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Amongst the 1870s and 1900, Africa confronted European imperialist hostility,political pressures, military assaults, and ultimately the conquest and colonization. At the same time, African civilizations put up numerous methods of resistance against the effort to inhabit their countries and enforce foreign control.

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Long-term Effects of European Colonization on Africa Essay | Bartleby

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Free Essay: Africa has had a long and tumultuous road of colonization and decolonization the rush to colonize Africa started in the 17th century with the...

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Resistance movements began to rise in Africa. In colonies with a growing number of settlers, the demand for more land and labour increased tensions between colonial authorities and the white communities that had settled in the colonies. More land was taken from African people and given to Europeans for settlement. In response to these developments, some chiefs organised rebellions against colonial authorities.

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To understand what effects WW2 had on the nature of the fight against colonialism and imperialism in Africa we need to look at the climate just before WW2.
Rebellions Against Colonial Rule Before the Second World War
After 1900, Europe began to introduce changes to colonial rule in an effort to increase revenues from the colonies. These changes included taking land from African people and giving it to the growing number of Europeans in the colonies. The other changes were the introduction of taxes like the hut tax and poll tax that forced Africans to work for European settlers. Africans were forced to work for Europeans in order to pay these taxes. This was because the new taxes had to be paid in cash and not as cattle or crops as was the practice before. Exploitation of African labourers by European employers added to the growing resentment among the local people.

Resistance movements began to rise in Africa. In colonies with a growing number of settlers, the demand for more land and labour increased tensions between colonial authorities and the white communities that had settled in the colonies. More land was taken from African people and given to Europeans for settlement. In response to these developments, some chiefs organised rebellions against colonial authorities.

Revolt: To rise against the government with the aim of removing it and replacing it with another government that is more acceptable.

One of the chiefs who organised an armed rebellion against British colonial authority was Zulu Chief Bambatha. He was not happy with the loss of land his people suffered and the poll tax of one pound that they were forced to pay. His demand was that his people's land be returned and the poll tax lifted. The armed rebellion was finally crushed after lasting out a year. Chief Bambatha together with his 3000 followers was killed. There were similar revolts in Eastern Africa, South West Africa, and Zimbabwe. Like the Bambatha rebellions they were all crushed. In East Africa there was the Maji Maji revolt organised by Kinjigitile Ngwale in 1905. The revolt was against forced labour and tax policies forced upon the people by the German government, which was implementing a cotton scheme to increase her exports. To implement their scheme the Germans forced Africans to plant cotton instead of their traditional staple crops. And the Maji Maji revolted.

These Maji Maji revolts shared similar traits. In all of them there was a strong belief in African spirit mediums and a strong influence of Ethiopianism. This philosophy originated in Ethiopia. The aim of Ethiopianism was to restore African traditions and political structures. It rested on African faith in spirits to protect them. People believed that the spirits were capable of turning European bullets into water and that they would be immune to bullets by undertaking a cleansing ritual before battle. The initial success of the Maji Maji rebellions strengthened the people's belief in their spirit mediums. The African emphasis also managed to unite different ethnic groups to fight for the same purpose. However, pitted against European machine guns, the Africans were doomed to fail and they lost their faith in the protection of Maji Maji. About 26 000 people were killed by German forces. To avoid future rebellions the colonial government reduced its use of force and began to rely strongly on missionary education for implementing colonial policies.
An Uprising in Nyasaland (Malawi)
Not all uprisings in this period were influenced by African spirit mediums. In Nyasaland, now Malawi, the Christian church and the Seventh Day Adventist Church under the leadership of Priest John Chilembwe, played an important role organizing and carrying out an early uprising against colonial authority. John Chilembwe was the leader of this uprising to protest against the hut tax, which was increased by 8 shillings in 1909, and unfair labour practices on white owned estates. The First World War made matters even worse. John Chilembwe noticed that a large number of people who died while fighting against the Germans in September 1914 in Karonga were black people. He then wrote a letter to the Nyasaland Times newspaper challenging the idea that participation in the war would improve things for black people in Nyasaland.

