IB History Division and Classification Notes

Division and Classification: The Legal Architecture of Apartheid

1. When the National Party (NP) won the 1948 election, it began systematically encoding racial separation into law - transforming informal segregation into a rigid legal framework.
2. Between 1950 and 1953, a series of laws classified people by race, dictated where they could live, work and travel, and controlled their education - collectively known as apartheid (Afrikaans for 'separateness').

Population Registration Act (1950)

1. The Population Registration Act (1950) was the cornerstone of apartheid - it required every South African to be classified into one of three racial categories: White, Coloured or Native (Black).
2. Classification was often arbitrary - officials used the infamous pencil test, pushing a pencil through a person's hair; if it fell out, the person might be classified as White or Coloured rather than Black.
3. A person's racial classification determined every aspect of their life - where they could live, whom they could marry, what schools they attended and what jobs they could hold.
4. Families were torn apart when members received different classifications - siblings could be placed in different racial groups, separating them legally and socially.
5. An Indian category was later added, creating a four-tier hierarchy that placed Whites at the top and Black Africans at the bottom.

Group Areas Act (1950)

1. The Group Areas Act (1950) divided South Africa into racially designated zones - each racial group was assigned specific areas in which they could live and own property.
2. This led to forced removals on a massive scale - over 3.5 million people were uprooted from their homes and relocated to designated areas between the 1960s and 1980s.
3. District Six in Cape Town was a vibrant, multiracial neighbourhood of over 60,000 residents - declared a 'White area' in 1966, its inhabitants were forcibly removed and their homes bulldozed.
4. Sophiatown in Johannesburg - a centre of Black culture, jazz and political activism - was demolished in 1955 and replaced with a White suburb cynically renamed Triomf ('Triumph').
5. The best urban land was reserved for Whites - Black Africans were pushed to overcrowded, under-resourced townships on the urban periphery, such as Soweto.
6. Forced removals destroyed established communities, severed social networks and stripped families of their property rights - compensation, if offered at all, was derisory.

Pass Laws and the Natives Abolition of Passes Act (1952)

1. Despite its misleading name, the Natives (Abolition of Passes and Co-ordination of Documents) Act (1952) actually tightened pass requirements - it replaced multiple documents with a single 'reference book' that all Black Africans over 16 had to carry at all times.
2. The pass book (dompas) contained identity details, employment records and permission stamps - failure to produce it on demand led to immediate arrest, fines or imprisonment.