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146-705: South Africa was not originally included in the route which was first planned in the Apartheid era, but it is now recognized that it would continue to Cape Town. It may still be referred to in documents as the Tripoli-Windhoek Highway because of this fact. It is meant to be the second link between North and Southern Africa, with the Cairo-Cape Town Highway being the other route, passing through East Africa . The route passes through Libya , Chad , Cameroon , Central African Republic (CAR), Republic of

292-960: A League of Nations mandate over the previously German colony of Ruanda-Urundi . During World War II , the Belgian Congo provided a crucial source of income for the Belgian government in exile in London, and the Force Publique again participated in Allied campaigns in Africa . Belgian Congolese forces under the command of Belgian officers notably fought against the Italian colonial army in Ethiopia in Asosa , Bortaï and Saïo under Major-General Auguste-Eduard Gilliaert . In May 1960,

438-410: A kleptocracy as Mobutu and his associates embezzled government funds. In a campaign to identify himself with African nationalism, starting on 1 June 1966, Mobutu renamed the nation's cities: Léopoldville became Kinshasa (the country was known as Congo-Kinshasa), Stanleyville became Kisangani , Elisabethville became Lubumbashi , and Coquilhatville became Mbandaka . In 1971, Mobutu renamed the country

584-523: A 1969 law abolished those seats and stripped Coloureds of their right to vote. Since Indians had never been allowed to vote, this resulted in whites being the sole enfranchised group. Separate representatives for coloured voters were first elected in the general election of 1958 . Even this limited representation did not last, being ended from 1970 by the Separate Representation of Voters Amendment Act, 1968 . Instead, all coloured adults were given

730-574: A Communist. Since the law specifically stated that Communism aimed to disrupt racial harmony, it was frequently used to gag opposition to apartheid. Disorderly gatherings were banned, as were certain organisations that were deemed threatening to the government. It also empowered the Ministry of Justice to impose banning orders . After the Defiance Campaign , the government used the act for the mass arrests and banning of leaders of dissent groups such as

876-505: A Kikongo word nzadi ("river"), a truncation of nzadi o nzere ("river swallowing rivers"). The river was known as Zaire during the 16th and 17th centuries; Congo seems to have replaced Zaire gradually in English usage during the 18th century, and Congo is the preferred English name in 19th-century literature, although references to Zaire as the name used by the natives (i.e., derived from Portuguese usage) remained common. In 1992,

1022-603: A campaign against Congolese ethnic Tutsis in eastern Zaire. A coalition of Rwandan and Ugandan armies invaded Zaire to overthrow the government of Mobutu, launching the First Congo War. The coalition allied with some opposition figures, led by Laurent-Désiré Kabila , becoming the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo . In 1997 Mobutu fled and Kabila marched into Kinshasa, naming himself as president and reverting

1168-757: A ceasefire, a plane crash near Ndola resulted in the death of Dag Hammarskjöld , the Secretary-General of the United Nations , along with all 15 passengers, setting off a succession crisis. Amidst widespread confusion and chaos, a temporary government was led by technicians (the Collège des commissaires généraux ). Katangan secession ended in January 1963 with the assistance of UN forces . Several short-lived governments of Joseph Ileo , Cyrille Adoula , and Moise Kapenda Tshombe took over in quick succession. Meanwhile, in

1314-627: A century. The National Party's election platform stressed that apartheid would preserve a market for white employment in which non-whites could not compete. On the issues of black urbanisation, the regulation of non-white labour, influx control, social security, farm tariffs and non-white taxation, the United Party's policy remained contradictory and confused. Its traditional bases of support not only took mutually exclusive positions, but found themselves increasingly at odds with each other. Smuts' reluctance to consider South African foreign policy against

1460-492: A conclusion on those people whose race was unclear. This caused difficulty, especially for Coloured people , separating their families when members were allocated different races. The second pillar of grand apartheid was the Group Areas Act of 1950. Until then, most settlements had people of different races living side by side. This Act put an end to diverse areas and determined where one lived according to race. Each race

1606-579: A consequence of exploitation and disease. In some areas the population declined dramatically – it has been estimated that sleeping sickness and smallpox killed nearly half the population in the areas surrounding the lower Congo River. News of the abuses began to circulate. In 1904, the British consul at Boma in the Congo, Roger Casement , was instructed by the British government to investigate. His report, called

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1752-576: A different and independent legislative path from the rest of the British Empire. The United Kingdom's Slavery Abolition Act 1833 abolished slavery throughout the British Empire and overrode the Cape Articles of Capitulation. To comply with the act, the South African legislation was expanded to include Ordinance 1 in 1835, which effectively changed the status of slaves to indentured labourers . This

1898-654: A growing nationalist movement, the Mouvement National Congolais led by Patrice Lumumba , won the parliamentary elections . Lumumba became the first Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo, on 24 June 1960. The parliament elected Joseph Kasa-Vubu as president , of the Alliance des Bakongo ( ABAKO ) party. Other parties that emerged included the Parti Solidaire Africain led by Antoine Gizenga , and

2044-562: A joint Anglo-Belgian-Portuguese invasion of German colonial territory in 1916 and 1917 during the East African campaign . The Force Publique gained a notable victory when it marched into Tabora in September 1916 under the command of General Charles Tombeur after heavy fighting. After 1918, Belgium was rewarded for the participation of the Force Publique in the East African campaign with

2190-461: A lesser extent, to those of Indian and Coloured people. Further laws had the aim of suppressing resistance, especially armed resistance, to apartheid. The Suppression of Communism Act of 1950 banned the Communist Party of South Africa and any party subscribing to Communism . The act defined Communism and its aims so sweepingly that anyone who opposed government policy risked being labelled as

2336-528: A majority "no" vote in Natal . Later, some of them recognised the perceived need for white unity, convinced by the growing trend of decolonisation elsewhere in Africa, which concerned them. British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan's " Wind of Change " speech left the British faction feeling that the United Kingdom had abandoned them. The more conservative English speakers supported Verwoerd; others were troubled by

2482-648: A monopoly over violence and resource extraction. The most violent of these concession regions, were surrounding rubber plantations. Concession regions would align with villages, employing local chiefs to aid in enforce strict quotas. Failure to comply or to meet quotas would result in kidnaping of family, held ransom until quotas could be met or physical violence. Violence was carried out by "village sentries," European militias employed to ensure collection. These sentries were granted full impunity for violence, without proper oversight were known to kill and eat underperforming workers. During 1885–1908, millions of Congolese died as

2628-520: A pass from their master or a local official. Ordinance No. 49 of 1828 decreed that prospective Black immigrants were to be granted passes for the sole purpose of seeking work. These passes were to be issued for Coloureds and Khoikhoi but not for other Africans, who were still forced to carry passes. During the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars , the British Empire captured and annexed

