From 1948 to 1994, South Africa was under apartheid — a system of racial segregation enforced by the National Party.
Two South African guest speakers, law student at the University of Witwatersrand, Jaimie Mithi and another South African guest speaker who asked not to be named, were invited from their country to share their experiences living in a post-apartheid nation while also voicing their opinions on what an apartheid truly is.
They spoke at the “Let’s Talk About Apartheid” event which took place Monday and was hosted by 49ers for Israel, a campus organization dedicated to student activism and Israeli culture.
The event commemorated Black History Month and aimed to inform students of the prevalent racial discrimination which was once the norm in South Africa, its origins and the effects it left on the country to this day.
During the South African apartheid, contact between whites and nonwhites was uncommon. Nonwhite South Africans were forced to live in separate areas from white people and use separate facilities. If a black person was found in an area designated for whites only by the police, he or she would have been criminally charged.
“South Africa ended up with two colonial settlers,” Mithi said. “You had the British community and the Dutch community. The idea of colonization is you come into the place, you take over the place, you impose your system, your laws, your culture and then you create exclusive access to decision making.”
The white minority in South Africa during this time of colonization enforced strict racial segregation in the country, dividing the white minority and black majority.
The speakers also shared their experiences in Israel and the Palestinian territories. Due to the widespread allegations of Israel being under apartheid both speakers decided to visit the region, and in their opinion found there was no systematic racial segregation backed by the government in Israel.
The way the National Party did in South Africa.
“Let’s Talk About Apartheid” provided an informative look into the racial discrimination which divided a country while the speakers also provided their personal opinions on whether or not Israel is an apartheid state.