What was apartheid?
Apartheid
system of institutionalised racial segregation
Apartheid (South African English:/əˈpɑːrteɪd/; Afrikaans:[aˈpartɦəit], segregation; lit. "separateness") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa from 1948 until the early 1990s.[note 1] Apartheid was characterised by an authoritarian political culture based on baasskap (or white supremacy), which encouraged state repression of  Black African, Coloured, and Asian South Africans for the benefit of the nation's minority white population.[4] The economic legacy and social effects of apartheid continue to the present day.[5][6][7]