Apartheid, a word meaning "separateness", or "the state of being apart “was a system of racial segregation in South Africa which was enforced through legislation by the National party, which was the governing party from 1948 to 1994. Under apartheid, the rights, associations, and movements of the majority black people and other groups were curtailed, and white minority rule was maintained. Apartheid was developed after World War 2 by the Afrikaner-dominated National Party. The idea was also enforced into South West Africa which was administered by South Africa under the League of nations mandate until it gained independence as Namibia in 1990. By extension, the term is currently used for forms of segregation established by the state authority
Another factor which can be seen as a cause of the implementation of apartheid is the loyalty black Africans had towards the British. Translated from the Afrikaans meaning 'apartness ', apartheid was the ideology supported by the National Party government. The system was first introduced in South Africa in 1948 and was known as segregation. Segregation called for the separate development of the different racial groups in South Africa. On paper it appeared to call for equal development and freedom of cultural expression, but the way in which it was implemented made this impossible.
It was a system of racial segregation in South Africa enforced through legislation from 1948 to 1994. The majority black inhabitants were curtailed of rights, associations, and movements. It was caused by the race diversity between the white people and black people. After donkey years, the negative effects of the Apartheid system were still obvious. Public facilities are divided according to the different races.
The laws forced different racial groups to live separately and develop separately, in grossly unequal conditions. Apartheid was unique in that it made the social culture of racial segregation in South Africa more enforced than it already was through legislation when the Afrikaner Nationalist Party came to power in 1948. Anti-Apartheid movements in the late 1950’s and early 1960s took many forms domestically and to an extent internationally. In 1959, a boycott campaign started by exiled South African anti-Apartheid activists took place in England with aim of influencing and not overthrowing the South African government through sanctions of South African goods. However, an otherwise peaceful tactic towards reform was transformed by the shootings at Sharpeville, a police led massacre of peaceful protesters killing 69 and wounding 181.
Maya Verdier Global Studies 2H Mr. Grace Set: 1 South African Apartheid Apartheid was the policy of segregation, political, and economic discrimination against non-European groups in South Africa. Apartheid was introduced in 1948 and created a tremendous turning point in South African history. South Africa was colonized by the English and Dutch in the 17th century. The English and Dutch later became called Afrikaners, and these two groups had a power-share over Africa until the 1940’s. When the Afrikaner National Party gained a strong majority Apartheid was invented.
Under apartheid, over 80% of the land was held by 13% of the population. Unions were formed and strikes broke out, such as the massive 1946 strike of gold miners on the Witwatersrand or on the Durban docks. Strikers were brutalized, then blacklisted. The two major political associations at that time that were revolting against Apartheid were the African National Congress (ANC) and the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC). Leaders of the ANC and PAC within South Africa were tracked down, arrested, and charged with treason.
The apartheid according to Merriam Webster was a racial segregation; specifically: a former policy of segregation and political and economic discrimination against non-European groups in the Republic of South Africa. In the novel Cry, The Beloved Country, we see the apartheid in an early stage. We see prejudice thinking in Johannesburg when Kumalo arrives. We see the miserable lives black people have compared to the comfortable lives white people have. “And some cry for the cutting up of South Africa without delay into separate areas, where white can live without black, and black without white, where black can farm their own land and mine their own minerals and administer their own land” (Paton 109).
However, racial segregation was practiced with the greatest severity in South Africa. In fact, South Africa has world’s most complete system of racial segregation. South Africans use a specific term for racial segregation- ‘apartheid’. This term has, probably, originated in 1940s from Afrikaans language, one of the official languages of South Africa. It developed in 17th century, around the period when Dutch invaders settled in South Africa.
The apartheid government manipulated the minds of black South Africans in such a way that they viewed themselves as incomplete and insignificant, especially in relation to the white man. This made the black man easier to oppress politically, economically and socially. One could argue that mental oppression or psychological oppression is a precondition to political oppression, particularly the oppression that occurred in apartheid South Africa. If one accepts such an idea, one can begin to see the importance of Steve Biko’s Black Consciousness Movement. It is through consciousness that freedom can be achieved by the black man.
From 26 May 1948, South Africa was run by the National Party government, who came to power on the political platform of Apartheid. Not only did apartheid separate whites from non-whites, it also segregated the Blacks (Africans) from the Coloured (Indians, Asians). All things such as jobs, schools, railway stations, beaches, park benches, public toilets and even parliament. Apartheid also prevented blacks from living in white areas. This brought on the hated "pass laws" which was the reason that the protest in Sharpeville happened in the first place.