Baasskap ([ˈbɑːskap]) (also spelledbaaskap), literally "boss-ship" or "boss-hood", was a political philosophy prevalent duringSouth Africanapartheid that advocated the social, political and economic domination of South Africa by its minoritywhite population generally and byAfrikaners in particular.[1][2] The term is sometimes translated to theEnglish-language as "Chief in Charge" and functioned either as a description or an endorsement of the "owner of slaves" in South Africa.[3]
Proponents ofbaasskap constituted the largest faction of apartheid ideologues in theNational Party and state institutions. They appliedracial segregation in a systematic way to "preserve racial purity" and to ensure that economic and political spheres weredominated byAfrikaners. However, proponents ofbaasskap 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.[4]
Proponents ofbaasskap included bothJ.G. Strydom,Prime Minister from 1954 to 1958, andC.R. Swart, Minister of Justice.[4]Hendrik Verwoerd had sympathy for the "purist" faction of apartheid ideologues, who opposedeconomic integration of black South Africans, in contrast to supporters of baasskap who wanted white domination but an integrated economy.[4] However, rather than simply rejectingbaasskap, Verwoerd transformed its crude concept of white domination by reframing it as a policy of 'separate development' - presenting racial segregation not as oppression, but as allowing each racial group to achieve self-determination in their own designated territories. This intellectual repackaging gave the underlying goals ofbaasskap a veneer of respectability.[1]
The dictionary definition ofbaasskap at WiktionaryPolitical history ofSouth Africa | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Defunctpolities |
| ||||||||||||
| Events |
| ||||||||||||
| Political culture | |||||||||||||
| Defunct organisations |
| ||||||||||||
| Histories of political parties | |||||||||||||
