APARTHEID IN SOUTH AFRICA

NELSON MANDELA

In 1487 Bartholomeu Dias, a Portuguese explorer, was the first European to reach the

southernmost point of the African continent, at that time inhabited by Bantu-speaking

peoples. Later, in the 17th century the Dutch settled in this area and brought slaves from

India, Indonesia and Madagascar. At the end of the 18th century the British arrived. They

had commercial interests in India and Australia. For this reason Cape Town and its port

were very important for their long voyages.

The Boers (Dutch, German, French and Flemish) and the British settlers occupied land in

the north and east of the country in the 1820s. This led to some conflicts with the local

population. However, British settlement was encouraged and attracted a lot of British

immigrants, especially when diamond, gold and silver were discovered at the end of the

19th century. Immigration and economic growth increased, but the Boers and the British

wanted to control the country’s riches.

As a consequence the Anglo-Boer war

broke out and this led to the suppression

of a great number of indigenous people.

The Union of South Africa, a dominion of

Great Britain, was created in 1910, and

from that moment black people

controlled only the 7% of land of their

country.

Both the Dutch and the British practiced racial segregation called apartheid during the

colonial period.

During Apartheid the white minority population controlled the country and put people into

four groups – black (71% of population), white (16%), coloured (10%) and Asian (3%).

They banned marriages between whites and people of other races. They segregated

education, health care and other public services. Services for black people were inferior to

those for white people. The Government passed Land Acts which gave more than 80% of

the country to the white minority. Non-white carried pass books with their fingerprints, a

photo, and information on access to non-black areas.

The ANC (African National Congress), who wanted equal rights for all citizens, promoted a

campaign against Apartheid.

Soon Nelson Mandela became the leader of ANC party.

Mandela and Oliver Tambo started giving free or low-cost legal advice to many blacks who

did not have any legal representation. They also began campaigns against apartheid.

Mandela, just like Martin Luther King, admired Gandhi and his peaceful protest in India,

but when he became the leader of a secret army, the police arrested him for treason. The

government put many anti-apartheid leaders like Nelson Mandela in prison on Robben

Island. He could have only one letter and one visitor every six months and although he had

to do hard labour, this did not break his spirit. Mandela remained in prison for 27 years and

his long sentence made people around the world aware of the situation in South Africa.

In 1990 Mandela was finally a free man and President de Klerk began negotiations to end

Apartheid. There were democratic elections and on 29th April 1994 the African National

Congress won under their leader, nelson Mandela.

A statue of Nelson Mandela stands in Parliament Square London, because he was a hero

to people all over the world. He died on 5th December 2013 after a long illness. He was 95

and the world mourned the passing of one of the greatest leaders of our time.