From 1948 to the 1990s, a single word ruled South African life. Apartheid, which means “apartness” in Afrikaans, held the country’s majority Black population under the control of a small white minority. It would take decades of battle to put an end to the policy, which affected every aspect of life in a country steeped in centuries-old bigotry and racism.
After the National Party took control in 1948, segregation occurred. White supremacy policies were adopted by the nationalist political party, which benefited white South Africans derived from both Dutch and British settlers in South Africa while further disenfranchising Black Africans.
The method was based on the country’s colonial and slave heritage. Historically, white settlers saw Black South Africans as a natural resource to be harnessed to transform the country from a rural to an industrialized society. Slave labor was used by Dutch immigrants to create South Africa beginning in the 17th century. South Africa discovered gold and diamonds about the time slavery was abolished in the country in 1863.
The mining firms utilized a strategy previously used by slaveholders and British colonizers to manage Black workers: passing laws. These rules, dating back to the 18th century, forced members of the Black majority and other people of color to carry identification papers at all times and limited their movement in specific areas. They were also used to regulate Black settlement, forcibly relocating Black people to areas where their work would benefit white settlers.
Those rules remained in effect until South Africa became a self-governing dominion of the United Kingdom in the twentieth century. Between 1899 and 1902, Britain and Dutch-descended Afrikaners fought in the Boer War, which the Afrikaners eventually won. White South Africans’ anti-British attitude persisted, and Afrikaner nationalists formed an ideology based on white supremacy. When they seized over in 1948, they made the country’s already oppressive rules even worse.
Despite their lack of power, Black South Africans protested their oppression under apartheid. The African National Congress, the country’s oldest Black political party, launched the Defiance Campaign in the 1950s to protest racial policies. Black workers boycotted white establishments, went on strike, and protested peacefully.
Police and state brutality met these acts of defiance. Protesters were beaten and subjected to improper legal proceedings. Despite the fact that the campaigns had a negative impact on Black demonstrators, they did not put enough international pressure on the South African government to encourage reform.
South African police killed 69 nonviolent protestors in Sharpeville in 1960, prompting widespread outrage and a wave of strikes. Tired of what they perceived as ineffectual nonviolent rallies, a subset of protestors decided to support armed resistance instead. Nelson Mandela was one among them, having helped create a paramilitary branch of the ANC in 1960. He was arrested for treason in 1961 and condemned to life in prison in 1964 on sabotage charges.
By the end of the 1980s, white South Africans were growing dissatisfied with what they viewed as South Africa’s deteriorating international status. By that time, the country was facing penalties and economic repercussions as worldwide businesses, celebrities, and other governments put pressure on the government to end prejudice. As the economy deteriorated, the government was at odds with anti-apartheid protestors.
De Klerk repealed the ban on the ANC and other opposition parties in February 1990, and Mandela was released from prison after covert discussions had failed. Despite ongoing political violence, Mandela, de Klerk, and their friends began rigorous talks.
The NP was finally defeated in 1994, and Mandela was elected President of South Africa. A constitutional assembly was called, and South Africa adopted a new constitution that established a South Africa free of racial discrimination. It went into effect in 1997.
South Africa had effectively ended apartheid by that point. Mandela and de Klerk were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 for their collaboration, and a truth and reconciliation commission was established to investigate and memorialize human rights violations. The transition was not fully peaceful. However, by the end of the war, South Africa had constructed a new reality: one that owed its existence to the perseverance of an oppressed racial majority.
What was the impact of apartheid on South Africa?
Beginning in 1948, black South Africans were forcibly removed from their land and placed to racially segregated developments outside of the city, where homeownership was nearly impossible. Between 1960 and 1980, police forces forcibly relocated 3.5 million individuals from city areas to rural townships.
What impact did apartheid have on family life?
Millions of black children and families were forced to abandon their homes in “white” areas and relocate to “black” neighborhoods. There were no suitable schools, hospitals, or jobs available here. While their parents went to work in white people’s houses, farms, and industries, the children were left with family members.
How did apartheid affect South African education?
Through overtly discriminatory measures, the Apartheid regime exacerbated educational inequities. The Bantu Education Act of 1952 ensured that Blacks received an education that limited their educational potential and kept them in the labor force.
