1) Since 1795, the English and the Dutch had alternated in control of the region that is now South Africa. The struggle for possession only ended with the Boer Wars (1880-1902), won by the United Kingdom. The country recognized the independence of South Africa on May 31, 1910 and made sovereignty official in 1931 – but maintained laws that, informally, preserved the racial segregation.
two) In 1947, the South African National Party won the elections and, in 1948, consolidated segregation with laws that limited the rights of the black population and favored the white minority (less than 20% of the population, at the time). was born the Apartheid, the institutionalization of racial prejudice, guaranteeing only whites a standard of living at the level of First World nations.
– (André Toma/)
3) The laws affected every aspect of black life. From 1949 they were forbidden to marry or have sex with white people. In 1950, the obligation to carry an identification of your racial group appeared. As the authorities made mistakes in classifications, especially in relation to mestizos, members of the same family were even separated.
4) Until 1950, several settlements were inhabited by different ethnic groups. But that year, the Group Areas Act delimited specific sectors for blacks – usually in rural areas, with little infrastructure and sanitation. This law also served as an excuse when the government wanted to carry out forced removals – which would become frequent in the following years.
5) The victims of Apartheid studied in one different school that of whites, with content designed to keep them in the working class. Attending universities was prohibited. And, from 1953 onwards, several other environments began to be demarcated as “whites only”, such as municipal areas, park benches, buses, restaurants and hospitals.
– (André Toma/)
6) resistance groups to Apartheid began to emerge in 1949 and have always been violently confronted by the authorities. On March 21, 1960, in a protest in Shapeville, 69 protesters were killed by the police. In the following days, the government declared a state of emergency. Around 18,000 people were arrested and resistance groups dismantled.
7) Resistance factions made up of different ethnic groups began to organize strikes in basic services. One of the organizers was a leader of the Thembu peoples: Nelson Mandela. The government reacted with brutality. Mandela was arrested several times and, in 1964, sentenced to life imprisonment. He went through three penitentiaries, where he suffered verbal and physical violence.
8) O Apartheid brought down the economy – there was a lack of skilled labor, for example. The government was still spending heavily to contain the rebellions (and even then, the threat of civil war was permanent). To make matters worse, in retaliation for the policy of racial segregation, the UN imposed serious economic sanctions to the country in 1962 and an arms embargo in 1980. The International Olympic Committee also banned South Africa from the 1964 Olympics.
9) In February 1989, FW de Klerk assumed the presidency. Under national and international pressure, he initiated political work to reverse the Apartheid and release prisoners victims of segregation. Mandela was pardoned on February 11, 1990, and when the new 1993 constitution ensured the right to vote for blacks, it did not: he was elected president the following year.
The inequality numbers
South Africa’s statistics in 1978 exposed segregation
Population
BLACKS: 19 million
WHITE: 4.5 million
land allocation
BLACKS: 13%
WHITE: 87%
Government tax benefits
BLACKS: less than 20%
WHITES: 75%
Ratio of physicians to population
BLACKS: 1 to 44 mill
WHITES: 1 to 400
Annual spending on education
BLACKS: $45 per student
WHITES: $696 per student
Ratio of teachers to population
BLACKS: 1 to 60
WHITES: 1 to 22
Child mortality
BLACKS: 40% (countryside) / 20% (city)
WHITE: 2.7%
SOURCES Websites BBC News World Editions, History, The New York Times, Independent, Apartheid museum It is Reuters; books Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela, South Africa – The Rise and Fall of Apartheid It is Apartheid: An Illustrated History, several authors; documentary Roadmap to Apartheid