Stuff that happened under apartheid.

Sharpeville massacre - thousands of Blacks demostrated against the pass laws by offering themselves up for arrest at the police station in Sharpeville. A protest turned into violence between the residents and the police. 69 people work killed.

Dimbaza - many Black familes removed from living "illegally" in a place. They were placed on a waterless hilly area where many people died from malnutrition and neglect. Houses were poorly built. They were constructed of concrete and tin roofs and were not equipped with the proper things such as electricity, running water, and heat. Houses were too hot in the summer, then cold and damp in the winter. Because of this, the old and the very young died.

Sources: http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/37a/042.html

http://www.jpanafrican.com/docs/vol1no8/LastGraveAtDimbaza_JPASvol1no8.pdf

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,869441-1,00.html

With the former president of Cote d'Ivoire, STEP DOWN s'il vous plait!!!

This past week, elections were held in Cote d'Ivoire. Who one the presidency? Alassane Dramane Ouattara. Yes, he is the recognized president of Cote d'Ivoire. What is the problem? The problem is that former president Laurent Gbagbo will not release power. He has lost the election to Ouattara, but he still insists on trying to stay in power. The Economic Community of West African States have met and said that Gbagbo needs to STEP DOWN!! It is argued that Gbagbo stepping down is in the best interests of the Ivoirian people. I can't argue with that. And this is why I say it would be best for the nation. If Gbagbo doesn't step down, this will further perpetuate corruption in the government. There is also the potential for violence to break out. The people have casted their voted and have voted for Ouattara. If Gbagbo doesn't step down, there is a strong potential for political violence. This is why: Part of the reason for political violence is due to lack of political opportunity. In this case, it isn't so much the "lack" of it. It is a matter of people being dissatisfied and that dissatisfaction coming from being ignored. By not stepping down, Gbagbo is essentially ignoring the people. When people feel ignored and frustrated, the likelihood of political violence is high. This has been proven through history. The French Revolution;The Romanian Revolution, and other examples. Another factor to think about is that when the former president doesn't step down, violence can come another way, via a declaration of war. A civil war could start. The last thing Cote d'Ivoire needs is a civil war. Gbagbo needs to step down, for the good of the nation. If he really cares about Cote d'Ivoire and not his own power trip, he will step down. I say he isn't trying to do what is best for Cote d'Ivoire. All he cares about is power. There is the potential for war.

Source: http://www.afrol.com/articles/37020

South Africa under apartheid

There are many who would try and argue that South Africa was a success under apartheid. Well, if you were White, yes, it was a success. If you were Black, apartheid was basically a form of racist fascism. You can look at my last blog post and see the policies implemented. Policies that required Blacks and other non-White ethnic groups to carry passes stating where they could go, where they were from, their racial classification. Who is a government to tell you where you can and can't live. So what if there were different languages and different ethnic groups? It was under British colonialism that the Cape Colony and Zululand were annexed. Someone else coming and and annexing where you live, and then telling you "you can't live there, you must live there". Sounds like fascism. The Group Areas Act of 1950 basically said where each race was allowed to live. The most developed areas were restricted for White persons and Blacks were not allowed to live their, unless they were live-in servants. There was further legislation that allowed for the government to come in and destroy places where Black people were living. Yes, these were slums, but still, who is the government to come in and destroy where you are living? What would have been more helpful is to upgrade the places Blacks were living in and no forced relocation.
Education was affected to. The Bantu Education Act of 1953 made education segregated racially, by force. To give an idea of how education was like under apartheid and the inequalities, this is a quote from former Prime Minister Henrik Verwoerd:
"There is no place for [the Bantu] in the European community above the level of certain forms of labour ... What is the use of teaching the Bantu child mathematics when it cannot use it in practice? That is quite absurd. Education must train people in accordance with their opportunities in life, according to the sphere in which they live".

