History
| Apartheid in South Africa |
|---|
| Events and projects |
| 1948 general election Coloured vote constitutional crisis Treason Trial Sharpeville massacre Rivonia Trial Soweto uprising Church Street bombing Khotso House bombing Cape Town peace march CODESA St James Church massacre Shell House massacre |
| Organisations |
| ANC · IFP · AWB · Black Sash CCB · Conservative Party · ECC · PP RP · PFP · HNP · MK · PAC · UDF · Broederbond · National Party COSATU · SACC · SADF · SAIC · SAP · SACP · Umkhonto we Sizwe · State Security Council |
| People |
| P. W. Botha · Mangosuthu Buthelezi · Steve Biko · Yusuf Dadoo · Sheena Duncan · F. W. de Klerk · Eugene de Kock · Ruth First · Bram Fischer · Chris Hani · John Frederick Harris · Barbara Hogan · Trevor Huddleston · Helen Joseph · Ronnie Kasrils · Ahmed Kathrada · Jimmy Kruger · Moses Mabhida · Winnie Madikizela-Mandela · Mac Maharaj · D. F. Malan · Nelson Mandela · Kaiser Matanzima · Govan Mbeki · Thabo Mbeki · Robert McBride · Billy Nair · Hastings Ndlovu · Alan Paton · Hector Pieterson · Harry Schwarz · Walter Sisulu JG Strijdom · Joe Slovo · Helen Suzman · Oliver Tambo · Eugène Terre'Blanche · Andries Treurnicht · Desmond Tutu · H. F. Verwoerd · B. J. Vorster |
| Places |
| Bantustan · District Six Robben Island · Sophiatown South-West Africa · Soweto Sun City · Vlakplaas |
| Related topics |
| Cape Qualified Franchise Afrikaner nationalism Apartheid legislation · Freedom Charter Sullivan Principles · Kairos Document Disinvestment campaign South African Police Apartheid in popular culture |
Sophiatown was originally part of the Waterfall farm. Over time it included the neighbouring areas of Martindale and Newclare. It was purchased by a speculator, Hermann Tobiansky, in 1897. He acquired 237 acres four miles or so west of the centre of Johannesburg. The private leasehold township was surveyed in 1903 and divided into almost 1700 small stands. The township was named after Tobiansky's wife, Sophia, and some of the streets were named after his children Toby, Gerty, Bertha and Victoria. Before the enactment of the Natives Land Act, 1913, black South Africans had freehold rights, and they bought properties in the suburb. The distance from the city centre was seen as disadvantageous and after the City of Johannesburg built a sewage plant nearby, the area seemed even less attractive. Because of these and other reasons most of the whites had moved out by 1920, leaving behind a vibrant multi-racial community. By the late 1940s Sophiatown had a population of nearly 54 000 Black Africans, 3 000 Coloureds, 1 500 Indians and 686 Chinese.
Read more about this topic: Sophiatown
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“America is the only nation in history which, miraculously, has gone directly from barbarism to degeneration without the usual interval of civilization.”
—Attributed to Georges Clemenceau (1841–1929)
“A people without history
Is not redeemed from time, for history is a pattern
Of timeless moments.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“This is the greatest week in the history of the world since the Creation, because as a result of what happened in this week, the world is bigger, infinitely.”
—Richard M. Nixon (1913–1995)