European Imperialism In Africa Essay

Many of the issues faced in modern-day Africa can be traced back to the European Imperialistic Movement, more precisely, that of the British and Dutch colonizers. The earliest recording of European Imperialism can be traced to the eightteenth century with many of Europe’s top political powers all racing to colonize Africa. Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, and Italy were among the first countries to colonize Africa. However, before that point, the climate, the diseases that ran rampant, and the physical layout of Africa, delayed most European colonization until the eighteen hundreds. Although the descendents of Dutch settlers (referred to locally as Afrikaans or Boers) came to South Africa as early as the sixteen hundreds. The main setting of the Apartheid was concentrated within the

South African country, but other pockets of Apartheid laws were dispersed throughout the African continent.
South Africa is a country endowed with a large quantity of natural resources including rich and fertile farmlands and distinctive mineral resources. South African mines are the world’s top producers in the mining and manufacturing of precious gems, including diamonds, gold as well as platinum.
South Africa was colonized by the English and Dutch in the seventeenth century which resulted in massive amounts of tension between the English conquerors and the already established Boer settlers. The tension reached its peak as Dutch and English relations became marred by green over the diamond mines and this then sparked the Boer War. Following their independence from England, a tense power-struggle between both groups held a large influence until the 1940's, when the Afrikaner National Party (ANP) was able to gain a strong majority within the government. Strategists in the National Party invented the apartheid as a way to solidify their control over the economic and social system. Initially, the intention of the apartheid was to preserve white control, while also widening racial separation. Starting in the1960's, a plan of ``Grand Apartheid'' was executed, highlighting the territorial separation and police repression of the colored people of South Africa.
With the ratification of apartheid laws in 1948, racial discrimination was established. Race laws touched every aspect of social life, including a prohibition of marriage between colored, or black people, and white citizens, and the authorization of ``white-only'' jobs and careers. In 1950, the Population Registration Act mandated that all South Africans be racially classified into one of three categories: white, black, or of mixed descent (colored). The coloured category comprised of major subgroups of Indians, Asians or any non-white or non-black racial group. Categorization into these groups was based on vague classification criteria such as over all appearance, social acceptance, and familial descent. For example, a white person was defined as ``In appearance obviously a white person or generally accepted as a white person.'' A person could not be considered white if one of his or her parents were non-white, they would then be classified into the colored ranking, including those of mixed descent. The conclusion that a person was ``obviously white'' would take into consideration``his habits, education, and speech and deportment and demeanor.'' A black person would be of or recognized as a member of an African tribe or race, and a colored person is one that is not black or white but of some other non-white ethnicity. These categories of people still lacked the same rights and privileges as the white citizens. The Department of Home Affairs is then created to help track the racial populations of South Africa and was also in charge of the grouping of the populace into the racial groups. Any defiance of the race laws were dealt with swiftly and harshly, in order to avoid any mass upheaval and discourage any uprising from the general population. All blacks were mandated to carry ``pass books'' that held their fingerprints, photo identification and information on access to certain sections of the country where their race was not permitted, non-black areas.
It was in 1951, the Bantu Authorities Act established guidelines for ethnic government in African reserves, known as ``homelands.'' These homelands were individualistic nations to which each black or colored African was assigned by the government according to the Record of Origin, an inaccurate database that led to repeated misplacements. They are similar to the Indian Reserves that many of the Cherokee tribe were banished to during the Trail of Tears, numerous families were split apart and lives destroyed in the forced migration of the non-white African citizens to the homelands. Any political rights held by a non-white African were restricted to the assigned homeland and held no bearing on the overall running and maintenance of the government, in other words, they had no voice in how the government ran. The premise was that they would be citizens of the homeland, losing their citizenship in South Africa altogether. From 1976 - 1981, four of these homelands were created, depriving nine million black and colored South African natives of their rights and privileges as citizens of South Africa. This form of segregation lasted a total of fifty years, only coming to an end in the early 1990s in a succession of steps that led to the creation of the modern-day democratic government in 1994 that still resides to this day. Decades of violent internal protest, decreasing white allegiance, international economic and cultural penalties, economic hardships gave rise to the new era of equality within today’s South Africa.

