Origin+and+Impact+of+Apartheid

Alex G

Apartheid is a policy of racial segregation formerly followed in South Africa. The word Apartheid means separateness and describes the racial separation between the white governing population and the black majority population. The National Party introduced Apartheid in the 1948 elections, and with the National Party victory, Apartheid became the political policy for South Africa until the early 1990's. Apartheid is a collection of laws that classify people into three major sects: Whites, Bantu (black Africans), and Coloured (those of mixed descent). Determination into each of these groups considers appearance, social standing, and descent. Within these classes, Whites, although only comprising 20% of the population, maintained all political power and control over the population of Bantus despite being outnumbered 4:1. [|Source]

Apartheid promoted the segregation between these classes through a series of laws mainly enacted during the 1950's. In 1950, the Group Areas Act assigned separate residential and business districts within urban areas. Five years later, the Land Acts, completely restricted areas where Bantus and Coloured people could live, and established that 80% of the land remains in the ownership of the White population. These separate areas were called "homelands" and were intended to reestablish "tribal" organizations each with individual systems of government. By 1970, each Bantu was classified as part of a specific homeland and effectively eliminated non-white participation in government. However, these homelands lacked the financial and economic resources to establish and maintain autonomic independent nations. The Apartheid laws also prohibited contact between classes, segregated public areas, separated educational standards, created race-specific job categories, and diminished participation in government by all non-white parties.

The Apartheid was a highly effective regime at squashing opposition and henceforth remained in control for an extended period of time. When uprising occurred, laws were passed that imposed fines, imprisonment, and whippings for protesting against or supporting the repeal of a law. For example, in a "state of emergency" a person could be detained for six months by low level police without a hearing. In 1964, Nelson Mandela, leader of the African National Congress (an anti-Apartheid regime) was detained, tried, and sentenced to life in prison. This prompted countries such the US, France, and Britain invested to attempt to profit from the increasing revenue that South Africa was gaining due to its increasing political stability. However, despite increased investments, by 1978 South Africa's economy was struggling. The government was spending too much money maintaining the homelands without any economic advantage, and illegal labor unions of blacks were flourishing. Also, considering that Apartheid economic laws left 80% of their population impoverished and unable to stimulate the economy through purchasing power. Simultaneously, increasing discontent with Apartheid was growing in the United States and Europe. To appease these countries, South African Apartheid Government legalized labor unions, abolished homelands, and increased spending on education of the black community. However, this tactic did not work, and increasing amounts of countries were boycotting South African goods due to Apartheid. Nelson Mandela began to make public statements from prison, exacerbating the discontent with the government. In 1989, the government granted political rights to blacks. In 1991 and 1992, public referendums were held and Apartheid disbanded.

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