World LiteratureMr. Nurenberg

South Africa

HOMEWORK

1. Finish Master Harold and the Boys and the study questions for tonight

2. Keep working on your independent project! It will be due in two weeks, and is a major (500 pts = 5 quizzes) part of your grade.

TODAY’S AGENDA

1. Explain homework - pass out takehome quiz/study questions

2. Passback items

3. Finish up South Africa presentation

4. Discuss the play so far

5.Collect today’s homework (takehome quiz) at the end of class

South Africa is one of the largest and most ethnically diverse countries in all of the African continent. It has one of the strongest economies and, in many ways, one the most “Westernized” societies.

                                                                                  

                              

South Africa is home to some of the oldest civilizations in all of Africa. Today the country recognizes 11 major languages, dozens of “native” ethnic groups, as well as Indian and European descended citizens.

South Africa is home to more Whites than any other nation on the continent.

The ethnic group known as the San have inhabited Southern Africa for over 100,000 years, and the land that is now the country of South Africa for about 2000 years. They had close relations with another group, the Khoikhoi (to the point of intermarriage) at the time when the Europeans “discovered” them.

San Khoikhoi

By the 1400s, various tribes (known collectively as “Bantu” peoples) had migrated to Southern Africa, claiming most of the good farmland.

Evidence of in the ruins of Mapungubwe reveal a trading culture with an extremely far reach - artifacts from as far away as China have been found, suggesting that these people were very well-traveled and cosmopolitan!

                                                                                               

            

By the 1600s, the Dutch had begun to colonize the coastal regions of South Africa, setting up a major settlement at Cape Town. They brought not only their own people, but slaves from India as well.

                                                                                              

             

                                                                                              

             

Throughout the 1700s, as the Dutch companies plundered South African resources for the Netherlands, many Dutch settled the lands as farmers, or “Boers” in the local “Cape Dutch” slang.

                                                                                              

             

                                                                                              

             

Throughout the 1700s, as the Dutch companies plundered South African resources for the Netherlands, many Dutch settled the lands as farmers, or “Boers” in the local “Cape Dutch” slang.

These farmers, much like the American cowboys and ranchers, liked owning lots of land…so they expanded all throughout South Africa, gaining large plots of land through staking claims, trading, and conquest of the natives.

The local tribes, particularly the Xhosa (who were also a farming culture), fought bitterly against the Boer settlers, and later against the British. Some of these wars continued all the way into the 20th century, but the European forces eventually dominated.

As a result of developments in Europe the British took the Cape over from the Dutch in 1795. Seven years later the colony was returned to the Dutch government, only to come under British rule again in 1806, recaptured because of the alliance between Holland and Napoleon.

                     

    

The British found they had inherited the “responsibility” of fighting the Xhosa, and sent both troops, and settlers, to create a “buffer” against the Xhosa lands.

                     

    

The British found they had inherited the “responsibility” of fighting the Xhosa, and sent both troops, and settlers, to create a “buffer” against the Xhosa lands.

A combination of military defeats and starvation (a Xhosa oracle said that burning all their crops would make the Whites go away…and it didn’t) push the Xhosa back.

                                                                                                

          

                                                                                              

             

British missionaries soon arrived and preached against slavery, leading the British to outlaw the practice in 1834.

                                                                                                

          

                                                                                              

             

British missionaries soon arrived and preached against slavery, leading the British to outlaw the practice in 1834.

This infuriated many Boers, who didn’t want outsiders telling them how to live. So over 10,000 of them departed for lands to the West.

                                                                                                

          

                                                                                              

             

British missionaries soon arrived and preached against slavery, leading the British to outlaw the practice in 1834.

This infuriated many Boers, who didn’t want outsiders telling them how to live. So over 10,000 of them departed for lands to the West.

This became known as the Great Boer Trek, and to this day many white South Africans of Boer ancestry see this as a major symbol of pride and independence.

The Boer trekkers, much like the American pioneers, fought the natives in order to take their land and settle it.

                                    

                  

Meanwhile, during this century, an ethnic group called the Zulu were busy conquering all of the local tribes around them. Their charismatic leader, Shaka (pictured below), changed the very nature of South African warfare during his lifetime.

Until now, most wars between tribes were fought to a symbolic victory – a certain goal achieved, a certain number of deaths, etc – in short, they functioned almost like “sporting events.”

But Shaka introduced the idea of “total war”, killing all of your opponents, taking all of their land and possessions.

As a result of the wars the Zulus waged against their neighbors, many of the local ethnic groups were devastated, fragmented, and displaced…and thus easy for the Boers and the British to defeat.

                                                                                              

             

The Zulu met their match at the “Battle of Blood River” in 1838, where only 464 Boers defeated over 10,000 Zulu warriors thanks to their superior technology. The Boers took their victory as a sign that God meant for them to settle the land.

The British begged to differ.

They began expanding their own holdings, taking lands from the Boers as well as from the native ethnic groups.

The British begged to differ.

They began expanding their own holdings, taking lands from the Boers as well as from the native ethnic groups.

Control of these lands meant control of diamond mines and sugar cane fields, two of South Africa’s most attractive resources for colonizers.

                                                                                             

             

The Zulu did not give in easily. They fought the British fiercely, and at the Isandlwana Mountain on 22 January, 1879, 20,000 Zulus overwhelmed the technologically “superior” British by sheer force of numbers and passion.

