Apartheid

In Afrikaans, the official language of South Africa and Namibia, Apartheid translates to "the state of being apart". Apartheid literally means "apart-hood".
Apartheid was a form of racial segregation enforced in South Africa and Namibia by law from 1948 to 1994.
During apartheid, interracial marriages were prohibited and sexual intercourse between different races was punished by law.
"Non-whites" were not allowed in certain areas and had to live in bantustans, which were ghettos controlled by the government. They could not use the same public facilities used by "whites" and their access to education was severely restricted.
Apartheid was finally declared an international crime by the United Nations in 1973, but the policy was only lifted more than 20 years later.
Apartheid is often pronounced as uh-par-tide, however, the correct pronunciation of apartheid is ah-pahr-teid. The difference in pronunciation is that the two "a"s are both pronounced wih open "ah" sounds. A further difference is that the end is not pronounced like the word "tide" but with the sound -teid, which rhymes with "aid".

History

Afrikaans