Apartheid
BY Kirstie & Stephanie
Overview
The SASO (the South African Students Organization) helped gain the rights of South Africans. The students established a self-help organizations for Africans who were forced to learn the Afrikaner language in school. For this protest, the police shot several students, which started boycotts and riots that sparked nationwide.
History
The African population had some very negative current of events in the past. An Apartheid is commonly known as segregation. South Africans were not allowed to participate in the Olympics and other activities, which then began the Sharpeville Massacre. Mandela was held in detention for 27 years. School children who were protesting were shot or severely wounded by police officials. 5,000 students under 18 and several thousand adults participated in the Black Consciousness Movement. The Sharpeville Massacre was a turning point for many African American leaders.
Government
The Apartheid affected the lives of many South Africans socially, economically, and politically. Segregation has always been a huge part of south Africa and has always controlled the country. In 1964, the lead protester Nelson Mandela was sentenced to life in prison and was charged with attempted sabotage of the government. While Mandela was in custody, the PAC (Pan-Africanist Congress) passed a law stating that all Africans had to carry passbooks to represent their employment and free movement. After the ANC (African National Congress) was outlawed, Mandela was released in the early 90s. A year or so after Mandela was released, he was elected president of Africa and severed a term from 1994 through 1998.
Economic
The Apartheid had many effects on the economy. WWII encouraged a few acts to pass that will allow blacks to hold whites jobs during the war, such as factory working, and coal mining.
Social
The Apartheid affected the learning ways of the children going to school and other daily tasks. At one point, Africans needed passbooks to even roam the streets freely and get to and from work. Pan-Africanist Congress created a demonstration that hundreds of people presented themselves to the police in Sharpeville without their pass books, a condition that was illegal and participants were taken into custody for committing. Stephen Biko started the South African Students Organization (SASO). The SASO established self-help organizations for Africans throughout the country. All schools would teach only in Afrikaans, which is a Dutch dialect spoken only by the Afrikaner minority. The Soweto Massacre caused a demand that schools teach in the native South African language, teach African history, and respond to black students' needs. Finally, the African government in the 1970s decided to provide public education to children in Soweto; but the government had demanded that the African students be taught in English.
South Africa Today
South Africa today has changed for the better. In 1994 the apartheid era finally ended, and blacks were finally allowed jobs and equal rights. The government outlawed the African National Congress (the PAC), which allowed blacks to have more rights and their own political party.