South African Apartheid Essay

In both countries, the schism between Africans and their government worsened. To illustrate: “[The Emancipation Proclamation] ended [slavery] . . . , but blacks . . . had more in common with African-American slaves . . . than with the [Caucasian businessmen]” (Bausum 2012, 19). For instance, Congress passed the discriminatory Jim Crow Laws – in order to establish a hierarchy based on “the plantation mentality” (Bausum 2012, 14). For South Africans, the National Party (the Nats) in 1948, made apartheid the official law. Both forms of segregation continued the cycle of poverty for coloured people and “ensured [that Caucasians had better quality education], hospitals, and other public services” (Rose 2011, 12). For example, African-American garbage men’s insufficient salary “was based on their garbage routes” rather than an hourly wage (Bausum 2012, 14). Similarly, black South African staff received inadequate pay and the law outlawed strikes and the formation of unions.

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.

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.

The Apartheid was initiated as a ploy for Europeans to better control the exploited populations for economic gain, as maintaining tension between the different racial classifications diverted attention from the Europeans as it fed hatred between groups. This assisted in minimizing unity between the exploited to rally against European control as it backhandedly induced “submission” for survival. One way of accomplishing this was by instilling laws that’d force segregation, classification, educational “requirements”, and economic purposes. The Population Registration Act of 1950 enacted, requiring segregation of Europeans from Afrikaans . Following shortly, the Group Areas Act of 1950 was enacted as a new form of legislation alongside the Population Registration Act. This detailed act separated tribes based on ethnics; consequently, further detailing segregation amongst the natives .

In both countries, the schism between Africans and their government worsened. Despite the Emancipation Proclamation ending slavery, “blacks . . . had more in common with African-American slaves . . . than with the [Caucasian businessmen,]” due to the Jim Crow Laws – which established a hierarchy based on “the plantation mentality” (Bausum 2012, 14,19). Similarly in South Africa, the National Party made apartheid the official law in 1948. In other words, both forms of segregation: isolated races (ex. through outlawing intermarriage and integration), trapped coloured people in the cycle of poverty and ensured that only coloured people were deprived of quality education, health care, and other government services . In addition, only African-Americans were garbage men who received an insufficient salary that “was based on their garbage routes” rather than an hourly wage (Bausum 2012, 14). Similarly, black South

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.

This paper will be outlining the basic structure of the laws that segregated the black population of South Africa throughout the 1900’s. It will also be explaining important people involved in the dismantling of apartheid and the foreign nations that helped to influence South Africa’s government to change. However, the primary goal for this paper is to inform the reader about the reasoning behind apartheid, the events leading up to it, and how it was reformed.

The South African Apartheid, instituted in 1948 by the country’s Afrikaner National Party, was legalized segregation on the basis of race, and is a system comparable to the segregation of African Americans in the United States. Non-whites - including blacks, Indians, and people of color in general- were prohibited from engaging in any activities specific to whites and prohibited from engaging in interracial marriages, receiving higher education, and obtaining certain jobs. The National Party’s classification of “race” was loosely based on physical appearance and lineage. White individuals were superficially defined as being “obviously white'' on the basis of their “habits, education and speech as well as deportment and demeanor”; an

During apartheid, a series of Land Acts set aside more than 80 percent of the country’s land for the white minority. People were divided into four racial groups. In order to limit contact between races, “pass laws” required non-whites to carry documents authorizing their presence in restricted areas. In addition, people of different races were not allowed to marry each other. The government also established separate public facilities for whites and non-whites and limited the activity of nonwhite labor unions. Every political right held by black Africans

During many years, South Africa had its own system of racial segregation called apartheid, where white South Africans were separated from black South Africans because they wanted control over them. Unfortuanely, this type of segregation become law, and it took a while to remove it. The first person to take action about the apartheid was Nelson Mandela, an unique activism.

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.

Apartheid in South Africa started in 1948 when the apartheid policy was passed as Reverend Doctor DF Malan of the National Party was president of South Africa at the time. However prior to the passing of the new policy, segregation between races had already made a presence. This caused the minority race group, white citizens, to obtain the majority power and advantages all due to skin colour. Black South African citizens were treated unfairly and inhumanly by the ruling government and were also used as cheap labor. The new legislation contained a “Group Area Act” further segregating races by dividing the suburbs up and allocating sections to specific races and

Apartheid is a policy or system of segregation or discrimination on grounds of race (google) , it started in 1948 and lasted until 1991. Apartheid essentially separated people by race in South Africa. During apartheid you couldn’t marry anyone from another race, also it made it harder for blacks to learn and made living conditions horrible for blacks. Apartheid was a system that began so that the government can keep the power within white people. While apartheid was happening there were three people arguing that apartheid was wrong, Nelson Mandela, Steve Biko, and Desmond Tutu. They expressed their ideas by writing about it. In their writing all three of them used rhetorical techniques to persuade their readers that apartheid was wrong. Nelson Mandela tried to convince his audience by relating to their emotions, Desmond Tutu tried to convince his audience by saying real life stories and Steve Biko persuaded his audience with his use of black consciousness.

Apartheid is defined as a policy or system of segregation or discrimination on the basis of race. Although this sounds very similar to situations here in the U.S. it is important to note that Apartheid was enforced more strictly in South Africa because there was a rule of the minority. To keep things as they were, politicians in government and the police force had to enforce policies no matter how small the “crime” seemed to be. The start of Apartheid ties to the business interests of Europeans at the time. This is a practice that took place from approximately 1948 to 1994. This practice was by no means just but as I explained it took place because of the demographics in South Africa. Apartheid laws were put in place in 1948. One of the laws was known as Population Registration Act (1950) made it mandatory for all Africans to be classified as one of three races white, black or colored (mixed-race.) This led to the issuing of “pass books” to blacks who wanted to enter areas of South Africa that were designated as “whites only.” These and other racist laws were

In South Africa a big part of Apartheid that was unfair was the difference between the whites living conditions and the blacks. To put this in perspective the blacks had 15 million more people yet they only had 13% of the entire land of the country (6). Even though the whites had 4.5 million to the blacks 19 million the whites had much more land than them,