What Was Apartheid In South Africa?
Apartheid, which means “apartness” in Afrikaans, was a legal framework that enforced segregationist practices against South Africans who were not white. The all-white National Party administration in South Africa quickly started implementing the country’s pre-existing racial segregation laws after taking office in 1948. Most South Africans who were not white were required to live away from white people and utilize segregated public amenities under apartheid.
It would be difficult for the two groups to interact. Apartheid was opposed vehemently and consistently inside and outside South Africa, yet its laws persisted for over 50 years. The majority of the rules that served as the foundation for apartheid started to be repealed by the administration of President F.W. de Klerk in 1991. In recognition of their efforts in drafting a new constitution for South Africa, President de Klerk and campaigner Nelson Mandela would subsequently be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Who Started Apartheid in South Africa?
Long before apartheid took hold, racial segregation and white supremacy had been fundamental tenets of South African policy. Three years after South Africa earned its independence, the contentious 1913 Land Act was implemented, ushering in the era of territorial segregation by requiring black Africans to reside in reserves and outlawing their employment as sharecroppers. The South African National Native Congress, which would later become the African National Congress (ANC), was founded by opponents of the Land Act.
When Did Apartheid Become Law?
By 1950, the government had outlawed marriages between white South Africans and persons of other races and interracial sex. The Population Registration Act of 1950, which classified all South Africans by race, including Bantu (black Africans), Colored (mixed race), and white, formed the fundamental structure for apartheid. Later, a fourth category—Asian, which includes Pakistani and Indian—was introduced. In certain instances, the law created a divide in families, with the offspring of colored parents and white parents.
Was There Opposition to Apartheid?
Over time, there were many ways to oppose apartheid in South Africa, from peaceful rallies, strikes, and marches to political activism and military resistance. In 1952, the ANC coordinated a large gathering with the South Indian National Congress when people burnt their passbooks. South Africa “belongs to everyone who dwells there, black or white,” according to a Freedom Charter issued in 1955 by a party calling itself the Congress of the People. One hundred fifty individuals were detained when the authorities dispersed the gathering and accused them of high treason.
A group of unarmed black people affiliated with the Pan-African Congress (PAC), an offshoot of the ANC, were shot by the police in the 1960s in the predominantly black township of Sharpsville. Without passes, the gang had entered the police station and was actively seeking arrest. More than 180 people were injured, including at least 67 black people.
Sharpsville persuaded many anti-apartheid activists that they could not accomplish their goals via peaceful means, and the PAC and ANC both developed military wings. Still, neither organization ever constituted a real military danger to the state. By 1961, most rebel leaders had been apprehended, given lengthy jail sentences, or killed.
From 1963 to 1990, Nelson Mandela, a founding member of Umkhonto we Sizwe (also known as “Spear of the Nation”), the ANC’s military branch, was imprisoned; his imprisonment helped bring attention to the anti-apartheid movement on a global scale.
On June 10, 1980, Mandela’s supporters released a letter they had secretly smuggled out of prison: “UNITE! MOBILISE! FIGHT ON! BETWEEN THE ANVIL OF UNITED MASS ACTION AND THE HAMMER OF THE ARMED STRUGGLE WE SHALL CRUSH APARTHEID!”.
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When Did Apartheid Comes to an End?
When hundreds of black youngsters protested the Afrikaans language requirement for black African schoolchildren in 1976 in Soweto, a black slum outside Johannesburg, the police opened fire with tear gas and bullets.
All illusions that apartheid had delivered peace or prosperity to the country were dispelled by the demonstrations and government repression that soon followed, along with a national economic downturn.
The U.N. Security Council decided to put a mandatory embargo on the supply of armaments to South Africa in 1976 after the U.N. General Assembly condemned apartheid in 1973. The U.S. and the U.K placed economic sanctions on the nation in 1985.
The Pieter Botha-led National Party administration tried to enact changes, including repealing the passed laws and prohibiting interracial dating and marriage, in response to pressure from the international community.
However, the reforms did not result in any significant change, and by 1989 Botha was under pressure to give way to F.W. de Klerk. De Klerk’s administration eventually abolished the Population Registration Act and the majority of the other pieces of law that served as the foundation for apartheid. Nelson Mandela was set free by De Klerk on February 11, 1990.
A coalition government with a majority of people of color was formed in 1994 due to elections and a new constitution that gave blacks and other racial groups more rights. This election marked the formal end of the apartheid regime.
