Apartheid

Imagine growing up in a country where drinking out of the wrong water fountain might get you thrown into jail; where a man might have the very same job as his neighbor, but because of the color of his skin, get paid less in a year than the other man made in a week; where the government told you that your ancestors and their ways of living were wrong and savage and not even human.

Sounds like some futuristic film, doesn't it? Well, for Nelson Mandela, this was no movie.

Growing up in South Africa under the Apartheid system of government meant these things, and worse, were part of daily life.

But Nelson Mandela was a fighter. Instead of bowing down to this unjust system of government, he became a lifelong warrior in the battle to free South Africa.

Starting out as a leader of an underground political movement called the African National Congress (ANC), Mr. Mandela played a part in many dramatic demonstrations against the white-ruled government.

His career in the ANC was cut short in 1964 when he was sentenced to life in prison. The notorious Rivonia Trial, as his sentencing was called, is now seen as nothing more than a cruel ploy used by the white South African government to silence Nelson Mandela once and for all. But even while in prison, Mandela continued to be a beacon of hope for his people who carried on the struggle against Apartheid in his absence. In 1990, after 27 years of imprisonment, Mandela was freed. His release marked the beginning of the end for apartheid. In less than five years after his release, Mandela was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and elected president of South Africa.

Today, thanks to the self-sacrifice of Nelson Mandela, apartheid has been outlawed. Everyone in South Africa now has an equal opportunity at home and at work to live comfortable, productive lives. Nelson Mandela is one of the world's true freedom fighters, and his life and personal triumphs will be remembered long after the world has forgotten the evils of Apartheid.Photos courtesy of The Mandela Page

Nelson Mandela's book, Long Walk to Freedom tells the extraordinary story of his life, an epic of struggle, setback, renewed hope, and ultimate triumph. "I have walked that long road to freedom. I have tried not to falter; I have made missteps along the way. But I have discovered the secret that after climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb. I have taken a moment here to rest, to steal a view of the glorious vista that surrounds me, to look back on the distance I have come. But I can rest only for a moment, for with freedom comes responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not yet ended."

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, South Africa's first black president, was born on 18 July 1918, to Chief Gadla Henry Mphakanyiswa, of Thembu royalty, and Noselkeni Fanny in the Eastern Cape village of Mveso, Transkei. After his father's death when Mandela was nine, the acting tribal chief, Jongintaba, assumed Mandela's guardianship. Mandela had access to the best education a black youth could have, attending Clarkesbury Boarding Institute, Healdtown College, and University College of Fort Hare. He eventually left Transkei to avoid an arranged marriage and moved to Johannesburg.

Mandela became politicized while living in Alexandra Township by attending African National Congress (ANC) and South African Communist Party (SACP) meetings. After receiving his B.A. in 1942, he entered law school at the University of Witwatersrand. His autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, includes many names famous in the antiapartheid struggle-Walter Sisulu, A. B. Xuma, George Bizos, Bram Fischer, Robert Sobukwe, Joe Slovo, Ruth First, Oliver Tambo, and Z. K. Matthews.

Viewing the ANC leadership as too conservative, Mandela in 1943 became a founding member of the ANC Youth League, which sought to motivate the leadership to action. Shocked by the National Party victory in 1948, he and other leaders of the ANC organized a "defiance campaign," employing a variety of passive-resistance tactics against apartheid legislation. Because of these activities, ANC activists were put under government surveillance, and Mandela was eventually served with a two-year banning order (1953-1955). A banning order restricted an individual to a magisterial district. He or she was expected to report regularly to the police and was under constant police surveillance. A banned individual could not be quoted in the press, could not work, and could not meet with more than one person at a time.

Mandela and 155 other ANC leaders were arrested during the defiance campaign. In 1956 ninety-one people were accused, and sixty-one charges were dropped due to lack of evidence (Saunders; Davenport). Thirty people were tried for treason, and all but one were acquitted, including Mandela, in 1961.