John Chilembwe organised an armed rebellion against the colonial government. On the 23 January 1915, an armed group of men attacked the Livingstone Estate while another group attacked the Bruce Estate. A third group was sent to attack the Blantyre armoury in a bid to obtain weapons for an armed revolt on the capital, Zomba, to overthrow the colonial government. Although the first two attacks were successful, the attack on the Blantyre African Lakes Corporation Armoury was not and the final revolt failed. John Chilembwe was shot and killed while attempting to escape from Nyasaland. By the 4 February 1915, the uprising was over.

Though unsuccessful, the uprising prompted the government to reconsider the land and labour practices in Nyasaland. These were major causes of the uprising. They had been introduced mainly to exploit the colonies by extracting more labour from them and squeezing more productivity from the workers to lower the cost to the colony. At the same time taxation on black people was increased. The uprising had the effect of raising the awareness of black people to colonial rule and encouraged them to stand up for their rights and demand an end to colonial rule.

The rinderpest epidemic of 1896 to 1897 had destroyed the cattle of the Herero and Nama people of South West Africa, now Namibia. The Germans took advantage of the Herero's loss and occupied most of their good grazing land. At the same time, the German government adopted a policy of encouraging Germans to settle in the colonies. Because of this, more land was taken from the Herero people and given to German settlers.

In 1904 the Herero broke out in revolt and succeeded in regaining some of their land for a while. Hundreds of Germans were surrounded and killed by Herero fighters. The Herero tried to get the support of Nama people but failed to do so. The German government brought in reinforcements from Germany and was thus able to drive back the rebellions Herero.

Commander of the German forces, Lothar Von Trotha gave orders to shoot the Herero because, according to him, they no longer deserved German protection. Many Herero were killed and others fled to Botswana to hide. Because this was an attempt to wipe out all Hereros, it can be called genocide. The German victory resulted in more hardships for the Herero. All their remaining cattle were confiscated and their chiefs stripped of their authority.
The Formation of Political Parties
Another response to colonial transformation was the formation of political parties. These were formed by the small educated group of Africans mainly residing in developing colonial towns. These Africans were educated at missionary schools. At first, these parties did not seek to create a mass following, but to lobby their respective colonial governments to recognise the civil rights of Africans and protect and recognize the land rights of Africans in rural areas. The formation of political parties in this period reflected changes in African nationalism. It was now increasingly being influenced by western education and Christianity. This created a new educated social group in Africa, which was excluded from participating in colonial rule because they were Africans. Their aspirations were equality between Europeans and Africans and later they began to demand self-rule. From the beginning they worked closely with chiefs because they shared the same demands. But because colonial rule adopted chiefs into the administration of African people, the growing number of chiefs who were co-operating with colonial government strained the relationship between the new elite leaders and the chiefs. Furthermore, western educated leaders feared that because chiefs represent different ethnic groups, they would undermine the unity of African nationalism by causing ethnic rivalries in the colonies. Therefore they began to undermine chiefs in an attempt to overcome ethnic differences in the colonies.

In South Africa, the South African National Natives Congress (SANNC) was founded in 1912, becoming one of the earliest political parties. Following the 1913 Land Act that placed most of the land in white hands, the Congress sent a delegation to London to lobby the government to abolish the act. The delegation was not successful. Their approach to the government was in contrast to that of Chief Bambatha's. They did not call an all-outright British rebellion against colonial rule. Because of their western education the leaders of the SANNC were better placed to understand the politics of colonial rule. Unlike Chief Bambatha, their response appealed to all ethnic groups in South Africa. This made the SANNC response a national one against colonial injustices.

These new parties, like the SANNC were largely modelled on the American civil rights movement with the political independence cause playing a secondary role. Civil rights movements are mainly concerned with improving the human rights of followers. The aim was not to replace the form of government. The major political demand prior to the Second World War was for reforms and a more inclusive colonial government. These parties were Pan African in character. They did not recognise colonial borders. For example, in West Africa there was the National Congress of British West Africa (NCBWA) uniting political leaders in West African British Colonies.