Those were his words. Verwoerd didn't believe in equal opportunity for all, or for helping Black people getting training in skilled trades or getting higher education such as at the university level. That was the idea. Blacks were taught a curriculum that was like that of White children. Still, 30% of Black schools didn't have electricity, 1/4 didn't have running water and half of them didn't have plumbing. Per capita, less money was spent educating Black students than on educating White students. Blacks received on tenth of the spending White students received. Blacks, Indians, and Coloured had to pay for their education as well. For White children, it was free.
Under apartheid, you could be forcefully removed from certain places and placed in other areas. A grim example of this is Dimbaza. In the late 1960's, there was a forced removal of Blacks to an area known as Dimbaza. This area,well, there wasn't any good drinking water and it was hard to grow food. 968 people starved to death, many were children. If you were Black under apartheid, your life would indeed by harder than a White person's life. You would not be treated equally. The government basically practiced racism and fascism. South Africa may have been the richest nation in Africa, but if you were Black, you were basically treated like crap.

South Africa:the times leading to apartheid(1910-1948)

Even before South Africa became an independent nation, there were issues between the Black and White peoples of the Southern part of Africa. A brief history: The original settlers were the Khoisan people, a hunter-gatherer people. Next, several Bantu peoples slowly made their way to what is now the KwaZulu-Natal Province. In the mid 1600's, the Dutch settled the area around the Cape. There were also people brought in from Madagascar and Indonesia as slaves. Some of these people intermarried with Dutch settlers. Their descendants are known as Cape Coloureds and Cape Malays. Many Dutch settlers went further into the interior to lead an isolated existance of pastoral living, not unlike what many Blacks were doing in the interior. These settlers would be called Boers(meaning farmer). Fighting would take placed between the Boers and the Xhosa. In 1815, the British occupied the the region then known as the Cape Colony. British settlers went to South Africa as farmers and were set up by Britain as a buffer zone between the Boers and the Xhosa. What happened next? Many British settlers went to the towns and more kept coming from Britain. The Boers were not happy with British rule and went on "The Great Trek" to what they thought was empty land. Actually, loose bands of Black people were there, who had fled from Zulu expansion. Many Boers already believed that European expansion would bring civilisation and felt this way even more so after hearing of Zulu expansion. Boer Republic of Natalia was formed on what many thought was essentially unpopulated territory. The British annexed the territory in 1839 and the Colony of Natal was formed. The Zulu Kingdom was annexed to the Colony of Natal in 1897, 18 years after the Zulu people lost the Anglo-Zulu War.

Now, onto the events of 1910 to 1948. Before South Africa became The Union of South Africa, there were racially motivated laws on the books under British colonial rule. One of them was the Pass Laws. These laws were started before the official apartheid policy came into fruition. The Pass Laws restricted Black people to Black areas. In what was then the Cape Colony and Natal, Blacks were prohibited from being on the streets after the sun went down. Blacks were also prohibited from going from one district to another without a pass, hence, Pass Laws.

More laws were passed limiting what Black people could do.

List of restrictions included:

The Franchise and Ballot Act of 1892.This limited which native persons could vote based on financial and educational qualifications.
Natal Legislative Assembly Bill of 1894: Denied Indians the right to vote.
General Pass Regulations Bill 1905: Blacks were outright denied the right to vote, limited them to certain areas, and the Pass System was started.
Asiatic Registration Act 1906: Indians were required to carry passes.

In 1910, The Union of South Africa was formed. The South Africa Act was also passed that year. Whites were given full voting rights and control over other racial groups.

In 1913, the Native Land Act was passed. Blacks could not buy land outside of "reserves" unless they lived in the Cape.

In 1918, the Natives in Urban Areas Bill was passed. Blacks were forced to live in designated areas
In 1923, the Urban Areas Act was passed, which instituted residential segregation and provided cheap labor for industries run by Whites.
The Colour Bar Act of 1926 prohibited Blacks from practicing skilled trades.
Native Administration Act of 1927 made the British Crown the head of all African affairs.

When Jan Smuts was the head of the United Party, the Asiatic Land Tenure Bill was passed in 1946, which basically prohibited the sale of land to Indians.

In 1948, Daniel François Malan was the head of the Reunited National Party. Malan beat Smuts and became Prime Minister of South Africa. His party merged with the Afrikaner Party to form the National Party. Malan brought about the official apartheid policy.

