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HIST2301 / HRTS2301 The Struggle for Human Rights in South Africa SMU in South Africa - Summer 2017 Jill E. Kelly ([email protected])
Struggles over rights in South Africa have helped to shape its emergence as a nation-state over a long period, though there is no suggestion that the objective of rights has been consistent or that rights claims have always been to the fore.
--Saul Dubow, South Africa’s Struggle for Human Rights
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Few events in recent history have captured the world’s attention as South Africa’s first democratic elections in 1994. Nearly twenty million people voted—many for the first times in their lives. This historic election was seen around the world as a miracle, a peaceful transition to majority rule in a country long segregated by race. But this was no miracle. It was the product of a long struggle of civil disobedience, armed struggle, and international alliances. It was a long struggle to not only end white minority rule, but also to ensure a society based on democratic values, social justice, and fundamental human rights.
But as Saul Dubow’s 2010 book on human rights in South Africa suggests, while struggles over rights played a key role in shaping how colonial, apartheid, and post-apartheid states emerged, these quests were diverse with varied desired outcomes. This short course considers the denial and pursuit of rights around four key areas integral to human rights. These include: labor, spatial segregation, gender and sexuality, and education. Each of these are central to understanding not only how colonial and apartheid states denied the black majority political rights but how the new South Africa struggles to rectify centuries of inequality.
Fullfills: Historical Contexts 1 (2012); Historical Contexts/HSBS Breadth (2016) Global Engagement (2012/2016) Human Diversity (2012/2016)
Proposed Student Learning Outcomes: 1. Students will contextualize, in their own prose, main events, actors, and primary sources in a defined historical period. (Historical Contexts 1/HSBS Breadth) DRAFT
2. Students will demonstrate an understanding of the material culture, underlying values, beliefs, or practices that are central to the culture(s) being visited or studied. (Global Engagement) 3. Students will demonstrate an understanding of the historical, cultural, social, or political conditions of identity formation and function in human society, including the ways in which these conditions influence individual or group status, treatment, or accomplishments. (Human Diversity)
Required Texts: 1. Nancy Clark & William Worger, South Africa: The Rise and Fall of Apartheid (2011, 2E) 2. Saul Dubow, South Africa’s Struggle for Human Rights (2012) 3. All other readings available on Canvas or in course packet
Course Requirements: Four quizzes on assigned readings and lecture topics (10% each) (five will be given; the lowest score dropped) Comprehensive final examination (25%) Field journal (10%) Participation (25%) LATE ASSIGNMENTS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED.
Attendance: Participation and attendance are mandatory. Attendance will be taken every class. If you miss more than two classes, you will be dropped from the class. Exceptions to these attendance policies include religious observances. Misuse of attendance sign-in sheet can be interpreted as academic dishonesty; do not abuse.
Academic Honesty: Academic dishonesty is presenting someone else’s work, writing, or ideas as your own. Familiarize yourself with SMU’s Honor Code, available from the Office of the Dean of Student Life and online at http://smu.edu/studentlife/studenthandbook/PCL_05_HC.asp. Ignorance is not an excuse. Cheating and plagiarism will not be tolerated; any student found in violation will receive a failing grade for the assignment with the potential of failing the course and possible suspension from the university. I will report all violations to the University. Students must properly cite all materials used in preparation of assignments according to the Chicago Manual of Style (Turabian).
Other Course Policies: Religious Observance: Religiously observant students wishing to be absent on holidays that require missing class should notify their professors in writing at the beginning of the semester, and should discuss with them, in advance, acceptable ways of making up any work missed because of the absence. (See University Policy No. 1.9.) Students will be required to submit reading notes or other makeup work for each missed class. Disability Accommodations: Students needing academic accommodations for a disability must first register with Disability Accommodations & Success Strategies (DASS). Students can call 214-768-1470 or visit http://www.smu.edu/Provost/ALEC/DASS to begin the process. Once registered, students should then schedule an appointment with the professor DRAFT
BEFORE DEPARTURE FROM DALLAS in order to ensure all reasonable accommodations while in South Africa. Please note that accommodations are not retroactive and require advance notice to implement. I reserve the right to make any changes to the syllabus that I deem necessary.
CLASS SCHEDULE* *The readings for the first week of the course are comparatively heavy, but you should have access to these books in advance and need to arm yourself with background knowledge about the country and its history to enable in-depth consideration of the violation of rights and the struggles to overcome those denials.
UNIT ONE: HISTORY & RIGHTS IN SOUTH AFRICA
Tuesday, May 30: The Study of Human Rights in South Africa a. Moyn, “Human Rights in History,” The Nation (August 11, 2010). b. Dubow, “Introduction” in South Africa’s Struggle for Human Rights c. Clark & Worger, Chapter 1, The Rise and Fall of Apartheid
Wednesday, May 31: The History of Racial Discrimination in South Africa a. Clark & Worger, Chs 2-4, The Rise and Fall of Apartheid b. Clark & Worger, related primary sources, especially the Freedom Charter
Thursday, June 1: The Legacies of Apartheid and Human Rights Violations in South Africa a. Clark & Worger, Chs 5-6, The Rise and Fall of Apartheid b. Dubow, Ch 8-10, in South Africa’s Struggle for Human Rights, 75-125. c. South African Bill of Rights, 1996
Friday, June 2: DEPART DALLAS
UNIT TWO: ENSLAVEMENT, SERVITUDE, & MIGRANT LABOR
Monday, June 5: Slaves and Servants in the Cape Colony a. Dubow, Chs 2-4, South Africa’s Struggle for Human Rights, 17-44. b. Robert Shell, “The Short Life and Personal Belongings of One Slave: Rangton of Bali, 1673-1720,” Kronos 18 (1991), 1-6. c. John Edwin Mason, “The State of the Cape,” in Social Death and Resurrection: Slavery and Emancipation in South Africa, 13-36.
