# data[].attributes.body
For each of the following locations in South Africa, you will look and the images showing the geographic inequalities that developed because of policies and laws implemented.

Pick an image # and explain which of the prior historical documents may have led to the inequalities shown in the images in 2-3 sentences.

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There are many types of "inequalities". Most people tend to focus on economic inequality; specifically income and wealth inequality. Income, of course, is what you take home as payment for work (i.e., your labor). Wealth is what you own which makes you money even if you don't work (housing, investments, savings, machines, etc.) [i] In some rich countries, both income and wealth inequality are rapidly increasing. The top percentage of people now own a vastly disproportional amount of wealth, and this figure continues to grow. [ii] In South Africa, where wealth inequality has always been radically skewed because of race-based political and economic policies, levels of inequality still remain the highest in the world. [iii]

This matters for several reasons: When societies become highly unequal, they become less efficient. Health outcomes, consumption, and investment all tend to suffer in highly unequal societies. Broadly speaking, this means that a society cannot thrive when it is unequal in comparison to a more equal version of itself. South Africa may be reducing absolute poverty, but without changing the relative dynamics of inequality within the economy, it will never be as prosperous, healthy, or safe as it could be. [iv]

There are also non-economic inequalities. These are inequalities of opportunity, inequalities of justice, and inequalities of health (and many others). Race, sex, ability, and nationality factor into our unequal world in ways that disproportionately enact negative agency. Vulnerable, disenfranchised populations are not destined to be marginalized - they exist within the structures of power which imprison them there.

I believe that a fairer, healthier, more equitable world can exist, and that photography has a role to play in compelling audiences to see issues. And I believe that by speaking up, writing and thinking clearly, and judging situations rationally artists can help others acknowledge the scope of these issues.

It's then up to us to act for change. Inequality is not inevitable, and what we have created, we can reverse. As academic AB Atkinson writes, "If we want to reduce inequality, and that is a big "if", then there are steps that we can take. They are not necessarily easy and they have costs. But there are concrete measures that can be tried if we are serious." [v] ​​​​​​​

This collection of photographs is the result of a fascination with the idea of liminal space existing as a space of violence. It begins within the context of post-apartheid South Africa, where my home is, but this unequal aesthetic is found even the most "inclusive" societies.

These violent liminal spaces can be brick, electric fence, and concrete in a physical barrier, or they can be subtle in context and nuance. These buffer zones are not something that can be crossed, even if physically possible - they represent a forever line of dehumanization. Even if you escape into the architecture of the other side, you haven't won - at the best, you've cheated the rules. The small acts of defiance against this - the criss-crossed footpaths seen from above, the trails of refuse and garbage, the pickaxes and rubble signifying the hidden spoor of the courageous few - is a fragile response, and ultimately erasable.

Attempts to move Makause, the community photographed for the Time Magazine cover (pictured below), have also so far been rebuffed. Several key infrastructure upgrades have benefitted both Primrose and Makause, including the swimming pool and public clinic (the large building alongside the road). Is this more unjust than removing them to distant relocation sites?

Many people, including residents of the City of Cape Town's relocation site called Wolwerivier (pictured below) languish in poorly serviced settlements, far from jobs or other economic activity in the dusty periphery. This means that while they are not "side by side" in unequal scenes, they represent the hidden, and arguably more pernicious majority of impoverished South Africans, for whom the verdant peaks of Table Mountain represent an ethereal Shangri-La, glittering mirage-like on the horizon.

↑ Back to Top

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There are many types of "inequalities". Most people tend to focus on economic inequality; specifically income and wealth inequality. Income, of course, is what you take home as payment for work (i.e., your labor). Wealth is what you own which makes you money even if you don't work (housing, investments, savings, machines, etc.)

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For each of the following locations in South Africa, you will look and the images showing the geographic inequalities that developed because of policies and laws implemented.

