Num 4: South African Racial Ideology in the 1930's - 1950's

In this blog entry, I will discuss the racial ideology in South Africa in the 1930s to 1950s. In South Africa there was racial segregation between certain ethnic groups, much of which stemmed from the Anglo-Boer War. Racism involves the different treatment, both socially and legally, of certain people who come from different races. The result of this racism was to become known as the Apartheid. Apartheid is an Afrikaans word which basically means ‘apartness’.

During the 1930s and 1940s South Africa became more industrialized and urbanized, and apartheid was a reaction by Afrikaners to this rapid change. The Afrikaners felt disempowered by blacks, in the workforce, and by the power and success of English-speaking South Africans. What caused the apartheid was the fact that different races in South Africa thought they needed to be separated for their own mutual benefit. The Afrikaners thought it was impossible, impracticable and ungodly for the different races and cultures to live together. And so a policy of separate development was made by the white government.

The apartheid began with the colonization, of South Africa, by the Afrikaners - mainly from Dutch, French and German descent. It was these European descendants who wanted the separation of blacks and whites. The apartheid was characterized by the exclusion of the ‘blacks’ from equal participation in the affairs of the State and country. Racial segregation had been evident in South Africa for a long time but the general election in 1948 was the official founding of the Apartheid. New legislation classified inhabitants into racial groups, “black” and “white”.  Residential areas were also segregated and later black people were not even considered citizens. Non-whites were excluded from national government and were not allowed to vote. The apartheid laws were established through political means and often enforced by the South African police force and the army when needed. The apartheid was violation of human rights and while not supported by all white people in South Africa, it was enforced by the government at that time. The affects of the apartheid are very evident in the novel The Power of One.

Some aspects of the apartheid included: Separate development for ‘black’ people in their own territories; no political rights for ‘black’ people in ‘white’ areas and separate areas of ‘black’ workers in the work force. The ‘black’ Africans were treated with great disrespect; they were called “kaffirs” by the majority of ‘whites.’ The word ‘kaffir’ literally means heathen and we find many references to this degrading word in The Power of One.

The South African racial ideology of the 1930s – 1950s, was a very bleak part of South Africa’s history. The apartheid was categorized by racial segregation and racial abuse by the ‘whites’ towards the ‘blacks’. Bryce Courtenay has made very evident in his novel, The Power of One, what affects the apartheid had on those living at the time in which this novel is set.