In the 1940’s and 1950’s, a government supporting apartheid laws in South Africa took power. The National Party, controlled by the white Afrikaner population, came to power in South Africa in 1948. Hoping to keep the white population in power in South Africa, the National Party enacted laws to give the whites in South Africa advantages over other ethnicities. The laws used by the Apartheid system were harsh on non-white ethnicities, to the point that the effects of Apartheid are still felt in South Africa today, for example in schools. Due to the harsh laws that the National Party put into place, the South African government maintained white domination in economic and social aspects of life in South America.
Dutch settlers in South Africa, …show more content…
One example of the harsh laws put in place was the Population Registration Act of 1950, which classified all the citizens in South Africa as white, black, or colored, as well as gave every person an identity number that stayed with them for life(Moore 1)( “Apartheid Legislation 1950s-1970s”). To be classified as white, one had to have a certain persona, blacks were members of an African race or tribe, and if someone was neither of the two, they were classified as a Colored person. Many colored citizens had a mixed background, and would be ashamed of it, even if it was as distant as a “great-grandfath[er] from Germany…[and a] grandmother… from [Ireland]”( Klein “On Being 'Colored, ' an Invention of Apartheid, in South Africa“). To be considered a black citizen meant to be forced to carry a “dompas”, or a passbook with the citizens personal information in order to merely gain access to non-black areas (“Apartheid Legislation 1950s-1970s”). By separating the different ethnicities, they were less likely to unify in resistance to the National Party because the different ethnicities would be competing with each other (“apartheid” 1). This was taken even further in the Group Areas Act, which kept whites and nonwhites from even being together by separating the residential and commercial areas (“apartheid” 1). The separation was taken to the …show more content…
For example, an estimated 3.5 million people had their homes relocated starting in the 50s and ending just two decades later (Barker et al. 367). “Nation states” were schemed to be created based on peoples ethnicities, allowing whites to have a nicer community while the worse off ethnicities were stuck living next to each other (Barker et al. 367). In 1953, the government was able to win a vote to “remove colored people from the common voters’ roll in Cape”, which gave the white minority even more dominance in politics (Barker et al.
Dutch settlers in South Africa, …show more content…
One example of the harsh laws put in place was the Population Registration Act of 1950, which classified all the citizens in South Africa as white, black, or colored, as well as gave every person an identity number that stayed with them for life(Moore 1)( “Apartheid Legislation 1950s-1970s”). To be classified as white, one had to have a certain persona, blacks were members of an African race or tribe, and if someone was neither of the two, they were classified as a Colored person. Many colored citizens had a mixed background, and would be ashamed of it, even if it was as distant as a “great-grandfath[er] from Germany…[and a] grandmother… from [Ireland]”( Klein “On Being 'Colored, ' an Invention of Apartheid, in South Africa“). To be considered a black citizen meant to be forced to carry a “dompas”, or a passbook with the citizens personal information in order to merely gain access to non-black areas (“Apartheid Legislation 1950s-1970s”). By separating the different ethnicities, they were less likely to unify in resistance to the National Party because the different ethnicities would be competing with each other (“apartheid” 1). This was taken even further in the Group Areas Act, which kept whites and nonwhites from even being together by separating the residential and commercial areas (“apartheid” 1). The separation was taken to the …show more content…
For example, an estimated 3.5 million people had their homes relocated starting in the 50s and ending just two decades later (Barker et al. 367). “Nation states” were schemed to be created based on peoples ethnicities, allowing whites to have a nicer community while the worse off ethnicities were stuck living next to each other (Barker et al. 367). In 1953, the government was able to win a vote to “remove colored people from the common voters’ roll in Cape”, which gave the white minority even more dominance in politics (Barker et al.