-
Nelson Mandela
A member of the African National Congress party beginning in the 1940s, he was a leader of both peaceful protests and armed resistance against the white minority’s oppressive regime in a racially divided South Africa. -
Population
The number of Africans coming to cities increased. By 1946 there were more blacks than whites living in cities for the first time. -
African Laws
In 1952, the government enacted an even more rigid law that required all African males over the age of 16 to carry a “reference book” containing personal information and employment history. -
Women's Protest
From the massive women’s protest in Pretoria (1956), to the burning of passes at the police station in Sharpeville where 69 protesters were massacred -
Period: to
Removing Africans
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. -
Spear of the Nation
In 1961, Nelson Mandela co-founded and became the first leader of Umkhonto we Sizwe (“Spear of the Nation”), also known as MK, a new armed wing of the ANC. -
Citizenship Act
The Bantu Homelands Citizenship Act of 1970 declared that all Africans were citizens of “homelands,” rather than of South Africa itself—a step toward the government’s ultimate goal of having no African citizens of South Africa. -
Resistance
Resistance spread and many towns in Africa became ungovernable. -
Independence
South African citizenship was restored to those people who were born outside the four “independent” homelands. -
What Mandela did
Mandela initiated a reconstruction and development plan improving the living standards of black South Africans in issues such as education, housing, health and employment. He also promoted a new constitution for the country that finally the parliament approved in 1996.