Africans in the townships reacted to apartheid with
passive acceptance
civil war
strong protests
economic sanctions

Africans in the townships reacted to apartheid with strong protests.

Explanation:

Apartheid was the racial segregation policy pursued in South Africa from 1948 to 1991, which divided the country's population into whites, blacks, Indians and people of color (mainly descendants of Malay slaves and blacks). It was a legalized system of racial oppression.  

The ideological roots of apartheid in South Africa were in the racial groups developed in the late 19th century. The purpose of the racial segregation was also to preserve the privileged social and economic status of whites and to secure access to cheap black labor for the country's mining industry.

In South Africa, whites were privileged in many ways as early as the 19th century. However, the apartheid system was not developed until the 1950s, through the enactment of numerous laws. These laws were generally related to an acute situation that threatened white supremacy. As a result, the laws caused numerous undesirable effects and contradictions, which began to emerge in a progressive manner during the 1960s. Bantu teaching, for example, was intended to produce obedient African workers who were taught to believe that they did not deserve nothing but the role of servant in society. Instead, it produced young activists who realized that they had nothing to lose in opposing the government violently, such as Nelson Mandela, Steve Biko and Govan Mbeki.

African protests were non-violent at first, but this situation escalated in the 1970s with situations like the Soweto uprisings, which ended in violent repressions with many Africans being killed.