Apartheid is often described in two parts: petty and grand. Petty apartheid showed up in everyday life through separate drinking fountains, beaches, bathrooms, benches, and other public spaces. It was the most visible part of the system and was meant to keep racial groups socially divided.

Grand apartheid was the broader political and economic structure created to keep white minority control in place. Its purpose was to limit non-white power in almost every area of life and to separate racial groups not just socially but in housing, work, land and citizenship. Under grand apartheid, 3.5 million Black South Africans were forced off their traditional land and pushed into ten townships or “Bantustans,” which the regime claimed were their homelands. Some were even given supposed independence so the government could pretend Black South Africans were not its responsibility.

By the 1980s, pressure from sanctions, boycotts, protests and repeated uprisings made apartheid impossible to sustain. The government began negotiations, released Nelson Mandela and eventually held democratic elections in 1994, bringing the African National Congress to power and ending apartheid. Following Apartheid South Africa sought to become a rainbow nation, attempting to balance economic and political equality with a focus on the future rather than the past.