70 Fun Facts About Apartheid

The word 'apartheid' comes from which language?

It literally means 'apart-ness' or 'separateness', from the suffix -heid.

In which year did the apartheid system officially begin, following the National Party's election victory?

It lasted until 1994 and also applied to South West Africa, now Namibia.

Which was the first apartheid law, passed in 1949?

The Immorality Amendment Act of 1950 followed, criminalising sexual relationships across racial lines.

How many racial groups did the Population Registration Act of 1950 sort South Africans into?

The categories were Black, White, Coloured and Indian, and the last two contained several sub-classifications.

Apartheid officials sometimes classified race by pushing which object into a person's hair and telling them to shake?

If it stayed put, the person could be classified as Coloured or Black; if it fell out, White.

Which 1950 law carved cities into zones where only one race could own property or live?

Along with the Population Registration Act it was one of the two founding laws of 'grand apartheid'.

Which of these was part of the 'grand' tier of the system rather than the 'petty' one?

Petty apartheid produced the 'whites only' benches and beaches; grand apartheid produced forced removals and homelands.

How many 'tribal homelands', or bantustans, was the black population meant to be confined to?

Four of them were declared nominally independent, though no foreign government ever recognised them.

Which homeland was the first to be declared 'independent' by South Africa, in 1976?

Together the four were called the TBVC states; not one country in the world recognised them.

Roughly how many black South Africans were forcibly removed from their homes between 1960 and 1983?

It ranks among the largest mass evictions in modern history.

The name of the Johannesburg township Soweto is an abbreviation of what?

Around 60,000 people were moved there in the 1950s in the best-publicised forced removals of the decade.

After Sophiatown was bulldozed, the government rebuilt it as a segregated white suburb under what name?

The Afrikaans word means 'Triumph'; the original name was officially restored in 2006.

Which Cape Town neighbourhood was declared a white group area in 1966, forcing out over 60,000 residents?

Most were resettled on the Cape Flats, and the area was renamed Zonnebloem in 1970.

What did black South Africans derisively call the passbook they had to carry at all times in white areas?

The Afrikaans nickname means 'stupid pass'.

From what age did the 1952 Pass Laws Act make black South Africans carry passbooks in white areas?

The Act replaced many regional pass laws with a single nationwide one.

In which year were the pass laws finally repealed?

They had been a cornerstone of the system for more than three decades.

The 1953 law creating a separate, inferior school system for black children was named for what word?

It defunded most mission schools and put black schooling under the Ministry of Native Affairs.

Which post did Verwoerd hold from 1950 while crafting the laws that made him 'Architect of Apartheid'?

He crafted many of the key laws as minister of native affairs from 1950 before becoming prime minister in 1958.

In which country was the prime minister assassinated in 1966, Hendrik Verwoerd, born?

He was born in Amsterdam in 1901 and moved to South Africa as a child.

Who fatally stabbed Verwoerd inside Parliament House in September 1966?

Dimitri Tsafendas was ruled insane and held until his death in 1999; Verwoerd had already survived being shot in 1960.

The town of Verwoerdburg was renamed after 1994 to what?

Pretoria's Verwoerd Academic Hospital was likewise renamed after Steve Biko.

On 21 March 1960, police opened fire on pass-law protesters in which township, killing 69 people?

A crowd of about 5,000 had gathered outside the police station after the Pan-Africanist Congress urged people to leave their passbooks at home.

21 March, the anniversary of the 1960 massacre, is marked as which South African public holiday?

It has been observed as a public holiday since 1994.

Which British prime minister delivered the 'Wind of Change' speech in Cape Town in 1960?

The speech signalled Britain's acceptance of African independence and left pro-British white South Africans feeling abandoned.

On 31 May 1961, the day it became a republic, South Africa withdrew from which organisation?

It would have needed to reapply for membership as a republic and chose not to.

The 1955 Charter opening with the demand 'The People Shall Govern!', was adopted at a Congress of the People held where?

About 3,000 people gathered, after ANC volunteers had collected 'freedom demands' across the country.

The Black Sash, formed in 1955, was an anti-apartheid organisation made up of whom?

It began in opposition to removing Coloured voters from the Cape voters' roll.

Nelson Mandela co-founded which armed wing of the ANC in 1961?

Its name means 'Spear of the Nation'; the founders were inspired by Castro's 26th of July Movement.

The Rivonia Trial followed a 1963 police raid on which hideout?

The farm, owned by Arthur Goldreich, had been used by the ANC and the Communist Party.

What sentence did Judge Quartus de Wet give Mandela at the end of the Rivonia Trial in 1964?

The prosecution had asked for the death penalty; Mandela's speech from the dock ended with 'an ideal for which I am prepared to die'.

How many of Mandela's 27 years in prison were spent on Robben Island?

He was later moved to Pollsmoor Prison in 1982 and Victor Verster Prison in 1988.

Robben Island takes its name from an old Dutch word for which animal?

The island sits in Table Bay, about 7 km off the coast north of Cape Town, and became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999.

Besides Mandela, how many other ex-Robben Island prisoners have become South African president?

Kgalema Motlanthe and Jacob Zuma both served time there.

From which prison did Mandela walk free on 11 February 1990?

He held Winnie's hand as he left, and the moment was broadcast live around the world.

What does Mandela's Xhosa forename, Rolihlahla, colloquially mean?

He was later widely known by his clan name, Madiba.

The Soweto uprising of 16 June 1976 began as a school protest against being taught in which language?

