Apartheid in South Africa is a political system of segregation that perpetuated unequal relationships between Europeans and their descendants and local people of color. This system of segregation placed an inhumane burden on African, Indian, and Couloured people of South Africa. The government placed heavy restrictions intruding on every aspect of private life for these persecuted citizens. Specialized passes, restricted living areas, and daily police harassment were just the least of what an average black citizen faced.

Joyce Sikhakhane-Rankin’s experiences in Nylstroom and Pretoria Central Prisons as a female political activist who was detained for her work in the underground ANC during the height of the anti-apartheid struggle reveal the excessively brutal and inhumane treatment of Africans by the South African Nationalist government.