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The TV series The Crown has introduced a new generation to the callous cruelty of Margaret Thatcher, who opposed sanctions against South Africa’s Apartheid govt. Her position is framed as being at-odds with the Commonwealth (including Canada) and the Queen. Ok, but... (1)
Setting aside the monarchist silliness, let’s assess Canada’s opposition to Apartheid (a brief interruption of its history of supporting It). Canada inspired/helped build Apartheid, collaborated with it for decades, allowed its companies to break sanctions it briefly upheld. (2)
So, lest The Crown should leave one feeling sanguine about Canada’s contribution to this important cause, a thread on Canada’s role in building, sustaining, supporting Apartheid South Africa. More detail in the book (discount pricing by request). (3) https://fernwoodpublishing.ca/book/canada-in-the-world
South Africa’s history bears marked similarities to Canada’s; both were European settler colonies which conquered land and claimed dominion over the people who lived there, against their wishes, for the sake of profit, and with an assumption of inherent superiority. (4)
The Dutch settlers who squatted in what is now called South Africa (who called themselves Boers) found ‘their’ land increasingly under threat from the expanding British Empire in the late 1800s, eventually leading to the Boer War between the two groups of imperialists. (5)
Canada joined the British in a bloody war against the Boers, with the Canadian elite understanding its own wealth to be tied to that of the Empire. But immediately following British victory, the goal was to re-establish a Boer ruling class while profits flowed to London. (6)
Often overlooked is that black people were always the majority and many fought in the war. “Black” here encompasses many nations with different responses to the conflict (eg. Zulu had resisted both Boer/British colonialism, now had to hedge with one or the other.) (7)
British/Canadian troops burned crops, looted homes, and committed sexual violence, en route to victory. This meant greater British access to land/resources and a stronger African foothold against German capitalist expansion. 7000 Canadian soldiers furthered this ‘noble’ cause.(8)
British-Canadian John Buchan created a network of concentration camps, “places of death and malnutrition.” 1 in 3 prisoners was black, whom Buchan described as “strange, sullen, childish.” Another Canadian, Sam Steele, called them “untrustworthy and incapable of gratitude.” (9)
It quickly emerged that the Boers were being trained to rule the blacks on behalf of the British. Sam Steele was a NWMP original, a foot soldier of Canadian colonialism in the west, and now he created a Constabulary police force for SA. Boers were recruited; blacks were not. (10)
Canadian investment in South Africa boomed, as Steele’s police force supervised the forced labour of black people, especially in mining, and Canadian teachers and missionaries came to the country to help “civilize” it. The colonial parallels were evident. (11)
Canada developed a “special relationship” with SA, as it gained independence. In 1942, as the ideas for Apartheid took root, PM King noted that Canada’s “greatest problems have South African parallels” and took lessons from how it “coped with the difficulties it faced.” (12)
“Subjugating native peoples” was the primary point, but when newly-independent India criticized SA’s treatment of its Indian minority, PM King was quiet, lest attention turn to Canada’s treatment of South Asians (only given voting rights in BC in 1947).(13) https://www.ufv.ca/media/assets/sasi/BCHF-Story-on-the-Vote-(final).pdf
1944, height of the war against Nazism, Charles Jost Burchell, Cdn official in SA describes blacks as “a very low type,” “perfectly dumb, appear to have little brain capacity,” need to be controlled lest they “create more trouble in this country than the Negroses in the US.” (14)
Burchell was ultimately rewarded with a seat on the Privy Council; his views landed fine in Ottawa. No surprise there: PM King and PM Smuts of SA had together pushed a 1945 resolution to “preserve their identity as white groups and the high standard of living they enjoyed.” (15)
There is scholarly debate over the extent to which Apartheid itself was consciously modelled after Canada’s reserve/residential school systems; Linda Freeman reports that SA officials were given tours of both. Either way, the two systems clearly shared a logic and ideology. (16)
Canadian, SA leaders shared the language and ideology of white supremacy. Canada would quietly support its ally in creating an official system of racial segregation under a ruling party that had supported Nazi Germany. Canada only criticized SA when it had no other option. (17)
For instance, in 1957 when Martin Luther King Jr challenged PM Diefenbaker to take a stronger line against Apartheid, he refused, claiming that Canada disapproved of all racism and felt no need to single out South Africa in particular. (18)
However, after the Sharpeville massacre in 1960, Diefenbaker did call for SAs removal from the Commonwealth. By his own admission, Diefenbaker only agreed to this after India, Tanzania threatened to leave the org (which Canada found useful in managing postcolonial countries).(19)