There were apartheid policies going on before the official policy got started.

Sources: http://www.britannica.com/facts/5/137759/Franchise-and-Ballot-Act-as-discussed-in-Cecil-Rhodes-prime-minister-of-Cape-Colony
http://courses.wcupa.edu/jones/his311/lectures/22sa-boe.htm
http://countrystudies.us/south-africa/15.htm

The Story of Zimbabwe

I feel like I needed to find out the history of Zimbabwe. I have read about the situation in Zimbabwe. On one hand, I do not like what I see in Zimbabwe. I am sitting here watching this documentary about the situation, with Zimbabwe going through economic collapse and people starving, going through these times. I have a problem with Mugabe and his corruption. At the same time, I notice that there are people who feel like Zimbabwe would have been better off ruled by Britain. Well, I don't really agree with that. It isn't to take away from the fact that Zimbabwe was once the Breadbasket of Africa. It is to say that this is what I feel. It is my feeling that there are those who believe that Black people as a race are not fit to rule anything or themselves. This has encouraged me to go and do research on colonialism.

Where else do we start, but at the beginning. People have been living in what is now Zimbabwe for ages. There are caves with paintings made by the Khoisan people, as well as pottery and arrowheads that were found by archaeologists. Later on, the Gokomere, a Bantu people, came to what is now Zimbabwe, displacing the earlier Khoisan people, around 500 A.D.

From 1075-1220, you had the Kingdom of Mapungubwe. There was trade in ivory and gold. Mapungubwe was later abandoned for the Zimbabwe plateau, bringing with them their art and stone masonry. LIke Mapungubwe, the economy was rooted in the trade of ivory and gold. There was trade with Arabia and Asia. Cattle domestication was practiced in Zimbabwe. It's capital city, Great Zimbabwe, means house of stone. Stone masonry was used for buildings. In 1430 AD, Prince Nyatsimba Mutota went to the north of Zimbabwe to look for salt among the Shona-Tavara people. He conquered the land where the Shona-Tavara people were living in and it became the Mutapa Kingdom. By 1450, Great Zimbabwe was abandoned. Around the 1500's the Portuguese arrived on the coast. Many ventured into the backcountry and lived alongside the local population. Some became interpreters and political advisors for the Shona kings. King Sebastiao of Portugal made a grant of arms for the Mwenemutapa( Gules between two arrows Argent an African hoe barwise bladed Or handled Argent - The shield surmounted by a Crown Oriental). Later on Gonçalo de Silveira, a Jesuit missionary was sent to convert the Mwenemutapa to Christianity. Muslim merchants living in the capital didn't like this and threatened to kill Silveira. After some of the Portuguese heard this, it was used as a reason for go inland to take over the gold mines and ivory routes. Francisco Barreto led an expidition of 1,000 Portuguese. This was unsuccessful due to diseases. Many went back and massacred the Swahili traders out of rage. The decline of Mutapa began with fighting between the Portuguese and mwenemutapa. Several Shona states united to form the Rozwi Empire and forced out the Portuguese. Under the Rozwi Empire, stone masonry was revived. The economy was based on gold mining, cattle, and farming. Like the previous empires, trade was established with the Arab traders. Rozwi was known for having military strategists. The empire declined in the early 19th century. There were people who migrated from the Natal and Transvaal of South Africa into Rozwi. During the Mfecane, the Ndebele arrived and many started wars with Rozwi, establishing their own rule.

