What is the meaning of Apartheid? Concept and Definition of Apartheid

Apartheid – Its Definition and Concepts 

1. Concept of Apartheid

Apartheid is the result of what was, the twentieth century, a phenomenon of racial segregation in South Africa. It was in force until the nineties, in 1992 the last time that voted only whites, and it was implemented by English and Dutch (Boer) settlers, as a symbol of a succession of political, economic, social, and racial discrimination. It was so called because it means 'separation' in afrikaans, Dutch Germanic, Creole language, mainly spoken in South Africa and Namibia. This system consisted mainly in the division of the different racial groups to promote "development". This whole movement was led by the white race, which introduced all kinds of laws that covered, in general, social aspects. It was a racial classification according to the appearance, social acceptance, or ancestry. This new system was speed and strength by the country's black citizens.
Apartheid were acts of racism practiced in South Africa for many years, but it was not until 1948 that took legal form to be backed by laws enacted for that purpose. In the elections of 1947, the radical nationalist party won the elections in a coalition with the Afrikaans party, led by Protestant pastor Daniel François Malan. By a perversion of the electoral law, which gave it a majority despite obtaining fewer votes than his rival, the United Party, same thing happened in 1953.
Shortly after the nationalist victory, the Government segregated to each individual according to their race. A law enacted in 1950 reserved certain districts in cities where only could be owners whites, forcing non-whites to emigrate to other places. The laws established areas segregated like beaches, buses, hospitals, schools and even benches in public parks. Blacks should, on the other hand, carry identity documents at all times and it was them forbidden to stay in some cities or even enter them without permission.
Johannes Gerhardus Strijdom, who succeeded Malan as Prime Minister, established the following laws:
• Blacks could not occupy positions in the Government and could not vote except in some isolated elections for segregated institutions.
• Blacks could not enable business or exercise professional practices in the areas specifically assigned to whites.
• Public transport was completely segregated.
• Was not blacks allowed to enter areas allocated for white population, unless they had a pass. Whites also had to carry a pass to enter the areas allocated to blacks.
• Public buildings such as courts or post offices, had different access for blacks and whites.
• The areas allocated to blacks rarely had electricity or water. Hospitals were also segregated: hospitals for whites had the quality of any developed nation, while those allocated to blacks were poorly equipped, lacking personnel and were very few relative to the population served.
• In 1970 the education of a black child was 10% of the corresponding to a target. Higher education was prohibitive to blacks.
• The minimum income for the payment of taxes was 360 rand for blacks and much higher than for whites, about 750 rand.

2 Meaning of Apartheid

The term "apartheid", with the meaning of intended or separate paths, is Afrikaans, a language which is formed from old Dutch which were introduced by idiomatic turns to reach the white population, especially Dutch and English, South Africa.
Apartheid was a system of social discrimination that was applied in the territory of the Republic of South Africa, consisting of the segregation of the black population, that it was considered as second, compared to whites. It was a common practice, its legal consecration was in 1948, with the assumption of the nationalist party, ironically when the world is dictated the Universal Declaration of human rights, after the great massacre to the Jewish community by the nazis.
Discriminatory measures include: les banned from owning; assigned places away in establishments and public vehicles; areas of residence special independent States by which was deprived les nationality South African, requiring passes to enter white areas; they had no political rights, nor were entitled to exercise their trade or profession, where did the white population. They could not access higher education.
In 1990 apartheid was abolished, after a great period of resistance. That struggle was highlighted Néstor Mandela suffered a conviction to imprisonment for treason in 1964.
The proclamation of Teheran, organized by the UN condemned apartheid as a crime against humanity in 1968.
Discrimination against Blacks, an atypical case of discrimination of a white minority on a black majority, was growing, and reached its maximum expression with the massacre of Soweto in June 1976, which killed more than 500 people, struggling to prevent the imposition of Afrikaans as an official language in their schools.
By this background also is spoken of apartheid to refer all segregation that is done at the national level of a specific group, who are restricted unjustifiably their rights.

3. Definition and what is Apartheid

This term means in Afrikaans, the Dutch South African variant, separation. He officially appeared in South Africa in 1944 and served to designate the policy of racial segregation and of territorial organisation applied systematically in the South, a multiracial State, Africa until 1990.
The objective of apartheid was to separate the races in the legal field (white, Asian, mixed or Coloured, Bantu or black), establishing a hierarchy in which the white race dominated the rest (Population Registration Act) and at the geographical level through the forced creation of reserved territories: the bantustans (Group Areas Act).
In 1959, with the Self Government Act apartheid reached its peak when the black population was relegated to small marginal and autonomous territories and private South African citizenship.
Until then, South Africa with its important mining riches and its geostrategic situation had aligned with the Western bloc. However, the racist system did that, in a moment in which the decolonization took place, the pressures of the international community convened against the Pretoria government.
In 1960 it was excluded from the Commonwealth. At the UN raised the demand for sanctions. In 1972, South Africa was excluded from the Olympic Games in Munich against the threat of a general boycott of African countries. Finally, in 1977, the South African regime was officially condemned by the West and subjected to an embargo of weapons and material to military community, and in 1985, the UN Security Council called on States members to adopt economic sanctions.
There was a certain hypocrisy in all these international condemnation. In the context of the cold war the racist regime was seen by Europe and the United States as a retaining wall to the spread of communism in Africa. Moscow, on the other hand, encouraged the struggle against apartheid to Angola and Mozambique, armando countries whose pro-sovieticos Governments faced subsidized by the West and South Africa-backed guerrillas. In the context of this conflict, the South African army made several incursions into the territory of its neighbours.
The end of the cold war precipitated the end of apartheid. The Frédérik President de Klerk, after several negotiations with representatives of the ethnic communities of the country, put an end to the racist regime in June 1991. On the black population regained their civil and political rights.
The process culminated with the arrival of Nelson Mandela, legendary anti-apartheid militant who had spent 27 years in prison, to the Presidency of the Republic of South Africa.