Apartheid

Classifying People

The foundation of apartheid was the system of racial categorization enshrined in law by the Population Registration Act of 1950 (and subsequent amendments). The act provided for all South Africans to be classified into one of three basic racial categories: “A White person is one who in appearance is, or who is generally accepted as, a White person, but does not include a person who, although in appearance obviously a White person, is generally accepted as a Coloured person. A native is a person who is in fact or is generally accepted as a member of any aboriginal race or tribe of Africa. A Coloured person is a person who is not a White person nor a native.” Later, a fourth category, Indian, was added for people of South Asian descent, and the label native was replaced by the labels Bantu and Black. Racial classification was recorded in official identity documentation. From 1970, the Black category was further subdivided into ethnic or linguistic groups (e.g., Zulu, Xhosa).

This racial categorization was largely “common-sensical” and consensual, based on agreed and broadly coterminous factors (descent, language or culture, and appearance). In difficult or contested cases, classification was not based on either descent or purely biological markers; instead, the cultural markers of appearance and general acceptance were most important. Although informal “rules” about appearance—including about skin color or hair—were used, they were used inconsistently and appearance was generally interpreted in terms of social standing or class. Overall, judgments about social standing (e.g., friends, work, name, dress, deportment, tastes) were most important in contested cases.

The 1951 national population census provided the first opportunity for mass racial classification. Race was determined by census enumerators, who had no specific expertise and received no special training. In ambiguous cases, therefore, classification reflected the prevailing social prejudices of White people. People could appeal to a Race Classification Appeal Board. Although the appeal board tended to find in favor of the applicants, there were very few appeals, reflecting the generally consensual basis of classification.

Ambiguous and contested cases generally involved the very small minority of Colored people. “Colored” [Page 81]was a composite and diverse category that included the descendants of relationships between White and Black people, the descendants of “Malay” slaves brought from Southeast Asia (categorized separately in 1951 but not thereafter), and (after 1970) descendants of the indigenous Khoi and San who inhabited the Western Cape prior to the arrival of either White or Black people and who did not speak Bantu languages. Although segregation between White and Black preceded apartheid, segregation between White and Colored was a primary objective of the apartheid state.

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