The Historical Topic of South African Apartheid
Introduction
According to Jackson (2018), segregation was a unique feature of South African economic, political, and social life. Unlike the Whites, the Blacks were retribalized and raised many native questions linked to ethical distinctions. Also, racial severance existed in administrative, industrial, residential, and territorial spheres. Rapid industrialization was fixed to the past’s inherited attitudes and that the black population was highly discriminated against. In the past years, 1924-1933, the government protected the White employees, unlike the blacks in the local capital.
On the other hand, the blacks gained a little of such favors and ended up living in informal urban settlement due to low wage acquisition. Henceforth, the Blacks had no option but to form mass-based political firms such as the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU) to fight against deteriorating working conditions. The latter was incorporated other spheres such as electoral bodies, which initiated elements of White Supremacy (Jackson, 2018). The native principle elements were left aside with Afrikaner nationalists forced to stick with communist manes.
In South Africa, segregation was a common practice that affected economic and political spheres and social platforms. The blacks-only received education in military school, and that the government only facilitated them with small grants as opposed to the school’s fundamental principles. The blacks, in the long run, became facilitated why the Whites were favored unlike them. Therefore, they decided to participate in oppositional political parties such as the South African Indian Congress and the African Political Organization.
The latter was followed by harsh treatment from the National Party (1948-1994), which separated the non-White majority group from the rest. Also, it tried to divide South Africans based on tribal lines to ruin its political forces (Zalk, 2017). Also, the party ensured it kept South Africa while the population under control. The demands were severe as it fastens segregation and necessitated adverse treatment of the non-white citizens. The critical players under apartheid policy included Hendrick Verwoerd, B.J Vorster, and Daniel Francois Malan.
The apartheid policy has several outcomes ranging from economic to political disparities. In Johannesburg, wealth disparities were highly witnessed. The Blacks were unemployed, and they received inferior education, failing to allow them to fit in the job market. The apartheid, which ended up officially in 1994, led to low investment rates for black workers. The human and physical capital decreased in equilibrium (Zalk, 2017). Intra-race disparities were also witnessed as the Whites received adequate opportunities and the Blacks remained oppressed. Hence, the goal of this essay is to answer the question? “Is South African Apartheid policy crucial in the historical context? If so, what was its social, political and economic outcome to the victims?”
References
Jackson, W. (2018). SOUTH AFRICA IN WORLD HISTORY: Modern South Africa in World History: Beyond Imperialism. Journal of African History, 59(3), 521-522.
Zalk, N. E. (2017). The things we lost in the fire: the political economy of post-apartheid restructuring of the South African steel and engineering sectors (Doctoral dissertation, SOAS University of London).