Apartheid was a system of institutionalized racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. The word "apartheid" is an Afrikaans word meaning "separateness" or "the state of being apart". The policy was characterized by an authoritarian political culture based on baasskap, which ensured that South Africa was dominated politically, socially, and economically by the nations dominant minority white population. In this minoritarian system, there was social stratification, where white citizens had the highest status, followed by Indians and Coloureds, then Black Africans. Apartheid was delineated into petty apartheid, which entailed the segregation of public facilities and social events, and grand apartheid, which dictated housing and employment opportunities by race. The first apartheid law was the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act, 1949, followed closely by the Immorality Amendment Act of 1950, which made it illegal for most South African citizens to marry or pursue sexual relationships across racial lines. Millions of black citizens were forcefully removed from their homes, restricted, and confined within tribal homelands according to their ethnicity, while whites remained and occupied towns and cities. The social architecture intensified with the use of Afrikaans as the official language for working, communication, and education. Blacks were not allowed to vote or engage in politics and were reduced to labor for the whites. The economic legacy and social effects of apartheid continue to the present day, particularly inequality. The legislation that formed the foundation of apartheid was repealed by the early 1990s, and apartheid officially ended in 1994 with the election of Nelson Mandela as the first black president of South Africa.