South Africa: A State of Apartheid

The arbitrary borders drawn in South Africa over 300 years of colonial occupation were not just territorial, but also economic, social, and racial. The first European settlers who arrived with the Dutch East India Company in 1652 established the system of domination over nonwhites which, expanded after British colonization of the region. The white South Africans' practice of legal segregation, or apartheid, intensified in the twentieth century and included laws that removed black voters from voter rolls, designated specific white-only areas, and banned all anti-apartheid organizations. Black protests grew stronger and more violent in the late twentieth century, drawing international attention and opposition to the white government's discriminatory practices. The election of F.W. de Klerk in 1989 made way for reforms, and de Klerk worked with African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela to rewrite the South African constitution, dismantling apartheid and its arbitrary borders.