The formation of political parties in South Africa was influenced by other developments in the country making it somewhat unique in the experience of colonialism in the continent. The development of the mining industry after the discovery of diamonds and gold rapidly transformed the South African economy.

The mining economy attracted labourers from both inside and outside South Africa. People came from as far as Nyasaland, Mozambique, and Zambia to South Africa as migrant labourers. Migration spread news and ideas about political, religious and other developments in the colonies. Out of this background, the Industrial and Commercial Union (ICU) representing Cape black dock-workers was formed. Its first President was Clements Kadalie from Nyasaland, now Malawi. The Industrial and Commercial Union expanded to represent black farmers and sharecroppers who had been forced off their farms.

Following the Second World War, colonial governments began to introduce significant reforms to prepare Africans for self-government. At the same time this war also marked increasing control of Africans by colonial governments. The steps for self-government were often just a pretext for more centralized colonial authority. These 'preparations' meant that the government would increase control over chiefs and centralise power in the hands of colonial governors who would introduce sweeping changes, especially in the field of agriculture without consideration of the wishes of African people. This approach led to the black people and African political parties becoming increasingly radical. After the war, most of these demanded independence from colonial rule.
Activity 1:
1. What caused revolts for independence from colonialism in the early 20th century in Africa?

2. Many of these revolts had similar underlining beliefs. Discuss these beliefs.

3. Explain the role of Christianity in the Nyasaland uprising

4. Why did these revolts fail?

5. In not more than one page explain the formation of early African political parties. What were their political demands?
Responses to Colonial Rule after the Second World War
After the Second World War, revolts and struggles against colonial rule no longer demanded reform but full political independence. This was influenced by African participation in the Second World War. Africans played an important role in the liberation of Ethiopia. Independence for Ethiopia showed that freedom from colonial occupation was possible and inspired other struggles for liberation.

Political parties that were formed in this period became more radical in their demands and received growing support. To a large extent this support came from the increasing number of Africans living in urban areas following the Second World War. The colonial government's expansion of education had also played a role in this. The spread of education and urbanisation of Africans led to the growth of ideas about independence. The people began to question colonial rule and challenged their exclusion from the governmental process. It was because of these developments that the process of decolonisation in Africa began.

Betterment Schemes: Policies of agricultural developments introduced by colonial governments in Africa in the post-WW2 period.

The Second World War began in 1939 and ended in 1945 destroying European economies for the second time. Once again they looked to their colonies to help. Before the war, there was a scientific rational approach to agricultural production. Soil erosion had been identified as a major cause of poor productivity. Betterment schemes were introduced in most colonies to prevent soil erosion and the general degradation of the soil. Colonial authorities were opposed to the use of African indigenous methods of farming because they believed these methods were inferior, ineffective and unscientific. As a result, African farmers became the main target of these betterment schemes. During the war betterment schemes were discontinued. Once the War was over, there was increased interest in soil preservation and conservation and betterment schemes were reintroduced in most parts of Africa.

In South Africa the implementation of betterment schemes forced black people off their farms and onto reserves. The government had created these reserves when they set aside 13 percent of the country's land for black people in terms of the Land Act of 1913.

Betterment schemes required that the number of cattle owned by black people be reduced to avoid over grazing and soil erosion. Once they were forced off their farms, available grazing land was hard to find and this had damaging effect on black livelihood threatening economic survival. Black people were not compensated for their loss of land and cattle. Compensation given to black cattle owners appeared more of a token gesture when compared to compensation given to white farmers. To implement betterment schemes, the government gave certain powers to traditional authorities to drive the schemes. This again took away from the autonomy of African societies.

In 1951 the South African government introduced a new law called the Bantu Authorities Act enabling it to control chiefs in rural areas. Chiefs were no longer accountable to their own people but to the government. The people began to see their chiefs as collaborators with the government who were no longer listening to their problems. In Pondoland and Tembuland people attacked chiefs who collaborated with the apartheid government and created their own traditional local assemblies to reject the Bantu Authorities Act.

