As already noted, political agitation and opposition to White rule in South Africa goes back to the earliest colonial times, when indigenous lands, especially prime agricultural land, were expropriated from their rightful owners – often without compensation. Although the colonial government passed many discriminatory laws against Blacks the most severe, the 1913 Natives’ Land Act codified those injustices by preserving some 87% of the Union’s land for the exclusive use of the white minority and a paltry 13% for use by African farmers, some 80% of the population. The Act prevented Africans from purchasing, leasing or using land, except in the “reserves” or “Bantustans.” The Act effectively meant that access to land and other resources depended upon a person’s racial classification. This legislation caused endemic overcrowding,extreme pressure on the land, and poverty. The Act prompted a protest march led by Mahatma Gandhi (the late Indian leader). At the same time, there were mine protests and 800 women were arrested in a related protest against pass laws.

African dissatisfaction culminated in the ANC sending a deputation to London in 1914 to protest the Land Act. However, the colonial secretary informed the delegation that there was nothing that he could do. This was the year the First World War broke out and the National Party was formed under Hertzog. A number of Africans were called upon to assist the Allied cause against Germany. Nevertheless, at the end of the war Africans continued to be accorded second-rate status and found it very difficult to access skilled jobs. Those who were absorbed by the emerging industries continued to receive paltry wages and were subjected to sub-standard housing and inferior sanitary facilities, prompting the formation of the first African trade union, the Industrial Workers of Africa, in 1917. After the end of the war in 1918 the Industrial and Commercial Workers’ Union (ICU) was formed by dockworkers, spearheaded by a prominent Malawian migrant worker and activist, Clements Kadalie. In 1919 another deputation to London complained against the Natives Land Act. Although the delegation is said to have been “received sympathetically” by the then Prime Minister, Lloyd George, they came back more disgruntled than ever as the British Premier told them that their problems would have to be resolved in South Africa by the South African government. Resistance against unjust laws such as the Land Act persisted.

Nelson Mandela was born on 18 July 1918 as the war in Europe still raged. Alongside a new generation of Black activists, he would enter the political fray years later to challenge the political environment created by whites supremacy.

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