Racism and Apartheid in South Africa

What is racism? Based on their skin colour, ethnical background, culture etc., people are divided in hierarchies and seen as less worthy. That is some definition of racism. Mandela once said

“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his religion.

People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.” (Mandela:1987).

Nelson Mandela was, and still is, a big role model for many black people in South Africa. He fought for freedom, equality and peace for the coloured people. I choose to base my writing about racism in South Africa.

From 1948 until 1994, there was apartheid in South Africa. Apartheid means a bigger separation between races of humanities. The white people had better conditions than the black people, coloured people and Asians. They were sitting on all political and economic force. Especially the black people were terribly oppressed. After many years of opposition against the apartheid-rule, the racisms system finally got abolished. Nelson Mandela, the leader of the resistance, became the president of South Africa.

Until the apartheid was abolished in 1994, South Africa never had the chance of being a democratic country. Since the first Europeans colonised the country, the control has always been in the hands of the white people. They had the control of writing laws in the books and made everybody obey the rules. The white people considered themselves as a more high-ranking race than the black people. They also considered them selves as the selected people, by which it means, that God selected them to control in South Africa. They felt having a duty, and gained full control of the black people.