2774-730: A permit. The Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act of 1949 prohibited marriage between persons of different races, and the Immorality Act of 1950 made sexual relations between whites and other races a criminal offence . Under the Reservation of Separate Amenities Act of 1953, municipal grounds could be reserved for a particular race, creating, among other things, separate beaches, buses, hospitals, schools and universities. Signboards such as "whites only" applied to public areas, even including park benches. Black South Africans were provided with services greatly inferior to those of whites, and, to

2920-485: A single nation, but was made up of four distinct racial groups: white, black, Coloured and Indian. Such groups were split into 13 nations or racial federations. White people encompassed the English and Afrikaans language groups; the black populace was divided into ten such groups. The state passed laws that paved the way for "grand apartheid", which was centred on separating races on a large scale, by compelling people to live in separate places defined by race. This strategy

3066-612: A two-thirds majority in a joint sitting of both Houses of Parliament was needed to change the entrenched clauses of the Constitution . The government then introduced the High Court of Parliament Bill (1952), which gave Parliament the power to overrule decisions of the court. The Cape Supreme Court and the Appeal Court declared this invalid too. In 1955 the Strijdom government increased

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3212-555: A veneer of intellectual respectability to the controversial policy of so-called baasskap . In total, 20 homelands were allocated to ethnic groups, ten in South Africa proper and ten in South West Africa. Of these 20 homelands, 19 were classified as black, while one, Basterland , was set aside for a sub-group of Coloureds known as Basters , who are closely related to Afrikaners. Four of the homelands were declared independent by

3358-711: Is bordered by the Republic of the Congo , Central African Republic , South Sudan , Uganda , Rwanda , Burundi , Tanzania (across Lake Tanganyika ), Zambia , Angola , the Cabinda exclave of Angola , and the South Atlantic Ocean . Centered on the Congo Basin , the territory of the Congo was first inhabited by Central African foragers around 90,000 years ago and was settled in the Bantu expansion about 3000 to 2000 years ago. In

3504-537: Is however a 'missing link', and the planned alignment between CAR and ROC would pass through some of the most remote and difficult terrain and rainforests of the Sangha River basin. This alignment has the potential for an enormous environmental impact on relatively untouched forest within a number of nature reserves. An alternative alignment for the road has been proposed between Yaoundé , Cameroon and Brazzaville , ROC, which would do more to facilitate transport between

3650-515: Is not a high priority in its northern section across the Sahara between Tripoli and Ndjamena, for which the Trans-Sahara Highway further west would probably find more usage and which provides an alternative north–south route. Libya is said to be more interested in road links to Niger which would connect with the Trans-Sahara Highway. Coupled with lawlessness and the potential for instability in

3796-618: Is sometimes also abbreviated as Congo DR , DR Congo , DRC , the DROC , and RDC (in French). Before Bantu expansion , the territory comprising the Democratic Republic of the Congo was home to Central Africa's oldest settled groups, the Mbuti peoples . Most of the remnants of their hunter-gatherer culture remain in the present time. The geographical area now known as the Democratic Republic of

3942-659: Is the world's deepest river and the world's third-largest river by discharge . The Comité d'études du haut Congo ("Committee for the Study of the Upper Congo"), established by King Leopold II of Belgium in 1876, and the International Association of the Congo , established by him in 1879, were also named after the river. The Congo River was named by early European sailors after the Kingdom of Kongo and its Bantu inhabitants,

4088-578: The Landdrost and Heemraden , local officials, of Swellendam and Graaff-Reinet extended pass laws beyond slaves and ordained that all Khoikhoi (designated as Hottentots ) moving about the country for any purpose should carry passes. This was confirmed by the British Colonial government in 1809 by the Hottentot Proclamation , which decreed that if a Khoikhoi were to move they would need

4234-776: The African National Congress (ANC), the South African Indian Congress (SAIC), and the South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU). After the release of the Freedom Charter, 156 leaders of these groups were charged in the 1956 Treason Trial . It established censorship of film, literature, and the media under the Customs and Excise Act 1955 and the Official Secrets Act 1956. The same year,

4380-595: The African National Congress , and the Council of Non-European Trade Unions began demanding political rights, land reform, and the right to unionise. Whites reacted negatively to the changes, allowing the Herenigde Nasionale Party (or simply the National Party) to convince a large segment of the voting bloc that the impotence of the United Party in curtailing the evolving position of nonwhites indicated that

4526-693: The Asiatic Registration Act of the Transvaal Colony required all Indians to register and carry passes. Beginning in 1906 the South African Native Affairs Commission under Godfrey Lagden began implementing a more openly segregationist policy towards non-Whites. The latter was repealed by the British government but re-enacted in 1908. In 1910, the Union of South Africa was created as a self-governing dominion , which continued

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4672-651: The Cape Colony , which previously had a liberal and multi-racial constitution and a system of Cape Qualified Franchise open to men of all races, the Franchise and Ballot Act of 1892 raised the property franchise qualification and added an educational element, disenfranchising a disproportionate number of the Cape's non-White voters, and the Glen Grey Act of 1894 instigated by the government of Prime Minister Cecil Rhodes limited

4818-462: The Casement Report , confirmed the accusations of humanitarian abuses. The Belgian Parliament forced Leopold II to set up an independent commission of inquiry. Its findings confirmed Casement's report of abuses, concluding that the population of the Congo had been "reduced by half" during this period. Determining precisely how many people died is impossible, as no accurate records exist. In 1908,

4964-572: The Conference of Berlin in 1885 and made the land his private property. He named it the Congo Free State . Leopold's regime began various infrastructure projects, such as the construction of the railway that ran from the coast to the capital of Leopoldville (now Kinshasa), which took eight years to complete. In the Free State, colonists coerced the local population into producing rubber, for which

5110-518: The DRC , Congo-Kinshasa or simply Congo , is a country in Central Africa . By land area, DR Congo is the second-largest country in Africa and the 11th-largest in the world . With a population of around 109 million, the Democratic Republic of the Congo is the most populous Francophone country in the world. The national capital and largest city is Kinshasa , which is also the economic center. The country

5256-744: The Dutch East India Company 's establishment of a trading post in the Cape of Good Hope in 1652, which eventually expanded into the Dutch Cape Colony . The company began the Khoikhoi–Dutch Wars in which it displaced the local Khoikhoi people , replaced them with farms worked by White settlers , and imported Black slaves from across the Dutch Empire . In the days of slavery , slaves required passes to travel away from their masters. In 1797,

5402-498: The Garamba National Park . The war in the Congo has been described as the bloodiest war since World War II. In 2009, The New York Times reported that people in the Congo continued to die at a rate of an estimated 45,000 per month  – estimates of the number who have died from the long conflict range from 900,000 to 5,400,000. The death toll is caused by widespread disease and famine; reports indicate that almost half of

5548-498: The Kongo people , when they encountered them in the 16th century. The word Kongo comes from the Kongo language (also called Kikongo ). According to American writer Samuel Henry Nelson: "It is probable that the word 'Kongo' itself implies a public gathering and that it is based on the root konga , 'to gather' (trans[itive])." The modern name of the Kongo people, Bakongo , was introduced in

