Apartheid means ‘apartness’ in Afrikaans, a South African dialect of German. Apartheid was also a means of legalized racial segregation in 1948 after WWII in South Africa. It separated the black majority from the white minority and gave power to that minority. The original goal for Apartheid was to give more freedom to both races and allow for freer cultural expression and equal development. But in actuality it put laws in place for the white minority to prosper while the rest of the country suffered. It criminalized almost all interracial mixing. Mixed marriages was one of the first things to be criminalized. In 1949 the Prohibition of Mixed-Marriages Act was put into effect. Even Interracial friendships caused much suspicion and were dangerous for the people involved.
South Africa had seen racism before but what set Apartheid apart was that it made acts of racism the law. It came to South Africa in a time when many other countries were moving away from racist policies as an effect of WWII, which had shone a light on the ugliness of colonization, which became apparent to most of the world.
There were several major Acts passed in the following years which were pivotal during the Apartheid regime:
The Population Registration Act of 1950, which documented each person’s race and was recorded and used for the realization of the following Acts.
The Group Areas Act of 1950, this was the act that began physical separation between races, especially in urban areas.
Promotion of Bantu Self-Government Act of 1959 designated geographical zones for the different races. It separated the country into to two nearly equal parts one for the white population, one for the black population, with other smaller zones for Natives, Indians etc. sprinkled sporadically throughout the eastern half of South Africa. The zones were grossly disproportionate to the population, the white minority have more land than they could use, while the rest of the population was densely overpopulated and forced to live in underdeveloped townships.
There was plenty of resistance from inside as well as outside the country before the 1960’s by various groups including The African National Congress, Inkatha Freedom Party, Black Consciousness Movement,United Democratic Front, Natal Indian Congress, Armed Resistance Movement and the Christian Institute.
The African National Congress (or ANC) began soon after the union of South Africa as a party for the black elite in 1912. It was at first called the African Native National Congress. The history of resistance in the ANC had three major phases: dialogue and petition, direct opposition, and armed struggle. Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo, and Walter Sisulu became prominent figures in the Congress during the time the ANC introduced their Programme of Action in 1949. The Programme of Action encouraged citizens to participate in strike action, protests and other forms of nonviolent resistance. They also encourage citizens to deliberately break Apartheid laws and not resist arrest. The hope for this plan (the Defiance Campaign) was that the system would collapse under the sheer number of prisoners. Though some 8,000 were arrested for things like using white bathrooms, busses etc. the Apartheid regime was unshaken.
The ANC continued with peaceful protests throughout the 1950’s, though many members left because the congress was not militant enough to face Apartheid.