Pick an image # and explain which of the prior historical documents may have led to the inequalities shown in the images in 2-3 sentences.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
There are many types of "inequalities". Most people tend to focus on economic inequality; specifically income and wealth inequality. Income, of course, is what you take home as payment for work (i.e., your labor). Wealth is what you own which makes you money even if you don't work (housing, investments, savings, machines, etc.) [i] In some rich countries, both income and wealth inequality are rapidly increasing. The top percentage of people now own a vastly disproportional amount of wealth, and this figure continues to grow. [ii] In South Africa, where wealth inequality has always been radically skewed because of race-based political and economic policies, levels of inequality still remain the highest in the world. [iii]

This matters for several reasons: When societies become highly unequal, they become less efficient. Health outcomes, consumption, and investment all tend to suffer in highly unequal societies. Broadly speaking, this means that a society cannot thrive when it is unequal in comparison to a more equal version of itself. South Africa may be reducing absolute poverty, but without changing the relative dynamics of inequality within the economy, it will never be as prosperous, healthy, or safe as it could be. [iv]

There are also non-economic inequalities. These are inequalities of opportunity, inequalities of justice, and inequalities of health (and many others). Race, sex, ability, and nationality factor into our unequal world in ways that disproportionately enact negative agency. Vulnerable, disenfranchised populations are not destined to be marginalized - they exist within the structures of power which imprison them there.

I believe that a fairer, healthier, more equitable world can exist, and that photography has a role to play in compelling audiences to see issues. And I believe that by speaking up, writing and thinking clearly, and judging situations rationally artists can help others acknowledge the scope of these issues.

It's then up to us to act for change. Inequality is not inevitable, and what we have created, we can reverse. As academic AB Atkinson writes, "If we want to reduce inequality, and that is a big "if", then there are steps that we can take. They are not necessarily easy and they have costs. But there are concrete measures that can be tried if we are serious." [v] ​​​​​​​

This collection of photographs is the result of a fascination with the idea of liminal space existing as a space of violence. It begins within the context of post-apartheid South Africa, where my home is, but this unequal aesthetic is found even the most "inclusive" societies.

These violent liminal spaces can be brick, electric fence, and concrete in a physical barrier, or they can be subtle in context and nuance. These buffer zones are not something that can be crossed, even if physically possible - they represent a forever line of dehumanization. Even if you escape into the architecture of the other side, you haven't won - at the best, you've cheated the rules. The small acts of defiance against this - the criss-crossed footpaths seen from above, the trails of refuse and garbage, the pickaxes and rubble signifying the hidden spoor of the courageous few - is a fragile response, and ultimately erasable.

Attempts to move Makause, the community photographed for the Time Magazine cover (pictured below), have also so far been rebuffed. Several key infrastructure upgrades have benefitted both Primrose and Makause, including the swimming pool and public clinic (the large building alongside the road). Is this more unjust than removing them to distant relocation sites?

Many people, including residents of the City of Cape Town's relocation site called Wolwerivier (pictured below) languish in poorly serviced settlements, far from jobs or other economic activity in the dusty periphery. This means that while they are not "side by side" in unequal scenes, they represent the hidden, and arguably more pernicious majority of impoverished South Africans, for whom the verdant peaks of Table Mountain represent an ethereal Shangri-La, glittering mirage-like on the horizon.

↑ Back to Top

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
There are many types of "inequalities". Most people tend to focus on economic inequality; specifically income and wealth inequality. Income, of course, is what you take home as payment for work (i.e., your labor). Wealth is what you own which makes you money even if you don't work (housing, investments, savings, machines, etc.)

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For each of the following locations in South Africa, you will look and the images showing the geographic inequalities that developed because of policies and laws implemented.

Pick an image # and explain which of the prior historical documents may have led to the inequalities shown in the images in 2-3 sentences.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
There are many types of "inequalities". Most people tend to focus on economic inequality; specifically income and wealth inequality. Income, of course, is what you take home as payment for work (i.e., your labor). Wealth is what you own which makes you money even if you don't work (housing, investments, savings, machines, etc.) [i] In some rich countries, both income and wealth inequality are rapidly increasing. The top percentage of people now own a vastly disproportional amount of wealth, and this figure continues to grow. [ii] In South Africa, where wealth inequality has always been radically skewed because of race-based political and economic policies, levels of inequality still remain the highest in the world. [iii]

This matters for several reasons: When societies become highly unequal, they become less efficient. Health outcomes, consumption, and investment all tend to suffer in highly unequal societies. Broadly speaking, this means that a society cannot thrive when it is unequal in comparison to a more equal version of itself. South Africa may be reducing absolute poverty, but without changing the relative dynamics of inequality within the economy, it will never be as prosperous, healthy, or safe as it could be. [iv]

There are also non-economic inequalities. These are inequalities of opportunity, inequalities of justice, and inequalities of health (and many others). Race, sex, ability, and nationality factor into our unequal world in ways that disproportionately enact negative agency. Vulnerable, disenfranchised populations are not destined to be marginalized - they exist within the structures of power which imprison them there.