Because African societies were largely agrarian, betterment schemes had an extremely negative impact on them. There were a series of revolts against betterment schemes in most parts of South Africa. These highlighted that an uprising to end colonial rule was possible. Reforms were no longer enough to satisfy black aspirations.
The Sekhukhuneland Revolt
The Sekhukhuneland revolt was organised by Pedi migrant workers in 1958. They formed an organisation called the Sebatakgomo. Migrant workers were not as concerned about urban politics as about the pressures being brought to bear on rural areas. These developments affected their control of land and the economic benefits they were getting from owning land in rural areas. The revolt was organised to challenge the introduction of betterment schemes and the Bantu Authorities Act.

Migrant men understood that the Bantu Authorities Act placed chiefs under the control of government instead of the people they were supposed to serve. They realised that the government would use chiefs to implement unpopular schemes like the betterment schemes and segregation of Africans. At the heart of this revolt was also the increasing control of migrant workers by the government through their chiefs.

Unlike the Nyasaland uprising, the Sekhukhuneland revolt did not attempt to overthrow the colonial government. The aim of the revolt was to protect the land of the Pedi from being taking away by the government and thus safeguard the integrity of the Pedi kingdom. Migrant workers attacked people suspected of collaborating with the government. These were chiefs who had accepted the Bantu Authorities Act and the betterment schemes. They were expelled from the villages and replaced by popular chiefs. The revolt was unsuccessful in the end. Effective rural revolt was only realised later through the efforts of South African political parties.
Activity 2:
In your own words write a paragraph explaining the differences in revolts against colonial rule before and after the Second World War. Answer the question in essay form. Your essay should be about 2 pages long. Remember that when you compare something, you have to look at both the differences as well as the similarities.

These points should be dealt with in your essay...

1. Why were these revolts unsuccessful or successful i.e. led to reforms or even independence?

2. Why did political parties after the Second World War become more radical?

3. Explain differences in political demands before the Second World War and after the Second World War.

4. Why did betterment schemes have a negative impact on African societies and why was resistance against betterment schemes mainly a rural resistance?

5. Consider the aim of the uprisers.

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The fight against colonialism and imperialism in Africa

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After 1900, Europe began to introduce changes to colonial rule in an effort to increase revenues from the colonies. These changes included taking land from African people and giving it to the growing number of Europeans in the colonies.

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The colonization of Africa by European powers had a dramatic negative impact on the continent. The Europeans had a dramatic effect on the cultural traditions ofAfricans through assimilation. Africans were acculturated in almost every area of their culture

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What was the influence and impact of colonialism on Africa in terms of culture, religion, politics, economy, education, and theater? | eNotes

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Get an answer for 'What was the influence and impact of colonialism on Africa in terms of culture, religion, politics, economy, education, and theater? ' and find homework help for other History questions at eNotes

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need for slaves and resourses led to the dutch taking south africa

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Increased European encroachment ultimately led to the colonisation and occupation of South Africa by the Dutch

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More than two and a half centuries prior to the birth of Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, Jan Van Riebeeck and his expedition of Dutch Calvinist settlers landed at the Cape on 6 April 1652.

Van Riebeeck had received a commission from the Dutch East India Trading Company (VOC) to establish a refreshment station for passing ships. The station was to supply the ships going East with fresh fruit, vegetables and meat. The settlers grew the vegetables and fruit themselves, but meat was obtained through trade with the indigenous population (mainly of Khoikhoi extraction) derogatorily referred to as "natives."

From the beginning their relationships with the Khoikhoi (formerly known as Hottentots) who resided in the area was antagonistic and trade with these people for slaughter stock soon degenerated into raiding and warfare. In 1657 the colonial authorities started a process of allotting farms to European settlers (" free burghers") in the arable regions around Cape Town, where wine and wheat became the major products.

As the port developed the need for labour increased. In response to the colonists' growing demand for labour, the VOC imported slaves from East Africa, Madagascar and its possessions in the East Indies. Soon more Dutch settlers arrived followed by settlers from all over Europe. Increased European encroachment ultimately led to the colonisation and occupation of South Africa by the Dutch.

