Desmond Mpilo Tutu : The Arch

In the 1930’s it was rare for a black South African to attend college. But Mandela not only attended, he graduated, got a degree from law school, and set up a practice in Johannesburg which he hoped could support his small family. Yet apartheid was always a humiliation to him. When the Afrikaner, or Dutch South African, Nationalists came to power in the 1948 election, the segregation habits of the past three hundred years became law. Hoping for a brighter future, Mandela joined the African National Congress (ANC) and became its first Youth Leader.

Racism, discrimination and degradation faced by Blacks and other ethnic minorities under the apartheid system was not unlike the segregation and intimidation faced by African-Americans in the Jim Crow south. Jim Crow system of segregation that kept Blacks from fully participating in public and civic activities and relegated African-Americans to substandard conditions at work, school and even in the home. Blacks in South Africa were under the clutches of an overt, national policy of racism and segregation implemented by the country’s highest level of government. Civil and human rights abuses of Blacks in South Africa at the hand of the country’s white minority occurred long before apartheid officially began, but the system’s official start brought strict, sweeping laws such as the rule that all persons in South Africa to be categorized as white, Black, colored and Indian, without exception. Like in the U.S. during Jim Crow, Blacks and whites were not allowed to marry and sexual relations between members of different races was a criminal offense.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu was one of these people and Doc 7 showed a 1984 speech to the United Nations Security Council where he addressed the possibility of a new society for all people in South Africa. 1984 was the year P.W. Botha became president and began his police state and South Africa was still yet to see the worst atrocities of the Apartheid struggle. Tutu believed that the only reason the whites in South Africa were cruel to the blacks was because they were scared; they were outnumbered and after the ancestors of the white population had fought against the natives for decades their fear was only reinforced through stories of the barbaric Africans. They were also scared that if given the opportunity the blacks would drive them out of South Africa and out of their land of birth. Tutu suggested a new nation in which all people were equal as they were created in the image of god and where the government was truly democratic. Because Desmond Tutu had lived through the entire period of Apartheid and was a leader of the back christian community in South Africa he would have seen and understood the feelings the people of South Africa had toward Apartheid. He would have also strived to implicate Christian beliefs of equality back into the hearts of the white people and end the use of violence. One year before Desmond Tutu's speech a new political party formed called the United Democratic Front. This party was a non-racial and anti-Apartheid organization which specifically opposed the Tricameral parliament which allowed coloured and asian south Africans minimal representation while the black population was still excluded. The Poster for the United Democratic front shown in Doc 9 gave an image to the blacks in South Africa that

In 1993, Nelson Mandela was elected the first multi-racial president of South Africa. During his term, he created a new constitution of law that declared majority rule and South Africa became racially united. Every race was granted their human rights in South Africa thanks to the hard work and struggles of Nelson Mandela, and his work was recognized nationally. Nelson Mandela later worked on economic improvement within South Africa and focused on issues such as poverty and AIDS.

Visualize the critical racial discrimination in the United States and recall prior knowledge about the harsh environments and the unequal treatments that African Americans faced such as the “black and white water fountains” in the South. Dating back to the beginning of the 1910s, Apartheid has done its share in racial segregation .It as an immense conflict that was yet concluded by the people who collaborated to form the Anti-Apartheid movement. Resistance to apartheid within South Africa took many forms over the years, from non-violent demonstrations, protests and strikes to political action and eventually to armed resistance. Overtime there has been a plethora of leaders that were willing to abolish segregation, which includes Nelson

Apartheid is an Afrikaans word for apartness and also the title of an infamous system of racial segregation that governed South Africa for almost 50 years. It was a system wherein white people dominated socially, economically and politically at the expense of black people, and had its roots in the colonial period; when the Europeans first reached Africa to obtain raw materials and exploit the natives for labour, justifying their actions with Kipling’s The White Man’s Burden, that expressed the white man’s duty to civilise non-whites. South Africa retained its discriminatory laws and homelands up until 1994 when apartheid finally was abolished. Resistance campaigns and freedom fighters, such as Nelson Mandela, are most commonly credited with

“You don’t choose your family. They are God’s gift to you, as you are to them.” This quote was meant to convey the message that people should always be grateful for their families, as they are perhaps one of the greatest gifts given to an individual by God. Desmond Tutu is, and has been, one of the most influential peacemakers of the past century. However, his life had humble beginnings. Tutu was born in the small city of Klerksdorp, Transvaal, into a poor family with one other child ("Desmond Tutu - Biographical" 1). Even though he was born into a poor family and had only one sibling, he still had a fairly happy childhood. While Desmond Tutu was growing up, he noticed a lot of things that Black Africans were fighting for. Some of those

“Do your little bit of good where you are; it's those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world(Tutu).” Desmond Tutu was a women’s rights advocate. He was also an activist for African Americans. Desmond was mainly known for his acts of bravery, and his passion to help others. Desmond Tutu was a powerful leader because he was brave, self righteous, and he was perseverant.

