Sartenejas, 19 de Mayo de 2015
Universidad Simon Bolivar
Henger Maizo. Carnet 10-10408

”What were you dreaming?” by Nadine Gordimer
Apartheid and how it affected people

As history moves on, in different countries and even whole continents, movements and regimes have been formed where groups of people take the power so that they can abuse, denigrate, ignore and even disparage and underestimate other people base on the colour of their skin or their religion. One of these systems of government, and probably one of the most influential of modern times, was the Apartheid which ruled over South Africa since 1948 to 1994. “a system of racial segregation in South Africa enforced through legislation by the National Party (NP), the governing party from 1948 to 1994”2

Although Apartheid was legally established from 1948, the racism in South Africa has its roots since the twentieth century as the Dutch descendants initiated racial separation as an idea for the country’s development. When Apartheid started being applied as a law, racial segregation and abuse had its boom because black, Indian, Arabic and coloured population lost their right to participate in elections and to take charge of public office jobs, all these places were occupied by the whites, who represented only the 21% of the entire South African population. This way the white people was responsible of leaving the highest percentage of people unrepresented in the Parliament and also unable to speak up for the injustice they lived in.

As the Parliament applied more and more laws, coloured and black people were being less represented and more repressed, they could not circulate freely through the “white regions”, were not able to own business, receive medical services and education of good quality, they were obligated to stay away from the white population and finally, interracial relationships and marriage