
''Baasskap'' () (also spelled ''baaskap''), literally "boss-ship" or "boss-hood", was a political philosophy prevalent during
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...
n
apartheid
Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...
that advocated the social, political and economic domination of South Africa by its minority
white
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...
population generally and by
Afrikaners
Afrikaners () are a Southern African ethnic group descended from predominantly Dutch people, Dutch Settler colonialism, settlers who first arrived at the Cape of Good Hope in Free Burghers in the Dutch Cape Colony, 1652.Entry: Cape Colony. '' ...
in particular.
The term is sometimes translated to the
English-language
English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...
as "Chief in Charge" and functioned either as a description or an endorsement of the "owner of slaves" in South Africa.
Proponents
Proponents of ''baasskap'' constituted the largest faction of apartheid ideologues in the
National Party and state institutions. They applied
racial segregation
Racial segregation is the separation of people into race (human classification), racial or other Ethnicity, ethnic groups in daily life. Segregation can involve the spatial separation of the races, and mandatory use of different institutions, ...
in a systematic way to "preserve racial purity" and to ensure that economic and political spheres were
dominated by
Afrikaners
Afrikaners () are a Southern African ethnic group descended from predominantly Dutch people, Dutch Settler colonialism, settlers who first arrived at the Cape of Good Hope in Free Burghers in the Dutch Cape Colony, 1652.Entry: Cape Colony. '' ...
. However, proponents of ''baasskap'' were not necessarily opposed to black South African participation in the economy if black labour was controlled in a way that preserved economic domination by Afrikaners.
Proponents of ''baasskap'' included both
J.G. Strydom,
Prime Minister
A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...
from 1954 to 1958, and
C.R. Swart, Minister of Justice.
Hendrik Verwoerd
Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd (; 8 September 1901 – 6 September 1966), also known as H. F. Verwoerd, was a Dutch-born South African politician, scholar in applied psychology, philosophy, and sociology, and newspaper editor who was Prime Mini ...
had sympathy for the "purist" faction of apartheid ideologues, who opposed
economic integration
Economic integration is the unification of economic policies between different states, through the partial or full abolition of tariff and Non-tariff barriers to trade, non-tariff restrictions on trade.
The trade-stimulation effects intended by ...
of black South Africans, in contrast to supporters of ''baasskap'' who wanted white domination but an integrated economy.
Nonetheless, Verwoerd provided the theretofore crude concept of ''baasskap'' with a veneer of intellectual respectability.
See also
*
Minoritarianism
References
External links
*
{{Political history of South Africa
Apartheid in South Africa
Afrikaans words and phrases
South African English
Political terminology in South Africa
Apartheid in propaganda