Places and forms of power - How did Africa go from an oppressive regime to a real democracy?

Résumé du document

I'm going to talk about the notion of places and forms of power. ‘Places' could be important buildings that represent a form of power, like the White House for example, the symbol of the American presidency, but it can also be a country which represents a form of power like South Africa with the Apartheid, an oppressive regime. In politics and social science, power is a sort of strength, something that makes someone superior to the others. It's the ability to influence the behaviour of people and it can be exercised by individuals, an institution of the government. Thus members of a community create rules, regulations and laws in order to survive, live together and create a kind of cohesion, but it can also lead to tensions and conflicts. Even when authority is absolute, there are counter powers which question it and aim at resisting it. To illustrate this notion, I chose to talk about the Apartheid in South Africa and I chose 3 documents, the first one is a picture of three students during Soweto's Uprising taken by Sam Nzima, the second one is a poem about the Sharpeville Massacre by Dennis Brutus, and the last one is a document about Nelson Mandela's life by Bill Keller. Therefore we can ask ourselves: How did Africa go from an oppressive regime to a real democracy?

Extraits

[...] Although white people were a minority in the country, they were ruling it with oppression and violence towards coloured people. Indeed, colored people had an internal passport which means that there was no freedom of movement, neither could they vote. The government also decided to separate white people from coloured people in all public areas such as schools, benches and even newspapers. It was forbidden to have a love affair with a person of a different kind, and coloured people couldn't have their own business or own a land. [...]

[...] Places and forms of power – How did Africa go from an oppressive regime to a real democracy? I'm going to talk about the notion of places and forms of power. ‘Places' could be important buildings that represent a form of power, like the White House for example, the symbol of the American presidency, but it can also be a country which represents a form of power like South Africa with the Apartheid, an oppressive regime. In politics and social science, power is a sort of strength, something that makes someone superior to the others. [...]

[...] The picture is iconic as it represents the oppressive regime at its peak. Students were protesting in the streets against the new law that forced coloured people to learn in Afrikaans, the language of their oppressor, instead of English, which is the most spoken language in the world, in order to take away from them any chance to get away from the country. The police opened fire on the crowd, and shot students in the back as they were running away, the little boy on the picture was the first victim, and he was too young to be really aware of the situation. [...]

[...] To conclude, South Africa saw its government become an oppressive one in 1948, ruling the country with hatred and violence against coloured people. However, coloured people wanted the situation to change, so they protested for their rights and made their voices heard thanks to social power and the power of pictures. A lot of blood has been shed, but Freedom succeeded as Mandela became the first black president of South Africa and established a real democracy. Mandela eventually became a hero for the world and his country. [...]

[...] People were shot in the back, they were killed by cowards who didn't even look at them in the eyes before killing them and that's why Dennis Brutus calls that day ‘Bullet-in-the-back day'. However, people didn't give up as we can see in l.27 ‘the unquenchable will for freedom', people were resilient, maybe they lost the battle, but they'll win the war. III. How the situation changed? Eventually, people protesting for their rights and the pictures taken helped to change the situation. [...]