Studies On Social Life Of African People In Johannesburg 1930'-70'

In the day before the year of 1994, African people were under the government of White racist in South Africa. As the largest number of race, the most important source of labor, African people's urbanization was under strict government restrictions. White government required black labours to develop the economy, however, excluded African people as constant habitants living in the cities. In 1923, the white government passed "Natives (Urban Areas) Act", in which African people were viewed as temporary visitors in cities, not the long-term residents, and with an attempt to stop the African urbanization. However, urbanization is an economic phenomenon. With the modern industrial economy of South Africa established and developed, the African urbanization was unavoidable. After the National Party came to power in 1948, its policies on one hand, recognized some urbanized African people living in cities legally, and placed them far away from the city centers. On the other hand, it restricted the flow of migrant workers and women. The National Party's whole policy for the African people was called "Apartheid."Economic structure of South Africa was based on the white's capital and technology and African cheap labor, which was the main driver of the African urbanization. As the largest city and economic center in South Africa, Johannesburg gathered a large number of African people, and formed two important townships Sophiatown and Soweto. The African urbanization of Johannesburg had begun in 1930-40's. In this period, the economic situation of Reserve became worse, and relied on exporting labor to maintain livelihood. At the same time, the modern industrial system established in the Witwatersrand, which required lots of labor. Then a huge amount of African flowed into the Johannesburg, some of them settled in the city. At first, African people scattered in the city center. Johannesburg Council's Slum clearance scheme forced most of African people to live in the Sophiatown, West Area, which became the first of Bantu center in Rand. Sophiatown was a multi-ethnic area, which was considered as racial pot of South Africa. Most African workers lived here couldn't earn high-income, and both men and women must work to support themselves. As a family-oriented community, mostly black school-age children only had chance to complete primary education, and it was one of reasons to stimulate the breeding of youth crime. In 1950s, the National Party implemented the Apartheid policy, and forcedly removed the African people from West Area.Another Township of Orlando, which is the origin of Soweto, and far from the city center, became increasingly congested in 1940s, leading to extreme shortage of black housing. Therefore, in the late forties, African squatter Movements waved the Johannesburg and Witwatersrand, which forced the white government to think how to provide house. Squatter Movement, site and service schemes and, ultimately, the scores of matchbox houses that were erected in the newly built townships decisively altered the dynamics of African urbanization on Rand. The southwest of the city transformed into a huge black community-Soweto.In 1950s, the National Party strengthened the controls of blacks'movement, especially the pass system was extended to the African woman, which led to African people continuously protest, until the Sharpeville massacre of 1960. After the outbreak of tragedy, the National Party seriously suppressed African's political organizations, and brought Soweto and other black townships into a decade of silence. Nevertheless, these years proved to be a formative period in the development of Soweto, providing a pause during which a more stable, coherent and consolidated black urban culture could take shape. From 1960 to 1976, a long-term stable urban life for the blacks bred a unique culture, reflected in the costumes, music, language, entertainment, and other aspects. In education, the government replaced the church to control education system, for more opportunities for black students enrolled. However, the quality of teaching had decreased, and a few black students had the opportunities to have secondary education. On the other hand, black Tsotsi gangs continued to plague the lives of ordinary people, and in conflict with the black students. From the late 1960s, a new wave of thought "Black Consciousness" spread among the young students in Soweto, which laid the ideological foundation of uprising in 1976.The Minister of Bantu Education decided that the Afrikaner should teach in the African schools of'white'areas, which caused a fierce protest from African students. In 16 June 1976, students assembled to demonstrate. However, a peaceful demonstration was crashed by police, turning into a massacre. Followed the outbreak of the Soweto uprising, the whole country's townships in South Africa had been in turmoil in two year. Soweto uprising marked the beginning of a turbulent era, until the establishment of the new South Africa in 1994.