HIST 325(S) South Africa and Apartheid (Same as African and Middle Eastern Studies 402)*

On April 27, 1994, all adult South Africans-men and women, rich and poor, black, white, colored and Asians-were, for the first time, eligible to vote in national elections. These elections officially marked the "end" of apartheid. But the "end" of apartheid does not mean the beginning of a perfectly just and equitable society. South Africans, especially non-white south Africans will continue to fight against poverty, fear and intolerance. They will bear, that is, the burden of the past. It is for this reason that a detailed study of apartheid is necessary. This course will focus on the socio-economic, political and spatial history of apartheid in South Africa. Although we will be concerned primarily with the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, we will need to look briefly at the events 500 years old, when Europeans first settled in South Africa. We will then take up topics such as slavery and the origins of racial domination, conquest and resistance, the incorporation of Africans into the colonial economy, the creation of legal structures of apartheid and the eventual collapse of the racial order. Evaluation will be based on class participation, and three essays. Group C

Hour: MUTONGI