Opposition to Apartheid

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.

Rather than promoting the integration of Blacks into White society, they preached complete isolation, even to the extent of ANC members joining the PAC party in 1959, after saying they were influenced by ‘White Communists’. However, despite this, similar to the ANC, opposition to apartheid wasn’t all as successful as they could have been. The most prominent form of opposition presented by the PAC was Sharpesville, later dubbed ‘The Sharpseville massacre’. Similar to the ANC’s ‘Defiance campaign’, this campaign had originally been intended to be peaceful, merely approaching the police station singing and showing they are ready to be arrested. However, it is assumed that following the prior campaign, law enforcement were on high alert for these protests. 69 people were killed, with all of them being Black. This still didn’t have any form of affect on the opposition of apartheid. However, it could be assumed that this reached some form of international news, informing other members of the UN, etc, to the racial crises occurring in South

The term apartheid (from the Afrikaans word for "apartness") was coined in the 1930s and used as a political slogan of the National Party in the early 1940s, but the policy itself extends back to the beginning of white settlement in South Africa in 1652. After the primarily Afrikaner Nationalists came to power in 1948, the social custom of apartheid was systematized under law. The apartheid was a social and political segregation of the white rulers from the black locals of South Africa.

In the 1950’s some changes occurred. The migrant labor act was abolished because the government did not feel the need to segregate the cities as much as they did in the past. So initially blacks were stuck on rural reserves most of the time and were being treated worse and worse. This was called the Bantu authorities act, established 1951. On a good note, there were people on the Black African’s side from the beginning. Prime Minister Smuts wrote, "The idea that natives must all be removed and confined in their kraals is in my opinion, the greatest nonsense I have ever heard." (Smuts 1) Steven Biko wrote, “ The government of our nation is full of tyranny” (Biko 1) Despite all the fighting back, apartheid was a loosing battle for blacks in South Africa until the late 1900’s.

Apartheid was a system or policy in South Africa which is for segregation or discrimination on grounds of race.

Nelson Mandela took part in ending the apartheid. An apartheid is a restriction that started around 1949, on nonwhites’ basic rights and barred them from government while white minority rule. On January 8, 1912, in South Africa, the African National Congress was created by a group of Africans, colored, and Indians. In the 1940s, Mandela became the leader of peaceful protests and armed resistance against the white minority’s oppressive regime in a racially divided South Africa. In 1950, the ANC adopted the African National Congress Youth League’s plan to achieve full citizenship for all South Africans through boycotts, strikes, civil disobedience and other nonviolent methods. In 1952, Mandela and another member of the ANC opened South Africa’s first black law firm, which offered free or low-cost legal counsel to those affected by apartheid legislation. The black law firm also helped lead the ANC’s campaign for the Defiance of Unjust Laws. Mandela and 155 other activists were arrested and put on trial for treason on December 5, 1956, due to acts of civil disobedience. While Mandela was locked up, tensions throughout the ANC started to escalate. The next year, on March 21, as nonviolent black protestors were protesting by singing Africans songs all day, so that they could overload the prisons, police opened fire on the crowd. Sixty nine people were killed, along with another 189 wounded.

For years, South Africa’s Afrikaner Nationalist Party was conducting all types of racial attacks that were raising ethical issues. Along with the South African government, they reshaped racial laws and regulations, continuing with violence against blacks. Nonwhites outnumbered whites by about 5 to 1. Violence consisted of the Sharpeville massacre, the Soweto Street death demonstration, and the death of black leader who was in police custody. Through such acts, South Africa’s direct investment rose dramatically.

On December 5, 1956, Mandela and 155 other activists were arrested and went on trial for treason (history.com). All of them were relevied of charge in 1962 but, but in the meantime tensions within the ANC escalated. The next year police shot at black protesters in Sharpeville and killed 69 people. As a result, anger panic and riots began and the apartheid government banned both the ANC and the PAC. Therefore Mandela was forced to go underground and wear a disguise, he decided that it was time for a radical

During this decade “a new sense of resistance had been brewing”. Black students, led by Steve Biko, formed the South African Student’s Organization (SASO). A lot of events led to the Uprising: The school children were influenced by the Black Consciousness Movement in the 1970’s; and workers’ strikes in Durban in 1975; liberation of neighbouring Angola and Mozambique in 1975. (Soweto Student Uprising, n.d.)