5694-631: The N1 and M7 highways in Cape Town . Paving of existing roads is required in northern Angola but from Ngage through Angola , Namibia's B1 road and South Africa's N7 highway to Cape Town is fully paved and is in a fair to good condition. Apartheid This is an accepted version of this page Apartheid ( / ə ˈ p ɑːr t ( h ) aɪ t / ə- PART -(h)yte , especially South African English :  / ə ˈ p ɑːr t ( h ) eɪ t / ə- PART -(h)ayt , Afrikaans : [aˈpart(ɦ)ɛit] ; transl.  "separateness" , lit.   ' aparthood ' )

5840-405: The National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP), which began an armed rebellion against the government. In March 2009, after a deal between the DRC and Rwanda, Rwandan troops entered the DRC and arrested Nkunda and were allowed to pursue FDLR militants. The CNDP signed a peace treaty with the government in which it agreed to become a political party and to have its soldiers integrated into

5986-443: The Norwegian Refugee Council , the situation in the DRC became much worse in 2016 and 2017 and is a major moral and humanitarian challenge comparable to the wars in Syria and Yemen, which receive much more attention. Women and children are abused sexually and "abused in all possible manners". Besides the conflict in North Kivu , violence increased in the Kasai region . The armed groups were after gold, diamonds, oil, and cobalt to line

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6132-407: The Republic of Zaire , its fourth name change in eleven years and its sixth overall. The Congo River was renamed the Zaire River. During the 1970s and 1980s, Mobutu was invited to visit the United States on several occasions, meeting with U.S. Presidents Richard Nixon , Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush . Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union U.S. relations with Mobutu cooled, as he

6278-453: The "Democratic Republic of the Congo". In 1971 Mobutu changed the name again, this time to "Republic of Zaire". Mobutu had the staunch support of the United States because of his opposition to communism ; the U.S. believed that his administration would serve as an effective counter to communist movements in Africa. A single-party system was established, and Mobutu declared himself head of state . He periodically held elections in which he

6424-399: The 'Architect of Apartheid'. In addition, "petty apartheid" laws were passed. The principal apartheid laws were as follows. The first grand apartheid law was the Population Registration Act of 1950, which formalised racial classification and introduced an identity card for all persons over the age of 18, specifying their racial group. Official teams or boards were established to come to

6570-459: The 100,000 Europeans who had remained behind after independence fled the country. After the United Nations rejected Lumumba's call for help to put down the secessionist movements, Lumumba asked for assistance from the Soviet Union, who accepted and sent military supplies and advisers. On 23 August, the Congolese armed forces invaded South Kasai . Lumumba was dismissed from office on 5 September 1960 by Kasa-Vubu who publicly blamed him for massacres by

6716-635: The 20th century. It was the target of frequent condemnation in the United Nations and brought about extensive international sanctions , including arms embargoes and economic sanctions on South Africa. During the 1970s and 1980s, internal resistance to apartheid became increasingly militant, prompting brutal crackdowns by the National Party ruling government and protracted sectarian violence that left thousands dead or in detention. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission found that there were 21,000 deaths from political violence, with 7,000 deaths between 1948 and 1989, and 14,000 deaths and 22,000 injuries in

6862-404: The Afrikaners. He claimed that the only difference was between those in favour of apartheid and those against it. The ethnic division would no longer be between Afrikaans and English speakers, but between blacks and whites. Most Afrikaners supported the notion of unanimity of white people to ensure their safety. White voters of British descent were divided. Many had opposed a republic, leading to

7008-521: The Atlantic ports of Douala and Pointe-Noire . Furthermore, a greater proportion of this section is paved, and those sections which are gravel roads or earth tracks are important as national roads and so are higher priorities for paving. Between Dolisié and Matadi an alternative mainly paved route is also available through Pointe-Noire and Cabinda , crossing the Congo River at the Matadi Bridge , instead of by ferry between Brazzaville and Kinshasa . The southern section between DRC and Cape Town on

7154-536: The Belgian Congo and the majority of Leopold II's administration with him. Opening up the Congo and its natural and mineral riches to the Belgian economy remained the main motive for colonial expansion – however, other priorities, such as healthcare and basic education, slowly gained in importance. Colonial administrators ruled the territory and a dual legal system existed (a system of European courts and another one of indigenous courts, tribunaux indigènes ). Indigenous courts had only limited powers and remained under

7300-463: The Belgian Congo. The railway first commenced in the Congo in 1910, reaching a 800-km network of track. In 1923 the colonial capital moved from Boma to Léopoldville, some 300 kilometres (190 mi) further upstream into the interior. The transition from the Congo Free State to the Belgian Congo was a break, but it also featured a large degree of continuity. The last governor-general of the Congo Free State, Baron Théophile Wahis , remained in office in

7446-486: The Belgian parliament, in spite of initial reluctance, bowed to international pressure (especially from the United Kingdom ) and took over the Free State from King Leopold II. On 18 October 1908, the Belgian parliament voted in favour of annexing the Congo as a Belgian colony. Executive power went to the Belgian minister of colonial affairs , assisted by a Colonial Council (Conseil Colonial) (both located in Brussels). The Belgian parliament exercised legislative authority over

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7592-434: The British Empire cited racial exploitation of Blacks as a cause for its war against the Boer republics . However, the peace negotiations for the Treaty of Vereeniging demanded "the just predominance of the white race" in South Africa as a precondition for the Boer republics unifying with the British Empire. In 1905 the General Pass Regulations Act denied Black people the vote and limited them to fixed areas, and in 1906

7738-418: The Cape Province. The previous government had introduced the Separate Representation of Voters Bill into Parliament in 1951, turning it to be an Act on 18 June 1951; however, four voters, G Harris, W D Franklin, W D Collins and Edgar Deane, challenged its validity in court with support from the United Party. The Cape Supreme Court upheld the act, but reversed by the Appeal Court, finding the act invalid because

7884-430: The Central African Republic on behalf of its former president, Ange-Félix Patassé . Talks led to a peace accord under which Kabila would share power with former rebels. By June 2003 all foreign armies except those of Rwanda had pulled out of Congo. A transitional government was set up until after the election. A constitution was approved by voters, and on 30 July 2006 DRC held its first multi-party elections . These were

8030-464: The Congo (ROC), the western tip of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Angola , Namibia and South Africa . Only national paved roads in Libya , Cameroon , Angola , Namibia and South Africa can be used to any extent. Currently only desert tracks run from southern Libya to the vicinity of Ndjamena , a distance of more than 2000 km, and no track of any kind exists between Salo, CAR and Ouésso , ROC. The Tripoli–Cape Town Highway

