The Apartheid

The Afrikaans System : The Apartheid

What is the Apartheid? Well, Apartheid comes from is an Afrikaans word meaning "apartness which was a political and social system in South Africa while it was under white minority rule (meaning white people ruled the country, even though there were not as many of them as there were black people). This was in use in the 20th century, from 1948 to 1994. Racial segregation had been used for centuries but the new policy started in 1948 was stricter and more systematic. In the system, the people of South Africa were divided by their race and the races were forced to live apart from each other. There were laws that kept up the racial separation. The system of apartheid in South Africa was banned in 1994. The last president under apartheid was Frederik Willem de Klerk. After this, Nelson Mandela became the first black president. Both were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts. Today, the term apartheid is sometimes used to speak about similar systems in other countries.

How does apartheid worked? During apartheid, people were divided into four racial groups and kept apart by law. The system was used to deny many rights of non-white people, mainly black people who lived in South Africa in the beginning. The laws allowed the white people to keep the black people out of certain areas. Black people had to carry special papers (passes) or have permission to live and work in particular areas. The government separated mixed communities and forcibly moved many people. Many laws were made, for example: people of different races were not allowed to marry each other; black people could not own land in white areas or vote.

The United Nations did not agree with the South African government's apartheid policies. There were protests in South Africa, like in Sharpeville in 1960 and in Soweto in 1976. After the Sharpeville Massacre, the UN tried to get South Africa out of the UN in 1974. France, the United States, and Britain...