Apartheid In South Africa Throughout The 1900's

The population of South Africa were segregated into categouries of Coloured, Black, White and Indian. Black South African lives were affected in many different ways and it still is today. Apartheid meant great hardship, it meant that Black people were unable to live a reasonable life. All natural civil rights were taken away from them. Public beaches, drive-in cinema parking spaces, graveyards, parks and public toilets are just a few things that were racially segregated. You can say that the church was on of few places races could mix without breaking the law. (Wikipedia, 2013)

The Second Boer War, sometimes called the South African War, was from 1899 to 1902 and the British were finally able to defeat the Boers and gain control over all of South Africa ("South Africa."). By 1910 almost all of Britain had left South Africa due to World War II and South Africa was no longer imperialized. After imperialism South Africa became a union with the Cape and Natal colonies, Orange Free State, and The Transvaal (Luscomb). The four settlements then changed the name to The Union of South Africa, then South Africa in 1934 when it was declared a Republic.

The first major action was the Defiance Campaign launched in 1952; this Campaign brought Africans, Coloureds and Indians together against the common enemy and was a direct reaction by the liberation movements to the unjust laws passed by the government. Some Whites also joined the struggle alongside Africans, Indians and Coloureds in different campaigns. What did I take from just researching Apartheid was a bit more than I can chew. It’s a life of struggling, despair,

In 1952 the ANC and Indian Congress reacted by creating the ‘defiance campaign ‘ which targeted six laws the two organizations thought unjust including the law above. By the end of 1952, 8065 protesters were arrested and sent to jail. The defiance campaign ended in 1953 and was not successful in ending Apartheid but it did have a major effect on the ANC; 3000 members joined the ANC during these protests. (aylett 14-15)

Thousands of people were poor they had to move to places called homelands. They were all black areas with the least fertile land and there blacks lived in poverty. In the 1950’s blacks and some whites started peaceful protests. Thousands of men and women were killed in the protests. All protests even the peaceful ones were banned. In the 1970’s other countries around the world joined in the fight against aparthied. They did this by not lending them money and not sending over recources. Also they even furthure went in not letting South Africa compete in the Olympic games. In 1990 F. W. de Klerk a afrinkanor who was the presedent led in abolishing the aparthied laws. In 1994 a new presedent was in office, Nelson Mandela. He was the first black presedent in South Africa. A equality movement was started by Mandela. A new presedent was elected and Mandela retired. Mbeki has kept encouraging equal rights and has been working on other large issues as well. They are now a democratic goverment and a new constitution has been writtin. For the most part there are now equal rights and black and whites have the same

During many years, South Africa had its own system of racial segregation called apartheid, where white South Africans were separated from black South Africans because they wanted control over them. Unfortuanely, this type of segregation become law, and it took a while to remove it. The first person to take action about the apartheid was Nelson Mandela, an unique activism.

South Africa kept the racial division in law , which denied blacks to vote and have simple rights . However , when Mandela was released from prison , he was able to negotiate with the president at the time . With all of Mandela's negotiating , the president was finally able to get black’s the simple rights to vote and much more . In addition , Mandela thought it was truly inhumane because some shouldn’t have rights just because they are a different color than whites . Furthermore , at the time was also trying to build a multiracial government that had all types of races in them so everyone had the same rights . Nelson thought that this was inhumane because whether you are white , black , or another type of race , it should create laws trying to keep whites safe from them ; The segregation was very unfair to any type of race except whites because blacks had to use bathroom that were nasty , and they wouldn’t be able to go into certain restaurants for their race . Furthermore , Mandela made the choice to end segregation because everyone should have freedom and the same rights for everyone

South Africa during the mid-1900’s was country of severe social injustice. The National Party had gained power in 1948, and with it had come racial discrimination. The government was all white, and they enforced segregation not just between white people and minorities, but also sought to separate minorities from each other. The South African National Native Congress (Later the African National Congress) developed in response to the unjust Land Act of 1913, which forced blacks to live on reserves. Hardships such as war and the Depression only strengthened racial views.

