Apartheid- a rigid policy of segregation of the nonwhite population. Segregation- the act or practice of segregating. Sounds like something that is happening in 1860 America. But in reality its not. These policies and laws were put into action in South Africa. When i hear South Africa i think of black as the dominant race and them having structure and control over what they call home. But realistically it wasn't like that.
Apartheid in Africa was a system of legal racial segregation enforced by the National Party government of South Africa between 1948 and 1990. Apartheid had its roots in the history of colonisation and settlement of southern Africa, with the development of practices and policies of separation along racial lines and domination by European settlers and their descendants. Following the general election of 1948 the National Party set in place its programme of Apartheid, with the formalisation and expansion of existing policies and practices into a system of institutionalised racism and white domination. Apartheid was dismantled in a series of negotiations from 1990 to 1993, culminating in elections in 1994, the first in South Africa with universal suffrage. The legacies of apartheid still shape South African politics and society.
When we talked about it in class today I thought that it happened at least a century ago. However when I did some research I found that it only ended a little over a decade ago. It surprises me to see such nonsence in this day, but to see it in a country where the population is primarily black. And it wasn't just the black people getting mistreatment there were also migrant workers from India being mistreated.
The system of apartheid sparked significant internal resistance.The government responded to a series of popular uprisings and protests with police brutality, which in turn increased local support for the armed resistance struggle. In response to popular and political resistance, the apartheid government resorted to detentions without trial, torture, censorship, and the banning of political opposition from organisations such as the African National Congress, and the Black Consciousness Movement which were popularly considered liberation movements. Despite suffering extreme repression and exile, these organisations maintained popular support for the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa and forged connections with the international anti-apartheid movement during this period.
As antiapartheid pressure mounted within and outside South Africa, the South African government, led by President F. W. de Klerk, began to dismantle the apartheid system in the early 1990s. The year 1990 brought a National Party government dedicated to reform and also saw the legalization of formerly banned black congresses and the release of imprisoned black leaders. In 1994 the country's constitution was rewritten and free general elections were held for the first time in its history, and with Nelson Mandela's election as South Africa's first black president, the last vestiges of the apartheid system were finally outlawed.
-mOrqan*
