What was apartheid?
History of South African nationality
The Apartheid ideology was developed by Werner Eiselen as an alternative to the policies of racial segregation which still allowed for a multi-racial society. Apartheid was a system of relocating Africans to what were supposedly ethnically homogenous reservations and then fostering individual nationalities for each of these ten different groups. This process was accompanied by a set of acts designed to coerce black groups into this new system and maximize their separation from white society while maintaining their economic exploitation (see Apartheid Legislation in South Africa). The core of the Apartheid system was the Group Areas Act of 1950 which divided the state into race-specific partitions.
Christianity in South Africa
The Apartheid system, as well as resistance to it, was both a political and theological matter. In the 20th century, several Christian churches supported Apartheid and racial divisions. Some opposed it. One of the largest Christian denomination, the Dutch Reformed Church (NGK), used Christian theology to argue a theological support for the Apartheid. The Dutch Reformed Church, with 3 million Christian members, remained the "official religion" of the Apartheid-supporting National Party.