The objective of this new regime was that whites (only 21% of the total population) retained their privileged position. Apartheid was basically the total separation between whites and blacks, even denying the existence of this last race. Blacks were banned from voting, shared rooms and spaces, and even black-and-white marriage. Nelson Mandela tried from the beginning of the establishment of apartheid of defender to the black race; First as an attorney giving legal assistance to the many blacks who could not afford it; And then as commander-in-chief of the Umkhonto guerrilla organization we Sizwe (MK) who turned armed activity into his Quid pro quo. The turn took place in the decade of the 60, after the death of 69 citizens in Sharpeville. It was a desperate gesture on a good man, who had always proclaimed himself a follower of

In 1950, the government banned marriages between whites and races of other colors. It also banned sexual relations between Africans and whites. Over a course of Land Acts, the majority of land in South Africa was set aside for the white population and forced Africans to carry documents allowing them to be in restricted areas. The government also created public facilities to separate whites and Africans and took away their right to vote.

From 1948 to 1991 South Africa was going through a humanitarian crisis similar to what was occurring in America, segregation. However, there was one key difference in South Africa, the black South Africans were being controlled by a white South African minority. In America, non-colored citizens didn’t have to do much to segregate life, but in South Africa, the white South Africans needed to feel like they were in control. After the National party was elected in 1948, the government (white south Africans) started to heavily segregate South Africa. The result of the heavy segregation and hard laws resulted in a tremendous feeling of exile. Isolation was an extensive part of the apartheid years in South Africa as shown by the cruel prison sentences,

This land was to give the Bantu’s rights and consider them citizens which gave them full political rights, but in result, removed them from the nation’s political body. In order for the Bantu’s to live in the Bantustans, they had to be removed from their homes in the white areas, leading their houses to be sold for cheap to farmers. The Bantustans were not successful because it caused 3.5 million people to be living in poverty. This led to protests, violent and nonviolent, which eventually caused a group of people known as The Congress of the People to get together and declare South Africa a place for all races to live in. A Public Safety and the Criminal Law was passed which allowed the government to make “emergency calls” which resulted in whippings, fines, and imprisonments. In 1960, police opened fire on a group of blacks because they showed up to the police station without passes. This ended up with sixty seven dead and hundred eighty severely wounded. Those police officers ended up being arrested or executed. Nelson Mandela worked in the military wing ANC, and was “incarcerated from 1963-1990” to help get people on board to stop apartheid all

Apartheid policies entrenched race as the basis for access to power and resources. Conflicts resulted from increasingly polarized groups “Blacks” in majority and ‘Whites” in minority. The Apartheid government relied on security forces to maintain its authority and on the other hand, the African National Congress fought against discriminatory and exploitive social policies both using passive resistance and armed struggle (Democracy in South Africa). Finally, with international support Mandela successfully overthrows the unjust legislation and establishes a justice new republic of South Africa. Therefore, Mandela’s non-violence is successful.

Nazi practices during World War II were so horrific that many countries began to feel shame about internal racial problems in home countries. In France, the United Kingdom, and the United States liberal politicians and intellectuals began to condemn racism against non-whites and push for civil rights reforms. South Africa, however, did not follow the same route. The White minority of South Africa decided to build a state based on total "separation" (apartheid) of whites and blacks where the former would totally dominate the latter in political, economic, and social spheres. The policy of apartheid would eventually be condemned by civil rights advocates around the world as "the most repressive government since Nazi Germany" (Robinson, 1985). Apartheid was built on racism, discrimination, and oppression of the majority by the minority. But as a policy it began after the end of World War II in a particular context of the nation.

South Africa really began to suffer when apartheid was written into the law. Apartheid was first introduced in the 1948 election that the Afrikaner National Party won. The plan was to take the already existing segregation and expand it (Wright, 60). Apartheid was a system that segregated South Africa’s population racially and considered non-whites inferior (“History of South Africa in the apartheid era”). Apartheid was designed to make it