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"No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background,
or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be
taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite."
Apartheid is one of the most recent and most sophisticated systems of racial segregation
in the world. Beginning relatively recently in 1948 and extending to 1994, this system
resulted in the destruction of the rights of non-white people living in South Africa.
Apartheid subjected these people to racist laws that restricted rights based purely on
skin color. The white government held a responsibility to keep themselves in power, and they did
this by writing and enforcing numerous laws. This system came to be known as apartheid.
In 1652, Whites came to South Africa by sea from the Netherlands and other European countries,
and because of their technological and economical superiority, they were able to take South
Africa over and use it as a trading post for the Dutch East India Company. Although blacks
were the dominant race in South Africa, they did not have the modern weaponry of the Europeans.
The natives initially mounted revolts and attacked the colonists, but they were unsuccessful.
The cape of South Africa remained an active trading port because of its strategic location
on a sea route from Europe to Asia. Furthermore, the discovery of diamonds and gold in South
Africa also bolstered the South African economy. The British also wanted in on the mining industry,
so they began colonizing the region. Following this colonization, The British entered two
wars with the African natives called the First and Second Boer Wars these two wars resulted
in heavy British casualties, but because of the overwhelming numbers of the British in
the Second Boer War, they won. In 1905 a law had already been passed that eliminated the
right for blacks to vote, and 5 years later in 1910 the Union of South Africa was formed,
and in 1913 the Natives' Land Act was passed which restricted the amount of land that blacks
could own.
In 1948, Daniel Francois Malan was elected Prime minister of South Africa, and shortly
after, the first grand apartheid law was passed. This law was called the Population Registration
Act and it required all adults to carry identification cards that noted their racial group.
To define people's race, the government separated everyone into four main races: whites, blacks,
coloreds, and Indians. Blacks, which held the majority population in the country received
the most restricted rights.
For example, in 1949, the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act banned interracial marriages,
and in 1950 the Immorality Act made it illegal to have interracial sex.
Also in 1950 the second major grand apartheid law, the Group Areas Act was passed, this
act restricted interracial living and it put blacks into townships, which were governmentally
annexed areas.The average house in a township was tiny, had no plumbing, no electricity,
and they were commonly made out of sheet metal.
In 1953 the Reservation of Separate Amenities Act was passed which segregated benches, buses,
school, and colleges. Similar to the Civil Rights era in America, whites only signs were
common.
In 1953 the Bantu Education Act was passed which officially segregated education. It
built an entirely separate system of education for blacks and was made to teach primarily
manual labor skills used in mining.
While all these laws were being passed, a resistance was mounting, in 1949 the African
National Congress, the ANC, began to be run the youth league, the younger sector of the
organization, these younger people decided that the only way to stop whites was to hold
mass campaigns such as, protests, strikes, civil disobedience actions, and boycotts.
The goal of these were to be peaceful, but protesters often clashed with police.
One famous member of the ANC was Nelson Mandela. Despite the fact that Mandela eventually turned
toward peaceful protests only, in his early years as a leader in the ANC Youth League,
Mandela even advised the group to begin an armed group of members. The ANC allowed Mandela
to co-found a militant group called the Umkhonto we Sizwe which translates to "spear of the
nation" and was commonly abbreviated MK. This organization was responsible for bombings
of military sites, transport lines, and other important sites for the government. His goal
was to not kill anyone, but occasionally civilians were killed which resulted in Mandela being
wanted by the government. In 1962 Mandela was arrested and at his trial he said this
about the MK.(Rivonia trial audio).
But 2 years before Mandela's arrest one of the most important events in Apartheid history
occurred, the Sharpeville Massacre. On March 21, 1960 about 6,000 protesters gathered at
the Sharpeville township police station. The protesters asked to be arrested for not carrying
their identification cards. The protest started off as peaceful but according to some accounts,
it became provocative. The crowd grew to about 20,000, which was accompanied by about 140
police reinforcements. Jets were flown low to try to scatter the crowd, but that only
prompted, according to some reports, stones to be thrown. Police say that rocks and other
debris were thrown at them which prompted them to open fire on the crowd. Almost 70
people were killed and about 180 were injured. This event sent a domestic and international
uproar against the Apartheid regime which prompted many international protesters to
join the anti-apartheid movement.
While Mandela was in prison, another man was making his mark on South Africa. This man
was named Steven Biko. Biko started the South African Students Organization or SASO. Following
the creation of the SASO, Biko was banned from giving speeches and writing publicly.
Despite the restrictions, Biko was able to help organize the Soweto Uprising, which was
a group of protests held by high school students. During the protest, a line of police blocked
the protesters route and according to an account of one of the Policemen, some protesters began
to throw rocks, the police then opened fire on the protesters killing hundreds of children.
Following this event, the United Nations, the United States, and many other countries
formally condemned the country. Also, Steven Biko was arrested, he was tortured, and was
killed. In conjunction with many other events, the international community began to rally
to end Apartheid.
In 1990, after Nelson Mandela was freed from jail at Robben Island, he began negotiating
with the government to end apartheid. At this point, the government was less reluctant to
end apartheid because of the international outcry against the government for its numerous
massacres. In 1991 the Convention for a Democratic South Africa began in the Johannesburg World
Trade Center. And finally, in 1994 Mandela was elected as the first African president.