Apartheid- rigid separation of races

Forced Segregation • In 1910, Britain granted S. Africa self rule

• Until 1994, a small white minority led the government

• whites make up 16% of S. Africa’s population, 70% black, 11% mixed, 3% Asian

•In 1948, Nationalist party came to power, made up of conservative white farmers with strong white supremacist views

• They set up strict legal system of apartheid (rigid separation of races)

• Under apartheid, the gov’t classified all S. Africa as white, black, “COLOURED” (people of mixed race), or Asian

• It passed laws to keep races separate

•Nonwhites could not vote, and were restricted to where they could live and work

• Black ethnic groups were assigned to live in homelands, which were located in dry, infertile areas

• 4/5th’s of S. Africa’s fertile parts remained in white hands

• Some blacks were allowed to live outside the homelands because the gov’t needed workers

• Pass laws required all black S. Africans living in a town or city to carry a passbook – Passbook included a

record of where they could travel or work, their tax payments, and a record of any criminal convictions, it had to be carried at all times

• Pass laws divided families, husbands and wives could not live together if both did not have passes to the city

• Black were forbidden to: – Ride on “white”

buses – Swim at “white”

beaches– Eat at “white”

restaurants– Education limited,

causing many blacks to be illiterate/ no education

Struggle Against Apartheid•Non-violent resistance always present

•Gov’t banned opposition groups, like African National Congress

•Black leaders went into hiding—Nelson Mandela caught in 1964 and sentenced to life in prison

• Women and students involved in struggle

• International pressure grew and groups began to boycott S. Africa

• United Nations place an arms embargo on S. Africa

• During 1980’s, U.S. and other nations imposed economic sanctions (cut off trade in many items and ended financial dealings with businesses in S. Africa)

Children of Soweto, a Black township some ten miles away from Johannesburg, in 1982. The Zulu world "Amandla" scrawled on the wall means "Power". This has been adopted as a rallying call in the struggle for Black rights. (UN Photo# 151670)

Steps toward change• Protests and economic

sanctions had an effect• They slowed S. African

economy, causing white business leaders to press the gov’t for change

• Mid-1980’s S. Africa repealed the pass laws and opened some segregated facilities

• In 1989- President F.W. de Klerk lifted the ban on the ANC and other opposition groups

• 1990- Nelson Mandela freed from prison

• Early 1990’s- de Klerk’s gov’t slowly moved to end white minority rule

• 1994- elections held to create a coalition gov’t (Blacks could vote for the first time)

• Mandela was swept into office

• Created gov’t based on “justice for all”

• White extremists still opposed the new constitution

• Ethnic and political tensions at times flared into violence

• Today, S. Africa on verge of a peaceful nation

Mandela and de Klerk accepting the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993

Mandela casting his ballot in the 1994 elections

Newly-elected President Nelson Mandela addressing the crowd from a balcony of the Town Hall in Pretoria, South Africa on May 10, 1994 . (UN Photo# 186835 by C. Sattleberger)