The Nature of the Homelands in South Africa

Description

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19639578

Nomonde Nelisiwe Jele (Department of Historical Studies (Howard Campus), School of Arts, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa)

Homelands became one of the most effective political modus operandi to divide and rule Blacks in South Africa. It became another effective form of alienating Blacks from the South African mainstream economy and politics, as they had to be placed in ethnically divided areas where the main human necessity was very scarce. The Group Areas Act of 1950 became the divisive Act that separated Whites from Blacks, but the Homelands Act of 1959 became a divisive Act between Blacks and Blacks as it put more emphasis on the separation of black people. This Act of Homelands became the Act that encourages competition among Blacks instead of unifying them for the common good. Blacks under Homelands had to develop as individual ethnic groups that would set their goals without including others. In this way became easy for the apartheid government to deal with individual black ethnic group than unified groups. Homelands in this way became a divisive mechanism that left Blacks in less productive and non-arable land, system that would keep them fully dependent on white people for their livelihood.