This would reflect Canada’s pattern in the growing regional conflict that emerged in southern Africa in the 1970s: Canada would quietly lean on its close relationship with SA, it’s chief regional ally, while occasionally criticizing the most appalling elements of Apartheid. (20)
In 1971, Pierre Trudeau blustered abhorrence at Apartheid but claimed that sanctions against SA would be “ineffective” and Canada had no “capacity to influence” the Apartheid state. At this same moment, it was strangling socialist Chile with those “ineffective” sanctions. (21) https://twitter.com/canadainthewrld/status/1304500896412377091
All of southern Africa was divided in the 70s and 80s; fascist Portugal still controlled Angola and Mozambique, and far-right govts ruled in Rhodesia and SA. But left wing guerrilla resistance was growing and would soon overthrow Portugal and shift the regional balance. (22)
Canada supported Portugal, esp around its Cahora Bossa Dam in Mozambique, a project that brought together capitalists from the white settler states to clear out a guerrilla stronghold, establish a Portuguese settler enclave. Cdn companies like Alcan pursued and won contracts.(23)
But Portuguese fascism collapsed in 1975, the guerrillas liberated their people; the regional tide was turned. Apartheid S. Africa tried to invade the now independent Angola and Mozambique, but failed. Notably, the Angolans were able to hold on with armed support from Cuba. (24)
Canada reacted “with horror” at Cuba’s act of solidarity w Angola against the invading Apartheid state. But Canada was on the wrong side of history; Angolan/Cuban victory was the beginning of the end of Apartheid. Cuba claimed no spoils, and was hailed for its contribution. (25)
Those Cuban and Angolan soldiers had to face an Apartheid military armed by NATO and Canada (Canada’s most notable contribution was a “supergun” howitzer sold by the Space Research Corp.) NATO had close military links with South Africa and shared intelligence and strategy. (26)
Canada, meanwhile, kept doing business with the racial segregation states. Defying UN sanctions, a Canadian Falconbridge mine in Rhodesia was described by the Montreal Gazette as using black workers as “slave labour.” As they broke sanctions, the govt claimed no knowledge. (27)
After the massacre of students in Soweto in 1976, Pierre Trudeau promised that Canada would “not interfere in trade and investment”l.” sent RCMP officers to assist the Apartheid police in cracking down on blacks demanding freedom. He also helped SA develop nuclear weapons. (28)
The Brian Mulroney govt changed little in Canada’s approach. Canada sold weapons to SA, helped it secure a $1 billion IMF loan in 1982, and media mogul Conrad Black wrote that white South Africans “should be commended” for “defending themselves.” (29)
But by the mid-80s, the writing was on the wall. Black South Africans were in open revolt, Rhodesia had fallen, Namibian resistance to SA annexation was growing, world opinion had turned hard against Apartheid. Even in the west, civil society opposition reached a fever pitch.(30)
This was crucial to Canada changing its position. As @Cee_Webb details, it was the explosion of anti-Apartheid activism in Canada in the mid-1980s (and the hurling of a ceremonial mace at the SA ambassador) that forced the govt to rethink its approach.(31) https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/hidden-histories-and-political-legacies-of-the-canadian-anti-apartheid-move
In 1986, Mulroney made the canny decision to briefly switch sides, winning praise for his moral conviction. Though Canada had long called the ANC a terrorist group, it publicly joined the campaign of sanctions against Apartheid though they were among the weakest of any state.(32)
Great speech, but across 7 years of sanctions, Canadian trade with SA still totalled $1.6 billion. All the while, Canada leveraged its new position to lobby the ANC to abandon its socialist roots and become a “safe” capitalist party to inherit post-Apartheid South Africa. (33)
Flash forward about a decade, and South African workers voted the Canadian-owned Placer Dome mine the country’s second worst employer (2001). As scholars of SA have long noted, the victory against Apartheid was limited by the conditions placed upon it by the western powers. (34)
And yes, Margaret Thatcher was a holdout, even among Mulroney and Australian PM Fraser (who convinced Mulroney to oppose Apartheid only by fearmongering about an imminent, communist ANC victory that needed to be harnessed and controlled by the capitalist powers.) (35)
So it’s perfectly reasonable for The Crown to portray Thatcher in the fullness of her moral depravity and cynicism. (This Scottish woman’s assessment stands the test of time) But it is foolish to get excited about the strong stand taken by Commonwealth countries like Canada. (36)
Canada did all it could to shield the Apartheid regime from being held accountable for one of the most explicitly racist govts of the 20th century. Canada only briefly blinked in its support for Apartheid and did so only when it had no other choice (further reading below). (37)
For heroes, look not at Mulroney or the damn Queen, but the freedom fighters of FRELIMO, SWAPO, Cubans who risked their lives in solidarity, students and musicians of Soweto, generations of extraordinary people in SA who struggled, died for liberation. (38) https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/07/ashley-kriel-anti-apartheid
