Apartheid Essay ⋆ Political Science Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

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Apartheid is an Afrikaans word meaning “separateness.” It was the official government policy in South Africa from 1948 until a negotiated transition that culminated in the first democratic elections in 1994. In 1976, the UN General Assembly recognized apartheid as a crime against humanity. The idea of racial segregation was not new; similar policies had been introduced in different parts of South Africa long before the Union of 1910.

Key Aspects

Apartheid was adopted by the National Party (NP), which came to power in South Africa in 1948. It was built on the growth of Afrikaner nationalism and increasing economic hardship for parts of the Afrikaner population. A new intellectual elite known as the Broederbond, which at the time was a secret organization, was central to the promotion of Afrikaner nationalism. The main architect of apartheid policy was H. F. Verwoerd, who was Minister of Native Affairs during the early 1950s and later became prime minister. One of the central tenets of the apartheid system was the Population Registration Act introduced in 1950. This law required all citizens to have their racial group officially recorded. Decisions were clearly arbitrary in some cases and often were disputed. Race was determined by skin color, but other criteria, such as language and social status, were considered also.

Another of the major laws passed was the Group Areas Act in 1950. This clearly designated areas of land for each of the four racial groups (white, coloured, Indian, and native). The consequence of this law was that huge numbers of people were forcibly relocated. Africans were forced to travel for work and basic goods and services, but the pass law system ensured close regulation of such movements. Later this policy was extended to become the homelands approach. Residents of these “independent” homelands were no longer afforded South African citizenship.

The NP also played on white fears of miscegenation, which is the interbreeding of races. The Mixed Marriages Act (1949) and the Immorality Act (1950) outlawed marriage and extramarital sex between different races. The system became ever more pervasive with the introduction in 1953 of “petty apartheid,” which involved racial segregation in public places such as restaurants, lavatories, beaches, hotels, and public transport.

Opposition To Apartheid

Opposition to apartheid was strongly organized within South Africa itself. During the 1950s, the African National Congress (ANC) forged an alliance with other organizations and adopted a policy of defiance. One peaceful demonstration against the pass law system resulted in the deaths of sixty-nine people in Sharpeville on March 21, 1960. The government reacted by banning all the major resistance groups in 1960. The ANC then for med Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation), which developed a guerrilla warfare strategy. Soon after, in 1963, many of the ANC’s leaders, including Nelson Mandela, were arrested and tried for planning a violent revolution against the state.

There was also international pressure from the antiapartheid movement. However, key governments such as the United States and United Kingdom continued to see South Africa as an ally in the cold war. Moreover, many leading economies maintained their economic links with South Africa, and it was only during the 1980s that significant economic sanctions were imposed.

A System Under Pressure

Apartheid came under strain during the 1970s due to domestic economic pressures and a renewal of resistance politics. There was a revival of black trade unionism, and the ideology of the black consciousness movement inspired a new generation of black South Africans. Demonstrations against the compulsory use of Afrikaans in black schools began in Soweto in June 1976 and spread across the country. Meanwhile, sections of the business community began to question the economic viability of the apartheid system given the restrictions on labor and inequality in education. As a result, in 1984 attempts at constitutional reform of the system were introduced, including the trilateral parliament. However, the idea of separate development was maintained, and the mass mobilization tactics of the United Democratic Front increased civil unrest.

Negotiated Transition

In 1989, F. W. de Klerk became the final apartheid-era president and began negotiating a settlement. In 1990, he released Mandela and the other political prisoners and unbanned all the liberation movements. Despite high levels of political violence, a period of negotiation ensued under the banner of The Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA).

The ANC, NP, and a number of other, though not all, South African political organizations took part in CODESA. In April 1994, South Africa’s first democratic elections were held, and Nelson Mandela was elected as president.

Bibliography:

Barber, James. 1999. South Africa in the Twentieth Century: A Political History—In Search of a Nation State. Oxford, U.K.: Blackwell, 1999.
Dubow, Saul. Racial Segregation and the Origins of Apartheid in South Africa, 1919–36. Basingstoke, U.K.: Macmillan, 1989.
Guelke, Adrian. Rethinking the Rise and Fall of Apartheid. Basingstoke, U.K.: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.
Lipton, Merle. Capitalism and Apartheid: South Africa, 1910–86. Aldershot, U.K.:Wildwood House, 1986.
O’Meara, Dan. Forty Lost Years:The Apartheid State and the Politics of the National Party 1948–1994.
Randburg, South Africa: Ravan Press, 1996.
Sparks, Allister. The Mind of South Africa:The Story of the Rise and Fall of Apartheid. London: Mandarin, 1991.
Waldmeir, Patti. Anatomy of a Miracle:The End of Apartheid and the Birth of the New South Africa. London:Viking, 1997.