Anti Apartheid Liberation Movement Essay

This paper explores one of the most significance revolutions in Africa’s history: the anti- apartheid liberation movement in South Africa. In the late 1940s, the white government of the National Party implemented laws that supported white supremacy and segregation in South Africa. The series of discriminatory laws were referred to as the apartheid laws, and created a society in which blacks were, essentially, denied the rights to succeed economically, politically, and educationally. For decades, black South Africans were subject to unfair treatment by police, denied the right to vote, and denied the right to live where they chose. Nearly 50 years of protests led by political activists and liberation organizations persisted before apartheid

Perhaps one of the most significant and most recent revolutions of Africa’s history involves South Africa’s struggle of independence from the Dutch and British in a system coined: apartheid. Apartheid is any system or practice that separates people according to color, ethnicity, caste, etc. (In Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary, n.d.). In Afrikaans, apartheid literally means “apartness”, and this system created an extremely organized society in which white South Africans dominated politically, economically, and socially at the expense of blacks (“Colonialism and Segregation”, n.d.). This system promoted legal segregation and divide between peoples of different colors. Apartheid parallels segregation in America, and thus, the efforts of the Anti-Apartheid Liberation Movement in South Africa closely mirror those of the Civil Rights Movements to abolish segregation in the United States. Imposed in 1948 after the intervention of the white government of the National Party, apartheid did not end until 1994, despite many attempts made to repeal the legislation that constituted its basis. Though apartheid has not legally been enforced since 1994, South Africa is in many ways still fighting to overcome its shameful past. The injustices and inequalities suffered by indigenous South Africans are still apparent in several parts of the country. Today, South Africa is one of the most prosperous and fastest-developing countries in all of Africa; still, the country is continuously fighting for their justice and