South African Colonial Prisons

Under colonial control, the use of South African prisons grew at unprecedented rates, transforming from a system used to rehabilitate prisoners to an institution designed to isolate, victimize, and silence native citizens. The South African carceral system preserved the control of colonial governments in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries through segregating and dehumanizing black populations, exploiting African labor, and suppressing political unrest. Colonial rule drastically altered South Africa’s incarceration system in efforts to assert control over their colonies and subjects, by disproportionately punishing black populations through unjust and inhumane practices.  Colonial governments passed a series of new laws that restricted the freedoms of Black populations and incarcerated an extensive number of law abiding citizens in order to produce large prison populations. South Africa’s prison population grew from twenty thousand to over a hundred thousand during the twentieth century. Therefore, prisons around the country were overpopulated, disproportionately housing Black inmates, compared to their white counterparts, at unimaginable heights. Apartheid prisons were characterized by epidemics, hostility, and a lack of basic necessities including adequate space, food, and ventilation. Within prisons, white populations were provided with sufficient treatment and rehabilitative measures and black citizens were given substandard treatment with no focus on rehabilitation. 

To further guarantee European dominance, South African colonial prison systems unjustly imprisoned black populations to divide society by race, reinforcing ideals of white superiority. Colonial governments in general created the notion that black bodies were inherently criminal and deviant, and consequently served as a threat to white populations. Confinement of black individuals was seen as necessary and for “their own respective rehabilitation” as well for society to function more smoothly and safely. Additionally, Europeans professed a distaste for physical contact with Africans due to the fear of epidemics and intermarriage. Not only did the overcriminalization of black citizens fortify the bigoted beliefs of colonists, but it assisted the creation of an exploited industrial labor force, giving rise to colonial dominance over the South African economy and African labor. Prison labor was justified as colonial governments claimed it offered rehabilitation to Africans that they believed to be uncivilized and barbaric. In addition to creating a labor force, prisons were used to silence political activists and suppress African opposition to apartheid, therefore reaffirming and maintaining colonial power. Political detainees were isolated and penalized as a means of silencing their influence, shown through the absence of news access or the remission of parole. Behind the walls of prison, the voices of South Africans did not acquire any legitimacy, and therefore prisons served to suppress and silence populations that posed a threat to colonial rule.