Tuesday, June 6: Indian Indentured Labor and Gandhi’s Passive Resistance a. Ashwin Desai and Goolam Vahed, “Shiva’s Dance,” in Inside Indenture, 12-28. b. James Hunt, “Gandhian Experiments in Communal Living,” Peace Research 30/1 (1998): 83-95. c. Ashwin Desai & Goolam Vahed, “The Remains of Empire,” in The South African Gandhi: Stretcher-Bearer of Empire (2016): 19-29.
Wednesday, June 7: Migrant Labor and Unions during and after Apartheid DRAFT
a. Peter Alexander, “The Massacre: A Narrative Based on Workers’ Testimonies,” in Marikana: Voices from South Africa’s Mining Massacre (2013), 25-47. b. Tokolos Stencil Collective, “We send our tokoloshe to battle with those trying to make us forget the atrocities of Marikana,” Africa is a Country (January 2014).
UNIT THREE: RACIAL SEGREGATION
Thursday, June 8: a. Paul Maylam, “The Struggle for Space in Twentieth-Century Durban,” in The People’s City (1997), 1-26. d. Dubow, Ch 5, South Africa’s Struggle for Human Rights, 45-53.
Friday, June 9: Forced Removals: From Mkhumbane to KwaMashu a. Jason Hickel, “Engineering the Township Home,” in Ekhaya (2014), 131-161. b. Dubow, Ch 6, South Africa’s Struggle for Human Rights, 55-64.
Sunday, June 11: VALLEY OF A THOUSAND HILLS HERITAGE TOUR
Monday, June 12: Land Reform and Access to Housing in Contemporary South Africa a. Abahlali baseMjondolo, “A Short History of Abahlali baseMjondolo, The Durban Shack Dwellers’ Movement” b. Jared Sacks, “The Political Arrest of Bandile Mdlalose,” Africa is a Country (October 2013) c. Chizuko Sato, “From Removals to Reform: Land Struggles in Weenen in KwaZulu- Natal, South Africa,” in Popular Politics & Resistance Movements in South Africa, 117-140.
UNIT FOUR: GENDER & SEXUALITY
Tuesday, June 13: Between Oppression and Power: Zulu Women in the Historiography a. Jeff Guy, “Gender Oppression in Precapitalist Societies,” in Women & Gender in Southern Africa to 1945, 33-47. b. Sifiso Ndlovu, “A Reassessment of Women’s Power in the Zulu Kingdom,” in Zulu Identities (2010), 111-121.
Wednesday, June 14: Gendered Rebellions in Apartheid South Africa a. Iain Edwards, “Men, Women, Crowds, Violence, Politics and History,” The People’s City, 1-30. b. Dubow, Ch 7, South Africa’s Struggle for Human Rights, 65-74.
Thursday, June 15: Gender & Sexuality in Contemporary Policy and Practice a. Danai S. Mupotsa, “Lobola for my Love,” Mail & Guardian (July 23, 2008). b. Elizabeth Thornberry, “Virginity Testing, History, and the Nostalgia for Custom in Contemporary South Africa,” African Studies Review 58:3 (December 2015), 129- 148. DRAFT
c. Michael Yarbrough, “South African Marriage in Policy and Practice,” South African Review of Sociology 46/4 (2015), 5-23.
Friday, June 16: YOUTH DAY – INANDA VALLEY HERITAGE TOUR a. Stops include Cato Manor, Gandhi’s Phoenix Settlement, Ohlange Institute, Inanda Seminary, Ebuhleni (Shembe Church sacred site)
UNIT FIVE: EDUCATION
Monday, June 19: Mission Education: The Making of Black Englishmen & Women a. Shula Marks, “The Ambiguities of Dependence: John L. Dube of Natal,” Journal of Southern African Studies 1/2 (1975): 162-180. b. Meghan Healy-Clancy, “To Control Their Destiny: The Politics of Home and the Feminisation of Schooling in Colonial Natal, 1885-1910,” Journal of Southern African Studies 37/2 (2011), 247-264.
Tuesday, June 20: Bantu Education and Black Consciousness a. Pam Christie and Colin Collins, “Bantu Education: Apartheid Ideology and Labour Reproduction,” in Apartheid and Education (1984), 160-183. b. Scott Couper, “Fearing for its Future: Bantu Education’s Threat of Closure to Inanda Seminary,” Journal of Gender and Religion in Africa 17/1 (2011), 74-95.
Wednesday, June 21: The Right to Decolonized Education: #FeesMustFall & #RhodesMustFall a. Thuto Thipe & Dan Magaziner, “We are Called Those Who Have Come,” Africa is a Country (October 2015) b. Malaika Eyoh, “Our schools undervalue blackness and focus more on containing us than nourishing us,” Daily Vox (August 2016) c. Mark Hunter, “Market Forces Propel Schools’ Racism” The Con (September 2016) d. Panashe Chigumadzi, “White Schools vs. Black Hair in Post-Apartheid South Africa,” New York Times (October 2016) e. Sumeya Gasa & Leila Dougan, “Fees Must Fall 2016: Where to from here?” GroundUp (October 2016)
Thursday, June 22: Open Dress for PERB5310
Friday, June 23: Open Dress for PERB5310
Saturday-Sunday, June 24-25: Performance for PERB5310
Week Five:
Monday, June 26: HLUHLUWE SAFARI
Tuesday, June 27: HLUHLUWE SAFARI
Wednesday, June 28: Examination DRAFT
Thursday, June 29: CAPE TOWN TOUR Robben Island and District Six
Friday, June 30: CAPE TOWN TOUR