Afrikaners: The Decolonization Process In South Africa

The decolonization process in Africa, which extended, in one way or another, from the late 1940s to the 1990s, did not result in immediate prosperity, especially not for a country like South Africa, which experienced multi-faceted colonialism and a two-phase independence. This lack of prosperity disproportionately targeted the native black population, which had developed an antagonistic relationship with the white settlers from the beginning of colonization. The conflicts between the black native South Africans and Afrikaners, Dutch settlers who arrived to the region during the 17th and 18th centuries, was rooted in centuries of clashes. In 1811, the British influx of settlers pushed the Xhosa natives over the Fish River, which led the Afrikaners

I define decolonization in South Africa as the process of a relative majority acquiring independence from a previously more powerful minority, whether that minority is an outside colonizing power or a small group of people living within the colonial society: in the first phase of decolonization, the Afrikaners gained independence from the minority British ruling elite; in the second phase of decolonization, the black South African majority gained independence from the Afrikaner minority. Due to the complex colonial situation in South Africa, black natives suffered greatly from their encounter with European settlers and Afrikaners. As opposed to many African states that did not have large white populations, the struggles of black South Africans were exacerbated by pseudo-scientific racism stemming from a heavy white presence, which led to apartheid politics, constrained the daily lives of the black population, placed epidemic diseases such as AIDS and tuberculosis under racial terms, and made economic prosperity unattainable. The legacies of apartheid politics continued after the second post-colonial phase, and black South Africans today still suffer