I believe that a fairer, healthier, more equitable world can exist, and that photography has a role to play in compelling audiences to see issues. And I believe that by speaking up, writing and thinking clearly, and judging situations rationally artists can help others acknowledge the scope of these issues.

It's then up to us to act for change. Inequality is not inevitable, and what we have created, we can reverse. As academic AB Atkinson writes, "If we want to reduce inequality, and that is a big "if", then there are steps that we can take. They are not necessarily easy and they have costs. But there are concrete measures that can be tried if we are serious." [v] ​​​​​​​

This collection of photographs is the result of a fascination with the idea of liminal space existing as a space of violence. It begins within the context of post-apartheid South Africa, where my home is, but this unequal aesthetic is found even the most "inclusive" societies.

These violent liminal spaces can be brick, electric fence, and concrete in a physical barrier, or they can be subtle in context and nuance. These buffer zones are not something that can be crossed, even if physically possible - they represent a forever line of dehumanization. Even if you escape into the architecture of the other side, you haven't won - at the best, you've cheated the rules. The small acts of defiance against this - the criss-crossed footpaths seen from above, the trails of refuse and garbage, the pickaxes and rubble signifying the hidden spoor of the courageous few - is a fragile response, and ultimately erasable.

Attempts to move Makause, the community photographed for the Time Magazine cover (pictured below), have also so far been rebuffed. Several key infrastructure upgrades have benefitted both Primrose and Makause, including the swimming pool and public clinic (the large building alongside the road). Is this more unjust than removing them to distant relocation sites?

Many people, including residents of the City of Cape Town's relocation site called Wolwerivier (pictured below) languish in poorly serviced settlements, far from jobs or other economic activity in the dusty periphery. This means that while they are not "side by side" in unequal scenes, they represent the hidden, and arguably more pernicious majority of impoverished South Africans, for whom the verdant peaks of Table Mountain represent an ethereal Shangri-La, glittering mirage-like on the horizon.

↑ Back to Top

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
There are many types of "inequalities". Most people tend to focus on economic inequality; specifically income and wealth inequality. Income, of course, is what you take home as payment for work (i.e., your labor). Wealth is what you own which makes you money even if you don't work (housing, investments, savings, machines, etc.)

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Read the excerpt and look at the image for each of the following documents.

On your page, summarize in 2-3 sentences how did this lead to or support the system of apartheid.

In each post, there are questions to guide your thinking. You do not have to answer the questions, but you can use them to help summarize your response.

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Johannesburg's history is deeply intertwined with the gold rush of the late 19th century, which transformed a small mining camp into South Africa's bustling economic hub. Black laborers were mistreated and unwelcome in the city, leading to a system of exclusion and spatial apartheid that is a forerunner to the more notorious policies of the 1950s. You could say the DNA of the racial divides of the city, and the country, began here, amongst the tailings dumps and uranium dust of the mines.
 Under apartheid, the affluent predominantly white population resided in the city centre, while the Black African and Coloured communities were forcibly relocated to townships on the outskirts. Famous townships like Soweto (which means "South-West Township") and Alexandra are home to hundreds of thousands of South Africans, many living in squalor, while the riches of a first-world city lie dazzling close. In the case of Alexandra, the "richest square mile" in Africa lies just over the M1 highway, close but impossible to achieve for almost everyone in that dense square of population. 
Johannesburg is also the center of the province of Gauteng, South Africa's economic and population powerhouse. You cannot understand the country without understanding Gauteng, and the multitude of languages, nations, and types of people represented make this an incredibly diverse and unique part of Africa, and the world. 

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Cape Town is gorgeous, complicated, violent and misunderstood. A beautiful (the MOST beautiful) city in the world, and quite possibly the most divided as well. It regularly tops the list of "best travel destinations" and other similar lists, yet cross the line into the Cape Flats are you'll be presented with unimaginable violence and deprivation. The murder rate in this city, South Africa's worst, is 12th worst in the world. Almost 9 people die, every day, from homicides. Hundreds of thousands of people live in tin shacks, on sandy soil with no running water. 
Yet drive 20 minutes to the Atlantic seaboard, where cafes with crypto bros and models abound, hang gliders soar above tourists' heads and foreign money helps inflate a gigantic property bubble. This was the dichotomous environment I found myself in when I began this project in 2016, and in some ways still do. I hope you find the project as interesting, impactful, and painful as I have.

