The United Nations did not agree with the South African government's apartheid policies. There were protests in South Africa, like in Sharpeville in 1960 and in Soweto in 1976. After the Sharpeville Massacre, the UN tried to remove South Africa in 1974. France, the United States, and the UK prevented that from happening. The Soweto Uprisings started because Africans were forced to study some subjects at school in Afrikaans. Many Black people did not like Afrikaans because it was the language of the apartheid government and the language of their oppressors.
In 1989, F. W. de Klerk became President of South Africa. He wanted to reform the system. In a speech in 1990, de Klerk said the ban on the African National Congress was lifted. He also ruled that Nelson Mandela would be released from prison.
In 1991, the UN created the "National Peace Accord". The purpose of the Peace Accord was "to bring an end to political violence" in South Africa. It was agreed on by 27 organisations and governments. After this the "Convention for a Democratic South Africa" (CODESA) was formed. CODESA worked to find a solution to the violence.
The first multiracial election in which all races could vote, was held on 27 April 1994. Nelson Mandela was elected President, with De Klerk and Thabo Mbeki as deputies. This date considered the end of apartheid. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission was created to help victims speak out and seek justice. It was chaired by Desmond Tutu in the 1990s.
Although Black South Africans were granted equal rights by law after a long fought campaign, there is still huge economic inequality between Blacks and Whites. In 2012, South Africa held its first census in over ten years. It found that the average Black family earned one-sixth (about 17%) of what the average White family earned. "These figures tell us that at the bottom of the rung is the black majority who continue to be confronted by deep poverty unemployment and inequality,” President Jacob Zuma said when the findings were released. Nelson Mandela spent the majority of his life fighting against apartheid laws, and without his activism; many of the changes would never have happened.
The goal of apartheid was to separate the people of South Africa into small independent nations. The black ones were called Bantustans. South Africa said they were independent countries and exchanged ambassadors but other countries did not. The National Party government did not want to spend a lot of money on this project. They also wanted to keep the majority of South Africa's land for white people, especially the richest places, like the gold mines of Johannesburg. They wanted black men to work in these mines for little money but their families had to live far away or face imprisonment.
Dreyfus Affair
The Dreyfus Affair was one of the biggest scandals in the history of France. It happened at the end of the 19th century. It was about Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish officer in the French army.
In 1894, Dreyfus was accused of being a spy, and accused of crimes against France. People thought he wrote letters to the Germans telling them about secrets of the French army.
His punishment was to be sent to a prison island in South America for the rest of his life.
When he was in prison, people (mostly his brother Mathieu and a high-ranking officer called Picquart) thought he was innocent. They proved that another soldier, Major Esterhazy, was guilty. But the army did not want to admit that it had been wrong. They refused to free him. Finally, the evidence that Dreyfus was innocent became so strong that the government had to demand a new trial. At the new trial, the army again found him guilty. The President of France, who did not want an innocent man to suffer any more, pardoned Dreyfus in 1899.
Dreyfus was released. Seven years later, he was officially declared innocent, and allowed back into the army.
The affair divided France into people who thought Dreyfus really was a spy and people who thought he was innocent. Many of those who thought Dreyfus was a spy hated Jews and believed that he was a criminal because he was a Jew, and that a Jew could not be a good Frenchman; this belief is called anti-Semitism. Others thought that the army could not be questioned. The other side believed that an innocent man should not be imprisoned, and feared that Dreyfus's enemies were also enemies of France.
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played on a field by two teams versus each other. In baseball, a player on one team throws a small round ball at a player on the other team, who tries to hit it with a bat. Then the player who hits the ball has to run around the field. Players get points by running around in a full circle around three points on the ground called bases, to back where they started, which is called home plate. They have to do this without getting caught by the players on the other team.
Baseball started in the United States in the 1700s and 1800s, The game was made by Abner Doubleday. Many people in North America, South America, and East Asia play baseball, but the sport is most known in the United States and Japan. In the U.S., baseball is called the "national pastime", because so many people in the United States used to spend a lot of time playing or watching baseball games. Today, though, most Americans follow football more than baseball, especially when it comes time for the Super Bowl.
A game of baseball is played by two teams on a baseball field. Each team has 9 players. There are also 4 umpires. There is one for where young players play. Umpires watch everything carefully to decide what happened, make calls about a play, and make sure everyone follows the rules.
On a baseball field, there are four bases. The bases form a diamond that goes around the field to the right from the starting base. The starting base is called "home plate". Home plate is a pentagon, which is a shape that has five sides. First base is on the right side of the field, second base is at the top of the infield, third base is on the left side of the field, and home plate is at the back of the field, where the catcher plays.
The game is played in "innings". Professional baseball games have 9 innings. In an inning, each team has one turn to bat and try to score "runs", adding one point. When one team hits the ball, the other team defends and tries to get three players on the other team "out". The team that is playing defense always has the ball. This is different from other team sports. When the team on defense gets three players out, it is their turn to try and score runs. Then the team that was batting starts playing defense, and the team that was playing defense starts batting. After nine innings, the team that has the most runs is the winner. If the teams have the same number of runs, they play more innings until one team wins. At the start of the game, the home team pitches, while players on the visiting team bat. Only one player can bat at a time.