Many black South Africans regarded it as 'the language of the oppressor'; 16 June is now Youth Day.

Sam Nzima's photograph of which dying 12-year-old became the symbol of the Soweto uprising?

He was carried by Mbuyisa Makhubo with his sister Antoinette running alongside.

Steve Biko led which anti-apartheid movement of the late 1960s and 1970s?

Influenced by Frantz Fanon, it became the official ideology of the South African Students' Organisation.

How did Steve Biko die in September 1977?

He had been held naked and shackled at Walmer police station in Port Elizabeth before being driven to a Pretoria prison hospital.

Who played Steve Biko in Richard Attenborough's 1987 film about him and Donald Woods?

The film was based on a 1978 biography by Biko's friend, newspaper editor Donald Woods.

The 1984 Tricameral Parliament had houses for whites and which two other groups?

Black South Africans were still excluded entirely, which triggered a new wave of protest through the United Democratic Front.

Which South African cricketer's selection for England's 1968 tour led PM Vorster to cancel it?

The row over the Coloured all-rounder helped push South Africa out of international cricket.

South Africa was warned it would be barred from which Olympics unless it changed its sports policies?

The South African Sports Association had appealed to the IOC in 1962 for the country's expulsion.

Which body welcomed South Africa back into international competition on 3 July 1992?

The country's national teams had spent decades in sporting isolation.

Who wrote the 1984 Special A.K.A. protest song 'Nelson Mandela' ('Free Nelson Mandela')?

He said he knew almost nothing about Mandela until an anti-apartheid concert in London in 1983.

Which E Street Band guitarist wrote the 1985 protest single 'Sun City'?

The artists pledged never to play the Sun City resort, then in the Bophuthatswana homeland.

Congress overrode which president's veto to pass the 1986 Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act?

The Republican-controlled Senate joined the override, a sign of how strong the anti-apartheid movement had become.

Which National Party leader announced the unbanning of the ANC in a speech to parliament on 2 February 1990?

Nine days later Mandela walked out of prison.

Who could vote in de Klerk's March 1992 referendum on continuing talks to end apartheid?

It was the last whites-only vote in South Africa's history.

De Klerk and Mandela were jointly honoured in 1993 with what?

The citation praised their work for 'the peaceful termination of the apartheid regime'.

The multi-party negotiations that opened in December 1991 were known by which acronym?

It stood for the Convention for a Democratic South Africa and committed itself to an 'undivided South Africa'.

South Africa's first all-race election, on 27 April 1994, is commemorated by which holiday?

The new National Assembly's first act was to elect Mandela president.

What share of the vote did the ANC win in the 1994 election?

It fell just short of the two-thirds needed to amend the interim constitution alone, so it formed a Government of National Unity.

Who chaired the Truth and Reconciliation Commission set up in 1996?

Perpetrators could apply for amnesty in exchange for full disclosure of their crimes.

The archbishop who chaired the TRC popularised which phrase for post-apartheid South Africa?

He had become the first black Archbishop of Cape Town in 1986.

At the 1995 Rugby World Cup final, Mandela wore a Springbok jersey and gave the trophy to which captain?

South Africa beat New Zealand 15-12 at Ellis Park thanks to an extra-time drop goal.

How many political-violence deaths did the TRC attribute to the apartheid era and transition?

Two-thirds of them came in the transition years between 1990 and 1994.

The 'crime of apartheid' is a crime against humanity under the 2007 statute that created which body?

The definition covers such policies anywhere, not only in South Africa.

On what date did Parliament repeal the Population Registration Act, which classified South Africans by race?

The national population register itself had been deracialised that February.

What name did the ANC give its programme of passive resistance launched in June 1952?

Volunteers deliberately broke apartheid laws and invited arrest.

Which prime minister told white South Africans to 'adapt or die' but backed away from his 'Rubicon' reforms?

He became the country's first executive state president in 1984 and resigned after a stroke in 1989.

What happened to the South African citizenship of black people assigned to a bantustan?

The plan was that eventually there would be no black South African citizens at all.

In what year was television finally introduced in South Africa, delayed to protect Afrikaans?

The service was run on apartheid lines: TV1 in Afrikaans and English for whites, TV2 and TV3 in African languages for black audiences.

Which body did the government pack from 49 to 89 seats in 1955 to strip Coloured voters from the roll?

It also packed the Appeal Court, raising it from five to eleven judges; the Senate was shrunk back to size immediately after the vote.

By 1978, how long did compulsory national service last for white South African men?

It had been nine months in 1968 and twelve in 1972, and reservists could be called up into late middle age.

Which country's defence minister, Shimon Peres, signed a 1975 security pact with P.W. Botha?

The pact led to $200 million in arms deals, and by 1988 Israeli arms sales to South Africa topped $1.4 billion.

What name was given to Botha's circle of generals and police chiefs who ran the 1980s states of emergency?

Under them roughly 40,000 people a year were whipped, most for political offences, and treason convicts could be hanged.

Project Coast, the covert weapons programme, allegedly planned to poison Mandela with which element before his release?

Witnesses at Dr Wouter Basson's 2002 trial said the aim was to damage his mental capacities; Frank Chikane survived a Project Coast poisoning.

How did ex-minister Adriaan Vlok apologise to activist Frank Chikane in 2006?

Other apologies came from F.W. de Klerk in 1997 and again in a video released after his death in 2021.

Since 2019, publicly displaying which item in South Africa has been classified as hate speech?

The National Party itself voted to disband in 2005, its last leader admitting the system was 'grounded on injustice'.