Apartheid has its roots in the colonization of South Africa during the seventeenth century by Dutch settlers. White settlers from Holland landed in South Africa in 1652 and began the long process of oppressing the South African Kingdoms. In the 1860s, England sent a large army equipped with rifles, cavalrymen and cannons to seize control of South Africa. The Xhosa Kingdom had fought nine wars of resistance versus the colonizers from Holland, so it was only natural for them to take up arms against the British. The Xhosa were defeated in 1878 after more than 100 years of warfare against foreign invaders.

The British suffered their first defeat at the hands of the Zulu, but British reinforcements moved in and subsequently crushed the Zulu. By 1900, the British had conquered the African kingdoms and controlled all of South Africa through a system of colonial government. Dutch descendants, known as Boers or Afrikaners, revolted against English rule around this time and engaged the British in the Boer War. The Dutch defeated the British, and both parties were engaged in a power struggle until the 1940s. During this period, the Afrikaner Nationalist Party gained the majority. Politicians in the Nationalist Party created apartheid as a way to extend racial separation while maintaining white domination. Apartheid became the system of government through the ratifying of 317 apartheid-related laws. The union of South Africa was designed with a government acknowledging the rights of white people while denying those same rights to blacks.

Racial discrimination was associated with the enactment of the 1948 apartheid laws. Total racial control emerged in every aspect of life including the sanctioning of "white only" jobs and the prohibition of marriage between non-whites and whites. The 1950 Population Registration Act required the populace of South Africa to be divided into three racial categories: white, black (African), and coloured (of mixed descent). The organization in charge of this racial classification was the Department of Home Affairs. Those who did not abide by the classification laws were dealt with harshly.

The Bantu Authorities Act of 1951 established homelands. Homelands were independent states that became the basis for ethnic government in African reserves. Each African was assigned a homeland by the government on the basis of their origin. Voting and all other political rights were restricted to the designated homeland. The objective of creating homelands was to force Africans to maintain loyalty to their respective homeland, thereby relinquishing their South African citizenship. The government hoped this would result in blacks not being able to participate in the South African Parliament. The homeland administrators, who kept pressure for political rights within the country as a whole, refused official independence. As a result, Africans living in these homelands needed passports to enter South Africa. Blacks became foreigners in their own country.

In 1953, the Criminal Law Amendment Act and the Public Safety Act were passed into law. They allowed the government to declare and enforce strict states of emergency as well as increase penalties on those who protested/supported the repeal of a law. During such states of emergency, a police officer could arrest anyone, most often blacks, for six months and detain them without a hearing. While in custody, many died as a result of torture by policemen. If someone was awarded a trial, then his or her options were basically limited to death, banishment, or, similar to Nelson Mandela, life imprisonment.

Although apartheid is only a few generations old, it is nonetheless one of the most outstanding violations of human freedom history has experienced. Although not as obviously horrific as a World War or a Holocaust, apartheid exerted similar monstrosities upon blacks solely on the basis of their skin. From a Christian perspective, we can only hope the fires of apartheid will smolder peacefully and never again burn bright as they once did.