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
As a result of racial segregation in both the United States and South Africa, the coloured people’s resistance escalated. In truth, this time of division strengthened nationalism – their weapon that “[transformed their] common suffering into hope for the future” (Mandela, Notes to the Future 2012, 84). Moreover, the American Jim Crow Laws and South African apartheid led to discrimination, activism, reform and most importantly reconciliation.
Caliendo and Mcllwain (2011) have suggested that the historical claims of white supremacy within nations such as the UK and South Africa, has created racial conflicts and segregation between ethnic communities. Relating back to Weber’s example of the caste system, the “authentically white” (Caliendo and Mcllwain, 2011:22) communities are dominant and control the minority communities. Caliendo and Mcllwain (2011) argue that the “authentically white” have increased wealth and status, which they use to create boundaries and exclude the ethnic groups within the community. An example of this would be the issue of Apartheid in South Africa throughout the late nineteenth and twentieth century. Apartheid can be defined by the New Oxford English Dictionary (1998) as “a policy or system of segregation or discrimination on the grounds of race” (Guelke, 2005:61). Throughout the period Guelke (2005) discussed the fact that the minority white communities within South Africa ruled over the black majority, living “a lifestyle with a standard of living matching the very richest countries in the world” (Guelke, 2001:1-2), whilst the black communities lived in extreme poverty. Linking back to the system of monopolistic social closure, the white population viewed themselves as the elite members of society, and via legislation such as the native policy, used their power to justify the exploitation and segregation of the black South African
Thesis Statement: Apartheid may have been a horrible era in South African history, but only so because the whites were forced to take action against the outrageous and threatening deeds of the blacks in order to sustain their power.
Black South Africans living in South Africa, had to endure fifty years of oppression and racial discrimination. Apartheid was a policy implemented by the South African government across South Africa. It was used to control the Black South African population since they make up the majority of the population. The government created Apartheid, due to their fear that the Black population will overthrow them. Living as a Black South African meant that they had to live a more oppressive and undesirable life.
We commence by examining South-African apartheid and its historical and theoretical context. Apartheid was a system of racial segregation used in the overtly racist regime in South Africa from 1948 to 1991. It was based on laws that banned “marriage and sexual relations between different “population groups” and requir[ed] separate residential areas for people of mixed race (“Coloreds”), as well as for Africans” (Fredrickson 3). These laws were based on the same obsession with “race purity” that characterized other racist regimes, most notably Jim Crow America and Nazi Germany. The system was justified in terms of “cultural essentialism” and “seperate development”. Cultural essentialism means that each culture has inherent features that differentiate the members of this cultural group from others. The concept of separate development
The convergence of racial unity and inroads towards the non-classification of race has been compromised by the accumulation of rights, privileges, and perceptions of the “whites”, and the life experiences, inequalities and societal impediments of the ‘non-white”. These experiences represent an overarching inability to forge ahead without cognizant realizations of past injustices and reparation for past aggressions. Noting the attempts at racial reunification in South Africa and the redress of exclusionary policies existing within the
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
The apartheid of South Africa was a time of constant fear and unknown and tested faith in the people who it continuously impacted.
The nonwhites of South Africa had not been granted basic rights and were oppressed under government. Mandela led many peaceful tactics to try and get the government’s
Given the history of apartheid in South Africa where asymmetric power was too great, Du Bois (1990: 8-9) points out that such power imbalance denies the true self-awareness allowing them rather the real sensation, this “double-consciousness”, this sense of always looking at one through the eyes of “others”. Matsinhe (2011: 302) advances this argument by stating that, once the desires of the oppressor become the desires of the weak, the oppressed become a cultural replica of the oppressor. From this suggestion, it can be argued that those who were formerly subjugated in South Africa have now taken on the personality of their former subjugator (Matsinhe, 2011:
Many of the contemporary issues in South Africa can easily be associated with the apartheid laws which devastated the country. The people of South Africa struggle day by day to reverse “the most cruel, yet well-crafted,” horrific tactic “of social engineering.” The concept behind apartheid emerged in 1948 when the nationalist party took over government, and the all-white government enforced “racial segregation under a system of legislation” . The central issues stem from 50 years of apartheid include poverty, income inequality, land ownership rates and many other long term affects that still plague the brunt of the South African population while the small white minority still enjoy much of the wealth, most of the land and opportunities
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.
Oppression is at the root of many of the most serious, enduring conflicts in the world today. Racial and religious conflicts; conflicts between dictatorial governments and their citizens; the battle between the sexes; conflicts between management and labor; and conflicts between heterosexuals and homosexuals all stem, in whole or in part, to oppression. It’s similar to an article in south africa that people have with racial segregation between black and white . Many people need to know that indiviual have their own rights in laws and freedom . Everyone should have an equal rights and better community . A black person would be of or accepted as a member of an African tribe or race, and a colored person is one that is not black or white. The Department of Home Affairs (a government bureau) was responsible for the classification of the citizenry. Non-compliance with the race laws were dealt with harshly. All blacks were required to carry ``pass books ' ' containing fingerprints, photo and information on access to non-black areas. The apartheid in South Africa which was in effect from 1948 until 1994 was not only a racist policy which greatly affected the quality of life of minorities in the country for the worse but was a outright crime against humanity. It include with civil right that violence verses non-violence that the government could or
“South African sociology” (Webster, 2004, p. 28) can be considered as the result of the combination of different types of sociology due to the various changes that taken place in South African society throughout its history (Webster, 2004, p. 28). “Marxism” (Macionis & Plummer, 2012, p. 117), which is one of the main contributors to this sociology, was coined by Karl Marx, a German sociologist who by observing the various relations within a society came up with his own beliefs on how society has changed and how it can be improved which have been widely used across the world (Macionis & Plummer, 2012, p. 117). He believed that in the past, people lived in collective groups and were not divided by economic status but shared what they had and focused more on working together than working for each other and this was referred to as ”communism” (Macionis & Plummer, 2012, p. 119). However, Marx suggested that as time progressed people began to fight for land and possessions and this led to weaker groups being kept as “slaves” (Macionis & Plummer, 2012, p. 18) and were used for the benefit of their capturers and this ultimately created a distinction between those who had power and those who did not (Macionis & Plummer, 2012, p. 119). Marx also suggested that from this came what is known as “capitalism” (Macionis & Plummer, 2012, p. 117), which was the result of technological advancements such as the use of machines to produce goods in “factories” (Macionis & Plummer, 2012, p. 117)