apartheid of south africa

South African Apartheid:
Human rights and conflict cannot coexist
Human rights is a concept that nearly all people live by today. The UN created and ratified the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to maintain and protects everybody’s natural rights. This was done in retaliation to horrendous events such as the South African apartheid, where many of the 30 universal rights were ignored through discrimination and segregation. Without these rights to protect us as human beings, we would be powerless at protecting ourselves from our fellow man. As orchestrated by the South African apartheid, conflict and human rights cannot exist alongside one another. To understand their impotence, one must understand the South African apartheid, the human rights violations that occurred, as well as those who committed the violations, the victims and the resistors of the conflict.

The South African Apartheid is an issue that possesses roots dating over a hundred years back in time. It all began with the Dutch settlers arriving in South Africa in the year 1652 (Tames 6). After their settlement, the Dutch settlers known as Boers, began to import slaves into south Africa establishing a power over the black south Africans, while seizing land inhabited by the Bantu and Khoi through the use of their advanced weapon technology (guns) (tames 7). Unfortunately for the black South Africans, the land that was used for cattle and sheep grazing is the basis of their economy (apartheid timeline). This unfortunate predicament forced the black South Africans to work on Boer farms to earn any kind of income (apartheid timeline). Not much after, diamond mining had begun in South Africa (apartheid timeline). The blacks performed the more dangerous tasks, while still getting a lesser pay than the white South Africans. The poor working conditions and constant monitoring made it impossible for the black South Africans to obtain better working conditions and wages.

During the year 1908, South Africa gained its independence from Britain. But the all-white government decides that only whites can hold positions in government, but both whites and non-whites can vote. But only two years later, did the white government strip the Africans of all their political rights in three of the four states in South Africa. To oppose this brutal action, the African national congress is formed in the year 1912 to help in the struggle for African civil rights. Yet a year later, the government had put in place the native land act (apartheid timeline). This act had given 7.3% of the country’s land to the black South Africans who make up 80% of the populations, while giving the rest to the white South Africans (post colonial).

More acts were passed later on in time. Of those was the population registration act passed in 1950; this law had classified people into three groups (Riley 20). Those groups were white, black and colored. This act also made marriage between the racial groups impossible for it enabled the prohibition of mixed marriages act, for it also separated each group by making different communities for every racial group (post colonial). 3 years later the preservation of separate amenities act was established (apartheid timeline). This act had made and segregated public places for the three racial groups, such as parks and beaches and public service offices (apartheid timeline).

During the South African apartheid, numerous horrendous human rights violations had occurred. The non-white South Africans had faced countless acts of discrimination from the white South Africans. The black south Africans would receive a smaller pay when doing the same tasks that the white south Africans did, simply because they weren’t white. The native land act that was put into action during the year 1912 had confined 80% of the country’s population to a mere 7.3% of the country’s land (apartheid timeline). All the good land was given to the white population while the blacks were forced to live on reserves. During this same act, the white government had banned all marriages and sexual relations between people of different racial groups.

In the year 1946 black mine workers in South Africa had went on strike. They had done this in retaliation to receiving salaries 12 times less than their white counterparts, even though they had been doing the more dangerous tasks (apartheid timeline). The strike had consisted of over 75,000 black South Africans (apartheid timeline). To subdue the strikes, the police had used violence to force the black Africans back to their jobs injuring and killing over a thousand of the workers (apartheid timeline).

The population registration act separated people into their respective racial groups. This made the preservation of separate amenities act possible. This act was one of discrimination, an act of arrogance and oppression. This act had made it so that whites had different and better public places and areas to go to than non-whites, such as bathrooms, parks, beaches and more. The white government also passed the Abolition of Passes and Coordination of Documents Act (Smith 12). This act forced all black Africans to carry an id booklet with all their information such as birth date and fingerprints.

In 1954 the government passes the Bantu education act. This terrifying law had given the government rights to supervise the education of all black schools. He goal was to condition and brainwash the black students into accepting white dominance over them. This act also made it illegal for non-whites to study in white universities. From all these atrocious acts of discrimination, one can truly see how human rights were abandoned during the apartheid, and how they were only respected after the Apartheid was over.

There were many people and parties that played huge roles in the outcome of the apartheid and its evolution throughout time. The early Dutch settlers, the white South Africans, were the people who had committed these crimes originally. This later evolved to the perpetrators being the general white population. They did this, for they believed that they were better than everyone else. Such acts and policies of arrogance lead to conflicts such as the South African apartheid.

The victims of the apartheid were the non-whites in the country. They mostly consisted of native black South Africans. This was extremely insulting to the natives, for they made up around 80% of the country’s population, yet the minority white population was running the country and gave the white population better treatment than everyone else.

Though there were the apartheid was a cruel time, there were still groups and people willing to resist the white oppression and stand up for their rights as humans. In 1946, black mine workers went on strike, for they believed that they deserved higher wages than that of which they were receiving (apartheid timeline). In addition to the strikes, the national African congress was a political group that was fighting for equality. In the year 1960 a large group of blacks in Sharpeville had refused to walk with their passes. Due to their acts of resistance, the government had gone into a state of emergency. This resulted in 69 deaths, 187 injuries and the banning of the African National Congress (smith 12).

In 1962, the UN had established the special committee against the apartheid to support the black struggle through the use of peace (apartheid timeline). Unfortunately, a year later the head of the African National Congress, Nelson Mandela, was jailed, and then later imprisoned for 27 years (apartheid timeline). He later on became South Africa’s first-ever black president in the year 1994 (encyclopedia). The UN had also assisted in making sure that the elections being held were fair to ensure legitimacy (encyclopedia). Through this Nelson Mandela was able to contribute much to the freedom of the blacks from the oppressive white rule and turn the nation into a state of multiracial equality through his sacrifices.

It is clear that human rights and conflict cannot coexist as revealed by the South African Apartheid. Terrible and atrocious acts have occurred, that have delayed the journey of peace and equality between all people for nearly 400 years. The only way to preserve our rights is through cooperation. The only way to respect and uphold them is to maintain the rights of all the people, regardless of their gender, race or origin. The path to respecting and maintaining human rights follows a road of peace and not that of conflict, bloodshed and discrimination. For any act of conflict, goes against the thirty human rights stated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Citations: Riley, Eileen. Major Political Events in South Africa, 1948-1990. Oxford: Facts on File, 1991. Print.
Book

Smith, Chris. Conflict in Southern Africa. New York: New Discovery, 1993. Print.

Tames, Richard. The End of Apartheid: A New South Africa. Chicago, IL: Heinemann Library, 2001. Print.

"Apartheid Timeline." UN News Center. UN, n.d. Web. 9 Feb. 2013. .

"Apartheid." Postcolonial Studies Emory. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Feb. 2013. .

Encyclopedia: Apartheid." Apartheid. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Feb. 2013. .

Citations: Riley, Eileen. Major Political Events in South Africa, 1948-1990. Oxford: Facts on File, 1991. Print. Book Smith, Chris. Conflict in Southern Africa. New York: New Discovery, 1993. Print. Tames, Richard. The End of Apartheid: A New South Africa. Chicago, IL: Heinemann Library, 2001. Print. "Apartheid Timeline." UN News Center. UN, n.d. Web. 9 Feb. 2013. . "Apartheid." Postcolonial Studies Emory. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Feb. 2013. . Encyclopedia: Apartheid." Apartheid. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Feb. 2013. .