8176-504: The Congo , led by Congolese warlord Jean-Pierre Bemba . The two rebel movements, along with Rwandan and Ugandan troops, started the Second Congo War by attacking the DRC army in 1998. Angolan, Zimbabwean, and Namibian militaries entered the hostilities on the side of the government. Kabila was assassinated in 2001. His son Joseph Kabila succeeded him and called for multilateral peace talks. UN peacekeepers, MONUC, now known as MONUSCO , arrived in April 2001. In 2002–03 Bemba intervened in

8322-400: The Congo was populated as early as 90,000 years ago, as shown by the 1988 discovery of the Semliki harpoon at Katanda , one of the oldest barbed harpoons ever found, believed to have been used to catch giant river catfish . Bantu peoples reached Central Africa at some point during the first millennium BC, then gradually started to expand southward. Their propagation was accelerated by

8468-418: The Congo-Léopoldville to distinguish it from its neighbour Congo , officially the Republic of the Congo . With the promulgation of the Luluabourg Constitution on 1 August 1964, the country became the DRC but was renamed Zaire (a past name for the Congo River) on 27 October 1971 by President Mobutu Sese Seko as part of his Authenticité initiative. The word Zaire is from a Portuguese adaptation of

8614-425: The Dutch Cape Colony. Under the 1806 Cape Articles of Capitulation the new British colonial rulers were required to respect previous legislation enacted under Roman-Dutch law , and this led to a separation of the law in South Africa from English Common Law and a high degree of legislative autonomy. The governors and assemblies that governed the legal process in the various colonies of South Africa were launched on

8760-441: The Libya-Chad border regions, the northern section is likely to be the last to be developed and may be a couple of decades away from completion. It is the central section between northern Angola and Cameroon which is most needed because it would provide the first paved link between the West African and Southern African regions, and it would do the most to stimulate trade which currently has to go by air or sea. The central section

8906-450: The Ministry of Native Affairs and defunded most mission schools . The Promotion of Black Self-Government Act of 1959 entrenched the NP policy of nominally independent "homelands" for blacks. So-called "self–governing Bantu units" were proposed, which would have devolved administrative powers, with the promise later of autonomy and self-government. It also abolished the seats of white representatives of black South Africans and removed from

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9052-437: The Native Administration Act 1956 allowed the government to banish blacks. The Bantu Authorities Act of 1951 created separate government structures for blacks and whites and was the first piece of legislation to support the government's plan of separate development in the bantustans . The Bantu Education Act, 1953 established a separate education system for blacks emphasizing African culture and vocational training under

9198-414: The Parti National du Peuple led by Albert Delvaux and Laurent Mbariko . The Belgian Congo achieved independence on 30 June 1960 under the name "République du Congo" ("Republic of Congo" or "Republic of the Congo" in English). Shortly after, on 15 August 1960, the neighboring French colony of Middle Congo also gained independence and adopted the same name, ' Republic of Congo .' To avoid confusion between

9344-410: The Simba rebels by November 1965. Lumumba had previously appointed Mobutu chief of staff of the new Congo army, Armée Nationale Congolaise . Taking advantage of the leadership crisis between Kasavubu and Tshombe, Mobutu garnered enough support within the army to launch a coup. A constitutional referendum the year before Mobutu's coup of 1965 resulted in the country's official name being changed to

9490-460: The South African government, which failed to accommodate the influx with parallel expansion in housing or social services. Overcrowding, increasing crime rates, and disillusionment resulted; urban blacks came to support a new generation of leaders influenced by the principles of self-determination and popular freedoms enshrined in such statements as the Atlantic Charter . Black political organisations and leaders such as Alfred Xuma , James Mpanza ,

9636-644: The South African government: Transkei in 1976, Bophuthatswana in 1977, Venda in 1979, and Ciskei in 1981 (known as the TBVC states). Once a homeland was granted its nominal independence, its designated citizens had their South African citizenship revoked and replaced with citizenship in their homeland. These people were then issued passports instead of passbooks. Citizens of the nominally autonomous homelands also had their South African citizenship circumscribed, meaning they were no longer legally considered South African. The South African government attempted to draw an equivalence between their view of black citizens of

9782-413: The Sovereign National Conference voted to change the name of the country to the "Democratic Republic of the Congo", but the change was not made. The country's name was later restored by President Laurent-Désiré Kabila when he overthrew Mobutu in 1997. To distinguish it from the neighboring Republic of the Congo, it is sometimes referred to as Congo (Kinshasa) , Congo-Kinshasa , or Big Congo . Its name

9928-402: The TBVC states) were intended to be fully sovereign. In reality, they had no significant economic infrastructure and with few exceptions encompassed swaths of disconnected territory. This meant all the Bantustans were little more than puppet states controlled by South Africa. Democratic Republic of the Congo DR Congo , officially the Democratic Republic of the Congo , also known as

10074-502: The Upemba Depression the Luba Empire and Lunda Empire emerged in the 15th and 17th centuries respectfully dominated the eastern region. Belgian exploration and administration took place from the 1870s until the 1920s. It was first led by Henry Morton Stanley , who undertook his explorations under the sponsorship of King Leopold II of Belgium . The eastern regions of the precolonial Congo were heavily disrupted by constant slave raiding , mainly from Arab–Swahili slave traders such as

10220-431: The Urban Areas Act (1923) introduced residential segregation and provided cheap labour for industry led by White people; the Colour Bar Act (1926) prevented Black mine workers from practising skilled trades; the Native Administration Act (1927) made the British Crown rather than paramount chiefs the supreme head over all African affairs; the Native Land and Trust Act (1936) complemented the 1913 Native Land Act and, in

10366-438: The adoption of pastoralism and of Iron Age techniques. The people living in the south and southwest were foraging groups, whose technology involved only minimal use of metal technologies. The development of metal tools during this time period revolutionized agriculture. This led to the displacement of the African pygmies . Following the Bantu migrations, a period of state and class formation began circa 700 with three centres in

10512-586: The affluent and capitalist, the party also failed to appeal to its working class constituents. Populist rhetoric allowed the National Party to sweep eight constituencies in the mining and industrial centres of the Witwatersrand and five more in Pretoria . Barring the predominantly English-speaking landowner electorate of the Natal , the United Party was defeated in almost every rural district. Its urban losses in

10658-457: The aim of implementing the apartheid philosophy and silencing liberal opposition. When the National Party came to power in 1948, there were factional differences in the party about the implementation of systemic racial segregation. The " baasskap " (white domination or supremacist) faction, which was the dominant faction in the NP, and state institutions, favoured systematic segregation, but also favoured

10804-652: The amount of land Africans could hold. Similarly, in Natal , the Natal Legislative Assembly Bill of 1894 deprived Indians of the right to vote. In 1896 the South African Republic brought in two pass laws requiring Africans to carry a badge. Only those employed by a master were permitted to remain on the Rand , and those entering a "labour district" needed a special pass. During the Second Boer War ,

