A paper by Rand
Introduction
Systems where the minority oppress the majority are doomed to fail because the majority will inevitably fight for their freedom. Apartheid was a harsh and difficult time for the non white South Africans because the government implemented harsh policies and rules that oppressed the non whites, especially black Africans, in every aspect of their lives. South Africa is no longer under the rule of apartheid because of courageous freedom fighters like Nelson Mandela. Other examples of systems that are doomed to fail due to the minority oppressing the majority include the reign of Louis XVI and the Taliban.
The Apartheid Government of South Africa
Racial segregation was already widespread in South Africa before 1948. In the election of 1948 the National Party won over the United Party. The united party thought they had support and would win the election but that did not happen because the National Party had a strong platform. Part of the platform was to give pride to the Afrikaners as they felt they had always been looked down upon by the English. The other part of the platform was formalizing the racial segregation that was already happening and giving it the name ‘apartheid’ which meant apartness. So when the National Party, led by Daniel F. Malan gained office that year, they began to make a lot of changes in South Africa under ‘apartheid’.
The Apartheid government separated the Whites, Blacks, Indian and Colored. The latter two being sub classifications. The whites (European and afrikaners) had the most rights and made up only 20% of the population and were the race able to own the most land, they had the most money and power. Colored and Indian were able to have some rights but not as much as the whites. And blacks had to be forced into areas designated for them, had very few rights, owned little land though they still made up most of the population.
Apartheid affected every aspect of the South African lives. Some examples of this are that marriage between the races were not allowed, non whites were not allowed to eat in the same restaurants, sit on the same benches, use the same facilities and even go to the same beaches as whites. Even for children, the non whites had to go to different schools and would have to end education at the young age of 13, which meant that they didn’t go to secondary school. The non white children could not play together with the whites or even play at the same area as white children.
Some of the important laws that made this type of racial discrimination an unavoidable part of life included the Population Registration Act of 1950. This act classified all South Africans as either Bantu (all blacks), Colored, Indian or white. This hurt some of the colored people as the government classifies their families into different groups hence separating them. Separate education programs were established for the Bantu. Also the Bantu Education Act in 1953 created state run schools which Bantu children were required to attend to train the children for manual labor and menial jobs. One of the most significant acts was the Group Areas Act, this established residential and business sections in urban areas for each race, and the members of other races were barred from living, owning land of doing business in them.
Eventually, the non whites resisted the apartheid policies. In the early 1940s, the ANC came to life under a vigorous president, Albert Luthuli, one of the Nobel peace prize winners, and three other men, one of them being Nelson Mandela. Originally, they used non violent methods like protesting against apartheid. This unfortunately did not work and resulted in lots of people being killed. Then the ANC figured that there goal could never be achieved through peaceful means alone so they set up a military wing called Umkhonto we Sizwe, in 1961. Even though the military wing detonated several bombs in government buildings during the next few years, it was no a serious threat to the country. In 1964, the government captured many leaders, including Nelson Mandela, and they were sentenced to life in prison.
The apartheid was predictable that it was going to fail as it made the majority of the population bow down to the whites. When they established the Group Areas Act, the whites, by violence, forcefully moved the Bantu and the colored people out of the place they already lived in or owned land there. When we visited the South End museum, a place where the blacks were forced out, it talked a lot about the expropriation of the Bantu and the colored people that were living in port Elizabeth. Partly because of this act, a lot of people started to get together and rebel against apartheid, which is a reason why this was doomed to fail.
This was made even worse when the government started the Bantu Education Act. An act made to force black children to attend these schools that educated them in serving and working for the whites. This act commended parents to try to hide their children so that they will not have to attend school. During this time, many children were killed along with their families for not attending school, or at that time, breaking the law.
Reign of King Louis XVI of France
In history, there have been other political systems that were doomed to fail like in the apartheid government power was concentrated on the hands of the minority and the minority created rigid rules to keep the majority oppressed. One of them was a French monarchy just before the French Revolution. Under the reign of King Louis the sixteenth there was also an imbalance of rights and privileges. The population was split into three estates. The first estate, which was the Roman Catholic clergy, including the French nuns and bishops. The church clergy had many privileges like collecting tithes and not paying land tax. The second estate was made up by the French nobility, they had many feudal privileges including not paying tax and collecting dues from peasants. The third estate was the majority of France and was the peasants, they needed to pay tax and were looked down upon by the nobles. While the nobles and clergy enjoyed a life of comfort, the peasants suffered greatly and most of them didn’t have enough food and many died of sickness.
The peasants resented the power of the church and nobles. At one point, the peasants became angry and rebelled against the unfair system. This resulted in the peasants overthrowing the monarchy and beheading King Louis XVI and his wife, then changed the monarchy government to a republic.
The Taliban Regime of Afghanistan
Another example of a system like apartheid that is doomed to fail because of its oppressive methods against a particular group is the Taliban in Afghanistan that is currently in power. Even though women are not a clear majority, they still make up 50 recent of the population. The Taliban made up a lot of rules to oppress the women. The Taliban have harsh and difficult policies that oppress women in particular. Some examples of this include prohibiting all girls from attending secondary school, banning all women from attending or teaching at universities and stopped all women from working.
The Taliban rule is very similar to the system of apartheid as the Taliban oppressed women and sometimes men of Afghanistan. Like apartheid, the majority is controlled by the minority. In a recent survey done by the Asia foundation in 2019, only 13 percent of afghan citizens support the Taliban. History has shown us through the examples of apartheid and the French Revolution that at some point, the women of Afghanistan will rebel to fight for their rights and it will not end well for the Taliban.
Conclusion
Nelson Mandela fought for his freedom and the freedom of his people, he dedicated his life to fighting for freedom and he suffered and was prepared to die for it. The reason he and may others in history have sacrificed for freedom is because the most basic human right is freedom. Optimus Prime once said, “Freedom is the right of all sentient beings”. In the cases of apartheid, the reign of Louis XVI and the Taliban were all doomed to fail because they did not give the majority freedom. Instead, they created harsh policies and rules to oppress the majority.
Bilbliography
Facing History. Introduction. Before apartheid. August 3 2018.https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/introduction-apartheid
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. Apartheid. History and society. September 28 2023. https://www.britannica.com/topic/apartheid
Wikipedia. Apartheid. No date. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apartheid#/media/File:Annual_per_capita_personal_income_by_race_group_in_South_Africa_relative_to_white_levels.svg
Lindsay, M. The Taliban in Afghanistan. Council on Foreign Relations. January 19 2023. https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/taliban-afghanistan#chapter-title-0-8
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