In what ways were the lives of Africans changed by the policy of Apartheid in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s?

Mizanur Rahman

South Africa

Question 3

In what ways were the lives of Africans changed by the policy of Apartheid in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s?

The ways black South Africans lives were changed by Apartheid was by laws of Apartheid. The Bantu Education Act. The Bantustans and the massacre of Sharpeville changed lives of Africans.

There were many laws of “Apartheid”. The 1950 “Population Registration Act” aim to divide each race, keep separate so they had to register as white, black and coloured. This effect blacks because now they were officially lower class. The 1949 “Prohibition of Mixed Marriage Act” aim was to ban marriages between whites and non-whites. The 1950 “Groups Areas Act” aim was to divide the races into different areas. This was to keep whites and non-whites separate. This also meant some blacks had to more houses, because most of the land was reserved for whites. The 1912 Native (Abolition of Passes and Coordination of Documents) Act aim was to get rid off passes but instead more passes for non-whites. The 1952 “Native laws Amendment Act” aim was to restricting blacks movement in whites areas. Pass laws were needed to know which race they were. The pass laws meant that people could only live in their own racial area. Black men had to carry a pass if 16 or over. If blacks were found without a pass or wrong area was put into prison and lost their job. There was many minor laws called “Petty Apartheid” was to separate blacks and whites by passing laws to control minor aspects of everyday life. First in1953 owners of public premises or vehicles could reserve them for use by just one race only: if they wished. Then in 1955 the “Motor Transport Act” allowed organisations to introduce Apartheid on public transport. In 1957 the government minster was given the right to stop blacks going to churches: but this was not enforce. In the same year Apartheid was introduce in nursing. In 1960 Apartheid was extended to beaches.

The blacks had the worst of everything and whites had the best of everything. There were no white labours but about 90% of blacks did labouring jobs. The most managerial position was whites about 90% and 1% black. The average income for a white person a month was about 1700 Rand and for a black person under 500 Rand. The whites had less than a 100 people to a doctor, while blacks had over a 1000 to a doctor. The whites had no housing shortages, while blacks had about 300500 housing shortages. In the health service white people had ...

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The blacks had the worst of everything and whites had the best of everything. There were no white labours but about 90% of blacks did labouring jobs. The most managerial position was whites about 90% and 1% black. The average income for a white person a month was about 1700 Rand and for a black person under 500 Rand. The whites had less than a 100 people to a doctor, while blacks had over a 1000 to a doctor. The whites had no housing shortages, while blacks had about 300500 housing shortages. In the health service white people had 6000 nurses, while black people had about 1000 nurses.

The 1953 “Bantu Education Act”. Dr Verwoerd is the mastermind behind the Apartheid policy. Dr Verwoerd was a very clever politician because he tried to persuade the world that Apartheid was good for blacks everyday life. He was arrogant because he never thought he makes a wrong decision. The Bantu word means black people or native. Education was very limited for black people, so they don’t become powerful; to keep them lower class in society. The blacks followed a different syllabus, they didn’t need to learn what white children were learning but they had to learn they are not equal to white children. Black teacher were paid less than white teachers, the black school were given less equipment and no money for repairs. In 1959 the government banned non-whites students from mixed universities. The government set up new colleges along racial lines for non-whites. White lectures that opposed Apartheid were sacked.

The nationalist did not think of blacks as one race but many. That’s why the blacks were not the majority. In 1951, the government decided that all black should live in there, own “Bantustans” (homeland). They were split into difference races: 4million Xhosa, 4million Zulu, 2million Tswana and 2million Sotho. This meant there was no majority race. Also this meant that whites jointly formed the largest group.

The Sharpeville Massacre was intending to be a peaceful campaign lead by the PAC against Pass laws. It told black people to leave there pass looks at home and go to their local police station and admit they were breaking the law. The police could not lock up every black person: the prisons were just not big enough. As demonstration grew larger there was a rumour gone around that a top official would becoming to address the crowd. At 1:15pm Lieutenant Colonel Pienaar, a senior police officer turn up, shortly afterwards, Pienaar lined up 75 policemen outside the station and ordered each one to load five rounds. No body heard warning shots. The shooting lasted 10-30seconds. When it began, demonstrators quickly turned and fled. There are different figures for how many dead and wounded. The official total is 67 dead and 186 wounded. The consequence of Sharpeville was South Africa looked every bad in the eyes of the world, lots of rioting, black workers strike, mass burning of passes, government declaring a state of emergency and 20,000 blacks arrested and most held without trial.

The way the lives of black Africans changed by the policy of Apartheid in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s was by black people were forced to live in the worst parts of the country. They had to do low paid jobs, no skilled or semi-skilled jobs. Finally they were educated poorly so they stay low in society.