Apartheid – How was Apartheid practiced in South Africa

Content

• Introduction

• What is Apartheid?

• How did non – white appear in USA?

• How was Apartheid practiced in South Africa?

• When did Apartheid Started

• Current Situation

Introduction

“I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination.

I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities.

It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve.

But if needs be, it is an idea for which I am prepared to die.” This was Nelson Mandela, being tried for treason by the white South African government.

He and seven other leaders were sentenced to life imprisonment in 1964(the same year Civil Rights Act was passed in the states.) for daring to oppose the apartheid regime in this country.

He spent the next 28 years in South Africa’s most dreaded prison, Robben Island.

What is Apartheid ?

Apartheid is the name given to the system of racial discrimination.

This system was basically started when Europeans imposed it on the people of South Africa.

During the 17th and 18th centuries the trading companies from Europe occupied it with arms and force in the same manner they occupied our country.

But unlike India a larger number of whites had settled in Africa and became local rulers.

The Apartheid system divided the people and labelled them on the basis of their skin color.

The system was partially oppressive for the blacks and still is. At that time the non- whites did not have voting rights. They were forbidden from living in white areas.

Trains, buses, taxis, hotels, hospitals, schools and colleges, libraries, cinema halls literally everything you could imagine was spate for the non- white.

How did the non-white appear in USA?

For this answer we have to dig history a bit. According to sources 20-30 people from Angola(left of Zambia in Africa) were kidnapped by Europeans(Dutch) and through a ship were deported to the states,

which was also known as new world by the Europeans in the year 1619, exactly 3 years after the visit of Sir Thomas Roe, an English diplomat in the courts of Jahagir.

So basically in 1619 slavery was brought in the USA. Though is it imopossilne to give the accurate data but sources said that by 18th century 6-7 million enslaved people were shifted for slavery into the states.

Though leaders such as George Washington slaveholder from Virginia—took drastic steps towards limiting slavery in the newly independent nation, the constitution tacitly acknowledged the institution, guaranteeing the right to repossess any “person held to service or labor” (an obvious euphemism for slavery).

How was apartheid practiced in South Africa ?

The problem in south was still going on where Black people constituted a large minority of the population and the economy relied on the production of crops like tobacco and cotton.

For this process they were tortured, beaten and shot dead if they use to ask question.

This movement traumatized the community. Even during the time of World War 2 in 1941 around 3-4 million nonwhite people practiced on behalf of USA into the war and were backed by President Franklin Roosevelt.

Finally after the war 1948, President Harry S. Truman finally integrated the U.S.

Armed Forces under an executive order mandating that “there shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed services without regard to race, color, religion or national origin.

For the first time the community was feeling safe in the states, they were participating in the local sports like baseball.

Butunsurprisingly, lynching was still happening white hanging, beating the non-whitespublically and no amount of action was taken by the government.

Finally a revolutionary person was born in 1929 in America called Martin Luther King who changed the scene of the fight of the non-white against discrimination.

 Vision That Changed the World It’s because of Martin Luther King and the efforts of his supporters that America came to understand the power of nonviolent protest. … The Voting Rights Act protects African Americans’ right to vote.

He also played a major part in the passage of the Fair Housing Act of 1968.

When Anti Apartheid started ?

One of his quotes tells how visionary this man was-“Lightning makes no sound until it strikes.”

A major push for civil rights was in December 1955, when an activist Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a public bus to a white man and this is how the revolt of civil rights was started.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin. Provisions of this civil rights act forbade discrimination on the basis of sex, as well as, race in hiring, promoting, and firing.

The relationship between African Americans and the United States of America was forged in slavery was finally altered.

Current Situation

But is the story same in the 21st century, when every country is fighting in terms of growth, innovation and technology.

Are the blacks treated equally? Absolutely and after the case of George Flyod the bitter truth of equality is again in question.

Let’s look at some statistics-

• During the 2015–2016 school year, Black students represented only 15% of total US student enrollment.

• In New York City, 88% of police stops in 2018 involved Black and Latin people, while 10% involved white people. 

• 15.8% of students reported experiencing race-based bullying or harassment was reported according to one the US surveys.

• Black women are 3 to 4 times more likely to experience a pregnancy-related death than white women, even at similar levels of income and education.

• In the US, Black workers are less likely than white workers to be employed in a job that is consistent with their level of education.

It was all happening from such a long time but we the ordinary people realised only after the death of a 46 year old guy by the so called protector.

The fresh round of protests also brought them back to the street as well as social networks stating that the Black Lives Matter.

The only difference this time was the whites also participated alongside the non-white which made the movement even bigger.

Now the eyes are back again on the world superpower as this movement as gone globally with Latin countries and Europeans counties also add into the stir.

As one of the greatest Professor of Philosophy in America Lawerence Freedman wrote in his book Strategy:

A History that strategy becomes a commodity, a distinctive product concerning complex situation; the people and the world leaders should come together and end this apartheid system and make a new start for all the people living in this planet.

Conclusion

The need of the hour is to bring a worldwide reform in Bureaucracy and correct the root cause, the police should alter its training method and there way on how to react on different matter has to be changed.

There should be some amendment in the education system as well so that people from different races don’t hesitate to participate in equal numbers.

The people who are coming on road across the globe has faith in the power of change and it is enough to make the non-white community believe that there is enough fresh air ‘TO BREATHE.’( in the loving memory of George ‘I CANT BREATHE’ Flyod and others who laid there live because of this apartheid system.)

It’s time for the nation to stand up against the movement on last time finally finish was has been a burden from such a long time.