Music 's Influence On The Anti Apartheid Movement

In the 1960s, many of the colonial nations of Africa were gaining independence. The ANC was encouraged and campaigned for democracy in South Africa. They were mild campaigns at first, but as the government became more hostile, so did ANC protests. In November 1961, a military branch of the party was organized with Mandela as its head. It authorized the limited use of arms and sabotage against the government, which got the government’s attention—and its anger! Mandela went into hiding in 1964, he was captured, tried, and sentenced to life imprisonment. It was a sad day for black South Africa.

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.

As Gandhi has said about corrupt government “You assist an evil system most effectively by obeying its orders and decrees”. In 1948 in South African elections put white supremacy in place which allowed them to segregate blacks from whites in South Africa. Over the course of the rule of supremacists, the South African blacks were treated worse and worse. Eventually, the people resorted to using protests, peace marches, hunger strikes, boycotting, and other tactics to show their civil unrest to the white supremacist government. The people of South Africa would have been supporting the evil of white supremacy and racism by not protesting its rule with civil disobedience.

In South Africa, policies systematically oppressed black, Asian, and ‘coloured’ people (those of mixed race),

The Africans, though, were not planning to back out that easily. For close to 40 years, the ANC was trying its best to settle African grievances, to give them additional rights, besides just freedom. They had decided to protest against the apartheid system through methods of peaceful demonstrations. Many people fought, and went to jail, but there was not one mode of violence conducted at all in these protests. 13

Apartheid was a reaction by these Afrikaners to this rapid change. This insistence on racial apartness became the political and legal doctrine of apartheid. “It was an accepted Government policy that the Bantu (native) are only temporarily residents in the European (white) areas of the Republic for as long as they offer their labour there.”- (The Department of Bantu Administration and Administration 1957)

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.

Discrimination against people who are different can be identify in every country around the world. People of every sex, color, religion, and in this case, ethnicity are tormented. In the 1940's, 50's, 60's, and 70's apartheid was an emanate injustice throughout the land of South Africa. Apartheid was the government's rigid policy racial segregation between white Europeans and black natives. The official goal of apartheid was to establish laws that would isolate these groups in most activities, especially in education, employment, housing, and politics. The word apartheid means apartness in Afrikaans, one of South Africa's official languages.

The question presented, concerning the South African apartheid and the music that was involved with the movements, debates whether the music came from the people’s desire to over come apartheid or if the music was a catalyst to the movement. As explained in the movie, the people used music for different aspects of the music, fundamentally a different song for every part of the movement. The music was a way in which the people could express themselves in a way that was noticed by their over rulers and which included all people taking part in the revolution.

apartheid was one of the wirced eras that faced southafrica since the 1940s till 1990s. back then, everything was split, and it tore everything apart, families. races, and everything elce you can think of. however, one of the things that drove the apartheid government away was music.

In 1997, South Africa entered the post-Apartheid, a system which not only the colored but other nationalities were severely restricted under the power of the white minority. Blacks were not permitted to pay taxes so they couldn’t benefit from them, they were not even considered citizens and were not allowed to register in the white schools. Segregation took place by having people attend their own hospitals and restaurants. The post-apartheid South Africa is described as a depressing period that rulings was based on nationality, race, and gender (Gradin).

Apartheid was strongly enforced by minorities over the years but the Apartheid Museum (2003) states it was met with non-violent resistance until the early 1960’s. In 1949 the African National Congress was led by youths and they began advocating to stand up to white authority using mass campaigns. In 1950 they held a series of strikes and boycotts termed the Programme of Action. In 1959 a group of African National Congress members formed the Pan Africanist Congress which organized a demonstration on March 21, 1960 in Sharpeville where 69 people were killed by police in what is now called the Sharpeville massacre. In the 1970’s some students started the Black Consciousness Movement which supported the black pride and African customs that apartheid tried to destroy. Labor unions joined the

Apartheid were the laws passed in South Africa that separated whites and blacks and gave whites more control, while robbing blacks of their rights. Apartheid took place from 1948- 1990, and has been one of the most harsh and systematic violations of human rights. Unfair living conditions, tragic events, and courageous people contributed to the end of apartheid in South Africa.

The Apartheid regime, brought to life in 1948 under DF Malan, was one that was of an extremely dehumanizing and highly discriminatory nature. It promised a seemingly placid aim of separate development that had an opposite degenerative effect that has negatively impacted South Africa - evident in the economy, social and political structures. Post World War II the National Party, in favour of Afrikaners, came into power championing their political ideology of Apartheid and combined with their arduous and repressive approach to governance, separatist laws were harshly enforced. White supremacy was enforced in order to secure the power of the white minority in all spheres- politically, economically and socially- and to repress the black majority

Generations of Americans grew, and continue to age, studying the inspiring shouts of freedom that erupted from Nelson Mandela and protesters during South Africa 's journey away from apartheid. It’s a curious ponder, in fact, that America’s and South Africa’s ascents from racial discrimination were possibly involved with each other. However, while the world may be convinced the nation is out of racist depths, evidence displays the rise from discrimination in South Africa is undeniably incomplete. There is a dangerous and unresolved influence of apartheid in South Africa today.