Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Apartheid |
ApartheidNoun1. The former official policy of racial segregation in South Africa. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Apartheid is an Afrikaans word meaning "separation" or literally "apartness". In English, it has come to mean any legally sanctioned system of racial segregation, such as existed in The Republic of South Africa between 1948 and 1990. The first recorded use of the word is in 1917, during a speech by Jan Smuts, then Prime Minister of South Africa.
History of Apartheid in South Africa
South Africa was colonised by the Dutch and English from the 17th Century onwards. As was typically the case in the African colonies, the European settlers dominated the indigenous population through political control and the control of land and wealth. In the years following the victory of the South African National Party in the general election of 1948, a flood of laws were enacted, formally instituting the dominance of white people over other races.The principal apartheid laws were as follows:
On 21 March 1960, 20,000 people congregated in Sharpeville to demonstrate against the requirement to carry identity cards. Police opened fire on the demonstrators, killing 69 and injuring 180. All the victims were black. Most of them had been shot in the back. Colonel J. Pienaar, the senior police officer in charge on the day, was quoted as saying
- The Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act (1949)
- Amendment to The Immorality Act (1950)
- This law made it a criminal offence for a white person to have any sexual relations with a person of a different race.
- The Population Registration Act (1950)
- This law required all citizens to register as black, white or coloured.
- The Suppression of Communism Act (1950)
- This law banned any opposition party the government chose to label as "communist".
- The Group Areas Act (27 April 1950)
- This law barred people of particular races from various urban areas.
- The Reservation of Separate Amenities Act (1953)
- This law prohibited people of different races from using the same public amenities.
- The Bantu Education Act (1953)
- This law brought in various measures expressly designed to reduce the level of education attainable by black people.
- The Mines and Work Act (1956)
- This law formalised racial discrimination in employment.
- The Promotion of Black Self-Government Act (1958)
- This law set up nominally independent "homelands" for black people. In practice, the South African government maintained control over these bantustans.
- Black Homeland Citizenship Act (1971)
- This law changed the status of the inhabitants of the 'homelands' so that they were no longer citizens of South Africa, and therefore had none of the rights that came with citizenship.
The event became known as the Sharpeville Massacre. In its aftermath the government banned the African National Congress (ANC) and the Pan-Africanist Congress.
- "Hordes of natives surrounded the police station. My car was struck with a stone. If they do these things they must learn their lesson the hard way."
The United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution on 4 November 1962 which condemned South Africa's racist apartheid policies and called for all UN member states to cease military and economic relations with the nation.
In 1964 Nelson Mandela, leader of the ANC, was sentenced to life imprisonment.
In 1974 the government issued the Afrikaans Medium Decree which forced all schools to use the Afrikaans language when teaching Mathematics, Social Studies, Geography and History at secondary school level. Punt Janson, The Deputy Minister of Bantu Education was quoted as saying
The policy was deeply unpopular. On 30 April 1976, Children at Orlando West Junior School in Soweto went on strike, refusing to go to school. Their rebellion spread to other schools in Soweto. The students organised a mass rally for 16 June 1976, which turned violent - police responding with bullets to stones thrown by children. The incident triggered widespread violence throughout South Africa, which claimed many hundreds of lives.
- "I have not consulted the African people on the language issue and I'm not going to. An African might find that 'the big boss' only spoke Afrikaans or only spoke English. It would be to his advantage to know both languages."
Internationally, South Africa became isolated. Numerous conferences were held and United Nations resolutions passed condemning South Africa, including the World Conference Against Racism in 1978 and 1983. An immense divestment movement started, pressuring investors to refuse to invest in South African companies or companies that do business with South Africa. South African sports teams were barred from participation in international events, and South African culture and tourism were boycotted.
These international movements, combined with internal troubles, persuaded the South African government that its hard-line policies were untenable, and in 1984 some reforms were introduced. Many of the apartheid laws were repealed, and a new constitution was introduced which gave limited representation to certain non-whites, although not to the black majority. The violence continued throughout the 1980s.
In 1989, F. W. de Klerk succeeded P. W. Botha as president. On 2 February 1990, at the opening of Parliament, he declared that apartheid had failed and that the bans on political parties, including the ANC, were to be lifted. Nelson Mandela was released from prison. De Klerk went on to abolish all the remaining apartheid laws.
