HUMAN RIGHTS

Historical images of Apartheid in South Africa

Apartheid consisted of numerous laws that allowed the ruling white minority in South Africa to segregate, exploit and terrorize the vast majority: Africans, mostly, but also Asians and Coloureds - people of mixed race. In white-ruled South Africa, black people were denied basic human rights and political rights. Their labour was exploited, their lives segregated.

Under Apartheid, racist beliefs were enshrined in law and any criticism of the law was suppressed. Apartheid was racism made law. It was a system dictated in the minutest detail as to how and where the large black majority would live, work and die. This system of institutionalized racial discrimination defied the principles of the United Nations Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

In 1976 the United Nations unanimously condemned the elevation of one of the "homelands", Transkei, into an independent State because it remained dependent on South Africa. Not one country in the world recognized the new State. In 1982, almost one million black South Africans were transferred to another country -- Swaziland -- without their having any say in the matter.

Ultimately, Blacks demonstrated, held strikes and rioted over such discriminatory practices. As a result diplomatic pressure mounted abroad for change. In 1990, Nelson Mandela, who had devoted his life to democracy, equality and learning for all South Africans, was released from prison after serving almost 30 years for those beliefs. He was elected president of the African National Congress the following year, and in 1993 received the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of all South Africans who suffered and sacrificed so much to bring peace to their country. On May 10, 1994, Nelson Mandela was elected South Africa's first black President, in that country's first truly democratic election.

 

The following photos are from the United Nations photo archive collection:

A segregated beach in South Africa, 1982. (UN Photo# 151906C)

A Black South African shows his passbook issued by the Government. Blacks were required to carry passes that determined where they could live and work. (UN Photo# 155572C)

A passbook that the South African blacks are required to carry. (UN Photo# 155573)

Houses in Soweto, a black township. (UN Photo# 155571C)

A woman in Cross Roads, South Africa, preparing a meal, 1978. (UN Photo# 143371 by Peter Magubane)

A housewife in her kitchen in Cross Roads, South Africa, 1978. (UN Photo# 143370 by Peter Magubane)

A girl looking through a window of her shack in Cross Roads, 1978. (UN Photo# 143372 by Peter Magubane)

Young school children in a classroom in the squatter camp of Cross Roads, South Africa, in 1979. (UN Photo# 143373 by Peter Magubane)

Children of Soweto, a Black township some ten miles away from Johannesburg, in 1982. The Zulu world "Amandla" scrawled on the wall means "Power". This has been adopted as a rallying call in the struggle for Black rights. (UN Photo# 151670)

Newspaper headline on a Johannesburg street refers to a government plan in 1982 to cede territory and people to Swaziland. The people in question were not consulted in the matter. (UN Photo# 151700)

Segregated public facilities in Johannesburg, 1985. (UN Photo# 155570C)

A young girl from the Ndebele tribe in South Africa reading a magazine, in 1984. (UN Photo# 186319 by Peter Magubane)

Meeting of the United Democratic Front (UDF) in Johannesburg in 1985. (UN Photo# 155575)

Mourners at a funeral ceremony for those killed by South African police on 1985's International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, at Langa Township in Uitenhage. (UN Photo# 155586)

South African police at Alexandra Township in 1985. (UN Photo# 155579)

Mourners at a funeral ceremony for those who were killed by the South African police in the 1985 International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination at Langa Township in Uitenhage. The day commemorates the anniversary of the March 21, 1960 Sharpeville massacre. (UN Photo# 155576)

Grave of the young Black leader, Steve Biko, in King Williams Town, South Africa. Biko died in police detention in 1977. During the inquest into his death, strong evidence was presented that Biko suffered violent and inhumane treatment during his detention. (UN Photo# 151617)

Black boys looking in on a game of soccer at an all-white school in Johannesburg. Government spending, about 10 times more for white children than for black, clearly revealed the gross inequality designed to perpetuate white economic and political power. Ill-trained teachers, overcrowded classrooms, inadequate recreational facilities were normal for black children, if in fact they had any schooling available at all. (UN Photo# 151604)

Umbulwana, Natal in 1982. Umbulwana was called "a black spot" because it is in a "white" area. It was eventually demolished and the inhabitants forced to move to identically numbered houses in "resettlement" villages in their designated "homelands." Millions of black South Africans were forcibly "resettled" in this way. (UN Photo# 151703)

Young coal miners in South Africa in 1988. (UN Photo# 186295 by Peter Magubane)

Adolescents from Pondoland in Transkei. Their faces are painted white and they are swathed in blankets as part of puberty rights. Transkei was one of the ten so-called black "homelands" (formerly "bantustans") created around the country since 1913, and was one of four that were nominally "independent" in 1982 when this photo was taken, although they were not recognized as such anywhere else in the world. The United Nations condemned the creation of such areas as a means of consolidating the inhumane policies of apartheid, destroying the territorial integrity of the country, perpetuating white domination and dispossessing black people of their inalienable rights. (UN Photo# 151750)

Inhabitants of Ekuvukene, a "resettlement" village in the black "homeland" called KwaZulu in Natal. Millions of black South Africans were forcibly moved to such villages over the preceding 30 years. But theses resettlement villages also became a dumping ground for women and children, the sick and elderly and anyone else deemed unnecessary to the white economy. (UN Photo# 151716)

A man from Crossroads, South Africa, makes music with his guitar, in 1990. (UN Photo# 186322 by Peter Magubane)

A voter casts her ballot in a polling station in Edendale Township in Pietermaritz, in April 1994. (UN Photo# 186816 by C. Sattleberger)

Nelson Mandela, President of the African National Congress (ANC), casting the ballot in his country's first all-race elections, in April 1994 at Ohlange High School near Durban, South Africa. (UN Photo# 186830 by C. Sattleberger)

Newly-elected President Nelson Mandela addressing the crowd from a balcony of the Town Hall in Pretoria, South Africa on May 10, 1994 . (UN Photo# 186835 by C. Sattleberger)

 

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