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You will be using this PADLET to determine how the white minority in South Africa was able to gain control.

You can click on the posts to get a better view and read the text.

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Papwa Sewgolum Golf Course in Durban, named after an apartheid-era golfer. Ironically, a sprawling informal settlement exists just meters from the tee for the 6th hole.

Durban, the third largest city in South Africa, embodies the stark contrasts of the nation's socio-economic landscape. While known for its scenic beaches and diverse cultures, Durban also grapples with pronounced inequalities. As the largest city in KwaZulu-Natal, a province with one of the country's highest poverty rates, Durban is characterized by a divide between affluent suburbs and underdeveloped townships. Disparities in access to basic amenities like housing, healthcare, and education persist, alongside issues of high unemployment rates and crime.
Recently, infrastructure failures caused by years of neglect and increasingly erratic weather patterns from climate change have pushed Durban to the brink. Devastating floods and riots have caused many to question whether the city, and the country, can withstand the enormous investment it will take to fix the country's problems without graft and corruption swallowing everything. Politically and structurally, the city is poised for a challenging next few years.

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The Natives Land Act of 1913 was a law passed in South Africa that restricted Black South Africans from owning or renting land outside of designated "native reserves," which made up only about 7% of the country’s land. This law forced many Black families off land they had owned or farmed, and prevented them from buying land in most of the country. It laid the groundwork for land dispossession and the economic inequalities that would later be deepened under apartheid. The Act was one of the first major legal steps toward institutionalized racial segregation in South Africa.

1. What racial groups were South Africans divided into by the Population Registration Act of 1950?

2. How were White South Africans affected by the Population Registration Act of 1950 and other laws related to racial classification?

3. How were Black and Coloured South Africans affected by the Population Registration Act of 1950 and other laws related to racial classification?

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The story of Kya Sands is a story of ash, smoke, and broken promises. Search for the informal settlement on Google and you will find many articles relating to fires; including one that burned over 200 shacks in November 2015. Search a little more and you will find a list of protests and claims that formal housing that was promised but never forthcoming. A little bit more, and you’ll find accounts of the army being mobilized after xenophobic violence erupted. 

Across the street, among leafy trees, shady street corners and swimming pools, you find the middle-class suburb of Bloubosrand. A quick search on Property24 shows that many houses are worth over 1 million rand. Across the street, tin shacks with car tires on their roof extend into the distance. If you look even closer, the main thoroughfares in Kya Sands are actually drainages for the black, filthy water emanating from the nearby creek. 

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Asiphe Ntshongontshi, resident of Masiphumelele, lives in a simple shack made out of tin and wood, along with thousands of other people. When it rains, the area turns to mud, and although the city has dug drainage canals into the bush, rubbish and foul water still occasionally seeps into people's homes. The worst homes are the ones closest to the reeds, as those are the wettest, and the furthest from the road. Nearby, only a few hundred meters away, an electric fence surrounds modern family homes in the gated community of The Lakes. 

"Living in the wetlands to me is a drive. You know that every day I must wake up, go to work, go to college, go to the university in order my kids from the future not to live in the same environment that I lived."

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Morningside is one of Durban’s richest suburbs, and for good reason. The location is spectacular. High-rise apartment buildings tower over cliffs above the Umgeni River, with beautiful views of the spectacular Moses Madiba soccer stadium, Durban Country Club, and Indian Ocean. Even former President Jacob Zuma has an official state residence there, one of three around South Africa.

