History of South Africa

Prof. Paul Landau

Mon/Wed  2:00–3:15  

HIST 319 G “Special Topics”

JMZ 3120 (note room)

The history of South Africa is now being rewritten.   South Africa is becoming an African country with a wealthy multi-ethnic upper and upper-middle class.  Many of the certainties of the period of struggle against apartheid no longer seem axiomatic.  New histories featuring new emphases are now emerging.  This class will also introduce a new structure: we will be limited to one major book for most of the ongoing reading, Giliomee’s The Afrikaners.  (In addition there are some documents, one essay.)  The book is an excellent history of a white group in South Africa; my own historical focus is on African people in South Africa.  I will refer to “Giliomee” throughout the semester.  At the end of the course, we will read a second book, a very different contemporary history of witchcraft and politics.

You do not need any prior experience in African or South African history to take this class.  You won’t be tested on any previous knowledge.

The two exams will cover different material: pre-industrial South Africa for the midterm (25%); one typed double-spaced 10 pt. courier or 12-pt. Times Roman essay (15%); mostly 20th century history for the final exam, including a take-home essay (20%) and a sit-down portion (25%).  Attendance, reading and participation will be the last 15% of your grade, which I may judge with the aid of brief quizzes or interviews at my discretion.

In the reading assignments you will sometimes see the flag, “chronology warning.”  This is to alert you that the reading does not refer to the same time period as the lecture (but it will be thematic).  Please read each week’s assigned material by Monday’s class.

Required books (paperbacks) avail. at the Univ. Bookstore/Md. Exch:

Hermann Giliomee, The Afrikaners (Charlottesville: Univ. of Virgina, 2003), 0813922372

Adam Ashforth, Witchcraft, Violence and Democracy in South Africa (University of Chicago Press, 2005), 0226029743

Other required readings will be handed out in class, or they are provided as a link, below.

Week 1 Wed. Aug. 31: /

Overview of course, syllabus, intro to South Africa

Week 2 Wed. Sept. 7: / Giliomee, Afrikaners, ch. 1 (hereafter listed by chapter)

Settlement of SA by herders and farmers

Week 3: Missionaries / ch. 2

Monday:  Sept. 12: When, where, why?

Wed.: Sept. 14:  Belief and the meaning effect

Week 4:  Settlers vs. Imperialists / ch. 3, 4

Monday, Sept. 19: Company “servants,” Boers and Hottentots

Wednesday, Sept. 21: Slavery

Week 5: The Frontier(s) in the 1820s-40s: / ch. 5, 6 + Documents:  Piet Retief, “We are now quitting,” & Christofel Brand, “Why can’t we ...”

Monday, Sept. 26:  Zulu, Xhosa

Wednesday, Sept. 28: Tswana, Griqua, Afrikaner

Week 6: The land: / ch. 7, 8   and Document, R. W. Msimang, “Specific Cases of Evictions and Hardships,” ca. 1915 (chronology warning); and Document:  “Life Story of Ndae Makume,” from Tim Keegan, Facing the Storm (3-40) (chronology warning).

Monday, Oct. 3: Fighting to keep centers of kingdoms (Moshoeshoe, Cathcart, Sekhukhune, Dingane)

Wednesday, Oct. 5.  Ceding to “white-owned” law

Week 7: The South African city: / ch. 9, 10

Monday, Oct. 10: Cape Town and District Six

Wednesday, Oct. 12:  2. Gold, Johannesburg and Kathorus

Week 8: The crisis of the 1920s: / ch. 11, 12; and Document, “Some Prayers and Writings of the Servant of Sorrows: Isaiah Shembe,” trans. Londa Shembe (ca. 1910s-20s). 

Monday, Oct. 17th: 1. Re-absorbing “religion”: ANC, ICU, Israelites of Gijima, Zion Church of Shembe

Wednesday, Oct. 19th:  2. Gov. demands for tribalization: Samuelites; Inkatha; the 1922 riots & Afrikaners

Take-home midterm.  Two hours, one night.

Week 9: The labor system in South Africa  / ch. 13, 14 and Documents: Anton Lembede, “Fallacy of Non-European Unity Movement,” from Bantu World (11 Aug. 1945); and Nelson Mandela, president of the Transvaal ANC, Sept. 21, 1953; from Carter and Karis, From Protest to Challenge . . . (Vol. 3), pp. 106-115.

Monday, Oct. 24: To WWII and after-

South African resistance and parades, 1950s

Wednesday, Oct. 26th:  1960 - 1970s

Week 10: South Africa and the world / ch. 15 only

Monday, Oct. 31: Sharpeville, MK, the IFP and the West

Wednesday, Nov. 2nd: Mozambique, “hot pursuit,” and the front-line states

Week 11:  The crisis of the 1980s / ch. 16

Monday, Nov. 7th: The revival of the opposition

Wednesday, Nov. 9: The labor and civil conflict(s) of 1984-92

Week 12: Criminals and statesmen / Gary Minkley and Anne Mager, “Reaping the Whirwind: The East London Riots of 1952,” from Bonner et al, Apartheid’s Genesis (Wits: 1993), 229-51 (chronology warning); begin Ashforth, to p. 88 (chronology warning).

Monday, Nov. 14: From the Tsotsis to Pagad

Wednesday, Nov. 16: Negotiations and free elections

Week 13: Evaluating South Africa since 1994 / ch. 17 (end of Giliomee); Ashforth: read to 133.

Monday, Nov. 21: The TRC revelations

Wed., Nov. 23: Land reform in SA and Zimbabwe

Week 14: The question of religion once more /Ashforth: 133-239

Monday, Nov. 28: Democracy and change after 1994

Wednesday, Nov. 30: Witchcraft and Politics

Week 15: Heritage and history / Ashforth: 239-318 (to end).

Monday, Dec. 5th: 1. Heritage and commemoration

Dec. 7th: 2.  The return of the Bushmen

Week 16: Monday, Dec. 12: Review