November 6th, 1962, South Africa’s Apartheid was condemned by the United Nations General Assembly. Though it took another 30 years for black South Africans to achieve equality with the whites, the condemnation spoke of the world’s abhorrence of the practice of apartheid.
In brief: from 1948 to 1993, apartheid, which comes from the Afrikaans word for "apartness," was government-sanctioned racial segregation and political and economic discrimination against South Africa's non-white majority. Among many injustices, blacks were forced to live in segregated areas and couldn’t enter whites-only neighborhoods unless they had a special pass. Does this scenario ring any bells? Whites represented only a small fraction of the population but held the vast majority of the country's land and wealth.
The international movement to end apartheid gained momentum after a 1960 massacre of unarmed demonstrators near Johannesburg. While Western powers did not fully favour the economic or military embargo opposition to apartheid grew and in 1973 a U.N. resolution labeled apartheid a "crime against humanity."
Decades of strikes, sanctions and increasingly violent demonstrations, were catalyst to many apartheid laws being repealed by 1990. Finally, in 1991, under President F.W. de Klerk, the South African government repealed all remaining apartheid laws and committed to writing a new constitution.
Moccasin memories empathize with this sordid past and today celebrate a beginning November 6, 1962.
Gene Sanderson is owner, with his wife, Shirley, of Marie Shoes.com. Marie Shoes.com has been selling quality moccasins, mukluks and slippers around the world since 2006.
Gene Sanderson is owner, with his wife, Shirley, of Marie Shoes.com. Marie Shoes.com has been selling quality moccasins, mukluks and slippers around the world since 2006.
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