What is apartheid? It strives from the African word, “separateness.” Apartheid is a policy or system of segregation or discrimination on grounds of race. It goes back very far in the history of South Africa.
South Africa was first colonized by the English and Dutch in the 17th century. It was a country abundant in diamonds and minerals. The findings of diamonds in these lands around 1900 resulted in the Boer War. After the African’s political independence from England, the two groups shared power until the 1940's, until the African National Party was able to gain a majority. This caused the National Party to create apartheid. It was a means to solidify their control over the economy and social system. The idea was to maintain British power while growing racial segregation.
After being established in 1948, racism was now legalized. Laws separated everything, from buildings to even marriage. Marriage between two separate races was outlawed. Even jobs were discriminatory. Africans were then assigned to homelands, categorized by racial tribes. These homelands were small living quarte...
During the twentieth century, a word disappeared from the American vocabulary, a word that had a profound impact on the American society, a word specifically aimed at one group of people. Few appreciate the depth of that word in history. That word is segregation. American Apartheid successfully illustrates the controversial issue of racial segregation by examining the high level of poverty among black citizens and comparing it to the intentional isolation that they experience within American cities.
The integration of the English, Dutch, and Africans began with the Colonization of South Africa in the seventeenth century. South Africa housed an abundant supply of natural resources such as fertile farmland and luxury metals and minerals. South Africa is the leading producer of gold, platinum, and diamonds. It's mild climate, resembling that of San Francisco, made it an ideal location for colonization. The Dutch East India Company occupied South Africa until 1797, when the British took over. The British had power over the colonies of Natal and the Cape at the beginning at the nineteenth century. When diamond deposits were found in the Dutch colonies of Orange Free State and Transvaal, the British invaded, sparking the Boer War. The Dutch decedents, known also as Afrikaners or Boers, sought to fight for their colonies as well as take over the British colonies of Natal and the Cape. The Boers lost the war and their two colonies to the British in defeat. The four colonies of Natal, Orange Free State, Transvaal and the Cape were brought together under British rule by means of the Act of Union of 1910. After some time, the British grew weary of their involvement in Africa and gave power to all of the whites i...
Apartheid was a system of separation of the races both politically and socially in South Africa in the second half of the twentieth century. This system was said to be one of the last examples of institutionalized racism, and has been almost universally criticized. These Apartheid rules and restrictions were put in place by the National Party which had power over South Africa during this time period. The purpose of Apartheid legislation was to bring the Afrikaner ethnic group to a higher power in South Africa, and accomplished just that. The Afrikaner group was made up of descendants from Dutch colonists who settled in South Africa in order to make a refreshment station, a sort of rest stop, for the Dutch East India Company. The longer people stayed in Africa, the more they started to associate with it as their home. With the enslavement of many Africans, it is easy to see how these Afrikaners would associate themselves as above them and would feel entitled to power over them. This entitlement it how Apartheid rules were born.
The apartheid era in South Africa began shortly after the Boer War as the Afrikaner National Party overtook the government following the country’s independence from Great Britain. The Afrikaners, or Dutch descendants, won the majority in 1948 in the first election for the country’s government. Only a short time after were apartheid laws initiated by the minority white descendants. In the Afrikaans language, apartheid’s literal meaning is “separateness,” which is exactly what the laws were designed for. The Afrikaner National Party initiated the laws to ensure their dominance of economic and social powers, but more importantly to strengthen white people’s preeminence by segregating whites and colored peoples. In order to do this, the Afrikaners limited the freedom of colored people in various ways. First, t...
Human history has been marked with long and painful struggles that fought for human rights and freedoms. Discrimination and racial oppression has always been one of the most controversial struggles for mankind. For South Africa, it was a country where black people were oppressed by the white minority. The colonization of South Africa began in the 18th century by the Dutch empire after Dutch trading companies started using its cape as a center for trading between Asia and Europe (sahistory.org.za). Soon after, the British took over the country and declared it part of the British Empire (sahistory.org.za). Decades after, Afrikaners, who descended from the original Dutch settlers that occupied South Africa, started working on creating a state that separates between black people and whites. Their plans were to create a separation between black people and whites that involved excluding blacks from all types of social, economic, and political activities within the country. All South African natives knew the bad conditions that their people were forced to live in but only a few of them took the responsibility of sacrificing their lives and freedom for the rights of their people. One South African citizen, Nelson Mandela, can be considered the main hero for the South African freedom revolution and the hero for millions of people fighting for their freedoms worldwide. Mandela’s long walk for freedom defined South African history and entered world history as one of the most influential fights for freedom and human rights in the world.
