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Effects Of Socialisation In South Africa

Decent Essays

During the Apartheid era of oppression, Steve Biko explains in the 1970s that the black people of South Africa were treated unfairly, to the extent to which their African identities were stolen due to forced socialisation. The Apartheid government put in structures which purposefully taught these Africans that their sole purpose was to serve subserviently to white South Africans, taking away their culture and distancing them from their history. They achieved this my means of altering their education, political privilege and spiritual poverty. Each of these aspects were altered by the Apartheid government which contributed to the changed identity of the black South Africans. A power difference had always existed between whites and black ever …show more content…

The Apartheid political system was designed in such a way that black people were taught that their cultures were, in fact, incorrect. From when they were born, they were taught of an adapted culture which suited white people. This process of "forced culture" was abuse of socialisation; everything one learns from when they are born which contributes to their personality and personal history. Steve Biko describes that he was purely brought up in separate development, and that his entire life was shaped by it. Depending on one's socialisation, the view of how you view yourself and others around you is formed, this is identity. It can even be said that the identities of the black were stolen from them, because identity means that we are all different, but the Apartheid system took away the uniqueness of the black culture and taught them all to learn and believe the same thing. The way in which the black people of South Africa were socialised, was to make them believe that the only purpose in life was to be a servant to white people. Having this belief form part of their identity, it was never a thought for them to be militant and fight the

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