Analyze/Asked six days after his release by a France Television journalist about his feelings after years of incarceration, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (July 1918 – December 2013) replied: "to be in jail you know, is a very serious matter." He added that he had lost 27 years of his life, but that, at the same time, he had been able to take the time to reflect and, on this specific point, he has gained a lot.
The initiator of this brief interview, rich in lessons, said during a documentary entitled: Mandela libre à tout prix, directed by Mariane Tavannec, that the one whose years of fierce struggles have produced undeniable fruits after 27 years of incarceration said to her just after this brief public interview that in life, we must never fight against Men, but rather against systems. Indeed, even if the systems or the modes of operation driven by a regime are an emanation of the will of Mens, what must be fought virulently if necessary, are the deplorable effects generated by the implementation of devaluing, disabling and oppressive policies, which reflect a desire for domination of a "race" supposedly superior to another.
The reality of the existence of social classes clearly reflect the fact that some had the privilege of having more advantages than others, because they were white. The social stratifications established on the basis of erroneous considerations, reduced Black people to a degree of sub-humanity that natives of a territory could not accept. Indeed, even if the phenomena of migration are at the base of the fact that, strictly speaking, the natives of today are populations originally from elsewhere, the fact of being the first occupant of a territory has always made the first occupants the true owners, independently of the privatization of a group of African territories, which is a consequence of the implementation of expansionist and hegemonic policies at the base of the creation of zones of influence, intimidation, and infantilization adopted in Berlin in 1884. Indeed, the Dutch or Netherlanders arrived in what is now called the Republic of South Africa where they founded the Cape Colony in 1652, two centuries after the Portuguese arrived. However, between the 8th and 16th centuries, the gradual migration of Bantu-speaking populations from Central and East Africa to the South took place. The Zulu, Xhosa, Swazi, Ndebele, Sotho, Tswana, and Venda ethnic groups who populate South Africa today, are the descendants of these Bantu migrants from the North, who are the true owners of these lands, even if on the basis of "race", and the advancement of their civilization compared to that of the first occupants of the place, the Europeans will prove the opposite, because imperial powers had the privilege of giving a territory legitimacy or an official existence on the international scene.
Colonization, as everywhere in Africa, allowed imperialist powers to extend their sovereignty to a transatlantic scale, which allowed them to commit injustices that caused enormous harm to a group of people, who paid the price of an ignorance at the base of the creation of lamentable and humiliating scales of consideration, which clearly indicated that black people did not have the same rights as white people.
But if, in the name of race and the advancement of its civilization compared to that of others, an imperialist power enjoyed a right of legitimacy over a territory inhabited by "people of lesser consideration", there are, however, disproportionate acts that provoke violent protest movements in favour of a justice system which grants the same privileges to all people, and not the one where white human beings have superior rights than their black counterparts.
Apartheid was inspired by Nazi doctrines. Since the British victory over the Boers (descended from Dutch immigrants) in 1902, non-whites no longer had any political rights in the country. The Union of South Africa was born in 1910, and the first segregationist laws were introduced in 1911, thus inciting the creation of resistance movements, at the basis of what would become the African Congress Party (ANC) in 1923.
In 1934, Dr. Daniel François Malan who will be 14 years later the fourth prime minister of the Union of South Africa, from 1948 to 1954, created a political party that drew its doctrine from Nazi ideology. This ideology was spread by some German settlers who remained in their former colony of South West Africa (Namibia), which after the First World War became a colony under the Union of South Africa mandate. Having become head of government in 1948, Dr. Malan enforced a series of laws aimed at prohibiting any interbreeding between populations. This is how the apartheid laws were conceived and introduced in 1948 in the Union of South Africa, which later became the Republic of South Africa in 1961. The laws were also applied in South West Africa (1959-1979), now Namibia, which was administered at the time by the Republic of South Africa.
The system favoured whites over blacks and Indians (coloreds). Nationality and social status depended on skin colour. Afrikaners were white South Africans originated from Netherland, France, England, or Scandinavian descent, who spoke a language derived from 17th century Dutch. It was after the Sharpeville massacres in 1960, in the context of decolonization, that international criticism of apartheid began to emerge. Among the consequences of the international community's dissatisfaction with the political situation in the Union of South Africa, we have among other things, South West Africa's exclusion from the World Health Organization (WHO), from the International Labour Office, and from the International Olympic Committee. In addition, The Union of South Africa lost its mandate over this territory. But it was after the Soweto riots in 1976 that the arms embargo imposed by the United Nations Security Council was noted. The reforms undertaken by the government of Pieter Botha (Prime Minister from 1974 to 1984) did not change anything. The involvement of the international community in the country's internal affairs was a sign of the decline phase of an absurdity that had already lasted too long. Pressure from the international community, which was the culmination of years of anti-apartheid struggles initiated by black South Africans, led among other things, to the authorization of mixed unions, the opening of public places to all communities, the abolition of reserved jobs, the reinstatement of the rights of mixed-race and Indians, and the abolition of laws on passes and mixed marriages.
It was after Frederick de Klerk came to power in August 1989 and the release of Nelson Mandela from prison on February 11, 1990, that the last pillars of apartheid were abolished. These included those that required people to live in predefined residential areas (Group Area Act No. 41), and the Population Registration Act, which ordered that every inhabitant of the country be classified by racial category. These were laws introduced in April and June 1950. For having put an end to apartheid and initiated fruitful political negotiations, the two leaders received the Nobel Peace Prize in December 1993 in Oslo (Norway). The country then began a phase of reconciliation with itself, and with the outside world, in a Territory where everyone is useful because, as the man who was president of the republic from May 1994 to June 1998 made known during an interview on 17 November 1994 granted to him by the team of comedian Pieter-Dirk Uys, better known as Evita Bezuidenhout, "we are an organization which believe in a collective leadership. It is the collective effort of all South African and all human being that is important. Not a really an individual."
It is this collective and inclusive leadership that has made this country what it is today, namely, not only one of the greatest economic and military powers in Africa, but also one of the countries with a high democratic index in Africa. On April 7, 1994, for the first time, 20 million citizens of the Republic of South Africa had the right to vote during the country's legislative elections. The time for a new era had begun, and the fruits of long years of struggle are more palpable in all areas, regardless of the fact that each Territory has its difficulties.
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