In the 1880's, the British came into Zimbabwe with Cecil Rhodes and the British South Africa Company. At the time, King Lobengula was ruling. It was also known that there were valuable resources, such as gold and diamonds in southern Africa. Rhodes used a business associate, Charles Rudd, to get a concession from Lobengula for the mining rights and sought out a royal charter for the British South Africa Company. They both deceived Lobengula, stating that there would be no more than 10 White men working in the mines at Matebeland, but never put it in the contract. They did put in the contract that the mining companies would do whatever they felt was necessary to maintain mining operations. Rhodes sent the Pioneer Column, protected by the British South Africa Police, using the Rudd Concession as a reason. Fort Salisbury was established(today called Harare, Zimbabwe's capital). The British South Africa Police defeated the Ndebele in what is the First Matabele War(1893-1894). The Ndebele fought against the British South Africa Company in the Second Matabele War(1896-1897) and lost. In 1923, Zimbabwe would become a self-governing British Colony, known as Rhodesia at this time. More Europeans would settle in what was then Rhodesia. Under British rule, there were laws that restricted what Black Zimbabweans could do. The Land Apportionment Act of 1930 was one of them. This act banned Blacks from buying land outside of "reserves". If you were living in the urban areas and Black, you couldn't buy land. Blacks rented homes in townships outside of the city, not unlike what was going on in South Africa. White immigrants were encouraged to move to Zimbabwe. Many bought land set aside for them for farming. Other forms of discrimination included the Industrial Conciliation Act. It provided the structure for industrial bargaining. However, Africans were excluded from this because the definition of employee applied to everyone, except Africans. In 1902, all Africans were required to carry a "situpa" pass. Later on, they were required to carry another pass in addition to the "situpa". There were laws restricting movement to other nations. The African Labour Act basically meant unskilled Africans could not be recruited to South Africa, not that it would have mattered. The same measures of racial segregation and discrimination were being practiced there too. The Native Accomodation and Registration Act in 1946 required employers and the local governments housing for African workers and their families. One might think "this sounds good. housing provided". Well, here is something you need to see. If you were unemployed, you could be forcefully removed from that town that you lived in. It basically meant that if you were African and unemployed, you were breaking the law. The pass laws were later appealed, but the "situpa" law still stood. Blacks were all but excluded from voting through laws that required property ownership in order to vote. Most Blacks didn't own property. In the Parliament, there were 8 seats reserved for Blacks and a further 8 reserved for tribal leaders. This is out of 66 seats.

In 1953, consolidated Rhodesia and Nyasaland together to form the short lived Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. During the 1950's and 1960's, there was a growing movement of African nationalism. There was also political dissent in Nyasaland. The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland split into three territories: Nyasaland, Northern Rhodesia, and Southern Rhodesia. Northern Rhodesia would become the independent nation of Zambia and Nyasaland would become the independent nation of Malawi. Both became independent in 1964. President Ian Smith declared independence from Britain(a Unilateral Declaration of Independence), but wasn't recognized under "No Independence Before African Rule". Between 1964-1979, a war for independence resulted. This would be known as the Rhodesian Bush War. It would be Ian Smith's government fighting against Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union. In 1980, Zimbabwe became an independent nation. Mugabe would become the new President of Zimbabwe.

Under the early years of Mugabe's rule, there were several uprising in the Matabeleland region of Zimbabwe. Mugabe would win re-election in 1990. It was found that the campaign was neither fair or free. The 1990's were marked by strikes over salaries, student protests over increased government control over universities. By 1997, one quarter of the population was infected with HIV.

Since 1999, there have been many problems in Zimbabwe. Whites made up less than one percent of the population, although they had 70% of the land. Mugabe implemented a land redistribution program to give land to Black people. Alot of White people were forced off of the farms that they owned. Agriculture was a major part of the economy. Now mining tourism make up a major part of the economy. There has been a shortage of hard currency and because of this, there has also been hyperinflation.

Colonialism and the effect it had on the African continent..

As I go through some posts made on the forums and I see the comments, to say the least I am not one bit flattered by it. It is as if there are people claiming that colonialism was the best thing for Africa. Well, as a person of African descent, I beg to differ. It is as if people are sitting there saying that Africa was just some savage place with savage people.

Examples of colonial abuses:

In Mozambique, there was a system where the native population was put into a police state. Under the Native Labour Regulations, you could be punished for not working. This is called courvee. This was administered by the Portguese colonial rule. It was labor by force. You might get paid. You might not get paid.

Under the French colonial rule, French West Africans living in Africa were considered subjects, but not citizens. What kind of way is it to live when you are ruled under a foreign empire and you don't get full citizenship. Only in the colony of St. Louis did Africans participate in French national affairshttp://www.africa.upenn.edu/K-12/French_16178.html