The national party achieved power in South Africa in 1948 the government, usually comprised on “white people”, and racially segregated the country by a policy under the Apartheid legislation system. With this new policy in place the black South African people were forced to live segregated from the white people and use separate public facilities. There were many attempts to overthrow the Apartheid regime, it persisted to control for almost 50 years.

Throughout history the transfer of political power has rarely been peaceful. Until the rise of democracy, power would only change through death, war, or uprising. One of the reasons for the fall of the once great Roman Empire in about 427 AD, was the political instability (Andrews, 2014). Rome went through 20 emperors in 75 years, with each change in power resulting in death, corruption, and riots (Andrews, 2014). Desmond Tutu’s ideas were to create a peaceful and successful change 1in power and government in South Africa after the devastating Apartheid. America is going through a socio-political crisis of its own. The 2016 political race being one of the most controversial in American history, dealing with issues of racial injustice which

One large problem that occurred because of apartheid and was the cause of many protests was from 1961-1994, 3.5 million colored people and their families were forced out of their homes while their property was sold for very low prices to white farmers. This was just one example of events that were completely unfair to the colored population. Nelson Mandela was the person who stopped these acts from happening. In 1994, Mandela became the country’s first colored president. Instead of trying to make the people who put him into jail for 27 years suffer in consequences, he embraced them and used peace to unite everyone as equals, and not oppressing the people who had oppressed him for most of his life. Apartheid was a very rough time for anyone who lived in South Africa before Nelson Mandela and his peace helped to stop it.

The government of South Africa played a huge role in apartheid. During apartheid the government of South Africa worked to take away the citizenship of the Blacks with the laws (“History of South Africa in the apartheid era”). “Social rights, political rights, educational opportunities, and economic status were all determined by the group a person belonged to” (History of South Africa in the apartheid era). Black people were denied by the government the option of appealing courts against forced removals (“History of South Africa in the apartheid era”). Since the government had established laws prohibiting social contact between the races separate schools and public places were set up for the different races (“History of South Africa in the apartheid era”). The government even tried to segregate churches in 1957 but failed (Pascoe, 80)

Nelson Mandela was the man who abolished Apartheid, freeing South Africa from the binds of racial segregation forever. However, it was not an easy road and Mandela needed patience, strength of character, focus, passion, understanding, perseverance, and most importantly, forgiveness, to achieve this. For more than forty years, black South Africans were subject to the harsh racial segregation of the Apartheid system; despite making up over 70% of South Africa’s population, they had little to no rights.

Imagine being systematically oppressed from the moment you exited the womb. All your civil rights, based on the amount of melanin in your skin. Drinking from the wrong water fountain, could even get you thrown into jail. Coincidently; this was the life, of black South Africans from the moment of Dutch colonization in 1652, to the first true democratic election in 1994. Apartheid, meaning “separateness” in Afrikaans; was legal segregation enforced by The National Party (NP) from 1948 to 1994. It legally imposed preexisting policies of racial discrimination on the Majority of the South African population. The entire basis of the racist policies, was the darker your complexion the less legal rights you had. Presumably this injustice, could have continued much longer if it weren’t for all involved in the fight against the NP, however the man who arguably contributed the most, was Nelson Mandela. He ended an apartheid, with both his philanthropy and political prowess. He united a nation that used to be segregated; which seemed a daunting task at the time, but through the sweat and bloodshed he achieved the impossible. This alone exhibited his heroic characteristics, but to be more precise: both his actions and inactions lead to his success. Furthermore, Mandela was both a strong leader and forgiving at the same-time. Being in the forefront of the abolishment movement, was an extremely risky move during the apartheid. He risked his life for what he believed in, and this personal

I have always thought that Nelson Mandela has been one of the most important people in history. I find it very fascinating that one man could end the Apartheid and that is why I want to find out more about this. South Africa is a country with a past of enforced racism and separation of its multi-racial community. The White Europeans invaded South Africa and started a political system known as 'Apartheid' (meaning 'apartness'). This system severely restricted the rights and lifestyle of the non-White inhabitants of the country forcing them to live separately from the White Europeans. I have chosen to investigate how the Apartheid affected people’s lives, and also how and why the Apartheid system rose and fell in South Africa.