The Replacement of Black South Africans under Colonial Rule since the 17th Century

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Whites enjoyed the highest standard of living in all of Africa while the black majority remained disadvantaged.

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Curated/Reviewed by Matthew A. McIntosh
Public Historian
Brewminate

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Dutch Colonization

By the early 17th century, Portugal’s maritime power was starting to decline, and English and Dutch merchants competed to oust Lisbon from its lucrative monopoly on the spice trade.^[1] Representatives of the British East India Company did call sporadically at the Cape in search of provisions as early as 1601, but later came to favour Ascension Island and St. Helena as alternative ports of refuge.^[2] Dutch interest was aroused after 1647, when two employees of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) were shipwrecked at the Cape for several months. The sailors were able to survive by obtaining fresh water and meat from the natives.^[3] They also sowed vegetables in the fertile soil.^[4] Upon their return to Holland, they reported favourably on the Cape’s potential as a “warehouse and garden” for provisions to stock passing ships for long voyages.^[5]

In 1652, a century and a half after the discovery of the Cape sea route, Jan van Riebeeck established a victualling station at the Cape of Good Hope, at what would become Cape Town, on behalf of the Dutch East India Company.^[6][7] In time, the Cape became home to a large population of vrijlieden, also known as vrijburgers (lit. ’free citizens’), former company employees who stayed in Dutch territories overseas after serving their contracts.^[8] Dutch traders also brought thousands of enslaved people to the fledgling colony from Indonesia, Madagascar, and parts of eastern Africa.^[9] Some of the earliest mixed race communities in the country were formed between vrijburgers, enslaved people, and indigenous peoples.^[45] This led to the development of a new ethnic group, the Cape Coloureds, most of whom adopted the Dutch language and Christian faith.^[10]

The eastward expansion of Dutch colonists ushered in a series of wars with the southwesterly migrating Xhosa tribe, known as the Xhosa Wars, as both sides competed for the pastureland near the Great Fish River, which the colonists desired for grazing cattle.^[11] Vrijburgers who became independent farmers on the frontier were known as Boers, with some adopting semi-nomadic lifestyles being denoted as trekboers.^[11] The Boers formed loose militias, which they termed commandos, and forged alliances with Khoisan peoples to repel Xhosa raids.^[11] Both sides launched bloody but inconclusive offensives, and sporadic violence, often accompanied by livestock theft, remained common for several decades.^[11]

British Colonization and the Great Trek

Great Britain occupied Cape Town between 1795 and 1803 to prevent it from falling under the control of the French First Republic, which had invaded the Low Countries.^[11] After briefly returning to Dutch rule under the Batavian Republic in 1803, the Cape was occupied again by the British in 1806.^[12] Following the end of the Napoleonic Wars, it was formally ceded to Great Britain and became an integral part of the British Empire.^[13] British emigration to South Africa began around 1818, subsequently culminating in the arrival of the 1820 Settlers.^[13] The new colonists were induced to settle for a variety of reasons, namely to increase the size of the European workforce and to bolster frontier regions against Xhosa incursions.^[13]

In the first two decades of the 19th century, the Zulu people grew in power and expanded their territory under their leader, Shaka.^[14] Shaka’s warfare indirectly led to the Mfecane (‘crushing’), in which 1,000,000 to 2,000,000 people were killed and the inland plateau was devastated and depopulated in the early 1820s.^[15][16] An offshoot of the Zulu, the Matabele people created a larger empire that included large parts of the highveld under their king Mzilikazi.

During the early 1800s, many Dutch settlers departed from the Cape Colony, where they had been subjected to British control, in a series of migrant groups who came to be known as Voortrekkers, meaning “pathfinders” or “pioneers”. They migrated to the future Natal, Free State, and Transvaal regions. The Boers founded the Boer Republics: the South African Republic (now Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and North West provinces), the Natalia Republic (KwaZulu-Natal), and the Orange Free State (Free State).

The discovery of diamonds in 1867 and gold in 1884 in the interior started the Mineral Revolution and increased economic growth and immigration. This intensified British efforts to gain control over the indigenous peoples. The struggle to control these important economic resources was a factor in relations between Europeans and the indigenous population and also between the Boers and the British.^[17]

On 16 May 1876, President Thomas François Burgers of the South African Republic (Transvaal) declared war against Sekhukhune and the Pedi. Sekhukhune managed to defeat the Transvaal army on 1 August 1876. Another attack by the Lydenburg Volunteer Corps was also repulsed. On 16 February 1877, the two parties signed a peace treaty at Botshabelo.^[18] The Boers’ inability to subdue Sekhukhune and the Pedi led to the departure of Burgers in favour of Paul Kruger and the British annexation of the South African Republic (Transvaal) on 12 April 1877 by Theophilus Shepstone, secretary for native affairs of Natal. In 1878 and 1879 three British attacks were successfully repelled until Garnet Wolseley defeated Sekhukhune in November 1879 with an army of 2,000 British soldiers, Boers and 10,000 Swazis.