Papwa Sewgolum Golf Course is located along the lush green slopes of the Umgeni River in Durban. The golf course is named after an apartheid-era golfer of Indian descent, named Sewsunker “Papwa” Sewgolum. Papwa was an excellent self-taught golfer, with no formal schooling. He is famous for his reversed, cross-handed grip (called the “Sewsunker” grip even today), but he is possibly most famous for beating Gary Player and winning the 1965 Natal Open. 
The Natal Open was held at the Durban Country Club, which at the time did not allow non-whites into the clubhouse. Sewgolum won the tournament, the only non-white in a field of 113 players. At the time of the prize-giving, he had to receive his trophy outside, in the pouring rain, while the white players sat comfortably inside. The pictures of him in the rain were broadcast around the world, resulting in an international outcry and a number of countries imposing sanctions on South African sporting events. 
Just as his career looked as if it would take off, the South African government banned him from all local tournaments, and also withdrew his passport, preventing him from competing abroad. He died impoverished in 1978, at age 50, from a heart attack. I find it ironic and sad that in some ways, this location has come to define the project for me, a tragic portrayal of inequality. 

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The 1901 Railroads of South Africa map was made during a time when trains were becoming very important for transportation and trade. The British Empire was expanding its control in southern Africa, and railroads helped them move people, goods, and military supplies more easily across long distances.

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, South Africa’s rail system grew quickly. Different colonies and territories, like the Cape Colony, Natal, the Orange Free State, and the Transvaal, each started building their own railway lines. These lines were later connected to create a larger, more unified system.

The map from 1901 shows how far the railroads had spread by then. It was useful for planning travel, trade routes, and military movements—especially during the Second Boer War (1899–1902), when control of transportation was very important.

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The Klein Jukskei river and its tributaries split this scene, north of Johannesburg, between the informal settlement of Msawawa and the Cedar Creek Estates.

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This is a testament to the city as an organic entity, growing, shedding, and living just like a biological organism. 

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Bantustans in South Africa before they were reincorporated into South Africa in 1994.
Image is created by Htoni and  licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0

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From 1960 to 1983, the apartheid government forcibly moved 3.5 million black South Africans in one of the largest mass removals of people in modern history. There were several political and economic reasons for these removals.

First, during the 1950s and 1960s, large-scale removals of Africans, Indians, and Coloreds were carried out to implement the Group Areas Act, which mandated residential segregation throughout the country. More than 860,000 people were forced to move in order to divide and control racially-separate communities at a time of growing organized resistance to apartheid in urban areas. Sophiatown in Johannesburg (1955–1963) and District Six in Cape Town (beginning in 1968) were among the vibrant multi-racial communities that were destroyed by government bulldozers when these areas were declared “white.” Blacks were forcibly removed to distant segregated townships, sometimes 19 miles from places of employment in the central cities. In Cape Town, many informal settlements were destroyed. In one incident over four days in 1985, Africans resisted being moved from Crossroads to the new government-run Khayelitsha township farther away; 18 people were killed and 230 were injured.

Second, African farm laborers made up the largest number of forcibly removed people, mainly pushed out of their jobs by mechanization of agriculture. While this process has happened in many other countries, in South Africa these rural residents were not permitted to move to towns to find new jobs. Instead they were segregated into desperately poor and overcrowded rural areas where there usually were no job prospects.

Third, removals were an essential tool of the apartheid government’s Bantustan (or homeland) policy aimed at stripping all Africans of any political rights as well as their citizenship in South Africa. The goal was to take non-white people out of South Africa and put them into Bantustans which were declared countries independent of South Africa. As a result, non-white people would no longer be citizens of South Africa and the government would not need to care for them. Hundreds of thousands of Africans were moved to resettlement camps in the bantustans with no services or jobs. The massive removals in the early 1960s to overcrowded, infertile places was condemned internationally. These were dumping grounds for Africans who the white South Africans felt were unneeded in the labor market. Hundreds of thousands of other Africans were dispossessed of land and homes where they had lived for generations. By the 1980s, popular resistance to removals was widespread, and government plans to remove up to two million more people were never carried out.

Source: Adopted from Matrix Center for Digital Humanities and Social Sciences at Michigan State University. http://overcomingapartheid.msu.edu/multimedia.php?id=65-259-6.

1. What were the Bantustans? How did the Bantustans help the white minority gain, maintain, and consolidate power in apartheid South Africa?

2. How did the Bantustans reduce the political power of Africans?

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Primrose and Makause. The informal area on the right is home to over 30,000 residents living on top of a disused gold mine.

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Hout Bay is a picturesque valley about 15km south of Cape Town, situated between several mountains. There is a protected harbor at one end of the valley, which is one of the busiest fishing harbors in the Western Cape, along with several wealthy housing estates, hotels, and small farms.

