Mike
What is Apartheid?
As many of you know I was born and grew up in Cape Town – South Africa. Cape Town was the city where the Houses of Parliament wrote the now infamous Apartheid laws in legal history. These laws created a system that embedded racial segregation in South Africa. Apartheid lasted for forty-two years from 1948 until 1990. Apartheid was an awful environment for both white and black people to grow up in.
Nelson Mandela
“Madiba” – more professionally known, as Nelson Mandela was the modern day saint that spearheaded the end of Apartheid. Madiba was an incredibly selfless man who, at the age of forty-four was prepared to sacrifice the rest of his life to achieve his ideal of a non-sexist and non-racist democratic nation. He served twenty-seven years in jail and throughout this time he continually built up his reputation as the leader of the struggle for liberation – “I dream of an Africa which is in peace with itself.”
Effects on Black people
Historic legislation such as the Bantu Education Act, Mixed Marriages Act and Group Areas Act were passed by the ‘white only’ National Party Government which meant that black people were no longer allowed to be taught mathematics or science, marry inter-racially nor live where they wanted to, in fact they were not even allowed to own property and nor did they have the right to vote. They were deemed third class citizens and denied virtually all basic human rights. Can you imagine being denied all of these human rights, simply because you have been born with a different coloured skin? For example Mathile Hlatuka; born in 1959 and denied a rounded education, forced to carry a passbook wherever he went and restricted to living in a Bantu homeland, eventually came to work as our humble gardener in 2004. Within five years he had learnt to read and write as well pass his driving test. This is a clear example of how much human talent went to waste amongst the millions and millions of black people forced
As many of you know I was born and grew up in Cape Town – South Africa. Cape Town was the city where the Houses of Parliament wrote the now infamous Apartheid laws in legal history. These laws created a system that embedded racial segregation in South Africa. Apartheid lasted for forty-two years from 1948 until 1990. Apartheid was an awful environment for both white and black people to grow up in.
Nelson Mandela
“Madiba” – more professionally known, as Nelson Mandela was the modern day saint that spearheaded the end of Apartheid. Madiba was an incredibly selfless man who, at the age of forty-four was prepared to sacrifice the rest of his life to achieve his ideal of a non-sexist and non-racist democratic nation. He served twenty-seven years in jail and throughout this time he continually built up his reputation as the leader of the struggle for liberation – “I dream of an Africa which is in peace with itself.”
Effects on Black people
Historic legislation such as the Bantu Education Act, Mixed Marriages Act and Group Areas Act were passed by the ‘white only’ National Party Government which meant that black people were no longer allowed to be taught mathematics or science, marry inter-racially nor live where they wanted to, in fact they were not even allowed to own property and nor did they have the right to vote. They were deemed third class citizens and denied virtually all basic human rights. Can you imagine being denied all of these human rights, simply because you have been born with a different coloured skin? For example Mathile Hlatuka; born in 1959 and denied a rounded education, forced to carry a passbook wherever he went and restricted to living in a Bantu homeland, eventually came to work as our humble gardener in 2004. Within five years he had learnt to read and write as well pass his driving test. This is a clear example of how much human talent went to waste amongst the millions and millions of black people forced