Apartheid South Africa
Explore apartheid South Africa — the system of racial segregation that dominated the country from 1948 to 1994 and the struggle that ended it.
Apartheid — Afrikaans for 'apartness' — was the system of institutionalized racial segregation and discrimination that governed South Africa from 1948 to 1994. Under apartheid, the white minority (less than 20% of the population) monopolized political power, economic resources, and the best land, while Black, Coloured, and Indian South Africans were classified, separated, and subjugated through an elaborate legal architecture of oppression.
The system classified every person by race and dictated where they could live, work, travel, and marry. The Bantustan system created nominally independent 'homelands' for Black South Africans, stripping them of citizenship in their own country. Pass laws controlled movement. The education system was designed to prepare Black students for subordinate roles. Resistance was met with state violence — from the Sharpeville massacre of 1960 to the Soweto uprising of 1976.
The struggle against apartheid was waged through the African National Congress, trade unions, student movements, international sanctions, and the moral authority of figures like Nelson Mandela, who spent 27 years in prison. Apartheid's end came through negotiation rather than revolution — a transition widely considered one of the 20th century's most remarkable political achievements. South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, chaired by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, became a model for transitional justice worldwide.