10950-581: The armed forces in South Kasai and for involving Soviets in the country. On 7 September, Lumumba made a speech to the Congolese House of Representatives, arguing his dismissal was illegal under the nation's laws. Congolese law gave parliament, not the president, the authority to dismiss a government minister. The House and Senate both rejected the dismissal of Lumumba, but the removal proceeded unconstitutionally. On 14 September, Colonel Joseph Mobutu , with

11096-462: The assassination of President Laurent-Désiré Kabila . The war ended under President Joseph Kabila , who governed the country from 2001 to 2019 and under whom human rights in the country remained poor and included frequent abuses such as forced disappearances , torture, arbitrary imprisonment and restrictions on civil liberties. Following the 2018 general election , in the country's first peaceful transition of power since independence, Kabila

11242-553: The assassination of Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba , and the seizure of power by Mobutu Sese Seko in a 1965 coup d'état . Mobutu renamed the country Zaire in 1971 and imposed a harsh personalist dictatorship until his overthrow in 1997 by the First Congo War . The country then had its name changed back and was confronted by the Second Congo War from 1998 to 2003, which resulted in the deaths of 5.4 million people and

11388-457: The backing of the US and Belgium, removed Lumumba from office. On 17 January 1961, Lumumba was handed over to Katangan authorities and executed by Belgian-led Katangan troops. A 2001 investigation by Belgium's Parliament found Belgium "morally responsible" for the murder of Lumumba, and the country has since officially apologised for its role in his death. On 18 September 1961, in ongoing negotiations of

11534-415: The black population to ten designated "tribal homelands", also known as bantustans , four of which became nominally independent states. The government announced that relocated persons would lose their South African citizenship as they were absorbed into the bantustans. Apartheid sparked significant international and domestic opposition, resulting in some of the most influential global social movements of

11680-602: The borders of their homelands – hence this policy of separate development". Under the homelands system, blacks would no longer be citizens of South Africa, becoming citizens of the independent homelands who worked in South Africa as foreign migrant labourers on temporary work permits. In 1958 the Promotion of Black Self-Government Act was passed, and border industries and the Bantu Investment Corporation were established to promote economic development and

11826-711: The capital Kinshasa, the two next largest cities, Lubumbashi and Mbuji-Mayi , are both mining communities. The DRC's largest export is raw minerals, with China accepting over 50% of its exports in 2019. In 2021, DR Congo's level of human development was ranked 179th out of 191 countries by the Human Development Index and is classed as a least developed country by the UN . As of 2018 , following two decades of various civil wars and continued internal conflicts , around 600,000 Congolese refugees were still living in neighbouring countries. Two million children risk starvation, and

11972-560: The common voters' roll in the Cape to a new Coloured voters' roll. Immediately after the vote, the Senate was restored to its original size. The Senate Act was contested in the Supreme Court, but the recently enlarged Appeal Court, packed with government-supporting judges, upheld the act, and also the Act to remove Coloured voters. The 1956 law allowed Coloureds to elect four people to Parliament, but

12118-527: The disenfranchised. Before South Africa became a republic in 1961, politics among white South Africans was typified by the division between the mainly Afrikaner pro-republic conservative and the largely English anti-republican liberal sentiments, with the legacy of the Boer War still a factor for some people. Once South Africa became a republic, Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd called for improved relations and greater accord between people of British descent and

12264-473: The early 20th century. The Democratic Republic of the Congo has been known in the past as, in chronological order, the Congo Free State , Belgian Congo , the Republic of the Congo-Léopoldville , the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of Zaire , before returning to its current name the Democratic Republic of the Congo. At the time of independence, the country was named the Republic of

12410-587: The east of the country, Soviet and Cuban-backed rebels called the Simbas rose up, taking a significant amount of territory and proclaiming a communist "People's Republic of the Congo" in Stanleyville. The Simbas were pushed out of Stanleyville in November 1964 during Operation Dragon Rouge , a military operation conducted by Belgian and American forces to rescue hundreds of hostages. Congolese government forces fully defeated

12556-553: The effects of the United Party's policies. The commission concluded that integration would bring about a "loss of personality" for all racial groups. The HNP incorporated the commission's findings into its campaign platform for the 1948 South African general election , which it won. South Africa had allowed social custom and law to govern the consideration of multiracial affairs and of the allocation, in racial terms, of access to economic, social, and political status. Most white South Africans, regardless of their own differences, accepted

12702-532: The fighting has displaced 4.5 million people. The country is a member of the United Nations , Non-Aligned Movement , African Union , COMESA , Southern African Development Community , Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie , and Economic Community of Central African States . The Democratic Republic of the Congo is named after the Congo River , which flows through the country. The Congo River

12848-532: The firm control of the colonial administration. The Belgian authorities permitted no political activity in the Congo whatsoever, and the Force Publique put down any attempts at rebellion. The Belgian Congo was directly involved in the two world wars. During World War I (1914–1918), an initial stand-off between the Force Publique and the German colonial army in German East Africa turned into open warfare with

12994-651: The first free national elections since 1960, which many believed would mark the end to violence in the region. However, an election-result dispute between Kabila and Bemba turned into a skirmish between their supporters in Kinshasa. MONUC took control of the city. A new election took place in October 2006, which Kabila won, and in December 2006 he was sworn in as president. Laurent Nkunda , a member of Rally for Congolese Democracy–Goma , defected along with troops loyal to him and formed

13140-686: The first pieces of segregating legislation enacted by Smuts' government was the Asiatic Land Tenure Bill (1946) , which banned land sales to Indians and Indian descendent South Africans. The same year, the government established the Fagan Commission . Amid fears integration would eventually lead to racial assimilation, the Opposition Herenigde Nasionale Party (HNP) established the Sauer Commission to investigate

13286-654: The highest levels of sexual violence in the world. According to the Human Rights Watch and the New York University-based Congo Research Group, armed troops in DRC's eastern Kivu region have killed over 1,900 civilians and kidnapped at least 3,300 people since June 2017 to June 2019. On 10 May 2018, Congolese gynecologist Denis Mukwege was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his effort to end

13432-465: The highest status, followed by Indians , Coloureds and black Africans , in that order. The economic legacy and social effects of apartheid continue to the present day, particularly inequality . Broadly speaking, apartheid was delineated into petty apartheid , which entailed the segregation of public facilities and social events, and grand apartheid , which strictly separated housing and employment opportunities by race. The first apartheid law

13578-424: The homeland structure as one of its cornerstones. Verwoerd came to believe in the granting of independence to these homelands. The government justified its plans on the ostensible basis that "(the) government's policy is, therefore, not a policy of discrimination on the grounds of race or colour, but a policy of differentiation on the ground of nationhood, of different nations, granting to each self-determination within

13724-412: The homeland system, the government attempted to divide South Africa and South West Africa into a number of separate states, each of which was supposed to develop into a separate nation-state for a different ethnic group. Territorial separation was hardly a new institution. There were, for example, the "reserves" created under the British government in the nineteenth century. Under apartheid, 13 percent of