On April 15 2003, President Thabo Mbeki announced that the South African government will pay 660 million rand (85 million US dollars) to about 22,000 people who were tortured, detained, or lost family members under apartheid rule. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, set up to investigate abuses from the apartheid era, had recommended the government to pay 3 billion rand in compensation, over the next five years.
Apartheid in international law
South African apartheid was condemned internationally as unjust and racist. In 1973 the General Assembly of the United Nations agreed the text of the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid. The immediate intention of the Convention was to provide a formal legal framework within which member states could apply sanctions to press the South African government to change its policies. However, the Convention was phrased in general terms, with the express intention of prohibiting any other state from adopting analogous policies. The Convention came into force in 1976.
Article II of the Convention defines apartheid as follows:
''For the purpose of the present Convention, the term "the crime of apartheid", which shall include similar policies and practices of racial segregation and discrimination as practised in southern Africa, shall apply to the following inhuman acts committed for the purpose of establishing and maintaining domination by one racial group of persons over any other racial group of persons and systematically oppressing them:
The crime was also defined in the formation of the International Criminal Court:
- (a) Denial to a member or members of a racial group or groups of the right to life and liberty of person
- (i) By murder of members of a racial group or groups;
- (ii) By the infliction upon the members of a racial group or groups of serious bodily or mental harm, by the infringement of their freedom or dignity, or by subjecting them to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment;
- (iii) By arbitrary arrest and illegal imprisonment of the members of a racial group or groups;
- (b) Deliberate imposition on a racial group or groups of living conditions calculated to cause its or their physical destruction in whole or in part;
- (c) Any legislative measures and other measures calculated to prevent a racial group or groups from participation in the political, social, economic and cultural life of the country and the deliberate creation of conditions preventing the full development of such a group or groups, in particular by denying to members of a racial group or groups basic human rights and freedoms, including the right to work, the right to form recognised trade unions, the right to education, the right to leave and to return to their country, the right to a nationality, the right to freedom of movement and residence, the right to freedom of opinion and expression, and the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association;
- (d) Any measures including legislative measures, designed to divide the population along racial lines by the creation of separate reserves and ghettos for the members of a racial group or groups, the prohibition of mixed marriages among members of various racial groups, the expropriation of landed property belonging to a racial group or groups or to members thereof;
- (e) Exploitation of the labour of the members of a racial group or groups, in particular by submitting them to forced labour;
- (f) Persecution of organisations and persons, by depriving them of fundamental rights and freedoms, because they oppose apartheid.''
- "The crime of apartheid" means inhumane acts of a character similar to those referred to in paragraph 1, committed in the context of an institutionalised regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial group or groups and committed with the intention of maintaining that regime [1]
Nazi attempt to introduce racial separation in Eastern Europe
- General Government
Alleged apartheid in the Arab world
The Kingdom of Jordan forbids Jews from becoming citizens, although peoples of any other group are allowed to do so. (Law No. 6, sect. 3, of April 3, 1954; restated in law no. 7, sect. 2, of April 1, 1963)
Saudi Arabia forbids non-Muslims from practising their religion in public. Christians who ask Muslims to convert to Christianity have been persecuted and arrested; Muslims who have converted to Christianity have been executed. Jews are forbidden from practising their faith.
Non-Wahhabi Muslims report apartheid-like discrimination in Saudi Arabia.
Discrimination against non-Muslims in Saudi Arabia
- religious apartheid in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
- Allegations of apartheid
- Directory of the Saudi Institute gives testimony to US House of Representatives on religious apartheid in Saudi Arabia
Jews and Christians have historically had fewer rights than Muslim citizens in all Muslim nations; all non-Muslim monotheists have been consigned to the status of dhimmis.
