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Then in 1867, a discovery—diamonds— was made in the Orange Free State that would shape South Africa’s destiny. Soon after, gold was discovered in Transvaal. The British and Boers vied for control of these wealthy areas. The British had the upper hand and took over the diamond and gold mines. A few spec- ulators became very rich and turned hundreds of thousands of natives into migrant workers.

Digging for diamonds at Kimberley-Kopje in 1872, drawn by J. Vanione in 1881.

The British also pushed the Africans who lived near the mineral deposits off their land. Subjugating a native population was common practice for the Brit- ish. They had done it in other regions with much success. The Boers were a different problem. Like the British, they were white, European, and educated in Western culture. Still, in the minds of the British, they needed to be brought into line. CONFLICT AND IMPRISONMENT The British imprisoned 116,000 Afrikaner women and children in concentration camps during the Boer War. In addition, the British forced 115,000 Africans into these prisons. Disease and starvation killed about 42,000 whites and blacks in the camps. In 1899, the Boers, led by Paul Kruger, president of the Transvaal, declared war on the English. The war did not end well for the Boers, whom the English handily defeated two years later. Black Africans used the conflict to reclaim some of their land, a move that was short lived. After the defeat, in 1910, both the English and the Boers created the Union of South Africa, a self-governing colony in the British Commonwealth . The political and economic suppression of South Africa’s blacks began in earnest. The new government did not give blacks full citizenship or the right to vote. Feeling politically isolated, they formed the African National Congress (ANC) in 1912. The following year, the division between white and black was made more pronounced with the passage of the Natives Land Act. The law divided the new nation into “white” and “black” areas. Through the Native

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CHAPTER ONE: HISTORY, RELIGION, AND TRADITION