13870-508: The homelands and the problems which other countries faced through entry of illegal immigrants. Bantustans within the borders of South Africa and South West Africa were classified by degree of nominal self-rule: 6 were "non-self-governing", 10 were "self-governing", and 4 were "independent". In theory, self-governing Bantustans had control over many aspects of their internal functioning but were not yet sovereign nations. Independent Bantustans (Transkei, Bophutatswana, Venda and Ciskei; also known as

14016-482: The immigration of blacks from other countries. To reside in a city, blacks had to be in employment there. Until 1956 women were for the most part excluded from these pass requirements, as attempts to introduce pass laws for women were met with fierce resistance. In 1950, D. F. Malan announced the NP's intention to create a Coloured Affairs Department. J.G. Strijdom , Malan's successor as prime minister, moved to strip voting rights from black and Coloured residents of

14162-462: The individuals who have died are children under five years of age. There have been frequent reports of weapon bearers killing civilians, of the destruction of property, of widespread sexual violence, causing hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes, and of other breaches of humanitarian and human rights law. One study found that more than 400,000 women are raped in the Democratic Republic of Congo every year. In 2018 and 2019, Congo reported

14308-419: The infamous Tippu Tip , who was well known to Stanley. Leopold had designs on what was to become the Congo as a colony. In a succession of negotiations, Leopold, professing humanitarian objectives in his capacity as chairman of the front organization Association Internationale Africaine , actually played one European rival against another. King Leopold formally acquired rights to the Congo territory at

14454-407: The land his private property, naming it the Congo Free State . From 1885 to 1908, his colonial military forced the local population to produce rubber and committed widespread atrocities . In 1908, Leopold ceded the territory, which thus became a Belgian colony . Congo achieved independence from Belgium on 30 June 1960 and was immediately confronted by a series of secessionist movements ,

14600-454: The land was reserved for black homelands, a small amount relative to its total population, and generally in economically unproductive areas of the country. The Tomlinson Commission of 1954 justified apartheid and the homeland system, but stated that additional land ought to be given to the homelands, a recommendation that was not carried out. When Verwoerd became prime minister in 1958, the policy of "separate development" came into being, with

14746-404: The last two of which included several sub-classifications. Places of residence were determined by racial classification. Between 1960 and 1983, 3.5 million black Africans were removed from their homes and forced into segregated neighbourhoods as a result of apartheid legislation, in some of the largest mass evictions in modern history. Most of these targeted removals were intended to restrict

14892-517: The late 1960s, Mobutu continued to shuffle his governments and cycle officials in and out of the office to maintain control. Joseph Kasa-Vubu's death in April 1969 ensured that no person with First Republic credentials could challenge his rule. By the early 1970s, Mobutu was attempting to assert Zaire as a leading African nation. He traveled frequently across the continent while the government became more vocal about African issues, particularly those relating to

15038-646: The legislative program: the South Africa Act (1910) enfranchised White people, giving them complete political control over all other racial groups while removing the right of Black people to sit in parliament; the Native Land Act (1913) prevented Black people, except those in the Cape, from buying land outside "reserves"; the Natives in Urban Areas Bill (1918) was designed to force Black people into "locations";

15184-2532: The long term. A third faction, which included Hendrik Verwoerd , sympathised with the purists, but allowed for the use of black labour, while implementing the purist goal of vertical separation. Verwoerd would refer to this policy as a policy of "good neighbourliness" as a means of justifying such segregation. Glen Grey Act (1894) Natal Legislative Assembly Bill (1894) Transvaal Asiatic Registration Act (1906) South Africa Act (1909) Mines and Works Act (1911) Natives Land Act (1913) Natives (Urban Areas) Act (1923) Immorality Act (1927) Native Administration Act (1927) Women's Enfranchisement Act (1930) Franchise Laws Amendment Act (1931) Representation of Natives Act (1936) Native Trust and Land Act (1936) Native (Urban Areas) Consolidation Act (1945) Immorality Amendment Act † (1950) Population Registration Act (1950) Group Areas Act (1950) Suppression of Communism Act (1950) Native Building Workers Act (1951) Separate Representation of Voters Act (1951) Prevention of Illegal Squatting Act (1951) Bantu Authorities Act (1951) Native Laws Amendment Act † (1952) Pass Laws Act (1952) Public Safety Act (1953) Native Labour (Settlement of Disputes) Act (1953) Bantu Education Act (1953) Reservation of Separate Amenities Act (1953) Natives Resettlement Act (1954) Group Areas Development Act (1955) Riotous Assemblies Act (1956) Industrial Conciliation Act (1956) Natives (Prohibition of Interdicts) Act (1956) Immorality Act (1957) Bantu Investment Corporation Act (1959) Extension of University Education Act (1959) Promotion of Bantu Self-government Act (1959) Unlawful Organizations Act (1960) Indemnity Act (1961) Coloured Persons Communal Reserves Act (1961) Republic of South Africa Constitution Act (1961) Urban Bantu Councils Act (1961) General Law Amendment Act (1963) Separate Representation of Voters Amendment Act (1968) Prohibition of Political Interference Act (1968) Bantu Homelands Citizenship Act (1970) Bantu Homelands Constitution Act (1971) Aliens Control Act (1973) Indemnity Act (1977) National Key Points Act (1980) List of National Key Points Internal Security Act (1982) Black Local Authorities Act (1982) Interim Constitution (1993) Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act (1995) NP leaders argued that South Africa did not comprise

15330-609: The modern-day territory; one to the west around Pool Malebo , one east around Lake Mai-Ndombe , and a third even further east and south around the Upemba Depression . By the 13th century there were three main confederations of states in the western Congo Basin around Pool Malebo. In the east were the Seven Kingdoms of Kongo dia Nlaza , considered to be the oldest and most powerful, which likely included Nsundi , Mbata , Mpangu , and possibly Kundi and Okanga . South of these

15476-496: The mounting tensions of the Cold War also stirred up discontent, while the nationalists promised to purge the state and public service of communist sympathisers. First to desert the United Party were Afrikaner farmers, who wished to see a change in influx control due to problems with squatters, as well as higher prices for their maize and other produce in the face of the mineowners' demand for cheap food policies. Always identified with

15622-527: The name of the country to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Kabila later requested that foreign military forces return to their own countries. Rwandan troops retreated to Goma and launched a new Tutsi-led rebel military movement called the Rassemblement Congolais pour la Democratie to fight Kabila, while Uganda instigated the creation of a rebel movement called the Movement for the Liberation of

15768-604: The nation's most populous province, the Transvaal , proved equally devastating. As the voting system was disproportionately weighted in favour of rural constituencies and the Transvaal in particular, the 1948 election catapulted the Herenigde Nasionale Party from a small minority party to a commanding position with an eight-vote parliamentary lead. Daniel François Malan became the first nationalist prime minister, with