Alleged apartheid in the Muslim world
Non-Muslims are regurlarly denied the same civil rights and voting priviliges in many non-Arab Muslim nations. See the articles:
Discrimination against non-Muslims in Afghanistan
Discrimination against non-Muslims in Iran
Discrimination against non-Muslims in Malaysia
Discrimination against non-Muslims in Mauritania
Discrimination against non-Muslims in Pakistan
Discrimination against non-Muslims in Sudan
Alleged apartheid in Israel
A number of organisations, including the Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights (LAW) and the Islamic Human Rights Commission, allege that Israel is an apartheid state under the UN definition. This view has been put forward, for example, by many Arab states at the World Conference against Racism in 1978, 1983, and 2001. This led to a boycott of the conference by the United States and Israel in all three cases, and by many European countries in the first two. (In each case, the United States also had other reasons for boycotting. In the first two, they objected to language critical of apartheid in South Africa. In 2001, they objected to language calling the transatlantic slave trade a crime against humanity, which would prepare the way for reparations.) The resolutions were not adopted at any of the conferences, although in 1975, the United Nations General Assembly passed Resolution 3379, condemning Zionism as a form of racism and condemning Israel for supporting the South African apartheid regime. The resolution was repealed in 1991.
One official Israeli position against the allegation of apartheid is that the disputed policies against Palestinians are in place because of security-related reasons, and will be removed when circumstances change. The use of harsh techniques, and even torture, which constitutes a crime against humanity, against Palestinians are supported in order to minimise the risks of terrorist attacks, and crimes against humanity against Israelis.
Several other features of life in Israel are construed by some as showing that Israel does not give full citizen rights to Arabs living within its borders, to a degree that is tantamount to apartheid. They include:
The partition of the occupied territories, the limited autonomy granted to the Palestine Authority and the fact that employment in Israel is one of the main economic resources for Arab inhabitants of the territories show a parallel with the creation of the bantustans for supporters of Palestine freedom.
- different funding levels of education for Jews and Arabs in Israel.
- ill-treatment and harassment of Palestinian Israelis. (see human rights violations in Israel)
- inability of non Jews to buy property in Jerusalem and other areas.
- laws which give special privileges to Jews, such as the law of return.
- there is no provision in Israel for secular civil marriage, so in order to marry, one of the partners must convert to the religion of the other, face the expense of traveling abroad in order to marry. Even if the couple are prepared to comply with this unreasonable demand on them, they still have to overcome innumerable religious and bureaucratic hurdles. (e.g. see [1]). It can be argued that this amounts to a de facto prohibition of mixed marriages.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a leading anti-apartheid campaigner in South Africa, stated, in a speech about Israel, "I've been very deeply distressed in my visit to the Holy Land; it reminded me so much of what happened to us blacks in South Africa. I have seen the humiliation of the Palestinians at checkpoints and roadblocks, suffering like us when young white police officers prevented us from moving about." (speech in Cape Town, April 2002 [1])
Many Israelis, on the other hand, point to the fact that Arab Israelis actually have greater personal and civil freedoms than Arabs living in most Arab countries in the middle east (many of which have authoritarian governments) do.
However, according to the Israel Religious Action Center many Jewish Israelis feel that the ultra-Orthodox have too much control [1].
See also: History of South Africa, racism, discrimination, Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, Steve Biko, Jim Crow laws, White Australia policy, Afrikaner Calvinism, Israeli settlements, multiculturalism, segregation, integration, caste, General Government.
External links
- Bearer of an Ideal - a public release document of the Afrikanerbond (formerly Afrikaner Broederbond): thinktank which influenced policies of separate development in South Africa
- Full text of the UN convention
- Full text of Desmond Tutu's speech in Cape Town, April 13 2002
- Israeli Schools Separate, Not Equal
- Amnesty International report 2002 Israel and the occupied territories
- American Friends Service Committee item on the history of Jerusalem
- LAW paper: "Israel's brand of apartheid: The Nakba continues"
- LAW press release regarding their petition against Israel's "apartheid wall"
- Islamic Human Rights Commission
- Apartheid In the Holy Land: full text of a paper presented by Nafeez Ahmed of the Islamic Human Rights Commission, at the 2001 UN Conference Against Racism in Durban
- Full text of Interview with Shimon Peres
- Alon Liel, former director general of the Israel Foreign Ministry, on the question of apartheid
- Anti-Semitism - past and Present. Discusses the anti-Semitic motives of some of the individuals who accuse Israel of Apartheid.
