Contradictions in the traditionally capitalist economy of the apartheid state have led to considerable debate about racial politics and division and conflict in the central state. [204] To a large extent, the political ideology of apartheid had emerged from the colonization of Africa by European powers that institutionalized racial discrimination and practiced a paternal philosophy of „civilizing the inferior natives.“ [204] Some scholars have argued that this may be reflected in African Calvinism with its parallel traditions of racism; [205] e.B. from 1933; the board of directors of the Brüderbond made a recommendation for mass segregation. [205] The term apartheid has been co-opted by Palestinian and anti-Zionist organizations, referring to the occupation of the West Bank, the legal treatment of illegal settlements, and the barrier in the West Bank. In South Africa, there have been riots, boycotts and demonstrations by black South Africans against white rule since the beginning of independent white rule in 1910. Opposition intensified when the Nationalist Party, which took power in 1948, effectively blocked all legal and non-violent means of political protest by non-whites. The African National Congress (ANC) and its offshoot, the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC), both of which envisioned a completely different form of government based on majority rule, were banned in 1960 and many of its leaders imprisoned. The most famous prisoner was an ANC leader, Nelson Mandela, who had become a symbol of the anti-apartheid struggle. While Mandela and many political prisoners remained imprisoned in South Africa, other anti-apartheid leaders fled South Africa and established headquarters in a number of independent and supportive African countries, including Guinea, Tanzania, Zambia and neighboring Mozambique, where they continued the struggle to end apartheid. It was not until the 1980s that these turbulences effectively cost the South African state significant losses in terms of revenue, security and international reputation. The NP passed a series of laws that became known as little apartheid. The first of these was Act 55 of 1949 on the prohibition of mixed marriages, which prohibited marriage between whites and people of other races. Immorality Amendment Act 21 of 1950 (as amended in 1957 by Act 23) prohibited „unlawful racial intercourse“ and „any immoral or indecent act“ between a white person and a black, Indian or person of colour.
The apartheid government prudently used extraterritorial operations to eliminate its military and political opponents, arguing that neighboring states, including its civilian population, that sheltered, tolerated, or otherwise protected anti-apartheid insurgent groups could not escape responsibility for provoking retaliatory strikes. [177] While focusing on militarizing borders and sealing its interior territory against insurgent attacks, it also relied heavily on an aggressive strategy of preemption and counterattack that served a preventive and deterrent objective. [178] Reprisals that occurred outside South Africa`s borders affected not only hostile states, but also neutral and sympathetic governments, often forcing them to react against their will and interests. [179] The Lebanese population was a kind of anomaly during the apartheid era. Lebanese immigration to South Africa was predominantly Christian, and the group was originally classified as non-white; However, a court case in 1913 ruled that because Lebanese and Syrians came from the Canaan area (the cradle of Christianity and Judaism), they could not be discriminated against by racial laws that targeted non-believers and were therefore classified as white. The Lebanese community retained its white status after the entry into force of the Law on Population Registration; however, immigration from the Middle East has been restricted. [115] At first, Mandela and his ANC colleagues used nonviolent tactics such as strikes and demonstrations to protest apartheid. In 1952, Mandela helped intensify the struggle as the leader of the defiance campaign, which encouraged black participants to actively break the laws. More than 8,000 people – including Mandela – have been arrested for violating curfews, refusing to carry identity cards and other crimes. (See photos of Mandela`s life and time.) The UK`s significant economic involvement in South Africa may have exerted some influence on the South African government, with the UK and the US exerting pressure and pushing for negotiations. However, neither Britain nor the United States was willing to exert economic pressure on their multinational interests in South Africa, such as the anglo-American mining company.
Although a high-profile compensation lawsuit against these companies was overturned by the court in 2004,[161] in May 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a Court of Appeals decision that allowed another lawsuit seeking more than $400 billion in damages from large international corporations accused of supporting South Africa`s apartheid system. [162] Associations with Mozambique followed this example and were maintained after mozambique acquired sovereignty in 1975. South African loans have also been granted to Angola. Other countries that established relations with South Africa were Liberia, Côte d`Ivoire, Madagascar, Mauritius, Gabon, Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) and the Central African Republic. Although these states condemned apartheid (more than ever after South Africa condemned the Lusaka Manifesto), South Africa`s economic and military dominance meant that they remained dependent on South Africa to varying degrees. The state passed laws that paved the way for the „great apartheid,“ which focused on large-scale racial segregation by forcing people to live in separate places defined by race. This strategy was partly adopted by the „remaining“ British rule, which separated different racial groups after taking control of the Boer republics during the Boer War. This created the „townships“ or „places“ where blacks were resettled in their own cities. In addition, „petty“ apartheid laws were passed.
The main laws of apartheid were as follows. [48] In the early 1980s, botha`s National Party government began to recognize the inevitability of the need for reform of the apartheid system. [214] Early reforms were motivated by a combination of domestic violence, international condemnation, changes in the National Party electorate, and demographic changes – whites made up only 16 percent of the total population, up from 20 percent fifty years earlier. [215] In 1990, serious negotiations began, with two meetings between the government and the ANC. The objective of the negotiations was to pave the way for talks for a peaceful transition to majority rule. These meetings made it possible to set the conditions for the negotiations, despite the considerable tensions that still abound in the country. Apartheid legislation was abolished in 1991. [2] The South African experience has led to the use of the term „apartheid“ in a number of contexts other than the South African system of racial segregation. For example: the „crime of apartheid“ is defined in international law, including the 2007 law that created the International Criminal Court (ICC), which it calls a crime against humanity. Even before the ICC was founded, the United Nations International Convention on the Struggle and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid, which entered into force in 1976, enshrined the „crime of apartheid“ in law. The Coloureds were denied the right to vote in the same way that they were denied to blacks from 1950 to 1983.
In 1977, however, the Np Committee approved proposals to integrate the Coloureds and Indians into the central government. In 1982, the final constitutional proposals led to a referendum among whites, and the tricameral parliament was passed. The constitution was reformed the following year to allow minorities of color and Asia to participate in separate chambers in a three-chamber parliament, and Botha became the first executive president. The idea was that the minority of color could be granted the right to vote, but that the black majority would become citizens of independent countries of origin. [95] [97] These separate agreements lasted until the abolition of apartheid. The three-chamber reforms led to the formation of the United Democratic Front (anti-apartheid) as a vehicle to try to prevent the co-optation of people of color and Native Americans into an alliance with whites. The fighting between the UDF and the NP government from 1983 to 1989 would become the most intense period of struggle between South Africans of the left and the right. According to the articles of capitulation of 1806, the new British colonial rulers had to respect earlier laws promulgated under Romano-Dutch law,[28] which resulted in a separation of South African law from English common law and a high degree of legislative autonomy. The governors and assemblies that determined the legal process in the various colonies of South Africa were placed on a different and independent legislative path from that of the rest of the British Empire. Racial segregation and white supremacy had become central aspects of South African politics long before apartheid began.
The controversial Land Act of 1913, passed three years after South Africa`s independence, marked the beginning of territorial segregation by forcing black Africans to live on reserves and making it illegal for them to work as tenants. Opponents of the Land Act formed the South African National Indigenous Congress, which would become the African National Congress (ANC). .
