Apartheid

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They refused to issue visas or passes to family members and, moreover, housed the workers
adjacent to the mines and factories in hostels, in which men only were allowed to stay.
Moreover, at the same time, they did exactly what the Ptolemies had done before them and
what the Israelis would do simultaneously and later: try to entice Europeans to immigrate to
the country out of a basic motivation of greed – a recipe for disaster in the long run. In Israel,
the range of motivation might be somewhat wider, to include the self-styled pioneering
adventurers and the religious zealots, none of which, by the way, make things any easier for
the indigenous people.
Obviously, the growth of a modern economy in South Africa made apartheid
increasingly untenable under these long-term demographic conditions. Blacks were needed
not only as menial labor, but increasingly also in more skilled occupations and even in
managerial ones. As we will see, this meant that some Blacks would have to be allowed
education, and that some of them would even have to be encouraged to become educated. In
addition, the relentless spread of industrialized capitalism in the world made South African
Blacks increasingly needed as consumers of mass-produced commodities. 325
Rapid and competitive population growth becomes normal in apartheid, causing
increasingly severe conflicts over resources and space. Both the people, including the
invading settlers, and the environment suffer tremendously under the strain. But of course the
people who suffer the most are the indigenous. As with the initial invasion and all subsequent
physical violence, the basic blame for the population race and its grave consequences must be
placed squarely with the invading oppressive minority.
The white South African elites saw racial mixing as the worst of evils. White-Black
marriage and sexual intercourse had been outlawed in fits and starts since the first white
settlements in the 17 th century. Sex between Black and White was again banned in 1927. With
the 1950 Immorality Act, sex between White and Non-White was also prohibited. In 1957,
finally, ‘intimacy’ between members of different races was outlawed. To kiss someone of the
other race could now land one in jail. 326
This aspect of apartheid was brought to the extreme by the South African apartheid
state, and I know of no legal parallel to this anywhere else. However, it is still a difference of
degree rather than kind. In 1957, some of the powerful Whites with foresight already realized
that they were fighting a losing battle with regard to the population race, and they took to such
extreme measures to prolong their dominance as long as possible. We will return to this issue
in the contexts of citizenship and work in apartheid South Africa.
The apartheid immigration policies were detrimental to the country in every possible
way, as the following brilliant analysis, comparison, and even personal connection with Israel
explains:
Immigration to South Africa worked contrary to the normal rules
whereby host states can cream off the brightest and best from other
countries and immigrants struggle against intense competition – and,
not infrequently, prejudice – to make a place for themselves in their
adopted countries. If you couldn’t cope with the competition at home,
South Africa offered a warm welcome and sheltered employment – as
long as you were white. This did no favours to the gene pool and
skewed the society further against the forces of reform. In Palestine
today, the words of war uttered in strong South African and American
accents by Jewish settlers during the past turbulent months speak of a
similar scenario. The law of return requires Israel to accept any Jewish
person, regardless of their ethics or ability. As well as immigrants of
325 Ibid: 281f; N.N.: Statistics in Brief 1997, 1997; Reader 1998 (1997): 674
326 Lester 1996: 112. The Nazis banned extramarital interracial sex as well as intermarriage, but, as far as I know,
not officially ‘intimacy’ between members of different races. See Fredrickson 2002: 124.