Places et forms of power: how was the power distributed and redistributed in South Africa society from apartheid to nowadays?

Places and form of power

The notion of power implies a basic division between those who have and exercise power, and those who have none or little of it. In class, we studied the situation of South Africa during Apartheid. How was the power distributed and redistributed in South Africa society from apartheid to nowadays?

First of all, I’m going to give a definition; Apartheid was an official policy of racial segregation enforced by the National party government in the republic of South Africa between 1948 and 1991. It involved political, legal and economic discrimination against non-whites. When this government was born, the non whites were cut off from the white community. They were treated like second class citizens and didn’t have the same rights as white people. To illustrate that, we studied a story entitled “Bench Dispute”. It’s about an argument between a white youth and a black man, who is sitting on bench. We can say that during this period, the white community had the power over the non-whites. But this period changed. There was a fight against white domination for sharing power.

In 1912, African National Congress (ANC) was founded. It was a left wing political party created to defend the rights of the blacks. Nelson Mandela was a member of the ANC. He fought against apartheid and he spent twenty seven years of his life in prison for his fight. In 1990, he was freed. He and Frederic Deklerk were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993. Some black people fought for their rights and some whites also fought for them. The ANC was banned in 1960 but the fight continued. B.Breytenbach is a white men. He’s an Afrikaner artist. He criticized apartheid and racial segregation. He didn’t agree with this policy. He sided with the black. The fight was won, and apartheid was put on an end in 1991. But are people on an equal footing ?

After apartheid, now everybody is on an equal footing. Black people can be elected president like, Nelson Mandela in 1994. There is a recognition of black people’s rights, an emergence of a black middle class. Black people can work like white people. But all of this is in the law. In reality, there are still differences between this two communities; they don’t have the same living conditions, their average incomes are different. Apartheid has left a legacy.

To conclude, we can say during apartheid, the white community had power. But after some sacrifices and a hard fight, people never lost hope and apartheid was banned. If nowadays, everybody is law fully, on an equal footing, there are still inequalities between the two community. The economic power is still largely in the hands of white people.

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