15914-549: The national army in exchange for the release of its imprisoned members. In 2012 Bosco Ntaganda , the leader of the CNDP, and troops loyal to him, mutinied and formed the rebel military March 23 Movement (M23), claiming the government had violated the treaty. In the resulting M23 rebellion , M23 briefly captured the provincial capital of Goma in November 2012. Neighboring countries, particularly Rwanda, have been accused of arming rebel groups and using them as proxies to gain control of

16060-481: The number of judges in the Appeal Court from five to 11, and appointed pro-Nationalist judges to fill the new places. In the same year they introduced the Senate Act, which increased the Senate from 49 seats to 89. Adjustments were made such that the NP controlled 77 of these seats. The parliament met in a joint sitting and passed the Separate Representation of Voters Act in 1956, which transferred Coloured voters from

16206-505: The organisation had fallen under the influence of Western liberals. Many Afrikaners resented what they perceived as disempowerment by an underpaid black workforce and the superior economic power and prosperity of white English speakers. Smuts, as a strong advocate of the United Nations , lost domestic support when South Africa was criticised for its colour bar and the continued mandate of South West Africa by other UN member states. Afrikaner nationalists proclaimed that they offered

16352-774: The other hand is an important regional road in the Southern African Development Community (SADC). The Route follows south on the N1 highway in the DRC . It enters Angola through the EN140 and follows south through to the EN120 and enters the B1 in Namibia . The route continues to follow South and connects into South Africa using the N7 highway. The highway continues south until it interchanges with

16498-483: The participation of black Africans in the economy with black labour controlled to advance the economic gains of Afrikaners. A second faction were the "purists", who believed in "vertical segregation", in which blacks and whites would be entirely separated, with blacks living in native reserves, with separate political and economic structures, which, they believed, would entail severe short-term pain, but would also lead to independence of white South Africa from black labour in

16644-487: The paved road from Yaoundé to Garoua-Boulai on the Cameroon-CAR border. As well as being shorter for traffic between south and west, this alternative alignment has other advantages: it already carries a little international traffic, it runs through more populated and economically active areas, it adds Gabon (and its capital, Libreville , via a spur) to the network, and it passes very close to Equatorial Guinea (Rio Muni) and

16790-459: The planned 2016 elections, which he is constitutionally barred from participating in). This bill passed; however, it was gutted of the provision that would keep Kabila in power until a census took place. A census is supposed to take place, but it is no longer tied to when the elections take place. In 2015, elections were scheduled for late 2016 and a tenuous peace held in the Congo. On 27 November 2016 Congolese foreign minister Raymond Tshibanda told

16936-464: The pockets of rich men both in the region and internationally. There were also ethnic and cultural rivalries at play, as well as religious motives and the political crisis with postponed elections. Egeland says people believe the situation in the DRC is "stably bad" but in fact, it has become much, much worse. "The big wars of the Congo that were really on top of the agenda 15 years ago are back and worsening". Disruption in planting and harvesting caused by

17082-411: The press no elections would be held in 2016: "it has been decided that the voter registration operation will end on July 31, 2017, and that election will take place in April 2018." Protests broke out in the country on 20 December when Kabila's term in office ended. Across the country, dozens of protesters were killed and hundreds were arrested. According to Jan Egeland , presently Secretary-General of

17228-464: The prevailing pattern. Nevertheless, by 1948 it remained apparent that there were gaps in the social structure, whether legislated or otherwise, concerning the rights and opportunities of nonwhites. The rapid economic development of World War II attracted black migrant workers in large numbers to chief industrial centres, where they compensated for the wartime shortage of white labour. However, this escalated rate of black urbanisation went unrecognised by

17374-678: The provincial capital of Lubumbashi in 2013 and 400,000 persons displaced in the province as of 2013 . On and off fighting in the Ituri conflict occurred between the Nationalist and Integrationist Front and the Union of Congolese Patriots who claimed to represent the Lendu and Hema ethnic groups, respectively. In the northeast, Joseph Kony 's Lord's Resistance Army moved from their original bases in Uganda and South Sudan to DR Congo in 2005 and set up camps in

17520-431: The provision of employment in or near the homelands. Many black South Africans who had never resided in their identified homeland were forcibly removed from the cities to the homelands. The vision of a South Africa divided into multiple ethnostates appealed to the reform-minded Afrikaner intelligentsia, and it provided a more coherent philosophical and moral framework for the National Party's policies, while also providing

17666-699: The rebellion of Laurent-Desire Kabila that overthrew the Mobutu regime." In September 1997, Mobutu died in exile in Morocco. By 1996, following the Rwandan Civil War and genocide and the ascension of a Tutsi -led government in Rwanda, Rwandan Hutu militia forces ( Interahamwe ) fled to eastern Zaire and used refugee camps as bases for incursions against Rwanda. They allied with the Zairian Armed Forces to launch

17812-646: The resource-rich country, an accusation they deny. In March 2013, the United Nations Security Council authorized the United Nations Force Intervention Brigade to neutralize armed groups. On 5 November 2013, M23 declared an end to its insurgency. Additionally, in northern Katanga , the Mai-Mai created by Laurent Kabila slipped out of the control of Kinshasa with Gédéon Kyungu Mutanga 's Mai Mai Kata Katanga briefly invading

17958-681: The right to vote for the Coloured Persons Representative Council , which had limited legislative powers. The council was in turn dissolved in 1980. In 1984 a new constitution introduced the Tricameral Parliament in which coloured voters elected the House of Representatives . A 2016 study in The Journal of Politics suggests that disenfranchisement in South Africa had a significant negative effect on basic service delivery to

18104-476: The rolls the few blacks still qualified to vote. The Bantu Investment Corporation Act of 1959 set up a mechanism to transfer capital to the homelands to create employment there. Legislation of 1967 allowed the government to stop industrial development in "white" cities and redirect such development to the "homelands". The Black Homeland Citizenship Act of 1970 marked a new phase in the Bantustan strategy. It changed

18250-469: The same year, the Representation of Natives Act removed previous Black voters from the Cape voters' roll and allowed them to elect three Whites to Parliament. The United Party government of Jan Smuts began to move away from the rigid enforcement of segregationist laws during World War II, but faced growing opposition from Afrikaner nationalists who wanted stricter segregation. Post-war, one of

18396-514: The severing of ties with the UK and remained loyal to the Crown . They were displeased by having to choose between British and South African nationalities. Although Verwoerd tried to bond these different blocs, the subsequent voting illustrated only a minor swell of support, indicating that a great many English speakers remained apathetic and that Verwoerd had not succeeded in uniting the white population. Under

18542-625: The south and west of the continent, and which would probably have less of an environmental impact. It would run via Lambaréné ( Gabon ), and Dolisie (ROC), and this route has already been paved as far south as Ndendé , near the Congo border, meanwhile paving the rest is under way. From the south, traffic going to West Africa would branch off in Yaoundé onto the western section of the Lagos-Mombasa Highway , while traffic going east and north would share

