Megan Webb Parker Tankersley &
Miesha Williams
Dr. Zahariadis
PSC 266
11 March 2013 The UN and the Apartheid The apartheid was a system of institutionalized racism present in South Africa that lasted from 1948, with the election of Daniel Francois Malan, to 1994, with the election of Nelson Mandela. The roots of the apartheid go as far back as the European settlers, and they encountered numerous problems with the native Africans when the Dutch and English settlers began to move inland from Cape Town and encountered the Xhosa’s. The ensuing disputes over farm land evolved into Xhosa Wars, which lasted from nearly one-hundred years from 1779 to 1878. At the same time, the English and the Dutch, also known as “Boers”, warred against each other, leading the Boers to establish their own countries of the Orange Free State and the Transvaal. The British then would go on to fight other African tribes, and the most prominent was known as the Zulu. To put it simply, South Africa has a long, extensive history of racial discrimination. It is far from surprising that it would have one of the most extensive and infamous racial segregation policies in modern history, but the apartheid eventually grew out of this history of racial divides and wars. Although it may be true that racism was part of their history, in reality it also became their national shame. In addition, South Africa had one of the most comprehensive instances of de jure segregation. It began when the Afrikaans (Boer) National party came into power in 1948 under Daniel Francois Malan who was elected on an apartheid platform. During his term of office, he brought about many different segregationist policies. In 1950, the Population Registration Act separated the South African population into three categories which were: whites, blacks, and colored. Non-whites were required to carry their pass books, which