                                                                                             

             

Think about that – the Zulus, armed with spears and primitive firearms, defeated the British army, which had machine guns and heavy artillery. Needless to say, the British took this as a shock.

Nevertheless, eight years later, by 1887, the British managed to bring the fight to the Zulu capital, Ulundi, and burn it to the ground, forcing their king, Cetshawayo, to flee.

                                                        

Zulu revolts and uprisings persist until the British divide the defeated Zulus into 13 sub-kingdoms, each under a “puppet” chief, and manipulate them into fighting one another instead.

                                                        

The Zulus, like the Xhosa and the San, are still around as ethnic groups today. Some other ethnic groups, like the KhoiKhoi, were entirely wiped out by disease and conquest.

For the British, though, the biggest war was yet to come. The Boers had been pushed back into the region known as the Transvaal, where the British had basically left them alone.

But soon the British government wanted to “unite” the Boer and British lands (the gold mines of the Boer’s region might have had something to do with that)…and so the Boer War began.

The Boer War lasted only three years, but was intensely brutal. The Boers scored some initial victories, but were generally outnumbered and outgunned, began to fight using guerilla warfare.

Native Africans got pulled into both sides of the conflict.

The British burned Boer farms and fields, and one British General, Kitchener, set up racially separate civilian concentration camps in which some 26,000 Boer women and children and 14,000 native Africans died from starvation and poor living conditions.

Eventually, in 1902, the Boers surrendered, and all of South Africa became a British colony.

By 1910, though, the “unified” South Africa became independent from Britain, with a majority of Afrikaners (Dutch descended – the same ethnic group as the Boers) among the white population.

Despite lobbying by Blacks and Indians, the Afrikaners did not let them be part of the new government – even though Africans made up almost 77% of the population.

Instead, the government assigned “racial classifications” to the population:

1. White

2. Black

3. Coloured (people of mixed racial heritage)

4. Indian/Malay/Asian

Each group had different legal rights in the eyes of the law. The Whites, the smallest group, had the most rights and power, and sole control of the government,

                                                                                          

                

Almost immediately, the new government began instituting extra laws that severely limited the rights of Black and Indian citizens. These laws escalated in severity, becoming known as Apartheid…sort of a “super-segregation.”

These measures increased with time, and with much resistance from the Black and Indian population. Sometimes, they won victories – for example, as a young lawyer, Ghandi successfully defeated a poll tax for Indians in 1924 through leading nonviolent protest.

But in 1948, a conservative, pro-Apartheid government took hold, and Apartheid would be the standard practice for the next forty-six years.

The Blacks of South Africa fought back continually, through nonviolent and violent means, for decades.

The Afrikaner police responded with brutality, often killing unarmed protestors (69 of them in Sharpeville in 1960).

One of the worst incidents, at Soweto in 1976, resulted in Police killing 172 people, many of them children.

By the late 1970s, it looked like South Africa was going to become a bloodbath. With many moderate Black resistance leaders killed (like Steven Biko) or imprisoned (like Nelson Mandela), the extremists gained power, using open warfare and terrorist tactics.

By 1984, the Afrikaner government operated in a “continual state of emergency”, yet it wouldn’t give in, and continued Apartheid.

The United Nations condemned Apartheid as an inhumane practice, and encouraged sanctions against the Afrikaner government, putting world economic pressure on them to give Blacks equal rights.

Many nations and corporations agreed to the boycott. Unfortunately, some of the largest US companies like Coke, IBM, and GM refused to pull their investments out of South Africa.

Many nations and corporations agreed to the boycott. Unfortunately, some of the largest US companies like Coke, IBM, and GM refused to pull their investments out of South Africa.

Additionally, people around the world, including Americans, continued to buy South African diamonds. All of this money helped the Afrikaner government stay in power.

                                        

              

Even so, the Afrikaners began to realize they could not hold out forever. They turned to Nelson Mandela, a prominent resistance leader who they had imprisoned for 27 years.

                                        

              

Even so, the Afrikaners began to realize they could not hold out forever. They turned to Nelson Mandela, a prominent resistance leader who they had imprisoned for 27 years.

Mandela, even imprisoned, remained an influential voice that many protestors respected.

                                        

              

President FW DeClerk entered secret negotiations with Mandela, who persuaded him that the time had come to release their hold on the country and allow truly democratic elections.

                                        

              

In 1989, DeClerk publicly admitted that Apartheid had failed.

In 1990 he conceded that democratic elections had to take place, and his government un-banned Black parties, including Mandela’s African National Congress (ANC).

Mandela (among others) ran in the first democratic election ever in the country. Now that the Blacks (the overwhelming majority) could vote, they elected Mandela President by a landslide in 1994.

As part of the deal, the new government did not prosecute the Afrikaners for crimes against Blacks. However, they did set up a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which made the Whites publicly admit to their wrongdoings for the record.

Today, South Africa is one of the most stable countries in all of the continent, thanks to its nonviolent revolution.

Its constitution is the only one in the world to formally recognize equal rights for women and gays.

It is also the only country to, having developed nuclear weapons, actively decided on its own to disarm and dismantle them.

Although high crime rates and AIDS remain huge problems, South Africa is still looked to by many as a model for the postcolonial world.