- ADL statement on the anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic outcry at Durban
- Haaretz article about interreligious marriages in Israel (omitted in the official English edition)
- Links to articles on apartheid in the Arab Muslim world
- Dhimmi.Com: Victims of Muslim Religious Apartheid
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Apartheid."
Synonym: ApartheidSynonym: Separate development (Race relations). (additional references) |
Crosswords: Apartheid |
| English words defined with "apartheid": antiapartheid ♦ Gordimer ♦ Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd, Hendrik Verwoerd ♦ in operation ♦ Nadine Gordimer ♦ operating, operational ♦ unambiguous ♦ Verwoerd. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Apartheid" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses. Afrikaan (apartheid), Czech (apartheid), Dutch (apartheid), French (apartheid), German (apartheid), Portuguese (apartheid), Romanian (apartheid, colour bar), Spanish (apartheid), Swedish (apartheid). |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Apartheid was not about race (Inside; writing credit: Bima Stagg) We are phasing out apartheid, but these things take time (Inside; writing credit: Bima Stagg) | |
Movie/TV Titles | The Anatomy of Apartheid (1963) In Darkest Hollywood: Cinema and Apartheid (1993) Children of Apartheid (1987) Witness to Apartheid (1986) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books |
| ||
Music |
| ||
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Join the week of solidarity with the African workers in South Africa, 13 to 21 March : 1978 International Year Against Apartheid. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | He earns US $14 for a 48 hour week ... : remember 1978 is the International Year Against Apartheid. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Apartheid in practice : jobs & wages in South Africa. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | No apartheid. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Contra apartheid : support the fight for liberty, equality and peace ... Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Angola -- another Vietnam : kick out South African apartheid, kick out U.S. racism and imperialism : support the MPLA. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
 |
| "Nelson Mandela Bridge 2" by Laura Kennedy Commentary: "Johannesburg has the largest cable-stayed bridge in southern Africa. Who else to name it after but Nelson Mandela, the man who led South Africa across the apartheid divide? Opened July 21, 2003 ." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Business | Amongst older people, this has come about as a result of being marginalized from educational opportunities under the apartheid system. (references) | |
This is specifically so in the case of those people (the vast majority) who have been historically disadvantaged due to the pre-1994 apartheid regime. (references) | ||
Due to the legacies left by the apartheid system, South Africa’s economy is marked by a considerable lack of skills in the previously disadvantaged majority of the population. (references) | ||
Economic History | South Africa | It withdrew from the Commonwealth in part because of international protests against apartheid. (references) |
South Africa | The ANC and PAC were forced underground and fought apartheid through guerrilla warfare and sabotage. (references) | |
South Africa | Since the abolition of apartheid, levels of political violence in South Africa have dropped dramatically. (references) | |
Human Rights | South Africa | Although the Government did not make a final decision on reparations for apartheid victims during the year, it committed $86 million (800 million Rands) for reparation payments. (references) |
South Africa | In April and May, De Kock was granted amnesty for a variety of crimes during the apartheid regime; at year's end, De Kock was serving a sentence of life in prison for committing crimes for which he did not receive amnesty. (references) | |
South Africa | In its report, the TRC found that apartheid was a crime against humanity, that the former apartheid regime was responsible for most of the human rights abuses during the era of its rule, and that the ANC and other liberation movements also committed abuses during their armed struggle. (references) | |
Minorities | Namibia | The Constitution prohibits discrimination based on race and other factors and specifically prohibits "the practice and ideology of apartheid." The law codifies certain protections for those who cite racial discrimination in the course of research (including academic and press reporting) or in trying to reduce racial disharmony. (references) |
Zimbabwe | During the 1960's and 1970's, elements of the white minority rebelled against British rule and established and maintained a racially discriminatory apartheid regime, which was dismantled in 1980 only after insurgencies by the armed wings of ZANU and the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU), and economic sanctions by the international community. (references) | |
