After the National Party gained power in South Africa in 1948, its all-white government immediately began enforcing existing policies of racial segregation under a system of legislation that it called apartheid. The apartheid system made laws forced the different racial groups to live separately and develop separately, and grossly unequally. It tried to stop all inter-marriage and social integration between racial groups. It was a social system which severely disadvantaged the majority of the population because they did not share the skin colour of the rulers. This year is the 25th anniversary of the first free election in South Africa, which helped strike down the apartheid system. Today, we will be in conversation with Gerald Horne about the global politics around apartheid and colonialism, as well as the struggle between communism and capitalism.
Guest: Gerald Horne is Moores Professor of History and African-American Studies at the University of Houston where he holds the John J. and Rebecca Moores Chair of History and African American Studies. His books include Race Woman: The Lives of Shirley Graham Du Bois, Race War!: White Supremacy and the Japanese Attack on the British Empire, and White Supremacy Confronted: U.S. Imperialism and Anti-Communism vs. the Liberation of Southern Africa from Rhodes to Mandela.