18688-519: The southern region. Zaire established semi-clientelist relationships with several smaller African states, especially Burundi, Chad, and Togo. Corruption became so common the term " le mal Zairois " or "Zairian sickness", meaning gross corruption, theft and mismanagement, was coined, reportedly by Mobutu. International aid, most often in the form of loans, enriched Mobutu while he allowed national infrastructure such as roads to deteriorate to as little as one-quarter of what had existed in 1960. Zaire became

18834-625: The spread of automobiles and development of rubber tires created a growing international market. Rubber sales made a fortune for Leopold, who built several buildings in Brussels and Ostend to honor himself and his country. To enforce the rubber quotas, the Force Publique was called in and made the practice of cutting off the limbs of the natives a matter of policy. Under the Congo Free State concessions were granted to private industry, granting

18980-399: The status of blacks to citizens of one of the ten autonomous territories. The aim was to ensure a demographic majority of white people within South Africa by having all ten Bantustans achieve full independence. Inter-racial contact in sport was frowned upon, but there were no segregatory sports laws. The government tightened pass laws compelling blacks to carry identity documents, to prevent

19126-582: The transition period between 1990 and 1994. Some reforms of the apartheid system were undertaken, including allowing for Indian and Coloured political representation in parliament , but these measures failed to appease most activist groups. Between 1987 and 1993, the National Party entered into bilateral negotiations with the African National Congress (ANC), the leading anti-apartheid political movement, for ending segregation and introducing majority rule. In 1990, prominent ANC figures, such as Nelson Mandela , were released from prison. Apartheid legislation

19272-402: The two, the former Belgian Congo became known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo ( DR Congo ), while the former French colony retained the name 'Republic of the Congo' ( Congo ). Shortly after independence the Force Publique mutinied, and on 11 July the province of Katanga (led by Moïse Tshombe ) and South Kasai engaged in secessionist struggles against the new leadership. Most of

19418-522: The use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict . In 2015, major protests broke out across the country and protesters demanded that Kabila step down as president. The protests began after the passage of a law by the Congolese lower house that, if also passed by the Congolese upper house, would keep Kabila in power at least until a national census was conducted (a process which would likely take several years and therefore keep him in power past

19564-632: The voters a new policy to ensure continued white domination. This policy was initially expounded from a theory drafted by Hendrik Verwoerd and was presented to the National Party by the Sauer Commission . It called for a systematic effort to organise the relations, rights, and privileges of the races as officially defined through a series of parliamentary acts and administrative decrees. Segregation had thus far been pursued only in major matters, such as separate schools, and local society rather than law had been depended upon to enforce most separation; it should now be extended to everything. The commission's goal

19710-405: The west, the Kingdom of Kongo ruled around the mouth of the Congo River from the 14th to 19th centuries. In the center and east, the empires of Mwene Muji , Luba , and Lunda ruled from the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries to the late 19th and early 20th centuries. King Leopold II of Belgium formally acquired rights to the Congo territory from the colonial nations of Europe in 1885 and declared

19856-427: Was Mpemba which stretched from modern-day Angola to the Congo River . It included various kingdoms such as Mpemba Kasi and Vunda . To its west across the Congo River was a confederation of three small states; Vungu (its leader), Kakongo , and Ngoyo . The Kingdom of Kongo was founded in the 14th century and dominated the western region. The empire of Mwene Muji was founded around Lake Mai-Ndombe. From

20002-517: Was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia ) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an authoritarian political culture based on baasskap ( lit. 'boss-ship' or 'boss-hood'), which ensured that South Africa was dominated politically, socially, and economically by the nation's minority white population . Under this minoritarian system, white citizens held

20148-507: Was allotted its own area, which was used in later years as a basis of forced removal. The Prevention of Illegal Squatting Act of 1951 allowed the government to demolish black shanty town slums and forced white employers to pay for the construction of housing for those black workers who were permitted to reside in cities otherwise reserved for whites. The Native Laws Amendment Act, 1952 centralised and tightened pass laws so that blacks could not stay in urban areas longer than 72 hours without

20294-492: Was followed by Ordinance 3 in 1848, which introduced an indenture system for Xhosa that was little different from slavery. The various South African colonies passed legislation throughout the rest of the 19th century to limit the freedom of unskilled workers, to increase the restrictions on indentured workers and to regulate the relations between the races. The discoveries of diamonds and gold in South Africa also raised racial inequality between White people and Black people. In

20440-526: Was in part adopted from "left-over" British rule that separated different racial groups after they took control of the Boer republics in the Anglo-Boer war . This created the black-only " townships " or "locations", where blacks were relocated to their own towns. As the NP government's minister of native affairs from 1950, Hendrik Verwoerd had a significant role in crafting such laws, which led to him being regarded as

20586-672: Was no longer deemed necessary as a Cold War ally. Opponents within Zaire stepped up demands for reform. This atmosphere contributed to Mobutu's declaring the Third Republic in 1990, whose constitution was supposed to pave the way for democratic reform. The reforms turned out to be largely cosmetic. Mobutu continued in power until armed forces forced him to flee in 1997. "From 1990 to 1993, the United States facilitated Mobutu's attempts to hijack political change", one academic wrote, and "also assisted

20732-486: Was repealed on 17 June 1991, leading to multiracial elections in April 1994 . Apartheid is an Afrikaans word meaning "separateness", or "the state of being apart", literally " apart - hood " (from the Afrikaans suffix -heid ). Its first recorded use was in 1929. Racial discrimination and inequality against Black people in South Africa dates to the beginning of large-scale European colonisation of South Africa with

20878-532: Was succeeded as president in a highly contentious election won by Félix Tshisekedi , who has served as president since. Since 2015, eastern Congo has been the site of an ongoing military conflict . The Democratic Republic of the Congo is extremely rich in natural resources but has suffered from political instability, a lack of infrastructure, corruption, and centuries of both commercial and colonial extraction and exploitation, followed by more than 60 years of independence, with little widespread development. Besides

21024-576: Was the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act, 1949 , followed closely by the Immorality Amendment Act of 1950, which made it illegal for most South African citizens to marry or pursue sexual relationships across racial lines . The Population Registration Act, 1950 classified all South Africans into one of four racial groups based on appearance, known ancestry, socioeconomic status, and cultural lifestyle: "Black", "White", "Coloured", and "Indian",

21170-422: Was the only candidate. Although relative peace and stability were achieved, Mobutu's government was guilty of severe human rights violations, political repression , a cult of personality and corruption . By late 1967 Mobutu had successfully neutralized his political opponents and rivals, either through co-opting them into his regime, arresting them, or rendering them otherwise politically impotent. Throughout

21316-405: Was to completely remove blacks from areas designated for whites, including cities, with the exception of temporary migrant labour. Blacks would then be encouraged to create their own political units in land reserved for them. The party gave this policy a name –  apartheid . Apartheid was to be the basic ideological and practical foundation of Afrikaner politics for the next quarter of

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