After the treason trial and the banning of the ANC and PAC, Mandela went underground in the newly formed military wing of the ANC, Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation), as chair of the high command. This office planned sabotage, guerrilla warfare, and open revolution. Mandela based his underground operations at a farm in the Johannesburg suburb of Rivonia. Upon his return from the Pan-African Freedom Movement of East and Central Africa meeting in Ethiopia, he was arrested near Pietermaritzburg and charged with inciting a strike and leaving the country without a passport. He received a three-year prison sentence for the former charge and a two-year sentence for the latter. While in prison, he discovered that many members of the ANC high command were arrested in Rivonia in July 1963. They were charged under the Sabotage Act of 1962, with the onus being on the accused to prove their innocence. The state had requested the death penalty. The accused were given life imprisonment on 12 June 1964. International pressure had a great impact on sparing their lives. The nine-month trial ended in June 1963 with Mandela sentenced to life imprisonment. Mandela was incarcerated on Robben Island, off Cape Town, for nearly three decades. In his autobiography he wrote of this experience, remarking about the degree to which apartheid permeated every aspect of life in South Africa, even for those in prison, where clothing and food were differentiated according to a prisoner's race.

There were a number of attempts to free Mandela, including a major campaign in 1980. He was transferred to Pollsmoor Prison in 1982 and to Victor Vester Prison in Paarl in 1988. During this time he was allowed increasing contact with his wife, Winnie Mandela, and their two daughters. Mandela began negotiations with the South African government for his freedom and the end of apartheid while at Pollsmoor. That continued in earnest at Victor Vester Prison in May 1988. Government representatives preferred to negotiate with Mandela alone and vetoed his request to discuss the first meeting with his ANC comrades. Mandela outlined the negotiated issues as "the armed struggle, the ANC's alliance with the Communist Party, the goal of majority rule, and the idea of racial reconciliation." The government representatives were concerned that the ANC might attempt "blanket nationalization of the South African economy" as stated in the ANC's Freedom Charter. The secret talks occurred against the backdrop of internal protests by the United Democratic Alliance and the Mass Democratic Movement, a state of emergency, and international economic sanctions.

The ANC, PAC, and SACP were legalized on 2 February 1990, and Nelson Mandela was released from Victor Vester Prison on 11 February 1990. When elected president in 1994, Mandela sought to create a "Rainbow Nation," and the ANC collaborated with other political parties to form a "Government of National Unity."

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The larger question is why do people always compare themselves to others so that they can feel better than others? I'm not so certain that racism is the main reason; prejudice occurs between rich and poor, the "in crowd" and the nerds, Catholics and Protestants, Muslims and Jews, red states vs. blue states, people with new cars and those with old--anything that is seen as an apparent difference. As the saying goes, "it is always something." What is amazing to me is that it often is something that the person couldn't do anything about to fit in! If you look closely and take the time, one can always find a commonality with any other person on the planet and find peace.

It can be argued that the whole of society must find a definitive guideline for a standard of living and not operate solely on perceived differences, it is true that is often the the one who has set themselves apart from the crowd to be at fault, not the the will of the group.

The term Apartheid was introduced during the 1948 as part of the election campaign by DF Malan's Herenigde Nasionale Party(HNP - 'Reunited National Party'). But racial segregation had been in force for many decades in South Africa. In hindsight, there is something of an inevitability in the way the country developed its extreme policies. When the Union of South Africa was formed on 31 May 1910, Afrikaner Nationalists were given a relatively free hand to reorganize the country's franchise according to existing standards of the now-incorporated Boer republics, the Zuid Afrikaansche Repulick (ZAR - South African Republic or Transvaal) and Orange Free State. Non-Whites in the Cape Colony had some representation, but this would prove to be short-lived.

This however only says HOW Apartheid began. The true meaning was because the white South Africans found it difficult to teach their technology to the local Black population and had to enforce a system so that they didn't mix with them. At the time (1948) around the world Black people (even in America) were considered second class, but here it lastes until 1994 because the white population were a minority ironically. If Apartheid did end (which is did) they feared that the uneducated black population would rush into towns and cities and not know how to properly function in those types of daily conditions. For example they tried lighting fires in their newly bought apartments as a method to keep warm. Obviously this didn't work. This has actually happened.

In 1950, the Group Areas Act was adopted, barring people from living, operating businesses or owning land anywhere else but in the areas designated for each race. These acts, along with two others adopted in 1954 and 1955, became known collectively as the Land Acts. As a consequence of the Land Acts, more than 80 percent of South Africa's land "belonged" to the white minority.

