South Africa’s Freedom Day is a celebration of the end of the apartheid that oppressed Black voters in their country for years.
According to NPR, the monumental vote was the first time that millions of Black South Africans of all different ages could vote, after being denied their intrinsic right for years before by the white minority government.
The very first all-race election in South Africa saw the African National Congress party win the country back, and its leader, Nelson Mandela, became the country’s first Black president just four years after he was released from prison for his activism.
The 1994 election brought Mandela, who was acting as the face of the anti-apartheid movement, to the forefront. The turnout to support him in the election was so large that it spanned four days to accommodate the large numbers of voters who turned out.
The ANC’s election victory dismantled the apartheid and allowed the party to create a new Constitution. It became South Africa’s highest law, and it guaranteed equality for everyone across the country — regardless of their race, religion, or sexuality.
Source: Black Enterprise
