Apartheid what was it

Contact between the two groups would be limited. Despite strong and consistent opposition to apartheid within and outside of South Africa, its laws remained in effect for the better part of 50 years.

In , the government of President F. Racial segregation and white supremacy had become central aspects of South African policy long before apartheid began. The controversial Land Act, passed three years after South Africa gained its independence, marked the beginning of territorial segregation by forcing black Africans to live in reserves and making it illegal for them to work as sharecroppers. The Great Depression and World War II brought increasing economic woes to South Africa, and convinced the government to strengthen its policies of racial segregation.

By , the government had banned marriages between whites and people of other races, and prohibited sexual relations between black and white South Africans. The Population Registration Act of provided the basic framework for apartheid by classifying all South Africans by race, including Bantu black Africans , Coloured mixed race and white.

A fourth category, Asian meaning Indian and Pakistani was later added. In some cases, the legislation split families; parents could be classified as white, while their children were classified as colored. In order to limit contact between the races, the government established separate public facilities for whites and non-whites, limited the activity of nonwhite labor unions and denied non-white participation in national government.

Separating black South Africans from each other enabled the government to claim there was no black majority and reduced the possibility that blacks would unify into one nationalist organization. From to , more than 3. Resistance to apartheid within South Africa took many forms over the years, from non-violent demonstrations, protests and strikes to political action and eventually to armed resistance.

Together with the South Indian National Congress, the ANC organized a mass meeting in , during which attendees burned their pass books. The group had arrived at the police station without passes, inviting arrest as an act of resistance. At least 67 blacks were killed and more than wounded. Sharpesville convinced many anti-apartheid leaders that they could not achieve their objectives by peaceful means, and both the PAC and ANC established military wings, neither of which ever posed a serious military threat to the state.

The system was kept in place by a battery of repressive laws, under which people could be detained indefinitely without trial. The apartheid government allied with the Portuguese colonial government in Angola and Mozambique and the illegal white regime in Rhodesia Zimbabwe to maintain white minority regimes on its northern borders.

It ruled Namibia in defiance of UN rulings. After they won their independence, South Africa terrorised its northern neighbours. Despite brutal repression, they used every means of resistance — mass protest, armed struggle, strikes and boycotts — to overthrow the apartheid regime. Increasingly they looked to the outside world for support.

Soldier chasing young boy. Apartheid apd This is Apartheid Pamphlet illustrating life under apartheid and black resistance. Booklet illustrated with woodcuts about life for black South Africans under apartheid.

This poster was one of a series about repression under apartheid. The Terrorism Act gave the police power to detain people indefinitely without disclosing where they were being held. At least 15 prisoners died in detention in the first few years of the Act. Pamphlet documenting the use of torture in South Africa in the s and s. The pamphlet shows how the apartheid legal system was used as window-dressing for a totalitarian regime and covers key trials in the early s, including that of Winnie Mandela.

The posters were distributed worldwide through a network of anti-apartheid solidarity groups co-ordinated by UN Centre against Apartheid. The poster describing how apartheid deprived black South Africans of all political rights and abrogated the rule of law. It shows Hector Pieterson, the first student to be shot dead by police in the Soweto uprising.

Rural Africans were confined to the overcrowded Bantustans and urban Africans were treated as migrant workers. This poster shows how the Bantustans were made up of small fragmented parcels of land. In the s it once again became a rallying point for anti-apartheid organisations within the country. The author fled South Africa in after standing trial with Winnie Mandela. Even so, the National Party government enacted a barrage of legislation to ensure that journalists did not step out of line. This pamphlet examines apartheid press censorship.

Education under apartheid was totally segregated by race, with schools for black students hugely inferior to those for whites. Published just after the school students uprising, this pamphlet exposes how the apartheid education system was designed to confine black students to the ranks of unskilled labourers. Women played a big role in the liberation struggles in Namibia and Zimbabwe, as well as in South Africa.

This pamphlet tells the stories of Southern African women who were imprisoned and banned because they fought back against apartheid and racism. This Act caused much hardship and resentment. People lost their homes, were moved off land they had owned for many years and were moved to undeveloped areas far away from their place of work. Resistance to apartheid came from all circles, and not only, as is often presumed, from those who suffered the negative effects of discrimination.

Criticism also came from other countries, and some of these gave support to the South African freedom movements.

There were also Indian and Coloured organized resistance movements e. We shall consider the ANC. It was started as a movement for the Black elite, that is those Blacks who were educated. In , the ANC sent a deputation to London to plead for a new deal for South African blacks, but there was no change to their position. The history of resistance by the ANC goes through three phases. The first was dialogue and petition; the second direct opposition and the last the period of exiled armed struggle.

In , just after apartheid was introduced, the ANC started on a more militant path, with the Youth League playing a more important role. The ANC introduced their Programme of Action in , supporting strike action, protests and other forms of non-violent resistance. This campaign called on people to purposefully break apartheid laws and offer themselves for arrest. It was hoped that the increase in prisoners would cause the system to collapse and get international support for the ANC. Black people got onto 'white buses', used 'white toilets', entered into 'white areas' and refused to use passes.

Despite 8 people ending up in jail, the ANC caused no threat to the apartheid regime. The ANC continued along the same path during the rest of the s, until in some members broke away and formed the PAC. These members wanted to follow a more violent and militant route, and felt that success could not be reached through the ANC's method.

Background and policy of apartheid Before we can look at the history of the apartheid period it is necessary to understand what apartheid was and how it affected people. What was apartheid? Original architects of Apartheid Image source Apartheid Laws Numerous laws were passed in the creation of the apartheid state. Here are a few of the pillars on which it rested: Population Registration Act, This Act demanded that people be registered according to their racial group.