By Alastair Jamieson, Staff writer, NBC News
Almost two decades have passed since the end of legalized racial segregation in South Africa, yet the abolition of apartheid remains the biggest legacy of Nelson Mandela.
Anyone aged 18 or under will not have witnessed the public separation of whites and blacks enshrined in law, yet that was the daily reality in a country where races had been kept apart since colonial times.
South Africa continued to enforce racial division, denying blacks the right to vote, until Mandelas release from prison in 1990 allowed him to begin negotiations with then-president Frederik Willem de Klerk. Apartheid ended with the arrival of multi-racial elections in 1994.
This transformation was achieved almost entirely peacefully despite the countrys long history of racial violence and a brutal police force. READ MORE
Almost two decades have passed since the end of legalized racial segregation in South Africa, yet the abolition of apartheid remains the biggest legacy of Nelson Mandela.
Anyone aged 18 or under will not have witnessed the public separation of whites and blacks enshrined in law, yet that was the daily reality in a country where races had been kept apart since colonial times.
South Africa continued to enforce racial division, denying blacks the right to vote, until Mandelas release from prison in 1990 allowed him to begin negotiations with then-president Frederik Willem de Klerk. Apartheid ended with the arrival of multi-racial elections in 1994.
This transformation was achieved almost entirely peacefully despite the countrys long history of racial violence and a brutal police force. READ MORE
