Description
More than 20 years have passed since Apartheid “abruptly” ended, the euphoria has died, the initial hopes dashed, none of the constitutional promises have been kept, and the lingering effects of what has been called the world’s worst example of a system of racially based human society remain, both visible and hidden. Earlier histories of the Apartheid Era in South African history have been written, and have their place, but now, with the distance of 20+ years, it’s time to take another look at the history, evaluate its interpretations, and perhaps reach a better understanding.
The core book, Apartheid, 1948-1994, by Saul Dubow, analyses the Apartheid regime and its overturn. According to the author, a question not sufficiently addressed is “not why Apartheid was defeated, but how it survived so long.” He considers apartheid an idea as well as an ideology, and he argues that because the idea of apartheid was kept alive by the resistance movement, long after the ideology of apartheid had been silenced (or gone underground), reinvention and transformation have proven difficult. He also argues that in order to understand apartheid, we need to both “refamiliarize” ourselves with it - events, institutions, individuals - and “defamiliarize” it - that is, stand back and look at it from a distance so as to better see how unusual and curious it was. In the course of this SDG, we, too, will grapple with our understanding of apartheid and our understanding of recent South African history, and, perhaps, its significance for the world.
Weekly Topics
1. Background: Africans, Afrikaners, British before 1948 and the election of 1948 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_South_Africa); Dubow, chapter 1)
2. The Consolidation of Apartheid (Dubow, chapter 2)
3. Sharpeville and its Aftermath (Dubow, chapter 3)
4. Apartheid Regnant (Dubow, chapter 4)
5. The Opposition Destroyed (Dubow, chapter 5)
6. Cracks within the System (Dubow, chapter 6)
7. The Limits and Dangers of Reform (Dubow, chapter 7)
8. A Balancing of Forces (Dubow, chapter 8)
9. Conclusion (Dubow, conclusion)
10. The Truth and Reconciliation Report, conclusions (http://www.justice.gov.za/trc/report/finalreport/Volume5.pdf, 196-248)
Bibliography
Core Reading
Saul Dubow, Apartheid 1948-1994 (2014)
The Truth and Reconciliation Report, Conclusion, pp. 196-248 (http://www.justice.gov.za/trc/Report/finalreport/Volume5.pdf)
Additional Resources
Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom (1994); autobiography
Nadine Gordimer, Telling Times, Writing and Living, 1954-2008 (2010); collection of essays
Athol Fugard, Tsotsi (1980); novel about gangs in a township; made into a movie, Tsotsi (2005)
The Forgiven, movie, 2018; about the T&R process
