Wednesday, June 6, 2007

APARTHEID IN SOUTH AFRICA

What Does Apartheid Mean?
Apartheid literally means "seperatness". It is a system that seperats people accourding to their race. In South Africa, the government took away the human and political rights of everyone who wasnt of white skin color.
What Happened in this Country that Compromised Human Rights?
In South Africa, after the new government of the Afrikannar National Party won the elections, they wanted wanted to have complete control of the economic and social system of South Africa. As a result, they wanted people of white skin color be superior to the people of any other color. This is how the segregation first began in 1948.
Who Was Involved?
After the elections of 1948, the National Party campaigned its policy of Apartheid. They won the elections against the Smuts' United Party. Soon after, the National Party joined the Afrikaner National Party. They were soon officially called the Afrikaner National Party. The leader of this new government was Daniel Francois Malan. They quickly began enforcing the laws of Apartheid, in 1950.
What Laws were Enforced?
The first law that was created for Apartheid was called the Group Areas Act in 1950. It was created to help divide South Africa into racial groups. The Seperate Amenities act of 1953 created seperate busses, schools, beaches, and etc for whites and minorities. The laws that already existed, such as the law that forced blacks and colourds to carry around identification cards, was enforced even more. These passbooks prevented coloreds to live or even visit "white towns". In addition, in 1948, a law was creating, forbidding coloreds to get married to whites.
-Pari, Jaely, Alexandra

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