In order to enforce the segregation of the races and keep blacks in "their place", the existing so called "pass" laws were tightened and laws forbidding most social contacts between the races and authorized segregated public facilities were introduced. Further more the laws established separate educational standards, restricted each race to certain types of jobs, curtailed nonwhite labour unions, and denied nonwhite participation (through white representatives) in the national government.

The cruel regime of racism in South Africa was upheld by an elaborate system of banning, an efficient tool in suppressing all kinds of opposition coupled with lying, persecution, torture and killings. In effect, the Apartheid regime affected every aspect of social, political, cultural, intellectual and educational life; publications, organizations, assemblies and not least the South African extra-parliamentary liberation movement - the African National Congress - ANC, as well as the individual freedom of travel or speech.

The banning of organizations or of individuals was originally authorized by the Suppression of Communism Act of 1950, with many subsequent amendments; these laws were superseded by the Internal Security Act of 1982, which retained nearly all their provisions. The definitions of communism and of the objects of communism were very broad and included any activity allegedly promoting disturbances or disorder; promoting industrial, social, political, or economic change in South Africa; and encouraging hostility between whites and nonwhites so as to promote change or revolution. The main organizations banned under these laws were the Communist Party of South Africa, the African National Congress (ANC), and the Pan-African Congress.

More than 2,000 people were banned in South Africa from 1950 to 1990, labelled a communist or terrorist, or otherwise a threat to security and public order. The banned person would in effect be a public nonentity; confined to his or her home; not allowed to meet with more than one person at a time (other than family), hold any offices in any organization, speaking publicly or writing for any publication. Also barred from certain areas, buildings, and institutions, such as law courts, schools, and newspaper offices. A banned person could not be quoted in any publication. In spite of the elaborate and powerful regime of suppression, resistance prevailed, and Black African groups, at times with the support of whites, arranged demonstrations, strikes or sabotage etc. The black African young students protest in Soweto in 1976 against the attempt to enforce Afrikaans language requirements, turned into a bloody riot by the police, became the symbol of a just struggle that shook the world into reaction against the brutal apartheid system. It even caused some white South African politicians to call for relaxed restrictions, some even called for racial equality. But the government did not give in. The ban on opposition groups and antiapartheid activists were only lifted in 1990.

But by 1978 the illusion of peace and prosperity for the white minority rulers with continued apartheid was shattered. Most of the homelands were economic and political disasters, and the protests continued to grow. In 1983, 1,000 black and white representatives of 575 community groups, trade unions, sporting bodies, and women's and youth organizations launched the United Democratic Front. This sparked off a vast escalation of strikes, boycotts, and attacks on black police and urban councillors, resulting in 1985 in a state of emergency declared in parts of the country. A year later the government declared a nationwide state of emergency and embarked on a savage campaign to eliminate all opposition. During 3 years police and soldiers terrorised townships, destroying black squatter camps and detaining, abusing, and killing thousands of Africans, while the army also continued its forays into neighbouring countries.

The government tried to conceal the atrocities by banning television, radio, and newspaper coverage, but international criticism and actions were growing. Economic sanctions such as those imposed by the United Kingdom and the United States in 1985, fuelled the pressure mounting both inside and outside South Africa. Already in 1961 South Africa had been forced to withdraw from the Commonwealth due to its racial policies. Increasingly isolated as the last bastion of white racial domination, South Africa now was the target of global denunciation. Attempting to pacify unrest and criticism, the government abolished the "pass" laws in 1986. But still it was illegal for a black African to live in designated white areas, and the police held broad emergency powers.

Only in 1990-91 came the real shift of policy, and thus the unravelling of the much hated system was speeded up. In 1990-91 most of the legal basis for apartheid was repealed, but racial segregation continued in practice. During 1991 Parliament repealed the basic apartheid laws, including the Group Areas Act, the Population Registration Act, and the Land Acts; the state of emergency was lifted. Many exiles were allowed to return, and many political prisoners were freed, including the imprisoned ANC leader Nelson Mandela later to become South Africa's truly democratically elected first president.

The basis for real change came with the new constitution that granted voting rights to all South Africans irrespective of race. In the all-race national elections in April 1994, ANC won 63 percent of the vote and produced a coalition government with a black majority. On May 10 Mandela was sworn in as president of the new South Africa. The new constitution contained a long list of political and social rights and a mechanism through which Africans could regain ownership of land that was taken away under apartheid. The deeply entrenched social and economic legacy of apartheid will for some time scar the multinational South Africa.