Question

What do you mean by Apartheid?

Answer 1

Hint: Nelson Mandela with other 7 leaders was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1964 because they opposed the apartheid regime in their country. The system was imposed on South Africa by the white Europeans. The system was based on racial discrimination.

Complete answer: Apartheid system discrimination was unique to South Africa. During the 17th and 18th centuries, the trading companies from Europe colonized South Africa and since the whites were in large numbers so they settled there and became local rulers. They introduced this discriminatory system in South Africa which was based on dividing people and labelling them on the basis of their skin colour. The native colour of South Africa is black and they were known as ‘blacks’. Besides these two groups, there were people who belonged to the group called ‘coloured’ because they were of mixed races and had migrated from India. The other group was ‘white’ which were non- Africans.
Due to this system, the white rulers and people treated all the non-whites as inferior. The blacks did not even have voting rights. The apartheid system was particularly oppressive and exploitative for the blacks because they were forbidden from living in white areas. In order to live in a white area, they must have a permit. Public places like toilets, schools, taxis, trains, hotels, colleges, theatres etc were separated from blacks this was called segregation. They could not visit the churches where white worshipped and could not protest for forms of association against this system.

Note: Since 1950 the blacks, coloured and Indians have fought against this oppressive system. They launched strikes and protest marches. The African National Congress also fought against the policies of segregation. Soon the system came to an end.