Struggles in Africa

Ch. 20 Sec. 2

South Africa

• Apartheid – Separation of races in South Africa• African National Congress- the main organization

that opposed apartheid and led the struggle for majority rule – outlawed in 1960

• Sharpeville Massacre – Black township where men , women, and children were gunned down by police

• Shift from nonviolent protest to armed struggle

Nelson Mandela

• ANC leader• First to organize young South Africa to peacefully

resist apartheid laws• Arrested, tried and condemned to life in prison for

treason against apartheid• Even in prison was a powerful leader and symbol

in the struggle for freedom• 1994 became the country’s first true president of a

democratic South Africa

F.W. de Klerk

• South African President pressured to end apartheid– Foreign nation sanctions– Work of Desmond Tutu

• South African bishop won Nobel Peace Prize for work against apartheid

• Lifted the ban on the ANC

• Freed Nelson Mandela

Rwanda

• 1962 - gained independence from Belgium– Conflict in Rwanda and Burundi between Hutus and

Tutsis intensifies over years• Tribal divisions generated by European aristocracy• Hutus the majority• Tutsis, the minority but dominated Rwanda govt.

• 1994 - Plane carrying the (Hutu) Presidents of Rwanda and Burundi was shot down– Hutu extremists urge civilians to kill their Tutsi and

moderate Hutu neighbors

Rwanda

• 1994 - about 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutus are killed in the Rwanda massacre

• Tutsi rebels do gain control back– Hutus fear revenge

• About 1 million become refugees in Zaire and Tanzania

Sudan

• Northeastern country of Africa• Arab Muslim north dominating non-Muslim, non-

Arab south• The ethnic conflict has caused civil war ever since

the Islamic government has tried to impose Islamic law and discriminate in non-Muslim regions.

• 2004 peace agreements signed between southern rebels and Sudan’s government

Sudan

• However:– Ethnic conflict has spread to a western region

of Sudan called Darfur– Fears of a new genocide

• Government backed Arab militias unleashed terror on non-Arab Muslim people of Darfur

• Drove into refugee camps (Chad) where they face starvation