The Cape Colony remained under Dutch rule until 1795 before it fell to the British Crown, before reverting back to Dutch Rule in 1803 and again to British occupation in 1806. After this British seizure of the territory, many of the Dutch settlers (the boers) trekked north, to avoid living under British rule.

The discovery of diamonds (1867) and gold (1884) spurred wealth and immigration and intensified the subjugation of the indigenous inhabitants as well as the conflicts between the Dutch and the British.

The Trek Boers and the Great Trek

By the beginning of the eighteenth century the Cape settlers were expanding their territory north east. This expansion was primarily led by the trek boers seeking fresh grazing for their cattle. These cattle farmers had no fixed dwelling place and many led a semi-nomadic existence, moving ceaselessly between summer and winter pastures. As most trek farmers had large families, the system encouraged swift expansion. The Cape government had done nothing to hinder expansion inland since it provided a source of cheap meat.

As the trekkers' expansion increased they inevitably came into conflict with first the Khoikhoi and later the Xhosa people (a Bantu-speaking group to which Mandela belongs) into whose land they were encroaching. This marked the beginning of the subjugation of the Tembu, Pondo, Fingo and Xhosa in the Transkei. The Xhosa in particular fought nine wars spanning a century which gradually deprived them of their independence and subjugated them to British colonial rule.

In the towns, tension was also increasing between settlers and the Dutch authorities, with the former becoming increasingly resentful at what they perceived as administrative interference. Soon the districts of Swellendam and Graaff-Reinette pronounced themselves independent Republics, though this was short-lived: in 1795 the Cape Colony was annexed by Britain.

Consequently, in 1835, ten thousand Boers left the Cape Colony and went north and northeast. Of these voortrekkers, about five thousand settled in the area that later became known as the Orange Free State (present day Free State). The rest headed for Natal (present day KwaZulu-Natal) where they appointed a delegation to negotiate with the Zulu king, Dingaan, for land.

Dingaan granted them a large area of land in the central and southern part of his territory, but as the voortrekker delegation left they were ambushed and killed by the Zulu. The newly elected Voortrekker leader Andries Pretorius prepared the group for a retaliatory attack and the Zulu were subsequently defeated at the famous 'Battle of Blood River' (16 December 1838), leading to the founding of the first Boer Republic in Natal.
The Anglo-Boer War
The Voortrekkers in Natal moved northeast after they were defeated by the British in 1842. They settled north and south of the Vaal River and founded the independent Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek or Transvaal Republic. In 1854 the contract of Bloemfontein was signed and the Republic of Orange Free State was founded by the Boers.

British sentiment was strongly in favour of uniting their colonies with the Boer republics into one union and thereby gaining control of the gold mines of Transvaal. The Boers not only resisted this proposal, they resented and resisted British encroachments.

On 11 February 1899 war broke out between the two Boer republics and the two British colonies ( the Anglo-Boer War). On 13 March 1900 Bloemfontein was occupied by the British, followed by Johannesburg and Pretoria on 1 September.

The Boers continued a guerilla war, which was countered by the British by devastating the boers' farms and placing their women and children in white- and black concentration camps where some 28 000 died. Although attempts at peace were made as early as March 1900, nothing significant was achieved until 1902. It was only on 31 May that a truce (the Peace Treaty of Vereeniging) was signed by the Boers and the British. The former eventually accepted the peace conditions, including the loss of their independence. As far as the British were concerned, their victory seemed to pave way for Union.

In the meanwhile, no thaw had been achieved in relations between Africans and the White administration.
The Legislative Framework and Opposition to White Rule
Even before after the Anglo-Boer War, relations between Black and White were very strained. By the turn of the twentieth century Mandela was not yet born, but the racial discrimination which he fought against nearly all his life was already deeply entrenched in South Africa. The pro-white policies of the British colonial administrator Alfred Milner followed by the discriminatory legislation enacted by the Union of South Africa engendered considerable resistance from Blacks and led to the formation and growth of new political bodies.

