Nationalism: The Role Of Apartheid In South Africa

Google defines nationalism as an extreme form of patriotism marked by feeling of superiority over other countries or advocacy of political independence for a particular country. From what I’ve learned, I believe nationalism to be the coming together of nations that believe they share common beliefs, to work towards a common goal. But who said nationalism should be established amongst races, religion, culture if we all descend from ‘a common ancestor’ and have just adapted to different things around us differently. Different countries/states had different types of nationalism but if we focus on South African nationalism this would be coming together to fight for equal rights between races.

Apartheid in South Africa can be defined as a policy

They then tried to communicate with the British government to complain about the pass laws, which were a type of “passport” in towns, cities and provinces for Africans to carry around. This was a way for the government to keep track of Africans and make sure segregation is practiced, but they were ignored and that is when the union of South Africa was formed in May 1910.

The Union of South Africa consisted of white men in which they had all political power. The main points for this union was for the white folk to have complete control over franchise (right to vote) and the ownership of land. The Native Congress obviously didn’t agree with this. In [Source A page 124] shows that these people did not agree with the union’s constitution and policies and went to London to oppose the Union. When this failed, the South African Native National Congress was

They hoped for immediate change and were influenced by Garveyism, which was named after Marcus Garvey who believed Africa was for Africans and urged all blacks to come back to Africa [source E pg 128] shows he believed in black economic self dependence and right of blacks to self determination. He believed all Blacks had a common heritage. He also believed non-Africans should be chased out of African Land. ANC then responded to Garveyism. In [Source G pg 131] which stated that different racial groups are here to stay as one. The ANC explained which form of nationalism they supported in the Freedom Charter which refused race to define African nationalism. They called for’ a democratic government for all regardless of race’, ‘SA nation belonging to all, black and white’. This was known as charterism. [Source H pg 131]

Before the ideas of Marcus Garvey were brought up the formation of the youth league in 1943 which consisted of younger ANC members. Anton Lemede as first president, accused ANC leaders of representing the rich minority instead of the poor majority, they wanted to overcome old-fashioned attitude of older members and become a more active nationalist organisation and bring about change for all classes and races. Encouraging the youth to step up and fight against the