Question

Read the following extracts and answer the questions from the given below:

On the day of the inauguration, I was overwhelmed with a sense of history. In the first decade of the 20th century a few years after the bitter Anglo-Boer war and before my own birth, the white skinned people of South Africa patched up their differences and created a system of racial domination against the dark-skinned people of their own land. The structure they created formed the basis of one of the harshest, most inhumane societies the world has ever known. Now, in the last decade of the twentieth century and my own eighth decade as a man, that system has been overturned forever and replaced by one that recognised the rights and freedoms of all peoples, regardless of the colour of their skin.

1. Explain the feelings of the narrator when he said; "I was overwhelmed with a sense of history."   (1)
2. The system of racial domination has been replaced by a system that:   (1)
   1. confirms the education of the Blacks.
   2. recognises the rights and freedoms of all people.
   3. recollects the bitter experiences.
   4. focuses on the personality development.
3. Comment on the kind of society apartheid had created?   (2)
4. Which phrase would correctly substitute 'patched up' in the given sentence from the extract:   (1)
   "...the white skinned people of South Africa patched up their differences..."

Answer 1

1. The narrator experiences a feeling of history as he sees the transition of South Africa's racial domination system, signalling the end of injustice and the beginning of equality and freedom.
2. (B) recognises the rights and freedoms of all people.
3. Apartheid led to segregation and discrimination based on skin colour. It institutionalised racism, injustice, and oppression, causing massive human rights violations and misery among South Africa's dark-skinned population.
4. The phrase "patched up" could be correctly substituted with "mended" in the given sentence.