About 60% of the white population in South Africa, Afrikaners are the descendants of Dutch settlers. This group dominated the National Party, which swept to power in 1948 and implemented the apartheid regime.

Apartheid referred to the racist ideology and system in South Africa that classified people into racial groups, which determined where they could live, work, travel, attend school, and do other activities. Although Black South Africans suffered the most, apartheid penalized all non-white people. The apartheid government enforced the system through brutality.

Askaris were the captured African National Congress (ANC) activists who agreed to work for the apartheid police to avoid torture, imprisonment, or death. The police coerced these former resistance activists to commit crimes against the resistance movement. Askaris often led other anti-apartheid activists to death traps. The ANC considered askaris traitors and routinely tortured or killed them.