Nestled between two of these affluent housing estates is the suburb of Imizamo Yethu. Imizamo Yethu (IY) is comprised of both a designated housing area and an “informal settlement” area, which is largely comprised of small shack dwellings which stretch up the steep slopes of the mountain behind it.

The shacks in this informal settlement reach right to the very edge of the demarcated area, in a densely packed jumble of tin roofs. In fact, even though the total area of IY is much smaller than the whole Hout Bay valley, the two have roughly the same population, 15538 vs. 17329. (City of Cape Town Census 2011)

The striking visual dissimilarities between the richer estate to the north, Tierboskloof, and IY are immediately apparent when viewed from the air. The line of trees which divides the two hides (several) heavily fortified fences, and many distrustful neighbors. In some cases, the houses (some with swimming pools) are just a stone’s throw from the shacks.

The most striking thing to me is the number of trees in Tierboskloof, versus the almost treeless IY. On the day I flew overhead, it was scorchingly hot, almost reaching 30 degrees. I imagined that the temperatures underneath the tin roofs must have been stifling.

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Sunlight shines on the single footpath connecting the Black and Indian communities on either side of the Ohlanga River in Durban, South Africa. 

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Explanation of South African identify numbers in an identify documet during apartheid. “Coloured” refers to people of mixed race, “Cape Coloured” are people of mixed race living near the city of Cape Town, “Malay” refers to people of Southeast Asian descent, “Griqua” are people are mixed race between European and predominately Khoikhoi descent, and “Indian” refers to people of south Asian descent. 
Source: Image is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

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During the apartheid period, the government passed laws that created racial classifications. The most prominent law was the Population Registration Act No. 30 of 1950. This Act divided the South African population into three main racial groups: Whites, Natives (Blacks), Indians and Coloured people (people of mixed race). Race was used for political, social and economic purposes. Politically, White people had the rights to vote, access to state security and protection as well as representation in the National Assembly as compared to Black and Coloured people who had no political power. Economically, Whites had access to good paying jobs and they were given the opportunity to own productive land that was unavailable to Black and Coloured South Africans. In addition, the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act of 1949 did not allow marriage between persons of different races, and the Immorality Act of 1950 made sexual relations with a person of a different race illegal.

Source: South African History Online, “Race and Ethnicity in South Africa”https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/race-and-ethnicity-south-africa

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Cemetary on the left, housing development on the right

Mooifontein Cemetery next to Vusimuzi, Tembisa.

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The beautiful valley of Hout Bay means "Wood Bay", for the ample wood used to supply vessels on their journey round the Cape of Good Hope. 

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A cricket pitch surrounded by shacks, with the city center of Durban and the port in the background.

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An African man shows his passbook. Image from Over Coming Apartheid Pass Laws, 1956.  National Library of South Africa: Cape Town campus.Image is courtesy of sahistory.org.za

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The use of passes, pieces of paper or booklets, to restrict the movement of black people in South Africa has a long history. In each instance, whites wanted black people for cheap labor, but also wanted to control them.

In the 1700s the Dutch imported slaves from other areas of Africa and from southeast Asia and required that they carry passes with them stating where they were allowed to go and for what purpose. Later, the same was required for indigenous South Africans like the Khoikhoi who, having lost their land to the Dutch, worked under harsh conditions in the Dutch colony. Pass laws continued when the British took over the Cape Colony. Afrikanners (Boers) left the Cape Colony in response to British rule and the abolition of slavery to settle towns and farms in northeast South Africa. They created pass laws when black South Africans came to work in the towns that required them to live on the outskirts on undesirable land. When diamonds and gold were discovered in South Africa in the 1860s it created a whole new industry. Again, white South Africans needed black labor. Pass laws gave white mine owners the right to restrict the movements of black workers, forcing them to live in compounds at the mines in poor conditions away from their families, while white workers could settle elsewhere and come and go when not working.

