The Hidden Histories of Power and Oppression

When South Africa is discussed today, the focus often falls on Nelson Mandela, the peaceful transition of the 1990s, and the country’s struggle with corruption and inequality.

Yet what is less often told is the deep and brutal role of external powers — Britain, America, and Germany — in shaping South Africa’s history of oppression.

These nations not only colonized, armed, and legitimized white supremacy in South Africa but also actively suppressed black freedom movements for centuries.

Their hands are not clean, and their influence extends from the days of slavery and colonization to modern-day geopolitics.

This is the story they don’t teach you in school — a story of land dispossession, massacres, economic exploitation, apartheid support, and ongoing systemic inequalities.

Britain: Empire, Colonization, and Apartheid Foundations

The Arrival of the British and Land Theft

The British arrived in South Africa in 1795, seizing the Cape Colony from the Dutch. Their mission was not just strategic (to control sea routes around the Cape of Good Hope) but also exploitative. They dispossessed indigenous groups like the Khoisan, Xhosa, and Zulu from their fertile lands, instituting systems of forced labor and taxation that tied Africans into colonial dependency.

Wars of Conquest and Divide-and-Rule

Britain waged a series of bloody wars in the 19th century — including the Anglo-Zulu War (1879) and the Anglo-Boer Wars (1880–1881 and 1899–1902). Africans were caught in between, used as labor and cannon fodder while their lands were taken. The British perfected a “divide and rule” policy, pitting Africans, Boers, and different ethnic groups against one another to prevent unity against colonial authority.

The Mining Economy and Racial Segregation

Britain’s discovery of diamonds (1867) and gold (1886) in South Africa changed everything. Black South Africans were forced into cheap labor through pass laws, hut taxes, and violent displacement from their lands. Britain’s corporate interests — including companies like De Beers — made fortunes while Africans were treated as expendable laborers, housed in compounds under appalling conditions.

Laying the Foundations of Apartheid

Though apartheid as a formal policy came later under Afrikaner rule in 1948, the British created the structural racism that made it possible. The 1913 Natives Land Act, passed under British-influenced governance, prohibited black South Africans from owning land in “white” areas — restricting them to just 7% of the land. This law was a cornerstone of apartheid decades later.

Germany: Colonizer and Enabler of Racial Oppression

German Colonial Ambitions in Southern Africa

While Germany did not formally colonize South Africa itself, it held nearby territories — notably German South-West Africa (modern-day Namibia). The policies and atrocities carried out there were deeply tied to South Africa’s racial order.

The Herero and Nama Genocide (1904–1908)

Germany’s actions in Namibia were nothing short of genocidal. After resistance from the Herero and Nama peoples, German colonial troops launched a campaign of extermination. Tens of thousands were driven into the desert to die of starvation and thirst, while others were placed in concentration camps. Scholars widely regard this as the first genocide of the 20th century.

Influence on South African White Supremacy

The racial ideologies developed by Germany — rooted in notions of Aryan supremacy and pseudo-scientific racism — influenced Afrikaner nationalists in South Africa. Later, Nazi Germany’s relationship with South Africa strengthened, with Germany becoming one of apartheid South Africa’s key economic and military partners during the Cold War. German corporations supplied weapons and technology even as the rest of the world imposed sanctions.

America: The Silent Partner of Apartheid

America’s Early Complicity in Segregation

The U.S., itself a country built on slavery and Jim Crow segregation, had a natural affinity with South Africa’s apartheid system. Both nations upheld racial segregation laws and economic exploitation of black people. American corporations like General Motors, IBM, and Ford profited from South African cheap labor while remaining silent on apartheid abuses.

Cold War Politics and Propping Up Apartheid

During the Cold War, the U.S. feared communism more than it cared about human rights. Because the African National Congress (ANC) had alliances with the Soviet Union, Washington labeled it a “terrorist organization.” Leaders like Nelson Mandela were vilified as communist threats. America actively supported South Africa’s apartheid government with trade, military cooperation, and diplomatic cover.

The CIA and Mandela’s Arrest

It is widely reported that in 1962, the CIA tipped off South African authorities about Mandela’s location, leading directly to his arrest and imprisonment for 27 years. This highlights America’s active role in suppressing black South African liberation.

Sanctions and Double Standards

Though grassroots movements in the U.S. — including student protests and civil rights leaders — pushed for sanctions against South Africa in the 1980s, Washington resisted for decades. President Ronald Reagan opposed sanctions and pursued “constructive engagement” with the apartheid regime, a policy that shielded white minority rule.

Shared Atrocities: How Britain, America, and Germany Worked Together

Arms, Corporations, and Economic Interests

All three nations benefitted from South Africa’s wealth in minerals — gold, diamonds, and platinum. Western corporations operated mines that exploited black labor under apartheid’s brutal conditions. Arms companies from Britain, Germany, and the U.S. supplied the apartheid government, directly enabling repression.

International Legitimization of Apartheid

While African nations and the UN condemned apartheid, Western powers dragged their feet. Britain continued to trade with South Africa, the U.S. maintained economic ties, and Germany provided technology and arms. These alliances gave Pretoria the confidence to maintain white minority rule for decades.

The Human Cost: Generations of Pain

The impact on black South Africans was devastating:

• Dispossession: Millions were forcibly removed from their ancestral lands.

• Labor Exploitation: Generations worked in mines under hazardous conditions for meager wages.

• Political Suppression: Thousands were imprisoned, tortured, or killed for resisting apartheid.

• Economic Inequality: Structural poverty persists today, rooted in colonial and apartheid policies sustained by foreign powers.

Before and Now: Continuities in Global Power

Though apartheid officially ended in 1994, the legacies of Britain, America, and Germany’s complicity remain.

• Economic Control: Multinational corporations still dominate South Africa’s economy, with profits leaving the country.

• Geopolitical Pressure: Western powers continue to influence South Africa’s policies through aid, trade, and diplomacy.

• Racial Inequalities: Land ownership, wealth distribution, and education gaps remain heavily skewed along racial lines — a direct inheritance of colonial and apartheid systems.

Conclusion: Why This History Matters

What they don’t teach you is that apartheid was not just a South African project — it was a global system supported, armed, and legitimized by Britain, America, and Germany. These nations profited from the oppression of black South Africans while presenting themselves as champions of freedom and democracy elsewhere.

Understanding this history is essential to confronting ongoing inequalities. It also challenges the narratives of Western innocence, showing that colonialism and apartheid were not aberrations but parts of a global system of racial capitalism.

Only by acknowledging these uncomfortable truths can South Africa — and the world — begin to heal the wounds of the past and confront the enduring structures of oppression today.