The Anglo-Zulu War was fought in 1879 between the United Kingdom and the Zulu Kingdom. Following Lord Carnarvon’s successful introduction of federation in Canada, it was thought that similar political effort, coupled with military campaigns, might succeed with the African kingdoms, tribal areas and Boer republics in South Africa. In 1874, Henry Bartle Frere was sent to South Africa as the British High Commissioner to bring such plans into being. Among the obstacles were the presence of the independent states of the Boers, and the Kingdom of Zululand’s army. The Zulu nation defeated the British at the Battle of Isandlwana. Eventually, though, Zululand lost the war, resulting in the termination of the Zulu nation’s independence.

Boer Wars

The Boer Republics successfully resisted British encroachments during the First Boer War (1880–1881) using guerrilla warfare tactics, which were well-suited to local conditions. The British returned with greater numbers, more experience, and new strategy in the Second Boer War (1899–1902) and, although they suffered heavy casualties through attrition, they were ultimately successful. Over 27,000 Boer women and children died in the British concentration camps.^[19]

South Africa’s urban population grew rapidly from the end of the nineteenth century onward. After the devastation of the Second Anglo-Boer War, Dutch-descendant Boer farmers fled into cities from the devastated Transvaal and Orange Free State territories to become the class of the white urban poor.^[20]

Independence

Within the country, anti-British policies among white South Africans focused on independence. During the Dutch and British colonial years, racial segregation was mostly informal, though some legislation was enacted to control the settlement and movement of indigenous people, including the Native Location Act of 1879 and the system of pass laws.^{[21][22][23][24][25]}

Eight years after the end of the Second Boer War and after four years of negotiation, an act of the British Parliament (South Africa Act 1909) granted nominal independence, while creating the Union of South Africa on 31 May 1910. The Union was a dominion that included the former territories of the Cape, Transvaal and Natal colonies, as well as the Orange Free State republic.^[26]

The Natives’ Land Act of 1913 severely restricted the ownership of land by blacks; at that stage they controlled only seven percent of the country. The amount of land reserved for indigenous peoples was later marginally increased.^[27]

In 1931, the union became fully sovereign from the United Kingdom with the passage of the Statute of Westminster, which abolished the last powers of the Parliament of the United Kingdom to legislate on the country. Only three other African countries – Liberia, Ethiopia, and Egypt had been independent prior to that point. In 1934, the South African Party and National Party merged to form the United Party, seeking reconciliation between Afrikaners and English-speaking whites. In 1939, the party split over the entry of the Union into World War II as an ally of the United Kingdom, a move which the National Party followers strongly opposed.

Beginning of Apartheid

In 1948, the National Party was elected to power. It strengthened the racial segregation begun under Dutch and British colonial rule. Taking Canada’s Indian Act as a framework,^[28] the nationalist government classified all peoples into three races (Whites, Blacks, Indians and Coloured people (people of mixed race)) and developed rights and limitations for each. The white minority (less than 20%)^[29] controlled the vastly larger black majority.

The legally institutionalised segregation became known as apartheid. While whites enjoyed the highest standard of living in all of Africa, comparable to First World Western nations, the black majority remained disadvantaged by almost every standard, including income, education, housing, and life expectancy.^[30] The Freedom Charter, adopted in 1955 by the Congress Alliance, demanded a non-racial society and an end to discrimination.

Republic

On 31 May 1961, the country became a republic following a referendum (only open to white voters) which narrowly passed;^[31] the British-dominated Natal province largely voted against the proposal. Queen Elizabeth II lost the title Queen of South Africa, and the last Governor-General, Charles Robberts Swart, became State President. As a concession to the Westminster system, the appointment of the president remained an appointment by parliament, and virtually powerless until P. W. Botha’s Constitution Act of 1983, which eliminated the office of Prime Minister and instated a near-unique “strong presidency” responsible to parliament. Pressured by other Commonwealth of Nations countries, South Africa withdrew from the organisation in 1961 and rejoined it only in 1994.

