Evidence of human
and humanoid occupation of South Africa extends back 2 million
years. Stone Age artefacts date from 40,000 years ago,
from which time there appears to have been a permanent human culture.
This culture has been identified as being related to that of the
Khoisan people and it lasted until the arrival of the Bantus and
the Europeans, who largely absorbed them. The Bantu population of
the region arrived as a consequence of the great southward migrations
of Bantu people across central and southern Africa, which occurred
approximately 300 BC to the 16 th century AD. This largely displaced
the Bushmen (whose aboriginal culture – still
surviving in the Kalahari – is rivaled only in Australia)
and the Khoikhoi ( ‘Hottentots’ ).
The European discovery of South Africa was roughly simultaneous
– the Portuguese navigator, Bartholomew Dias,
discovered the Cape of Good Hope in 1488. In 1652, Dutch settlers,
under the Commander Jan van Riebeeck, arrived to create a victualling
station for the Dutch East India Company. Numbers were increased
by French Huguenots in 1688 and again in 1820, by British settlers,
after the British occupation of the Cape. During the 18 th and 19
th centuries, British and Boer settlers fought a succession of wars
with the local tribes. Control of the Cape region was also a matter
of dispute between the British and the Dutch. The British
eventually gained control in 1806 and, unhappy
with their new rulers, the Boer pioneers, or Voortrekkers, moved
northwards to launch the independent republics of the Orange Free
State (now Free State) and the Transvaal (now Gauteng), bringing
them into contact (and sometimes conflict) with the indigenous Africans
– the Nguni and Sotho, in particular.
In 1869, diamonds (and, soon after, gold) were
discovered in the Transvaal (now Gauteng), attracting massive numbers
of fortune hunters, many of them British. President Paul Kruger
of the Transvaal (now Gauteng), fearing British domination, stated
strict franchise requirements. Britain’s attempts at intervention
resulted in the Anglo-Boer War, the British victory
in 1902 ultimately resulted in the establishment of the Union of
South Africa in 1910. In 1948, the National Party came to power
and smoothed the policy of apartheid, officially the separate development
of all racial groups but in effect the creation of semi-autonomous
‘homelands’ for non whites and the preservation of white
supremacy elsewhere. 4 ‘homelands’ (Bophuthatswana,
Ciskei, Transkei and Venda) were created, comprising 13 % of all
land in the country. Although officially styled ‘independent’,
the ‘homelands’ were not recognised internationally
and were entirely reliant politically and economically on South
Africa.
The main black opposition movement was the African National
Congress (ANC). The bulk of the ANC’s organisation
and resources, including its military wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe, (
‘Spear of the Nation’ ) worked in exile. The most significant
black political force outside the ANC has been Chief Buthelezi’s
Inkatha movement, with a power base in the Zulu areas in the southeastern
province of KwaZulu-Natal. Succeeding Governments dealt with black
opposition with simple and brutal suppression. Although, in public
at least, the international community reacted powerfully against
apartheid and maintained economic sanctions against South Africa,
there was concurrently extensive and largely concealed support from
the West for the South African Government and its
economy. The troubles for the South Africans started
in the mid- to late 1980's.
In February 1989, the hard line national party President, PW
Botha (known as ‘The Great Crocodile’), gave
way to his education minister, FW De Klerk, who had an equally stubborn
reputation but, in the event, turned out to be relatively flexible
and realistic. The new Government faced constant large scale disturbance
by the ANC but also growing pressure from the white-dominated business
community, who were beginning to realise that the apartheid regime
had no long term viable future. The economy had
been in near crisis for some time, so South Africa’s foreign
creditors were demanding wholesale changes in domestic policy to
defend their investments. Over the next 12 months, the De Klerk
Government detached the ban of the ANC, the South African
Communist Party and 30 other anti apartheid groups, and
released the jailed ANC leadership including its leader, Nelson
Mandela, after 27 years of imprisonment. Mandela and his ANC colleagues
instantly started negotiating a final political settlement with
the white Government.
The ANC is not a unitary movement but a coalition of several diverse
interests, Mandela has described it as “an African parliament".
More important was the deep schism that emerged between the ANC
and Inkatha, which recurrently exploded into violence and threatened
to destabilise the entire process. Despite many close calls, all
3 main parties (Inkatha, ANC and the National Party)
entered into a process, which, by the end of 1993, had laid out
a blueprint for a new constitutional future for South Africa. De
Klerk kept most of the whites on board. The most dangerous white
racist organisation, the Afrikaner Weerstandbeweging
(AWB, Afrikaner Resistance Movement) self destructed and hard line
whites have since limited themselves to dreaming up improbable projects
to establish ‘white homelands’ in remote parts of the
country.
The centre piece of the political settlement was the 1st genuinely
inclusive national election in South Africa, which
was held in February 1994. The ANC won 63 % of the poll, the National
Party 20 % and Inkatha 11 %. Nelson Mandela became South Africa’s
President with Thabo Mbeki and De Klerk as Deputy Presidents. The
fresh Government faced a series of huge tasks in reversing the legacy
of a half century of apartheid, including the provision of decent
standards of education, housing, health and other basic services
for the great majority of the population whose needs had been ignored.
The practical necessity of not estranging domestic industrialists
and international financiers meant that the Government could not
move as rapidly as it might have wished. The manifold prejudices
of the apartheid era were dealt with, for the most part successfully,
by the deliberations of the ‘Truth and Reconciliation Commission’,
which has exposed much detail about the murkier aspects of that
period. Inkatha continues to hold sway in KwaZulu-Natal, where there
have been occasional but increasingly occasional outbreaks of political
violence. The ANC dominates the political scene in the rest of South
Africa. The National Party (now called the New National Party) left
the Government after the launch of a new constitution in 1996, since
when it has become a marginal force. The leading
white dominated party is now the Democratic Party, which ploughed
a lonely contract as a white liberal opposition during apartheid.
Before the June 1999 elections, Mandela passed
the leadership reins to his heir apparent, Thabo Mbeki, who led
the ANC to a snug victory. Inkatha and the National Party were confined
to less than 10 % of the vote. Mbeki and the ANC
party also won contentedly in the 2004 elections. Mbeki’s
administration is struggling with 2 main domestic problems, a huge
violent crime wave and an HIV - AIDS pandemic, which afflicts over
10 % of the adult population. Mbeki’s persistent denial to
come to terms with the true nature of the HIV virus has drawn huge
international criticism as well as being the subject of furious
arguments between Mandela and Mbeki.
Abroad, South Africa has pursued an independent foreign
policy, dealing with several regimes that are out of favour
with the West (Cuba, Iran and, until recently, Libya) but whose
support for the ANC during apartheid, when the United Kingdom, United
States of America and others were supporting the regime –
was not forgotten. It has also engaged in stronger relations with
other major developing countries, notably India and Brazil, in an
attempt to form some kind of counterweight to the overpowering power
of the West. Relations with the Europe and the United States of
America are nonetheless stable.
In sub-Saharan Africa, Mbeki, under the rubric of the Millennium
Africa Plan, has got involved in many regional conflicts.
These include Burundi , Ethiopia / Eritrea, and Congo (Democratic
Republic). Closer to home, the Government has shown a sometimes
uncertain touch, a blundering involvement in neighboring Lesotho
in 1998 was followed by questionable engagements in Angola and Congo
(Republic). Most recently, Mbeki has been confounded by the increasingly
chaotic situation in Zimbabwe. Here again, the historical heritage
of mutual support among liberation movements during the dark days
of apartheid and UDI has made Mbeki unwilling to take any measures
against the Mugabe regime. |
