Apartheid and the United States

Panicked that we were going to miss the flight to Hoedspruit, South Africa, my dad, brothers, sister, and I rushed to the check-in desk our tour guide, whose pale skin and wispy white hair had been visible from a distance, sent us to in the busy Johannesburg airport.  Meanwhile, my mother and the tour guide were storing a bag in an airport locker so that we could make the connecting flight that was scheduled to leave in fifteen minutes.  As we neared the desk, a well-dressed man with dark skin and a shaved head, approached us and told us that we were checking in at the wrong counter.  He led us to another desk a few feet away and demanded a tip. My dad gave him 40 rand (about $5), which didn’t satisfy him. 

As this was happening, my mom and the tour guide arrived. The tour guide confronted the man, asking, “Where’s your badge?”  The response shocked us: “Apartheid! Apartheid!  Apartheid lives on, he screamed as he sat back down.

A photo I took of the entrance to the Robben Island 

Obviously, we’d been scammed, but the experience unnerved me. As we boarded our flight, I began to wonder if there was any truth to his allegation.  Reflecting on the race relations I’d seen over the past four days in Capetown, I began to think about how the United States and South Africa had undergone parallel journeys. 

I remembered standing beside the Robben Island prison cell where Nelson Mandela was locked away for eighteen years.  In my mind, I could almost hear the barred door slam shut in 1964, relegating Mandela to a gloomy, 8 X 8’ gray cement room with no running water. Nelson Mandela was a militant anti-aparthied activist and leader of the ANC Youth League of the African National Congress. In 1964, Mandela was arrested for sabotage and imprisoned a total of twenty-seven years, eighteen of those years at Robben Island.

At the time, America itself was emerging from Jim Crow, and the civil rights movement was in full swing. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X were promoting two different ways of dealing with racial injustice.  King dealt with racial injustice in a nonviolent way. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. used the power of words, protests, civil disobedience, and grassroots organizing as a strategy to achieve equality for African-Americans. This was drastically different than the way Malcom X dealt with racial inequality. Malcom X advocated for freedom by “any means necessary”, including violence. At a time when black civil rights leaders preached harmony and integration, Malcolm preached that self-defense and nationalism was the way to fight racial inequality, and that terrified many whites and disturbed, yet also inspired black Americans. Although the United States was fighting a battle of its own with racial inequality, they were helping South Africa fight their battle with apartheid. 

Throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, United States administrations condemned apartheid in South Africa, but they generally opposed broad economic sanctions (any actions taken by one nation or group of nations to harm the economy of another nation or group, often to force a political change). However, in 1985, the Export Administration Amendment Act barred the US' exports to South Africa, attempting to persuade South Africa to stop apartheid. Later, in 1986, the United States further banned economic relationships with South Africa, prohibiting future investments, bank loans, and some trade. 

However, because of America’s own shameful history of slavery and mistreatment of African Americans, did we have any credibility in trying to end it, or did we act as hypocrites? Did the United States do enough to help end apartheid in South Africa? Was there reason to believe that condemning apartheid without imposing economic sanctions would work?