Source A gives a view on the South African governments control over its people and racial discrimination. It is a biased view and makes the South African government seem cruel and racist. It states that the governments "politics are determined by the colour a persons skin". As this is a statement it gives the impression that it is a fact and by giving this impression it also communicates the idea that the South African government IS racist, rather than the South African government COULD be racist. This comes as no real surprise as the advert has been paid for by the ANC (African National Congress), who are a very anti - South African government organization.
the ban on the ANC, the PAC and the SACP, he announced the release of
on him or her. Unless it was stamped on their pass, they were not allowed to
Apartheid consisted of a set of unequal laws that favored the whites (“History of South Africa in the apartheid era”). The Race Classification Act, which divided everyone into four race groups, whites, blacks, coloreds, and Indians were the first of many major laws (Evans, 8). Hundreds of thousands of black South Africans were forced to leave their homes and move into special reservations called “homelands” or Bantustans that were set up for them (Evans, 8). There were twenty-three million blacks and they were divided into nine tribal groups, Zulu, Xhosa, Tswana, North and South Sotho, Venda, Tsonga, Swansi, and South Ndebele, and each group were moved into a separate homeland (Evans, 8). Another major law was the Groups Area Act, which secluded the twenty-three million blacks to 14 percent of land, leaving 86 percent of the land for the 4.8 million (Evans, 9). Under apartheid laws a minority ...
In this thesis I will be explain the ways in which the lives of the
South Africa’s racial problems began when the white people came and discovered South Africa with its black population. The white people wanted power because there were many fewer whites than blacks. The only way to achieve that was to change the government around so that only white people had political power. The three terms that were used to describe racial groups under the system of apartheid were European, Native and Coloured.
Apartheid started in 1948 during the twentieth century. A few years before apartheid began the arrival of blacks began. Their arrival began the “Malan's Herenigde Nasionale Party (Reunited National Party) which was a political party in the 1940’s and was created by Daniel François Malan and J.B.M. Hertzog” (Herenigde Nasionale Party). This national party allowed the South African government to introduce new laws which gave the minority the power to rule over the majority. Even before apartheid was introduced the few black people that were in South Africa were not treated well. Another reason apartheid was started by the African National Congress (ANC) was because the white South Africans were unable to teach the black population new technology to be able to work in the white world according to the white population. So they enforced the law of apartheid so the whites would not have to associate with the blacks at all. This not only was happening in South Africa, it also happened in America ...
In 1993, he became the president of South Africa after a long journey of seeking freedom and equality among his people. Under his power, his country attained democratic government without discrimination between the white and black people. He had never talked about racism during his presidential time and had never responded harshly against any racism action. He had very successful time in leading South Africa until he retired because of his health bad condition. Finally, he died in 2013, but he remained in our heart as strong leader, peaceful person, and free man.
Apartheid was considered a necessary arrangement in South Africa, as the Afrikaner National Party gained a strong majority political control of the country after the 1940’s and the economic dependence on their fertile natural resources, such as diamond and gold mines and other metals such as platinum. This required intense labor and the white dominant control over the repressed black majority allowed for an
The apartheid was a very traumatic time for blacks in South Africa. Apartheid is the act of literally separating the races, whites and non-whites, and in 1948 the apartheid was now legal, and government enforced. The South African police began forcing relocations for black South Africans into tribal lines, which decreased their political influence and created white supremacy. After relocating the black South Africans, this gave whites around eighty percent of the land within South Africa. Jonathan Jansen, and Nick Taylor state “The population is roughly 78 percent black, 10 percent white, 9 percent colored, and l...