Protests in South Africa: the Apartheid

Protests in South Africa: A social movement for the fight for their own rights

On March 1960, a demonstration takes place at the police station in Sharpeville . Police officers open fire on the crowd. There are 289 victims. Six years later, a series of protest led by Black school children happen in Soweto . Police officers open fire on the crowd. More than 500 people died. These two demonstrations are still in the memory of the history of South Africa. It is the birth of a social movement that fights against the segregation in South Africa and become a political party.

Key questions

❏ Which problems did the protests in South Africa raise?

❏ How the social movement manages to become a political party and influence the way the society and the government work?

1. The segregation in South Africa: the Apartheid

These two protests were the face of the Apartheid. Colored people in South Africa were confronted with segregation to 1948 from 1991. During 43 years, they fought against the White supremacy in their own country. On account of the colonization, South Africans lost their rights. Every public spaces like bus, beaches, side-walk, bathrooms, benches... were separated for White people and Colored people, they had a special passport, they only had little or binding job, they had to learn Afrikaans at school, their moves were restricted (MANDELA, 1995:chap 10).

Actually, segregate policies were legally elaborate. The state was controlling the African majority and didn’t hesitate to kill the resistance fighters. However, some groups resist from this segregation. Nelson Mandela was the biggest leader of a social movement of resistance.

2. A social movement that became a political party

Mandela was part of the ANC . This party was created to fight the white oppression on Black’s lands in South Africa. In 1951, Mandela creates the “Defiance Campaign” . After the massacre of Sharpeville, the ANC was forbidden and became clandestine. Because of that, actions wasn’t peaceful anymore but violent and a military branch was created. Their goals still remain political. Mandela was the leader of a guerilla between the government and a group of resistant. He was highly pursued by the police. On July 1963, Mandela was arrested and the famous Riviona Trial began. He was sentenced to life jail to Robben Island prison (LORY, 1990:p154).

The ANC improve its organization, the social movement grew up and it became a threat for the democracy and the Boers’ government . The social movement was outside the political system and force insiders to recognize new fears and desires of the population (GOODWIN, JASPER, 2015:pp. 238).

This movement, the solidarity through it and the figure of a determine leader became significant enough that they become an official political party and change how society and government works over time. A hierarchy is organizing within the ANC and Mandela appears as the leader. The ANC received enough financial, human and material resources to enter into the political race.

With his powerful will, the public support of the ANC,

...