AFA - Essay Example

Chapter 13: Apartheid in South Africa Apartheid as translated from Afrikaans means separateness. It refers to the systematic policy, legalized by South Africa’s white minority government for enforcement of ethnic and racial discrimination against the non-whites who were the majority (Kithinji 231). To me, it refers to the separation on the basis of racial difference. Kithinji observes that its implementation entailed the state enforcing white supremacy program, segregation based on racial and ethnic differences and outlawing interracial marriages (231).
The apartheid regime barred all political activities causing anti-apartheid movements to reevaluate the strategies that they used as noted by Kithinji (240). This apartheid regime passed the 1962 Sabotage Act in response to the constitution of militant units and increase in sabotage. According to Kithinji, the Act gave the justice ministry immense powers such that it could silence political activism and further condemn “communist agitators” to house arrest (240). Indeed, apartheid had devastating effects on the social lives of the people. This was further aggravated by the suppression of the opposition early in the 1960s as propagated by the apartheid rule. The 1959 Promotion of Bantu Self-Government Bill passed by the parliament allowed homelands to be completely independent states. This “independence” to the Bantustans was used by the apartheid regime to develop national consciousness in the groups it created as observed by Kithinji (241). The rights of the Africans continued to be held in the hands of the apartheid which maintained social control and propagated destruction.
The banning of all forbidden organizations including the ANC, the Pan-African Congress and the South Africa Communist Party among others on 2 February 1990 was an indication of the readiness for national negotiations on the adoption of new political order according to Kithinji (245). A few resultant crises caused the regime to collapse. This included the prolonged socio-political instability which destabilized the economy and created structural weaknesses. This became apparent with the military involvement of South Africa in Angola in support of Jonas Savimbi’s rebel National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, UNITA which was in the fight to oust the leftist Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola, MPLA government (Kithinji 244).


Work Cited
Kithinji, Michael Mwenda. “Apartheid in South Africa.” (Re) Tracing Africa: A Multi-Disciplinary Study of African History, Societies, and Cultures. Eds. Salome Nnoromele and Ogechi Anyanwu. Dubuque: Kendell Hunt, 2012. 231-250. Print Read More