Apartheid (20TH CENTURY)

South African/Afrikaans theory of legally enforced racial separation.

Apartheid rested on the argument that racial distinctions were fundamental to the character of human societies, and that they were biologically based. Human beings should thus be categorized by race, and this categorization should be legally enforced in social, economic, and political affairs.

Races should not intermarry, be educated together, or live in the same areas. In practice apartheid was not a policy of racial segregation between blacks and whites, but a justification for a state enforced program of white supremacy. It was in effect, therefore, the application of theories of racism.

Apartheid (South African English: /əˈpɑːrteɪd/; Afrikaans: [aˈpartɦɛit], segregation; lit. “aparthood”) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 until the early 1990s.^{[note 1]} Apartheid was characterised by an authoritarian political culture based on baasskap (or white supremacy), which ensured that South Africa was dominated politically, socially, and economically by the nation’s minority white population.^[4] According to this system of social stratification, white citizens had the highest status, followed by Asians and Coloureds, then black Africans.^[4] The economic legacy and social effects of apartheid continue to the present day.^[5][6][7]

Broadly speaking, apartheid was delineated into petty apartheid, which entailed the segregation of public facilities and social events, and grand apartheid, which dictated housing and employment opportunities by race.^[8] Prior to the 1940s, some aspects of apartheid had already emerged in the form of minority rule by white South Africans and the socially enforced separation of black Africans from other races, which later extended to pass laws and land apportionment.^[9][10] Apartheid was adopted as a formal policy by the South African government after the ascension of the National Party (NP) during the 1948 general elections.^[11]

A codified system of racial stratification began to take form in South Africa under the Dutch Empire in the eighteenth century, although informal segregation was present much earlier due to social cleavages between Dutch colonists and a creolised, ethnically diverse slave population.^[12] With the rapid growth and industrialisation of the British Cape Colony, racial policies and laws which had previously been relatively relaxed became increasingly rigid, discriminating specifically against black Africans, in the last decade of the 19th century.^[13] The policies of the Boer republics were also racially exclusive; for instance, the Transvaal’s constitution barred black African and Coloured participation in church and state.^[14]

The first apartheid law was the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act, 1949, followed closely by the Immorality Amendment Act of 1950, which made it illegal for most South African citizens to marry or pursue sexual relationships across racial lines.^[15] The Population Registration Act, 1950 classified all South Africans into one of four racial groups based on appearance, known ancestry, socioeconomic status, and cultural lifestyle: “Black”, “White”, “Coloured”, and “Indian”, the last two of which included several sub-classifications.^[16] Places of residence were determined by racial classification.^[15] Between 1960 and 1983, 3.5 million black Africans were removed from their homes and forced into segregated neighbourhoods as a result of apartheid legislation, in some of the largest mass evictions in modern history.^[17] Most of these targeted removals were intended to restrict the black population to ten designated “tribal homelands”, also known as bantustans, four of which became nominally independent states.^[15] The government announced that relocated persons would lose their South African citizenship as they were absorbed into the bantustans.^[8]

Apartheid sparked significant international and domestic opposition, resulting in some of the most influential global social movements of the twentieth century.^[18] It was the target of frequent condemnation in the United Nations and brought about an extensive arms and trade embargo on South Africa.^[19] During the 1970s and 1980s, internal resistance to apartheid became increasingly militant, prompting brutal crackdowns by the National Party government and protracted sectarian violence that left thousands dead or in detention.^[20] Some reforms of the apartheid system were undertaken, including allowing for Indian and Coloured political representation in parliament, but these measures failed to appease most activist groups.^[21]

Between 1987 and 1993, the National Party entered into bilateral negotiations with the African National Congress (ANC), the leading anti-apartheid political movement, for ending segregation and introducing majority rule.^[21][22] In 1990, prominent ANC figures such as Nelson Mandela were released from prison.^[23] Apartheid legislation was repealed on 17 June 1991,^[2] pending multiracial elections held under a universal suffrage set for April 1994.