This publication was created to remind people of the contribution Mandela had on society in a moral, religious, economic, political, social, and cultural way. This publication highlights the purpose and achievements of the Pan-Africanist Congress, a group that Mandela was an active member of. One of the main issues the PAC fought against, was the pass laws. The PAC started campaigns against these laws, and this publication goes into detail about a demonstration that occurred in 1960, when 69 unarmed participants were killed by police. I found this information to be valuable for my paper, because the PAC was a huge part of Mandela’s life and the fight against pass laws was something Mandela was passionate about. At the end of this publication,

Despite the fact that the black majority was silenced by the Nation Party, the government at the time, they were able to explore the flaws in the set government system and exchange their thoughts to free the people. They also encountered many difficulties during this process, but with time and consideration foundations were placed to get them out of their segregational government. Laws were set that prohibited any expansion for the majority, but that never stop them from creating different anti-apartheid groups that would open a way to get out of the problem that they faced every single day. People had to go through horrible times as they went on with their lives day in and day out, and the process of destroying the Apartheid. As the

There was considerable labour unrest and strikes were common. There were also occasional bomb attacks. On the 21st march, in Langa, Cape town. a mass march to langa police station was organised. The plan was to surrender themselves guilty of not carrying their passes, and as there were so many of them the police could not arrest them all. At this time an identical plan was created in sharpville and turned into what would be known as the sharpville massacre. Due to the event in sharpville the march was called off and a ban was placed on gatherings. However later that day protestors gathered again. The police ordered the protesters to disperse and baton charged them and the protestors retaliated with stones. Langa was very tense that night as angry protestors barricaded the streets and looted policemen’s homes. The death toll by the end of the day in Langa was three, shot and killed by white policemen. The sharpville massacre and the langa shootings had a great impact on apartheid, the damage done was costly and the government had become ungovernable. Violence caused the protests to be a major factor in the end of apartheid because it was so costly. The South African government was already in bad shape and could not deal with the ungovernable public. Also the violence caught the attention of international relations, and frankly, they were appalled.

Nelson Mandela’s contribution to the destruction of apartheid in South Africa is unparalleled. He dedicated every action of his life to unify a sectioned South Africa that showed no signs of reformation. One of the major characteristics of Mandela’s movement in particular was the notion of unification through nonviolence. Throughout South Africa, the apartheid system was strict and unforgiving. The origins of apartheid lied within denying blacks any political power, or any participation in government whatsoever. From this, the National Party established a system of racial segregation that strictly adhered to White Africans. The apartheid system was law, and was aggressively enforced through physical and political abuse towards black South Africans. Any opposition to the apartheid system endangered the lives of all who participated. Naturally, black South Africans would eventually take action against the poor treatment of their “superiors.” However the most important characteristic of a revolt are the principals on which it is structured. The Nonviolence Campaign was the most effective method of ending apartheid in South Africa. Peaceful opposition prevented unnecessary loss of life, stayed true to the original principals and morals of abolitionists, and prevented the movement itself from falling to hypocrisy. At an early age, Nelson Mandela recognized the importance of nonviolent protest and what it symbolized within a movement. It is important to understand nonviolence as

This event was hugely publicised internationally, resulting anti-pass law demonstrations, such as; Bus Boycotts, The Black Sash, Beer-hall and Rural protest being held worldwide. This can therefore be said to be another exemplar of Mandela?s importance in the removal of apartheid as it were these string of events which thrust forward the beginning of a new South Africa. In March 1960 the ANC inspired protests which resulted in riots in many areas of South Africa forcing the government to declare a state of emergency. In April 1960 the ANC was classed as an

The 1981 Springbok tour, and more significantly the public disturbances that arose because of it, is one of the most impactful events on New Zealand, and even South African society. The controversial idea of having sporting interactions with apartheid ruled South Africa was not new to New Zealand politics, yet with Prime Minister Robert Muldoon in charge, the situation was escalated to astonishing heights. The violence all around New Zealand, between police, protesters and anti-protestors was immense. The impact that the 1981 “riots” had on New Zealand was not limited to the obvious sting of having such violence in the country, but spread to affect politics, economics, police reform, courts and more.