Long Walk to Freedom

An Afrikaner is a South African who speaks Afrikaans, a form of Dutch. Most Afrikaners descend from Dutch colonists who arrived in the 17th and 18th centuries, although there is also a small population of black Afrikaners who descend from these Dutch colonists’ slaves. Once South Africa came under British control in the early 19th century, many of these Dutch South Africans migrated inland. The migration of these voortrekkers, or pioneers, became an important aspect of Afrikaner identity. 

As Britain assumed more direct control over South African affairs in the early 20th century, new laws limiting the rights of Africans were introduced. Following the victory of the National Party in 1948, these laws were codified and refined into a totalizing system known as apartheid, an Afrikaans word meaning, roughly, “apartness.” 

Founded in 1918, the ANC was a political organization seeking equal rights for the African peoples of South Africa. The organization underwent several transformations. Until the mid-1940s, the ANC sought to negotiate, as equals, with the South African government. The ANC Youth League, founded in 1944, signaled a major change as the next generation of African leaders pushed for a more confrontational approach. So, the ANC began to organize mobilization campaigns. Following the Treason Trial of 1961, the ANC morphed once more, this time into an underground organization with a paramilitary wing. After the fall of apartheid, the ANC became a political party that contested in elections. It is still in power to this day.

The creation of the bantustans was a centerpiece of apartheid. Under the system, each African was assigned citizenship to their national “homeland,” regardless of whether they had ever been there. Africans did not have political rights and only limited (if any) opportunity to own land outside of the bantustans. The bantustan system was particularly effective at coopting traditional, African leadership.

The Black Consciousness Movement developed in the mid-60s in the vacuum left by the ANC’s banning, and its mission was putting the principles of Africanism into action. Until its own banning and the murder of its leader Steve Biko in 1977, the BCM organized black Africans—defined as all nonwhite people—by encouraging them to be proud of their blackness and running schooling and daycare programs. In these regards, the BCM shared many qualities with the Black Panther Movement in the US. 

This is a racial categorization used in South Africa and does not share the same derogatory connotation as the racial epithet “colored” does in the United States. The term applied primarily to South Africans of mixed European and African ancestry but could also include South Africans of Khoisan descent. The Coloured population is concentrated in the West Cape region of the country and particularly in Cape Town.

The Government of National Unity, led by Nelson Mandela, was the ruling coalition in South Africa from 1994 to 1999. The name refers to the agreement made during the negotiations to end apartheid to include the National Party within the governing coalition by default.

The National Party was a South African political party that primarily represented Afrikaners. It ruled the country from 1948 to 1994, during which time it was the architect and enforcer of the apartheid system.

The PAC was an antiapartheid organization that split from the ANC in 1959 under the leadership of Robert Sobukwe. Its membership was drawn from the ANC’s Africanist faction, which was displeased with the multiracial Congress Alliance established by the 1955 Freedom Charter. During the antiapartheid struggle, the PAC attempted to compete with the ANC but never garnered comparable public support. The PAC now exists as a political party in South Africa.

The South African Communist Party was established in 1921. It was a member of the Congress Alliance and to this day remains a political party in South Africa. The organization is an important ally of the ANC. The two groups’ alliance began when they joined efforts in the 1946 African Mine Worker’s Strike. The close ties between the SACP and ANC have continued as they are both members of the Tripartite Alliance that formed in 1990 to negotiate the end of apartheid.

The SAIC was founded in 1921 to advocate for the equal rights for the country’s Indian population. It was a member of the Congress Alliance.

The “Southwest Townships,” known colloquially as Soweto, are the underdeveloped and underserved suburbs in which many Africans working in and around Johannesburg were forced to live. As the home of many antiapartheid leaders such as Mandela, Soweto has a prominent place in the history of the liberation struggle. It is also famous for being where the 1975 student uprising began.

Umkhonto we Sizwe, or “Spear of the Nation,” was the paramilitary wing of the ANC that was established in 1961. Its primary goal was to wage a campaign of sabotage and guerrilla warfare against the South African state. Ultimately, the group hoped to force the government to negotiate the end of apartheid.