Despite recommendations from governement commissions to end pass laws because of the cost of enforcing them and the animosity of the black population towards them, the National Party expanded the pass laws after it gained control of the government in 1948 as part of its apartheid policy. In 1952, the government enacted an even more rigid pass law called the Natives Act of 1952. This law forced Black South Africans over the age of 16 to carry a range of documents, including a photograph, place of birth, employment records, tax payments and criminal records, and enabled the government to further restrict their movement. It was illegal to be without a Pass the penalty for which was arrest and jail. Often, black South Africans had to violate the pass laws to find work to support their families, so harassment, fines, and arrests under the pass laws were a constant threat to many urban Africans. In the 1970s and 1980s, many Africans found in violation of pass laws were stripped of citizenship and forced to move out of cities to poverty-stricken rural “homelands.” By the time the increasingly expensive and ineffective pass laws were repealed in 1986, they had led to more than 17 million arrests.

Sources: Adopted from Matrix Center for Digital Humanities and Social Sciences at Michigan State University.

http://overcomingapartheid.msu.edu/multimedia.php?id=65-259-3; South African History Online, “Pass Laws in South Africa 1800-1994” https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/pass-laws-south-africa-1800-1994

1. What were the pass laws? How did these laws help the white minority gain, maintain, and consolidate power in apartheid South Africa?

2. How did the pass laws change in 1952?

3. What were the consequences of violating the pass laws?

4. How did many urban Africans respond to the pass laws?

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Massive hostels, built to control and house black workers in the early 20th century, still stand in Alexandra, just kilometers from Sandton, "The Richest Square Mile" in Africa. 

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Penzance Estate borders IY to the south.

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© DPI/UN Photo. Used by permission. Image is courtesy of tertia.org

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From 1960 to 1983, the apartheid government forcibly moved 3.5 million black South Africans in one of the largest mass removals of people in modern history. There were several political and economic reasons for these removals.

First, during the 1950s and 1960s, large-scale removals of Africans, Indians, and Coloreds were carried out to implement the Group Areas Act, which mandated residential segregation throughout the country. More than 860,000 people were forced to move in order to divide and control racially-separate communities at a time of growing organized resistance to apartheid in urban areas. Sophiatown in Johannesburg (1955–1963) and District Six in Cape Town (beginning in 1968) were among the vibrant multi-racial communities that were destroyed by government bulldozers when these areas were declared “white.” Blacks were forcibly removed to distant segregated townships, sometimes 19 miles from places of employment in the central cities. In Cape Town, many informal settlements were destroyed. In one incident over four days in 1985, Africans resisted being moved from Crossroads to the new government-run Khayelitsha township farther away; 18 people were killed and 230 were injured.

Second, African farm laborers made up the largest number of forcibly removed people, mainly pushed out of their jobs by mechanization of agriculture. While this process has happened in many other countries, in South Africa these rural residents were not permitted to move to towns to find new jobs. Instead they were segregated into desperately poor and overcrowded rural areas where there usually were no job prospects.

Third, removals were an essential tool of the apartheid government’s Bantustan (or homeland) policy aimed at stripping all Africans of any political rights as well as their citizenship in South Africa. The goal was to take non-white people out of South Africa and put them into Bantustans which were declared countries independent of South Africa. As a result, non-white people would no longer be citizens of South Africa and the government would not need to care for them. Hundreds of thousands of Africans were moved to resettlement camps in the bantustans with no services or jobs. The massive removals in the early 1960s to overcrowded, infertile places was condemned internationally. These were dumping grounds for Africans who the white South Africans felt were unneeded in the labor market. Hundreds of thousands of other Africans were dispossessed of land and homes where they had lived for generations. By the 1980s, popular resistance to removals was widespread, and government plans to remove up to two million more people were never carried out.

Source: Adopted from Matrix Center for Digital Humanities and Social Sciences at Michigan State University. http://overcomingapartheid.msu.edu/multimedia.php?id=65-259-6.

1. What did the apartheid government do to 3.5 million black South Africans between 1960 and 1986? How did this help the white minority gain, maintain, and consolidate power in apartheid South Africa?

2. What were the Forced Removals? How did this help the white minority gain, maintained, and consolidated power in apartheid South Africa?

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Many people, including residents of the City of Cape Town's relocation site called Wolwerivier languish in poorly serviced settlements, far from jobs or other economic activity in the dusty periphery. This means that while they are not "side by side" in unequal scenes, they represent the hidden, and arguably more pernicious majority of impoverished South Africans, for whom the verdant peaks of Table Mountain represent an ethereal Shangri-La, glittering mirage-like on the horizon. 

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Summarize how the white minority gain, maintain, and consolidate power under the system of apartheid according to the documents and images displayed here.