By the late s the almost invisible prisoner had become a symbol of South African oppression. The apartheid system was established by the Afrikaner-dominated National Party following its electoral victory in They had no right to settle permanently in the cities or near the mines where most of them worked.
Apartheid was beginning to fracture under the weight of its own contradictions. In response to apartheid, a new generation of young activists such as Nelson Mandela organised a series of non-violent strikes and boycotts. In , a strike of black schoolchildren in Soweto against the compulsory teaching of Afrikaans developed into a major uprising.
A year later Biko died in prison as a result of multiple injuries. But a new wave of violent protests arose in the townships in It provoked the deployment of thousands of troops and the widespread use of terror tactics by both the government and its opponents.
Meanwhile, the ANC stepped up sabotage and armed attacks from its bases in neighbouring states. South Africa was becoming ungovernable. Led by Bishop Trevor Huddleston, it fought successfully to cut South African sporting and academic links with the rest of the world.
Joined by similar movements across the world, its campaign to impose economic sanctions failed to persuade most governments banks and other businesses reduced or terminated their involvement in the South African economy. Sanctions may not have had much direct impact, but white South Africans felt deeply their isolation from international cricket and rugby. After a prolonged stalemate, Cuban and Angolan forces achieved a major defensive victory over the South Africans at the battle of Cuito Canavale in It also marked the moment the country turned the page on an oppressive system of racial segregation that for roughly 50 years privileged whites over blacks.
It sanctioned racial segregation and political and economic discrimination against nonwhites. In essence, it divided South Africans into four broad groups - White, African, coloured and Indian to enforce the minority government's policy of racial segregation. White people, who made up less than 20 percent of the population, owned more than 80 percent of the land. They also controlled the economy, including the lucrative mining sector, and all political levers. Black people had no right to vote and were relegated to inferior jobs, education and services.
They were also forced to live in neglected townships on the outskirts of urban areas or in various disadvantaged ethnic-based homelands called 'Bantustans'. To maintain the system, the apartheid government imposed severe censorship and relied heavily on its security forces, with compulsory conscription for white males between and Apartheid was finally repealed in as the country moved towards democratic governance. Racial classification, however, is still very much part of the conversation in the country.
The ANC led the resistance by first adopting non-violent tactics such as strikes, boycotts and civil disobedience campaigns. Among the first major protests was a boycott of government buses in the Alexandra township in The same year, the South African government decided to ban the ANC and other opposition groups by imposing a state of emergency.
Converting into an underground and exiled organisation, the ANC then turned into an armed struggle. Nelson Mandela was among the leaders of the organisation who was sentenced to life in prison for sabotage in The massacre in Sharpeville drew the attention of the world to the brutal repression of the apartheid regime and led to the start of its internal isolation period.
A few months after the first known case was detected in Wuhan, China, and approximately three weeks after the first U. In southern France, Marie-Bernarde Soubirous, a year-old French peasant girl, first claims to have seen the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ and a central figure in the Roman Catholic religion. The apparitions, which totaled 18 before the end of the year, occurred in a On February 11, , a week of intensive bargaining by the leaders of the three major Allied powers ends in Yalta, a Soviet resort town on the Black Sea.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Sacagawea, the Shoshone interpreter and guide to the Lewis and Clark expedition, gives birth to her first child, Jean Baptiste Charbonneau. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark first met the young Sacagawea while spending the winter among the Mandan tribe along the Upper Missouri Sign up now to learn about This Day in History straight from your inbox.
On February 11, , some people visit Voltaire following his return to Paris. Voltaire had been in exile for 28 years. Born Francois-Marie Arouet to middle-class parents in Paris in , Voltaire began to study law as a young man but quit to become a playwright.
0コメント