Political Economy | South Africa | The numerous social and economic problems that the country faces today, many of which originated during the apartheid era, persist. (references) |
Worker Rights | Namibia | The apartheid era disadvantaged non-white citizens in terms of wages and standards of living. (references) |
Cote d'Ivoire | Complaining of what workers called "Salary Apartheid," union leaders called a 72-hour strike after talks failed. (references) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Apartheid" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Apartheid" is used about 371 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 100% | 371 | 14,642 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expression using "apartheid": petty apartheid. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "apartheid": apartheid-capitalism, apartheid-free, apartheid-ridden, apartheid-rooted. | |
Ending with "apartheid": anti-apartheid, post-apartheid, pro-apartheid. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "apartheid"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Afrikaans | apartheid. (various references) | |
Albanian | aparteid. (various references) | |
Arabic | تمييز عنصري (color bar, colour bar, racialism, racism, segregation). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | апартейд. (various references) | |
Chinese | 种族隔离. (various references) | |
Czech | apartheid. (various references) | |
Dutch | apartheid, segregatie (segregation). (various references) | |
Esperanto | segregacio. (various references) | |
French | apartheid. (various references) | |
German | Rassentrennung (racial segregation, segregation), apartheid. (various references) | |
Greek | πολιτική φυλετικού διαχωρισμού, απαρτχάιντ. (various references) | |
Hebrew | הפרדה גזעית. (various references) | |
Hungarian | faji megkülönböztetés (colour bar, racial discrimination, segregation). (various references) | |
Indonesian | aparteid. (various references) | |
Italian | segregazione razziale (jim crow), discriminazione razziale (racial discrimination). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | アパラチア山脈 (Appalachian mountains, Appalachians). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | アパルトヘイド , アパルトヘイト . (various references) | |
Manx | neuchoveshtagh (immiscible). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | apartheiday.(various references) | |
Portuguese | apartheid. (various references) | |
Romanian | apartheid (colour bar), segregaţie rasiala. (various references) | |
Russian | апартеид. (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | politika rasne diskriminacije. (various references) | |
Spanish | apartheid, segregación racial (color bar, colour bar). (various references) | |
Swedish | apartheidpolitik, apartheid. (various references) | |
Turkish | ayrım (color bar, difference, distinction, margin, part, segregation), ırkçılık (ethnocentrism, race discrimination, racial discrimination, racialism, racism, segregation), ırk ayrımı (color bar, color line, colour bar, colour line, race discrimination, racial discrimination, segregation). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | расова ізоляція, апартеїд. (various references) | |
Vietnamese | sự tách biệt chủng tộc Nam phi. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "apartheid": apartheids. (additional references) | |
Words ending with "apartheid": antiapartheid. (additional references) | |
Words containing "apartheid": antiapartheids. (additional references) | |
| |
"Apartheid" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: apartgeid, aparthide, aparthie, aparthied, aprathied, aprtheid, arpartheid, partheid. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "apartheid" (pronounced upÄ"rtī't or upÄ"rtī'd) |
| 6 | -p Ä" r t ī' t | tripartite. |
| 4 | -r t ī' t | airtight. |
| 3 | -t ī' t | apatite, appetite, biotite, hematite, magnetite, pegmatite, sticktight, watertight. |
| 3 | -t ī' d | nucleotide, peptide, yuletide. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-a-d-e-h-i-p-r-t" | |
-2 letters: adapter, airdate, airhead, airthed, apteria, diptera, hetaira, partied, pirated, pithead, radiate, raphide, readapt, tiaraed. | |
-3 letters: airted, dearth, depart, diaper, dither, haired, harped, hatred, heptad, paired, parade, pardah, pardie, pariah, parted, petard, pirate, pithed, prated, raphae, raphia, redipt, repaid, tephra, teraph, thread, threap, tirade, trepid. | |
-4 letters: aahed, adapt, adept, ahead, aider, aired, airth, apart. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-a-d-e-h-i-p-r-t" | |
+1 letter: apartheids. | |
+3 letters: radiotherapy. | |
+4 letters: antiapartheid, cardiopathies. | |
+5 letters: antiapartheids, headmastership, hydroxyapatite, radiotelegraph, radiotherapies, radiotherapist. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Photo Album 7. Images: Digital Art 8. Quotations: Non-fiction | 9. Usage Frequency 10. Expressions 11. Expressions: Internet 12. Translations: Modern | 13. Derivations 14. Rhymes 15. Anagrams 16. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
