It was initially the South African Native College attached to the University of South Africa.[1]:419 It then became the University College of Fort Hare associated with Rhodes University.[4]:419 With the introduction of apartheid, higher educational institutions in South Africa were strictly segregated along racial lines; blacks had previously gone to classes with Indians, coloureds and a few white students. From 1953 the school became part of the Bantu education system, and with the passage of the Promotion of Bantu Self Government Act in 1959, it was nationalized and segregated along racial and tribal lines, and teaching in African languages rather than English was encouraged.[2] Fort Hare became a black university in its own right in 1970, strictly controlled by the state government.[4]:419