South Africas Apartheid Policy of 1948 - Essay Example

Restricting the rights of Black people had been practiced in South Africa since the arrival of the Europeans. According to Louw (2004), the word “apartheid” in the sense of “racial segregation” was first used in 1917 by Jan Smuts, who later became prime minister of the Union of South Africa. In 1948 the National Party, which represented primarily the interests of Afrikaners, used the idea of ​​apartheid as their program and won the elections (Black South Africans already did not have the right to vote).

The government introduced separate education and health care, transport, social and recreational facilities, and churches; mixed marriages were banned. Even shops and beaches were “for whites only” and “for others.”
Development of the policy of apartheid led to the creation of Bantustans (Bantoestans in Afrikaans), the areas densely populated by indigenous Black South Africans; those were reservations. The South African government created ten Bantustans in South Africa and ten in South-West Africa (Namibia), which was under the control of South Africa. Bantustans were dependent on South Africa, their independence was not recognized by any country in the world.

South Africa’s black population was forcibly resettled in the Bantustans. South Africa’s policy openly declared that the ultimate goal of creating Bantustans would be a situation in which no man with black skin color could be a citizen of South Africa and, accordingly, would not have any rights in this country.
Due to the condemnation and rejection of apartheid by the countries members of the British Commonwealth in 1961, South Africa left the Commonwealth and became an independent republic of South Africa. In 1994, after the end of apartheid, South Africa’s Commonwealth membership was restored.

Apartheid caused strong resistance in South Africa itself. Several organizations, primarily the ANC (African National Congress), organized numerous protests. The loudest response in the world has been caused by an uprising in Soweto. On June 16, 1976, secondary school students and students in Soweto, a suburb of Johannesburg, went out to the streets in protest against compulsory teaching in Afrikaans. The protest was peaceful, but police opened fire at demonstrators. The uprising broke out in the city. To suppress it the South African government brought troops to Soweto. According to official data, 23 people were killed, but news agencies reported that more than five hundred people had died and thousands had been injured (Schwartzman & Taylor, 1999, p. 109).

By the early nineties, the ruling forces of South Africa understood that maintaining and continuation of the existing system of apartheid is no longer possible. Political prisoners were released, and dissidents were pardoned. The government started a dialogue with the opposition. The result of it was holding general elections of 1994, which were won by the African National Congress. The era of apartheid has ended.

The policy of apartheid in South Africa caused sharp criticism from the international community. This is a rare case in which during the Cold War Soviet and Western views were virtually the same. Apartheid was officially condemned by the UN; international conventions recognized it as one of the crimes against humanity.