Apartheid is a word meaning "separation" in Afrikaans, a language spoken in southern Africa. Apartheid was used in the 20th century for racial segregation and political and economic discrimination in the late 1940s. This is the separation between black, colored and white South Africans. Apartheid in South Africa shows racial inequalities as 20% whites rule over the majority of blacks and coloureds. All the whites wanted the blacks to have a whole other separate society. The African National Congress (ANC), which began as a nonviolent civil rights group, tried to get rid of apartheid, but was unsuccessful until Nelson Mendela became president and restored the natural rights of South Africans. Apartheid began in 1948 during the twentieth century. A few years before the beginning of apartheid, the arrival of blacks began. Their arrival started Malan's “Partito Herenigde Nasionale (Reunited National Party), which was a political party in the 1940s and was created by Daniel François Malan and JBM Hertzog” (Partito Herenigde Nasionale). This national party allowed the South African government to introduce new laws that gave the minority the power to rule over the majority. Even before the introduction of apartheid, the few blacks in South Africa were not treated well. Another reason why the African National Congress (ANC) started apartheid was because the white South Africans were unable to teach the black population the new technology to be able to work in the white world according to the white population. So they enforced apartheid law so that whites did not have to associate with blacks at all. This wasn't just happening in South Africa, it was also happening in America... middle of paper... violated because even though apartheid had been taken away, black people still didn't have much opportunity for many things and most were still in poverty. The government described its harshness towards blacks simply as “using force so that the rules are not broken, because no one gets special treatment” (Human Rights in South Africa). Apartheid in South Africa became a big problem due to the loss of human rights. Apartheid segregated and created problems between the whites and blacks of South Africa. Many black South Africans saw their rights violated as the National Party made the white minority more powerful. Which automatically made whites richer and blacks poorer. That all changed when Nelson Mandela and FW De Klerk joined the African National Congress (ANC) and opposed the National Party creating a more equal South Africa..