas with threats of fines if they were to enter these restricted areas.
Whites only sign for the beach stating that only whites
are allowed on that beach.
Bantu Education Act, this was an inferior education system were it prevented “non-white” students from attending “white” schools and it created a unequal educational balance, were the whites got a higher education than the “non-whites” and Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act, prevented white people from getting married to a different race. These laws caused many forms of protests such as, boycotts, strikes, and civil disobedience which were performed by “non-whites”. One of the main apartheid laws was the Population Registration Act, this act required people to be registered according to their racial groups. These racial groups were divided into four groups, there was white, coloured, black and Indian. The Department of Home Affairs would have a record of all the people in South Africa according to their racial groups and their race was identified by their identity number. This act was humiliating to most people as they determined their race by linguistics and physical characteristics/ appearance, and many people would be treated differently according to their population group. However, there was also some difficulty trying to determine some people’s racial group and this caused great problems for many.
Sandra Laing was born in 1955 into a South African family during Apartheid and the Population Registration Act era. Sandra Laing was different compared to her family as she had a different skin colour to her family and this lead to implications as for the Population Registration Act. Her mother, father and older brother were seen as “white’ and Sandra and her little brother were seen as “coloured” as they had a darker complexion to them. Everyone in the community thought that Mrs Laing had an affair with a black man but it was not true, as in the background of their family there were mixed races and it obviously ran in their jeans. Sandra Laing was born in a small town in South Africa called Piet Retief. Sandra’s parents were pro-National party and members of the Dutch Reformed church. Sandra and her family had a loving relationship and lived a life of great happiness.
Sandra’s mom (Sannie), Sandra Laing, Sandra’s Dad (Abraham)
Until Sandra decided it was time to start her education at Piet Retief Primary which was an all white boarding school, schools during apartheid were segregated and since Sandra’s parents were both white, she was sent to an all white school. During her time at school Sandra soon started noticing the colour of her skin and how different she was to the children in her school and how she was getting treated differently from the rest. At Piet Retief Primary School the pupils were taught how to evaluate racial characteristics, blacks were characterised with big noses, curly hair, dark skin and all work in the mines and white people have pale skin and have power over everything. Sandra started hating her school and she was getting treated badly by the pupils and teachers and she could never make friends with anyone and no one would ever talk to her or answer her questions, it was like she was invisible. Sandra’s parents had a few complaints to the school and hope that maybe Sandra would get older and her skin colour would get lighter but instead as she got older she become more darker but the principle explained to them that Sandra was coloured and it was an all white school, soon she got expelled from school by the school authorities as for her skin colour. After she got expelled the authorities reclassified Sandra as “coloured” and were not allowed in many public places with her parents. Sandra’s parents fought hard to have his daughter reclassified white and they fought several illegal battles for their daughter. Sandra’s dad created a press campaign for Sandra in order to fight and get her reclassified and the campaign became a huge scandal all over the world and soon worked the government into changing the law. So the law was that if you were born into a white family you were classified the colour them, so Sandra was reclassified white. Sandra never went back to school, but instead she helped her mom at home and played with her friends in her community. At the age of 16, she meet a black man called Petrus Zwane from Swaziland. They spent days together hiding it from her parents, because if her father found out she was with a black man he would be furious as she could lose her race classification with this man. Soon Sandra’s dad found out about them and Sandra and Petrus ran away together, Sandra’s father charged Petrus for abduction and had Sandra detained in prison until she had made up her choice of weather she was going to stay with her family or stay with Petrus and she had chosen to live with Petrus and his family. Her mother was distraught at her decision and didn’t want Sandra to leave and her father was furious leaving Sandra the choice of never having any contact with her family ever again. Sandra and Petrus got married and moved in with him in a township and became pregnant with her first child, soon after her first child she became pregnant again and her husband soon turned into a violent man and drank every night and would treat her horrifically. Sandra then got pregnant again with her third child but unfortunately her baby died and Petrus threaten to kill her as he said she was a curse. Sandra was still classified as white, but know that she had children with a black man she was threaten to not be allowed to keep her to children unless she was reclassified coloured, but in order to do this she needed her documents which her father refused to give to her. Sandra then left Petrus and had to place her children with the social welfare and she had to find a job for a living. Sandra then tried to make contact with her family but found out that her father had died and that her brothers and mother would not talk to her or see her. Sandra then found a new husband, Johannes Motloung, and with him fell pregnant with three children and reunited with her two other children that she had to place with the social welfare. They moved to a middle class town in Johannesburg called Boksburg. At the age of 27, Sandra visited her mother in an old age home, were they had a tearful reunion, and too this day Sandra’s brothers want nothing to do with her.
I have found that during the Apartheid and the Population Registration Act many people suffered and had been treated so badly during that era, and being part of the Apartheid era must have made huge impacts on people’s lives as it had on Sandra Laing’s life. Sandra Laing is an inspiring woman who never gave up during her difficult times with poverty, illness and the injustice of laws that affected her. When it came to people talking about her skin colour, she would stand up for her self and try not taking into account what people thought of her. In my eyes Sandra Laing was like any other women, she had a loving family that took care of her, she spoke well, had an amazing character and went through wrong decisions, but learnt from them in order to move forward. Sandra Laing’s story is very touching and the way I see it, was that she was a brave women who fought for her rights and who is now an inspiration to many. Her story has embarked on many, and has been made into a movie called “Skin” for everyone to remember her forever, as she was a truly amazing woman who never gave up.
“Skin” is a movie based on the life of Sandra Laing.
Bibliography
- http://www.rebirth.co.za/apartheid.htm
- http://www.southafrica.to/history/Apartheid/apartheid.htm
- http://www-cs-students.stanford.edu/~cale/cs201/apartheid.hist.html
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Population_Registration_Act
- http://africanhistory.about.com/od/apartheidlaws/g/No30of50.htm
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandra_Laing
- http://www.intermix.org.uk/features/FEA_33_sandra_laing.asp