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Tydskrif vir Geesteswetenskappe

versão On-line ISSN 2224-7912
versão impressa ISSN 0041-4751

Resumo

STRAUSS, PJ. Apartheid: A slogan in the elections of 1948 in South Africa. DF Malan and the National Party in a historical-ethical perspective. Tydskr. geesteswet. [online]. 2022, vol.62, n.2, pp.276-290. ISSN 2224-7912.  http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/2224-7912/2022/v62n2a2.

Although the slogan of apartheid which was widely used in the 1948 elections in South Africa can undoubtedly be ascribed to the Nationalist Party, apartheid as a way of life, had perhaps already been introduced with the arrival of Jan van Riebeeck and his 90 fellowmen, as representatives of the Dutch East Indian Company, at the Cape of Good Hope on the 6th of April 1652. As a result of a perceived difference in lifestyle and values in their encounters with people from the African continent at the Cape, distancing themselves from such non-European people soon became a way of life among the Europeans who had taken up permanent residence at the Cape. In the elections for whites only in 1948 in South Africa, as had been customary since the establishment of the Union of South Africa in 1910, DF Malan and the National Party embraced the term apartheid as a convenient slogan with which to advocate their racial policy. They promised secure continuance of whites and white political domination in South Africa, which they regarded as critical to the political and economic stability of the country as a whole. A stability which would, in their view, provide a framework for the development of the so-called non-whites to accept and maintain as their way of life the standards of a Western society. In so doing the purpose of creating a society functioning according to Western principles would ensure the peaceful, yet separated, co-existence of people from different origins, i.e. European versus non-European. Naturally, in such a society steeped in Western principles, the civil rights of the Western orientated white population would be guaranteed as a matter of course. However, in the Nationalists 'perspective of justice based on Christian norms, the apartheid policy of1948, in its relegation of people into separate groups categorised as either European or non-European, would simultaneously be beneficial for the so-called non-whites in that they could thus be educated to a Westernised way of life from within their own culture, thereby still maintaining a different identity. In the formulation of the National Party's apartheid policy of1948 two big problems may be discerned - problems which would ultimately result in the failure and official termination of this policy in the democratic elections held in South Africa in 1994. In the first place, apartheid differentiated between white and non-white, thereby discriminating against the non-white population. White people entertained full civil rights but non-whites were limited in this regard. Race, however, is not an accepted Christian norm for determining relationships between people and, if used in this way, it is widely called racism. Increasingly, the international resistance against and rejection of an immorally based apartheid policy intensified, eventually to be terminated with the introduction of a democratic South Africa in 1994. In the second place, the policy of apartheid in 1948 was vague about the aim of the so-called development envisagedfor non-white people. There was no clear goal for their political, social and economic development. The policy also gave no indication as to when the control by whites should or would be lifted. In the view of outsiders in 1948 it seemed as if white domination would never end. It gradually became clear that it was impossible to use the outlines or big framework of apartheid as it had been conceptualised in 1948 as a means towards justice and societal development. Economic trends in South Africa undermined the overarching idea of apartheid, namely "separate but equal". Moreover, constructive critique on the practical implementation of total geographic apartheid offered by a congress of friendly reformed churches organised by the Dutch Reformed Church in 1950, as well as the report of the Tomlinson Commission with the same message in 1954, were rejected and ignored by the National Party. However, after repeated and widely publicised revolt against apartheid measures among the South African black population in the 1960's, 1970's and 1980's, occasions which prompted the apartheid government to resort to a state of emergency, the policy was rejected worldwide. This led to South Africa's increasing economic and political international isolation coercing the then South African government to abandon the idea ofapartheid as a means towards peaceful coexistence in 1985. Whilst it already became clear in the 1980's that apartheid was unsustainable, the policy was only officially terminated after the democratic elections held in 1994.

Palavras-chave : Apartheid as a worldwide familiar term; way of life since 1652; distancing of peoples with different values; strict apartheid in 1948; white control and survival for stability; apartheid as a policy of "separate but equal" not feasible; economic trends prevented separate development; apartheid isolated; black resistance; racism.

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