What is the point of apartheid? Truthfully there is no point at all to apartheid. It is just a set of racially motivated laws that limit the Black South Africans from having equal rights to the White South Africans. Apartheid is ridiculous and extremely wrong. A discussion of apartheid according to the novel Waiting for the Rain will show the reader to understand exactly how wrong apartheid really is.
In the novel the two main characters are best friends, one of them is white and the other is black. Frikkie is a white kid who gets to go to school for free and is best friends with Tengo who is a black kid and is not allowed a free education. Tengo cannot understand why the black kids aren't allowed to receive a free education just like the white kids. Throughout the novel all Tengo wants is an free education and he finally finds out from his cousin Joseph that the whole reason that he cannot receive an education for free is because he is black and is not allowed the same rights as the whites. After Tengo speaks with Joseph he soon begins to realize the true aspects of the Apartheid in South Africa.
About halfway through the novel Frikkie's family is staying on the farm, because his aunt and uncle were having a party. Tengo and his family have to work at the party and be servants to the white people. There is a very rude red headed girl at the party who is incredibly disrespectful to Old Ezekiel (the eldest member of the Kaffir People) by calling him "boy" when he is actually much older than her. When Tengo heard the way the girl spoke to Ezekiel he went off on her. Frikkie has to beg his sister and the red head girl not to go and tell on Tengo because he is his friend. Tengo realizes it is very wrong to speak to your elder that way, and he knows that the girl thinks she is better than Ezekiel because she is white and he is black.
Later in the novel Tengo's mother finally allows him to move to the city and get the education like he always wanted.