Nelson Mandela

The Rise and Fall of the Apartheid
For much of the 20th century South Africa’s Non-white population faced harsh oppression and degradation under the Apartheid system, which was a system of government enforced racial segregation. It wasn’t until Nelson Mandela’s rise to the presidency in 1994 that non-whites finally attained legal social equality. While Nelson Mandela is viewed as the face ofthe anti-Apartheid movement, his success was largely due to the unity of the South African people. During Mandela’s 27 year stay in prison he gained considerable recognition and a large amount support from not only black South Africans but whites as well. It was these supporters that put heavy pressure on the South African government to release Mandela, to which they ultimately conceded to. Withoutthe support of the common citizens, Mandela’s efforts would have been arguably futile
Pre Apartheid South Africa
South Africa has had a long history of racial discrimination and tension ever since the first European, mainly Dutch, settlers colonized in South Africa in the 1500’s [2]. In 1833 the British Empire abolished slavery but still kept many laws that placed non-whites below whites in thesocial and political latter. Once South Africa gained its independence, these discrepancies only grew [1]. The Apartheid officially took place in 1948 when the National Party (NP) came into power after narrowly defeating the United Party (UP), the NP ran on the platform of racial segregation.[4][5].The UP while not explicitly condemning segregation insisted that integration would becomeinevitable and that laws should be eased, such as giving black Africans some say in government[5]. What the UP failed to see was that the Apartheid benefitted whites both economy and socially, especially by bringing the divided white population together.
Structure and Goals of Apartheid
. Although the Apartheid brought great economic benefits to white South Africans the Apartheid also had a second goal,to unite the white South Africans. After the Boer War there was a deep resentment between whites of British ancestry and those of that saw themselves as Afrikaners (of Dutch Ancestry)[6][5]. The Apartheids hope was to create one white only nation that would strengthen the bond between the two groups.[5] To achieve this the NP divided the nation into four different racial groups, white, blacks,colored (usually being those of mixes race) and Asian. These were then further split up into thirteen nations, or federations. The ultimate goal being that each would become their own nation state with non-whites only entering South Africa as migrant laborers on work permits. One of the main reasons the Apartheid grew to be such a strong institution was this use of physical separation. Blacks andother minorities had little to no opportunities to come together against the Apartheid regime
To achieve their goals of total racial segregation the Apartheid passed several laws limiting the rights of certain racial groups. Two of the most fundamental laws of the Apartheid were the Group Areas Act (GAA) and the Population Registration Act (PRA) of 1950 [8]. The Group Areas Act designated specificliving areas for each race, making it a federal offense for members of different races to live among one another[9] and the Population Registration act stated that stated that every person over the age of 18 carry a racial identification card. The GAA was an obvious attempt to ensure nationwide segregation but it along with the PRA it managed to create segregation within people’s homes. The PRAlaw proved to be especially difficult, for no racial qualifications were ever fully established which led to many families having to be forcefully split up after members were grouped into different racial groups than their families. These laws were significant not only because they laid the foundations for the structure of the Apartheid but because they also ensured that the non-white community...