"The Russian, Chinese, Vietnamese, Cuban, Nicaraguan, and Iranian revolutions aimed to overthrow dictatorships, foreign imperialism, and unjust economic systems. Efforts for social change in southern Africa, however, confronted the further obstacle of institutionally and culturally embedded racism. In the late twentieth century only one major nation claimed the distinction of awarding political rights on the basis of race: the Republic of South Africa. The white minority had confirmed its control of the mineral-rich country through the passage of a set of laws during the years 1948–1960 reinforcing race separation under the label “apartheid.” In the 1950s peaceful protests against white minority rule were severely repressed, as were attempts at rebellion from the 1960s on. In the 1990s movements opposing apartheid finally achieved access to state power through the national elections of 1994. But after the death of Nelson Mandela, the legendary leader of the antiapartheid movement, inequality and widespread poverty remained enormous problems that challenged a new generation of South African activists and leaders, despite the end of white minority rule and apartheid, and even though significant progress had been made in some areas."