Apartheid

Apartheid word meaning "the state of being apart", literally "apart-hood" was a political and
social system of racial segregation in South Africa enforced through legislation by the white
minority rule, National Party (NP), the governing party from 1948 to 1994.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.
Under apartheid, the rights, associations, and movements of the majority black inhabitants and
other ethnic groups were curtailed and Afrikaner minority rule was maintained. 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.

How 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 stopped that from happening. The Soweto uprising started because Africans
were forced to study some subjects at school in Afrikaans. Many black people did not like
Afrikaans because it was the language of the apartheid government and they did not understand
it.
Finally, after much struggle, the South African government ended apartheid in 1994. After that,
equal rights were shared among both black and whites in law. Nelson Mandela became president
when apartheid was ended.
Although black South Africans were granted equal rights as far as the law was concerned since
1994, 90 percent of the country's poor people are non-white, and so inequality remains a big
problem.

Aim of apartheid
The aim of apartheid was to separate the people of South Africa into small independent nations.
The black ones were called Bantustans. South Africa said they were independent countries and
exchanged ambassadors but other countries did not. The National Party government did not want
to spend a lot of money on this project. Also, they wanted to keep the majority of South Africa's

land for white people, especially the richest places, like the gold mines of Johannesburg. They
wanted black men to work in these mines for little money but their families had to live far away.

Sign from South Africa during apartheid. This sign meant that only white people were allowed in
this area.

Sign at a beach: This beach has been reserved for white people only.