History glossary
Natives Land Act
the 1913 law that restricted African land ownership and occupation to limited reserved areas.
- Category
- Law
- Region
- South Africa
- Date range
- 1913
What it means
The Natives Land Act of 1913 restricted African land purchase and occupation to designated reserve areas. It did not begin land dispossession, but it gave racial land inequality a national legal framework that apartheid later deepened.