The Dilemma
Due to the 1951 mandate, forcing millions of racially ethnic South Africans into the homelands, the influx of new and poor residents into the KwaZulu homeland strained its resources to the edge of collapse. Within 1960 alone, more than 1/2 of the country's sizable black population, which equated to about 1/3 of South Africa's total population was forced to live on about 10% of its most marginal, least productive land, and they could not leave for the next fifty years. This led to many ecological and societal problems that the black population still grapples with today, twenty years after the end of the Apartheid.
One issue that was caused due to the Apartheid is ecological stress that was pressed upon the physical resources of the homeland region due to the overcrowded populace. The density of the population within these areas amounted to, at times, 10 times the population density of the white populated areas. And with the additional population came the additional physical impact of human traffic throughout the region, the significant stain of human waste and the increase effort of farmers to produce crops from barely cultivable land. The strain of these factors contributed to the loss of about 25% of South Africa’s top soil by 1990 and the increase of the threat of desertification to 50% by that same year. This results in a loss of more than four-hundred million tons of South African soil annually.
Additionally, overcrowding strains the infrastructure of a the homelands and a disproportion of food and maintenance service supply to its demand. In one instance, the demand of available electricity to houses within the homelands far exceeded the supply, and numerous families would level the local forests to get fuel to heat and power their homes for basic amenities. This led to widespread deforestation, and exacerbated the problem of soil erosion with the decrease of tree loosening the soil.
Another issue facing the post-Apartheid African population is the social constraints the South African people were put under and the long term effects this had on the economy.

Homelands suffered from a lack of labor and a lack of reliable educational resources, resulting in a human capital deficit. Despite the black population having the highest percentage of employable people within its workforce, they would have no choice, but to work under the white-owned cities, mines and factories as low-level wage earners. This was a purposeful decision of the people who crafted the Apartheid policies. The black and colored South African citizens were seen as nothing but a steady flow of cheap labor to the crafters of the policies and were kept purposefully dependent upon the Republic of South African government so that they could not advance or progress on their own merit. The lack of labor upon the Black Homelands meant that there was no opportunity for home grown businesses to start or for black farmers of the homelands to get much needed assistance to work their lands.This resulted in the continuation of the economic instability and rampant poverty throughout the

region.
The intense poverty and lack luster education prevented the black youths from making no more than on average $100 per month. Over 50% of the South African black population was illiterate, compared to a 99% rate of white South African literacy. This not only relegated them permanently to doing cheap manual labor but prohibited them from using educational resources and tools to manage their lands better. The Homeland Government so in need of money that it could not offer any assistance to local farmers to help prevent land degradation, and overtime all of the homelands reported a steady decline in crop yield each year.
Additionally, the most significant negative impact of the Apartheid was an increase of infighting within the African homelands between the many political parties that developed from the lands. The majority of the fighting from 1990-1994 was between the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) and the United Democratic Front (UDF) and this caused most of the political strife within the homelands. While long periods of violence did occur in various parts of South Africa during the Apartheid, including horrendous events such as the Sharpeville massacre of 1960 or the Soweto student uprising of 1976, these violent incidents were directed purely at the Apartheid government and differed from the fighting within black homelands, which was essentially between rival political parties.
The Inkatha Freedom Party was created and led by Chief Gatsche Buthelezi, who was the head administrator of KwaZulu-Natal Homeland when the Homeland Acts had begun in 1960. Buthelezi attempted to rally the people of his new nation into a unified country within the Homeland. He mirrored many of the policies of the African National Congress (ANC), which was the fundamental force against Apartheid, into his own political party. However, as the ANC become increasingly frustrated with the racially closed-off political system and started to resort to more violent tactics to get their point across, the IFP and the ANC started to diverge in their vision and eventually split apart from each other.
Eventually the ANC was banned by the South African government from taking part in any political events within the homelands in the country of South Africa. Under much reformation the ANC became the United Democratic Front (UDF) in KwaZulu Homelands. The IFP came to become a symbol of the Zulu-nationalist agenda and sought independence of the white government, although the IFP was accused on numerous occasions by the UDF of being hypocritical and working covertly with the South African government to tarnish the reputation opposing political parties in order to receive financial support from the government. The UDF was soon thereafter labeled as communist party by both the IFP and the South African government cementing the feud for future generations.