Despite opposition both within and outside the country, the government legislated for a continuation of apartheid. The security forces cracked down on internal dissent, and violence became widespread, with anti-apartheid organisations such as the African National Congress (ANC), the Azanian People’s Organisation (AZAPO), and the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC) carrying out guerrilla warfare^[32] and urban sabotage.^[33] The three rival resistance movements also engaged in occasional inter-factional clashes as they jockeyed for domestic influence.^[34] Apartheid became increasingly controversial, and several countries began to boycott business with the South African government because of its racial policies. These measures were later extended to international sanctions and the divestment of holdings by foreign investors.^[35][36]

In the late 1970s, South Africa initiated a programme of nuclear weapons development. In the following decade, it produced six deliverable nuclear weapons.^[37][38]

End of Apartheid

The Mahlabatini Declaration of Faith, signed by Mangosuthu Buthelezi and Harry Schwarz in 1974, enshrined the principles of peaceful transition of power and equality for all, the first of such agreements by black and white political leaders in South Africa. Ultimately, FW de Klerk opened bilateral discussions with Nelson Mandela in 1993 for a transition of policies and government.

In 1990, the National Party government took the first step towards dismantling discrimination when it lifted the ban on the ANC and other political organisations. It released Nelson Mandela from prison after 27 years of serving a sentence for sabotage. A negotiation process followed. With approval from the white electorate in a 1992 referendum, the government continued negotiations to end apartheid. South Africa also destroyed its nuclear arsenal and acceded to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. South Africa held its first universal elections in 1994, which the ANC won by an overwhelming majority. It has been in power ever since. The country rejoined the Commonwealth of Nations and became a member of the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

In post-apartheid South Africa, unemployment remained high. While many blacks have risen to middle or upper classes, the overall unemployment rate of black people worsened between 1994 and 2003 by official metrics, but declined significantly using expanded definitions.^[39] Poverty among whites, which was previously rare, increased.^[40] In addition, the current government has struggled to achieve the monetary and fiscal discipline to ensure both redistribution of wealth and economic growth. The United Nations (UN) Human Development Index (HDI) of South Africa rose steadily until the mid-1990s,^[41] then fell from 1995 to 2005, before recovering its 1995 peak in 2013.^[42] The fall is in large part attributable to the South African HIV/AIDS pandemic which saw South African life expectancy fall from a high point of 62.25 years in 1992 to a low of 52.57 in 2005,^[43] and the failure of the government to take steps to address the pandemic in its early years.^[44]

In May 2008, riots left over 60 people dead.^[45] The Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions estimated that over 100,000 people were driven from their homes.^[46] The targets were mainly legal and illegal migrants, and refugees seeking asylum, but a third of the victims were South African citizens.^[45] In a 2006 survey, the South African Migration Project concluded that South Africans are more opposed to immigration than any other national group.^[47] The UN High Commissioner for Refugees in 2008 reported over 200,000 refugees applied for asylum in South Africa, almost four times as many as the year before.^[48] These people were mainly from Zimbabwe, though many also come from Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia.^[48] Competition over jobs, business opportunities, public services and housing has led to tension between refugees and host communities.^[48] While xenophobia in South Africa is still a problem, recent violence has not been as widespread as initially feared.^[48] Nevertheless, as South Africa continues to grapple with racial issues, one of the proposed solutions has been to pass legislation, such as the pending Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Bill, to uphold South Africa’s ban on racism and commitment to equality.^[49][50]

