Im doing a reasearch paper on Apartheid?

Question

In South Africa, My teacher said that the topic is kind of broad for a 6 page paper and that i should narrow it down

Can anyone narrow it down to something I can work with

Answer 1

Maybe you should focus on the origins of Apartheid - why did the white Afrikanners implement such a racist policy that did everything it could to exclude the black south africans.

Then maybe you could look at the black response. Ie Nelson Mandela, Stephen Biko - and how these opponents of apartheid fought against the system, and how their imprisonments and deaths inspired the cause against apartheid.

Maybe you could also look at the 'international' response to apartheid - the protests against 'sun city' by music artists against apartheid, protest against touring apartheid south africa.

Answer 2

It depends. Do you think about the cup half empty or half full. Pessimists will say that the crime rate increased. Optimists like me, will say how democratic & liberal we've (South Africans) become.

In South Africa there is a marked emphasis on our constitution & bill of rights-last year the Civil Unions Bill/Act was passed allowing same-sex marriages (S9 of the constitution says that everyone has the right to equality & nobody can be discriminated against because of race, religion, sex, marital status, etc.

Other countries, use us as a model where the truth & reconciliation commission is concerned ( individuals making known the wrongs that were committed against themselves or others).

Also South Africa had a relatively peaceful transition form apartheid to our new constitutional dispensation.

Answer 3

Start with the black consciousness movement, this will take you into white resistance. You may want to invest some time researching men like Steven Biko, Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo, and others who were leaders of the resistance movement.

Look briefly at the tactics used by the outlawed ANC. There work in creating Armed resistance, and stirring agitation where ever possible. This men considered themselves to be at war against a hostile and unlawful nation.

If you do good research you can write an excellent 6 page paper that covers the basics of the Apatheid struggle.

Black Consciousness Movement
During the 1970s, resistance again gained force, first channelled through trade unions and strikes, and then spearheaded by the South African Students' Organisation under the charismatic leadership of Steve Biko. Biko, a medical student, was the main force behind the growth of South Africa's Black Consciousness Movement, which stressed the need for psychological liberation, black pride, and non-violent opposition to apartheid[9].

In 1974 the government issued the Afrikaans Medium Decree which forced all schools for blacks to use the Afrikaans language as the medium for instruction in mathematics, social sciences, geography and history at the secondary school level. Punt Janson, the Deputy Minister of Bantu Education, was quoted as saying: "I have not consulted the African people on the language issue and I'm not going to. An African might find that 'the big boss' spoke only Afrikaans or spoke only English. It would be to his advantage to know both languages."[2]

The policy was deeply unpopular, since Afrikaans was regarded by some as the language of the oppressor. On 30 April 1976, students at Orlando West Junior School in Soweto went on strike, refusing to go to school. Their rebellion spread to other schools in Soweto. The students organised a mass rally for 16 June, which turned violent — police responded with bullets to stones thrown by the students. The first student to be shot by the police was Hastings Ndlovu, aged 15. The image of Hector Pieterson who was killed at age 12 became an international icon of the uprising. The official death toll on the day was 23 dead, including the two children, but some placed it as high as 200. The incident triggered widespread violence throughout South Africa, which claimed further lives.

In September 1977, Steve Biko was arrested. Unidentified security police beat him until he lapsed into a coma; he went without medical treatment for three days and finally died in Pretoria. At the subsequent inquest, the magistrate ruled that no one was to blame, although the South African Medical Association eventually took action against the doctors who had failed to treat Biko. South Africa was never to be the same again. A generation of young blacks committed themselves to a revolutionary struggle against apartheid under the catchphrase of "liberation before education," and the black communities were politicised.

Answer 4

Apartheid is an afrikaans word meaning "seperateness" - it was a legal system whereby people were classified into racial groups - White, Black, Indian and Coloured; and seperate geographic areas were demarcated for each racial group. Apartheid laws were part of South Africa's legal framework from 1948 to 1994.
You could narrow down to a single issue of the whole Apartheid experience. If I were doing it, I would focus on how being seperated into specific geographic areas affected the relations between non-white groups.

Answer 5

OK:

1. How was Apartheid in South Africa similar and different to Segregation in the United States?

2. How were the Reverends Desmond Tutu and Martin Luther King able to lead the Black people to social justice? Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to both men.

3. What was the role of the Black Churches in South Africa and the United States in the struggle for Freedom.

4. Who died, were killed that became "martyrs" for Freedom in South Africa and the American South?

5. The above with: a focus on "White" martyrs for civil rights and freedom. This may be a bit hard to research. But whites died in both struggles.

6. How did MLK influence, effect Black South Africans in their struggle for Freedom?

7. How have both countries tried to "heal" the wounds, harms, injustices of the past?

8. What was the role of sports in both movements for helping the Blacks attain more freedom? (this would be a fun one)
look at the Olympic Games and such.

Answer 6

Are you talking about the "Crime of apartheid." If so, you can break it down to these topics: (1)History; (2)International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid; and (3)International Criminal Court.

Hope this helps.

Answer 7

How about focusing on one aspect of Apartheid

Answer 8

The dramatic increase in the crime rate since the end of Aparthied.