In 1902 Coloureds in Cape Town formed the African People's Organisation to represent the interests of "educated ... Coloured people." Abdullah Abdurahman, who became president of the organisation in 1904, stressed his organisation's displeasure at the political discrimination to which Coloureds were subjected. By 1910, he had managed to build an organisation of 20 000 members. Another political activist, Mohandas Gandhi, began a passive resistance campaign against the pass laws in 1906, leading Indians in Natal and the Transvaal (they were legally prohibited from living in or entering the Orange Free State) in demonstrations and organising stop-work protests that won thousands of supporters.

Discrimination policies assumed new urgency with the formation of the South African Native Affairs Commission in 1903. That year witnessed the introduction of the pass system that would later be the focus of much resistance by Mohandas Gandhi, among other people. The pass system effectively meant that Africans could not be employed by any farmer, miner or industrialist without a pass.

The following year, indentured Chinese labourers (who were repatriated to their country in 1907) were imported to work on the gold and diamond mines, with the consequence that Black workers' wages were further eroded. Poor wages together with inhumane working and living conditions were among the major causes of worker disgruntlement at the time. The situation was exacerbated by the introduction of a poll tax (a flat-rate tax levied on all members of the population and often a requirement for voting eligibility) in 1906. Failure to pay taxes, which included taxes on salt and homes (the hut tax) compelled the Black population to seek work in White-owned businesses.

In the same year there were attempts to reconcile English and Boer populations. This culminated in the Bambatha uprising in which 3 000 Black and 30 White men were killed at Nkandla in Natal. In the aftermath of these massacres, numerous meetings organized by Africans, Coloureds and Indians protested the Whites-only exclusivity of the constitutional discussions that took place between 1908 and 1909. These activities culminated in the establishment of the South African Native Convention or National Convention in March 1909, which called for a constitution giving "full and equal rights" for all Blacks, Coloureds, and Indians. However, it entrenched White supremacy under a unitary state. Subsequently, an African delegation traveled to London to protest this, but was ignored.

Instead of addressing the constitutional crisis, in the following year the South African Act was passed in Britain granting domain to the White minority over Native (African), Asiatic (mostly Indian) and "Coloured and other mixed races". The British dream of a union between Britain's Cape and Natal colonies and the defeated boer republics was realised on 31 May 1910 when the Union of South Africa was established in terms of the
South Africa Act of 1909.
General Louis Botha, the first Prime Minister of the Union, introduced the policy of formal racial segregation, leading to the further erosion and the Black majority's political rights and the aggravation of the plight of African communities. Under the new system of government, for example, , white magistrates were given increased control of local African communities. Mandela would later describe this reform as the capture of the institution of chieftaincy "to suppress the aspirations of their own tribesmen." From the outset, the White Union government implemented a policy of Apartheid (the separate development of the races) and it became highly unpopular as successive laws further curtailed the rights of the Black majority.

The Mines and Works Act of 1911 was an importat factor leading to the formation of the South African Native National Congress in 1912, renamed the African National Congress in 1923. The Act legislated that Black workers could only be engaged as cheap semi-skilled labourers and effectively prohibited Black workers from seeking skilled work. For these so-called "unskilled" workers, the political environment created by racist rule ensured that they worked under appalling conditions. Their plight was exacrbated in 1914 by the formation of the Afrikaner National Party (NP) under General Hertzog. The NP dedicated itself to racial separation, hierarchical stratification and republicanism (the belief that the supreme power of a country should be vested in an electorate). Eligibility to vote was seen as a right belonging to Whites who granted it at their discretion as a privilege to non-whites. Suffice to say, electoral privileges were not extended to Blacks. Initially, the ANC provided feeble opposition to the White government, but became a more powerful force in later decades.

Land dispossession lies at the heart of South Africa's history and heritage of inequity and the new ANC was created against the backdrop of massive deprivation of Africans' right to own land.

