Apartheid (; an
Afrikaans word meaning "separateness", or "the state of being apart", literally "") was a system of
racial segregation in
South Africa enforced through legislation by the
National Party (NP), the governing party from 1948 to 1994. Under apartheid, the rights, associations, and movements of the majority black inhabitants and other ethnic groups were curtailed, and white
minority rule was maintained. Apartheid was developed after
World War II by the Afrikaner-dominated
National Party and
Broederbond organizations. The
ideology was also enforced in
South West Africa, which was administered by South Africa under a
League of Nations mandate (revoked in 1966 via United Nations Resolution 2145), until it gained independence as
Namibia in 1990. By extension, the term is currently used for forms of systematic segregation established by the state authority in a country against the social and civil rights of a certain group of citizens due to ethnic prejudices.