Knowra Anti-apartheid movement Anti-apartheid movement The political struggle to end apartheid, South Africa’s system of racial segregation and white minority rule, through domestic resistance and international pressure.
Apartheid : A system of institutionalized racial segregation and white minority rule in South Africa from 1948 to the early 1990s. The laws and racial hierarchy that the movement sought to dismantle.
Umkhonto we Sizwe : The armed wing established by the African National Congress in 1961 to resist apartheid rule. Its sabotage campaign followed the state’s suppression of legal protest.
Nelson Mandela : A South African anti-apartheid leader who became the country’s first Black president in 1994. His imprisonment and leadership made him a central symbol and negotiator of the struggle.
South African general election, 1994 : South Africa’s first national election in which citizens of all races could vote, held in April 1994. It ended white minority rule through a democratic election won by the ANC.
Black Consciousness Movement : A South African political movement that promoted Black self-reliance and psychological liberation from racial oppression. It emphasized self-definition and organization rather than relying on multiracial coalition politics.
African National Congress : A South African political organization founded in 1912 to pursue the rights and political representation of Black South Africans. It became the movement’s largest and most influential organization.
Internal resistance to apartheid : Protests, strikes, boycotts, and underground organizing carried out within South Africa against apartheid. Domestic mobilization made the system increasingly difficult to govern.
Oliver Tambo : A South African anti-apartheid leader who headed the African National Congress in exile from 1967 to 1991. He built the ANC’s international presence while its leaders were banned or imprisoned.
Constitution of South Africa : South Africa’s supreme law, adopted in 1996, establishing a democratic state and protecting fundamental rights. It codified the legal and political order sought by the anti-apartheid struggle.
African nationalism : A political tradition advocating the unity, self-determination, and liberation of African peoples. It provided one strand of the movement’s politics, alongside nonracial democratic ideals.
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