Since 1652, successive colonial administration had systematically deprived Black communities of their land. The loss of this crucial resource was arguably the most important factor leading to the impoverishment and marginalization of African communities. It was also arguably the most important factor spurring on formative forms of organized resistance. As will be demonstrated later, it was opposition to the Natives Land Act, preliminary drafts of which were debated in 1911, that led to the formation of the ANC. Several hundred members of South Africa's educated African elite met at Bloemfontein on 8 January, 1912 to establish a national organisation to protest against racial discrimination and to appeal for equal treatment before the law. The founding president was John L. Dube. A minister and schoolteacher who had studied in the United States, Dube was strongly influenced by the American educator and activist Booker T. Washington. Pixley Ka Isaka Seme, a lawyer and a prime mover in organising the meeting to establish the congress, was appointed treasurer. Solomon T. Plaatje, a court translator, author, and newspaper editor who had worked in Kimberley and Johannesburg, became secretary general. The meeting to establish the ANC opened and closed with the singing of the hymn " Nkosi sikelel'i Afrika" ("God Bless Africa"), which had been composed at the end of the nineteenth century by a Xhosa poet. Today, it is half independent South Africa's national anthem. (The other half is The Stem, the national anthem of the apartheid government.)

Overall, the congress was moderate in composition, tone, and practice. Its founders, all men, felt that British rule had brought considerable benefits, especially Christianity, education, and the rule of law, but who also considered that their careers as teachers, lawyers, and court translators were hindered by the racial discrimination so deeply entrenched in South Africa. They called not for an end to British rule, but rather for respect for the concept of equality for all, irrespective of colour. They respected traditional authorities in African societies and made chiefs and kings office-holders within the congress. They believed that they could best achieve their aims by dialogue with the British. As John Dube said, the congress pursued a policy of "hopeful reliance on the sense of common justice and love of freedom so innate in the British character." Such reliance, however, was proven unfounded by the adoption of the Natives Land Act in 1913.
The Natives Land Act (1913) and World War I
As already noted, political agitation and opposition to White rule in South Africa goes back to the earliest colonial times, when indigenous lands, especially prime agricultural land, were expropriated from their rightful owners - often without compensation. Although the colonial government passed many discriminatory laws against Blacks the most severe, the 1913 codified those injustices by preserving some 87% of the Union's land for the exclusive use of the white minority and a paltry 13% for use by African farmers, some 80% of the population. The Act prevented Africans from purchasing, leasing or using land, except in the "reserves" or " Natives' Land Act Bantustans." The Act effectively meant that access to land and other resources depended upon a person's racial classification. This legislation caused endemic overcrowding,extreme pressure on the land, and poverty. The Act prompted a protest march led by Mahatma Gandhi (the late Indian leader). At the same time, there were mine protests and 800 women were arrested in a related protest against pass laws.

African dissatisfaction culminated in the ANC sending a deputation to London in 1914 to protest the Land Act. However, the colonial secretary informed the delegation that there was nothing that he could do.

This was the year the First World War broke out and the National Party was formed under Hertzog. A number of Africans were called upon to assist the Allied cause against Germany. Nevertheless, at the end of the war Africans continued to be accorded second-rate status and found it very difficult to access skilled jobs. Those who were absorbed by the emerging industries continued to receive paltry wages and were subjected to sub-standard housing and inferior sanitary facilities, prompting the formation of the first African trade union, the Industrial Workers of Africa, in 1917. After the end of the war in 1918 the Industrial and Commercial Workers' Union (ICU) was formed by dockworkers, spearheaded by a prominent Malawian migrant worker and activist, Clements Kadalie.

In 1919 another deputation to London complained against the Natives Land Act. Although the delegation is said to have been "received sympathetically" by the then Prime Minister, Lloyd George, they came back more disgruntled than ever as the British Premier told them that their problems would have to be resolved in South Africa by the South African government. Resistance against unjust laws such as the Land Act persisted.

Nelson Mandela was born on 18 July 1918 as the war in Europe still raged. Alongside a new generation of Black activists, he would enter the political fray years later to challenge the political environment created by whites supremacy.

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More than two and a half centuries prior to the birth of Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, Jan Van Riebeeck and his expedition of Dutch Calvinist settlers landed at the Cape on 6 April 1652. Van Riebeeck had received a commission from the Dutch East India Trading Company (VOC) to establish a refreshment station for passing ships.