Endnotes

1. Pakeman, SA. Nations of the Modern World: Ceylon (1964 ed.). Frederick A Praeger, Publishers. pp. 18–19.
2. Wilmot, Alexander & John Centlivres Chase. History of the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope: From Its Discovery to the Year 1819 (2010 ed.). Claremont: David Philip (Pty) Ltd. pp. 1–548.
3. Kaplan, Irving. Area Handbook for the Republic of South Africa (PDF). pp. 46–771. 
4. “African History Timeline”. West Chester University of Pennsylvania.
5. Hunt, John (2005). Campbell, Heather-Ann (ed.). Dutch South Africa: Early Settlers at the Cape, 1652–1708. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. pp. 13–35. 
6. Worden, Nigel (5 August 2010). Slavery in Dutch South Africa (2010 ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 40–43.
7. Nelson, Harold. Zimbabwe: A Country Study. pp. 237–317.
8. Stapleton, Timothy (2010). A Military History of South Africa: From the Dutch-Khoi Wars to the End of Apartheid. Santa Barbara: Praeger Security International. pp. 4–6.
9. Keegan, Timothy (1996). Colonial South Africa and the Origins of the Racial Order (1996 ed.). David Philip Publishers (Pty) Ltd. pp. 85–86. 
10. Lloyd, Trevor Owen (1997). The British Empire, 1558–1995. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 201–203.
11. “Shaka: Zulu Chieftain”. Historynet.com.
12. “Shaka (Zulu chief)”. Encyclopædia Britannica.
13. W. D. Rubinstein (2004). Genocide: A History. Pearson Longman. p. 22.
14. Williams, Garner F (1905). The Diamond Mines of South Africa, Vol II. New York: B. F Buck & Co. pp. Chapter XX.
15. “South African Military History Society – Journal- THE SEKUKUNI WARS”. samilitaryhistory.org.
16. “5 of the worst atrocities carried out by the British Empire”. The Independent. 19 January 2016.
17. Ogura, Mitsuo (1996). “Urbanization and Apartheid in South Africa: Influx Controls and Their Abolition”. The Developing Economies. 34 (4): 402–423.
18. Bond, Patrick (1999). Cities of gold, townships of coal: essays on South Africa’s new urban crisis. Africa World Press. p. 140.
19. Cape of Good Hope (South Africa). Parliament House. (1906). Report of the Select Committee on Location Act (Report). Cape Times Limited. Retrieved 30 July 2009.
20. Godley, Godfrey; Welsh, Archibald; Thomson, William; Hemsworth, H. D. (1920). Report of the Inter-departmental committee on the native pass laws (Report). Cape Times Limited. p. 2.
21. Great Britain Colonial Office; Transvaal (Colony). Governor (1901–1905: Milner) (January 1902). Papers relating to legislation affecting natives in the Transvaal (Report). His Majesty’s Stationery Office.
22. De Villiers, John Abraham Jacob (1896). The Transvaal. London: Chatto & Windus. pp. 30 (n46). Retrieved 30 July 2009.
23. Cana, Frank Richardson (1911). “South Africa” . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 25 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 467.
24. “Native Land Act”. South African Institute of Race Relations.
25. Gloria Galloway, “Chiefs Reflect on Apartheid”
26. Beinart, William (2001). Twentieth-century South Africa. Oxford University Press. p. 202.
27. “apartheid | South Africa, Definition, Facts, Beginning, & End | Britannica”. www.britannica.com. Retrieved 15 May 2022.
28. “Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd”. South African History Online. On 5 October 1960 a referendum was held in which White voters were asked: “Do you support a republic for the Union?” – 52 percent voted ‘Yes’.
29. Gibson, Nigel; Alexander, Amanda; Mngxitama, Andile (2008). Biko Lives! Contesting the Legacies of Steve Biko. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 138.
30. Switzer, Les (2000). South Africa’s Resistance Press: Alternative Voices in the Last Generation Under Apartheid. Issue 74 of Research in international studies: Africa series. Ohio University Press. p. 2.
31. Mitchell, Thomas (2008). Native vs Settler: Ethnic Conflict in Israel/Palestine, Northern Ireland and South Africa. Westport: Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 194–196.
32. Bridgland, Fred (1990). The War for Africa: Twelve months that transformed a continent. Gibraltar: Ashanti Publishing. p. 32.
33. Landgren, Signe (1989). Embargo Disimplemented: South Africa’s Military Industry (1989 ed.). Oxford University Press. pp. 6–10.
34. “South Africa Profile”. Nti.org.
35. Pike, John. “Nuclear Weapons Program (South Africa)”. Globalsecurity.org.
36. “Post-Apartheid South Africa: the First Ten Years – Unemployment and the Labor Market” (PDF). IMF.
37. “Zuma surprised at level of white poverty”. Mail & Guardian. 18 April 2008.
38. “South Africa”. Human Development Report. United Nations Development Programme. 2006.
39. “2015 United Nations Human Development Report” (PDF).
40. “South African Life Expectancy at Birth, World Bank”.
41. “Ridicule succeeds where leadership failed on AIDS”. South African Institute of Race Relations. 10 November 2006.
42. “Broke-on-Broke Violence”.
43. “COHRE statement on Xenophobic Attacks”.
44. Southern African Migration Project; Institute for Democracy in South Africa; Queen’s University (2008). Jonathan Crush (ed.). The perfect storm: the realities of xenophobia in contemporary South Africa (PDF). Idasa. p. 1.
45. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. “UNHCR Global Appeal 2011 – South Africa”. UNHCR.
46. Harris, Bronwyn (2004). Arranging prejudice: Exploring hate crime in post-apartheid South Africa. Cape Town.
47. Traum, Alexander (2014). “Contextualising the hate speech debate: the United States and South Africa”. The Comparative and International Law Journal of Southern Africa. 47 (1): 64–88.

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Originally published by Wikipedia, 09.29.2001, under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license.