Christian Ahearn
Mr. Power
College Composition
12 December 2008
The Apartheid in South Africa
Imagine if you were denied a job because of your race. You could not go here or there whenever you wanted, or you were not allowed to receive healthcare, or were punished severely for what you thought was a petty crime. You would go to receive a marriage license but you would hear, “Sorry, interracial marriages aren’t allowed hear.” These were a few of the difficulties people of the nonwhite (black) population faced in South Africa during the apartheid. The apartheid was an unyielding governmental procedure of segregation and discrimination of the nonwhite population for the country of South Africa (Apartheid…). This paper will give the history of the country of South Africa and the development of the government which started the apartheid. Segregation of the South African population will be described by giving information and examples about the different social classes and job opportunities individuals were allowed to have based on their race. The intent of the paper is to show the hardships that the South African nonwhites faced and their struggles to become equal during the vast period of governmentally enforced segregation. The apartheid began with the enactment of the apartheid laws in 1948 and lasted until 1991 (Apartheid in…). During the time in which the apartheid laws were in effect the country was divided and the majority of the population was poverty stricken. In the paper a description of the Apartheid during the forty-three year long period will be given by portraying the beginning of the apartheid, common acts of oppression and revolution against the government, and the apartheid coming to an end. To conclude the research there will be a comparison of South Africa during the apartheid and South Africa today. Also, the research will give an explanation