South African Apartheid Essay -- South Africa Apartheid Essays

Have you ever wondered how it would feel to be considered inferior because of your race? The people of South Africa had to endure racial inferiority during the era of apartheid. The apartheid laws the government of South Africa made led to an unequal lifestyle for the blacks and produced opposition. South Africa really began to suffer when apartheid was written into the law. Apartheid was first introduced in the 1948 election that the Afrikaner National Party won. The plan was to take the already existing segregation and expand it (Wright, 60). Apartheid was a system that segregated South Africa’s population racially and considered non-whites inferior (â€Å"History of South Africa in the apartheid era†). Apartheid was designed to make it legal for Europeans to dominate economics and politics (â€Å"History of South Africa in the apartheid era†). Apartheid consisted of a set of unequal laws that favored the whites (â€Å"History of South Africa in the apartheid era†). The Race Classification Act, which divided everyone into four race groups, whites, blacks, coloreds, and Indians were the first of many major laws (Evans, 8). Hundreds of thousands of black South Africans were forced to leave their homes and move into special reservations called â€Å"homelands† or Bantustans that were set up for them (Evans, 8). There were twenty-three million blacks and they were divided into nine tribal groups, Zulu, Xhosa, Tswana, North and South Sotho, Venda, Tsonga, Swansi, and South Ndebele, and each group were moved into a separate homeland (Evans, 8). Another major law was the Groups Area Act, which secluded the twenty-three million blacks to 14 percent of land, leaving 86 percent of the land for the 4.8 million (Evans, 9). Under apartheid laws a minority ... ...rry their pass books (â€Å"Black’s resistance to Apartheid†). â€Å"During 1980 there were 304 major incidents concerning struggle with apartheid including arrests, tear gas violence, stoning, and strikes (â€Å"Black’s resistance to Apartheid†). In 1986 violent conflict forced the government to assert a national state of emergency (Wright, 68). The Public Safety Act increased penalties such as fining, imprisonment, and whippings for protesting the law (â€Å"History of South Africa in the apartheid era†). Finally in 1990 De Klerk, president of South Africa unbanned the ANC (‘History of South Africa in the apartheid era†). In 1994 the first free multiracial elections were held and the people voted to end apartheid (â€Å"History of South Africa in the apartheid era†). Nelson Mandela was elected president (Wright, 66). The opposition to apartheid helped turn things around in South Africa.