South Africa: Apartheid and After

1. South Africa: Apartheid and After 1) Apartheid: Resistance, Consequences & Cultural Responses 2) Post-Apartheid Society

2. What do you know about South Africa? Apartheid Table Mountain – one of the seven wonders of the world FIFA World Cup, 2010 AIDS (4.7 million South Africans — one in nine — are HIV-positive in 2002; source) Kami, HIV+ muppet (source) Diamond and gold

3. Related Films • In My Country (or Country of My Skull about Truth and Reconciliation committee) • Yesterday DVD 987.83 3130 • Tsotsi黑幫暴徒 DVD 987.83 6462 • Black Butterfly (2011) 黑蝶漫舞 about South-African poet Ingrid Jonker. DVD 987.83 6538 • Invictus 《打不倒的勇者》South African rugby in 1995 World cup DVD 987.83 5121 • Mama Africa《非洲媽媽》about Miriam Makeba

4. Outline • History of Apartheid • Race Relations up to 1948 • e.g. Cry, My Beloved Country (novel 1948; film 1995) • Trailer; end • Apartheid (1948-1994): Resistance and Consequences: • Stories of Race Relations & Education • Anti-Apartheid Movements and Cultural Expressions • International Cultural Boycott and Musical Crossover Post-Apartheid Society

5. Apartheid: Texts to Read or Miss

6. History of Apartheid (1) Causes

7. South Africa: Past and Present • Past – • Cape Town as refreshment station for colonizers on their way to Asia • e.g. Table Mountain Clip • Aborigines: San(or Bushmen), Khoikhoi (or Hottentots), driven to Kalahari mountains and the desert areas in the 18th century, when more conflicts arose between Xhosa, Boers and the English. source

8. Dominant population groups in South Africa Population: 479,000（2007, four groups: whites （9.1%）、blacks（ Zulu, Xhosa, etc.; 79.6 %）、colored（8.9 % ）and Asians（2.5%, including Indians) image source Black African Coloured Indian or Asian White None dominant

9. History: Triangle formed • 1652 --The Dutch East India Company arrived, displacing the Bantu-speaking black Africans; • 1795 --The British seized Cape Town, and the Afrikaners began the 'Great Trek' to find new bases.  • 1814 –The British displaced the Dutch, who moved inland to Natal, the Orange Free State, and the Transvaal

10. Boer Wars • 1867 -- 1886 Gold and diamond discovered in these areas Boer War (1899-1902) • (clip Cry Freedom 45:56) DVD 987.83 6625 Boer women and children in British concentration camps (source)

11. History –domination of Afrikaners • 1910-- the four colonies were joined together under the Act of the Union, and the British handed the administration of the country over to the White locals. • 1913/14 – Owning Land: The Mines and Works Act and the Natives Land Act: a 'color bar' was legalized and blacks were prohibited from owning land anywhere but in 'native reserves'--7 percent of the whole. • 1931-- South Africa gained its independence from Britain • 50,000 white farmers have twelve times as much land for cultivation and grazing as 14 million rural blacks • 1930s the government tried to mechanize agricultural practices in rural South Africa.  Fewer black workers were needed. severe droughts  urban migration

12. History: Approaching Apartheid • Residence: the Urban Areas Act (1923) -- introduced residential segregation and provided cheap labour for white industry • Work: the Colour Bar Act (1926) -- prevented blacks from practicing skilled trades • Suffrage & Representation: Separate Representation of Voters Act (1956), -- removed coloureds from the common voters' roll in the Cape, and established a separate voters' roll for them (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Africa_under_apartheid )

13. Examples: Cry, the Beloved Country (1995) • Novel by Alan Paton • Film by Darrell Roodt • Setting: (written in 1947), post WWII Johannesburg, right before Apartheid was institutionalized. • An aging Zulu pastor goes there to search for his son, as well as his brother and sister, only to find the son guilty of murdering a white man who was devoted to the cause of racial justice.  the relations between the two fathers.

14. Examples: Cry, the Beloved Country • Issues: Urban migration  the breaking of African tribes; poor living conditions of the blacks in the city  Tsotsi, fear, violence and possibilities of reconciliation.

15. Examples: Cry, the Beloved Country (1995) • ""There is fear in the land. And fear in the hearts of all who live there. And fear puts an end to understanding and the need to understand. So how shall we fashion such a land when there is fear in the heart? The white man will put more locks on his door and get a fine fierce dog, but the beauty of the trees and of the stars, these things we shall forego. • "Cry, the beloved country, for the unborn child that is the inheritor of our fear. Let him not love the earth too deeply. Let him not be too moved when the birds of his land are singing, nor give too much of his heart to a mountain or a valley. For fear will rob him of all if his gives too much. Yes cry, cry, the beloved country.".” (film 47:46 - )

16. Examples: Cry, the Beloved Country • "For it is the dawn that has come, as it has come for a thousand centuries, never failing. But when that dawn will come, of our emancipation, from the fear of bondage and the bondage of fear, why, that is a secret.” (2: 41; 44)

17. History of Apartheid (2) Institutionalization (1948-1994)

18. Apartheid --institutionalized • 1948 –Apartheid institutionalized since Afrikaner Nationalists won the election; • a method of “divide and rule” to counteract the so-called "black danger“; Afrikaner rulers saw Africans as threatening to overrun or engulf them by their sheer numbers. • Brutal racism: imprisonment, police killings and murder (e.g. confiscation of property and the forced removal of millions of blacks)

19. Apartheid -- other examples of the laws • Population Registration Act (1950) -- required that each inhabitant of South Africa be classified and registered in accordance with their racial characteristics • Group Areas Act (1950) -- designed to separate racial groups geographically • The Bantu Authorities Act (or Homeland Act, 1951) -- created separate government structures for blacks • Passes: Black men and women, or even people who appeared to possibly be black, were required by law to carry passes at all times stating who they were and why they belonged in a certain area.  Sharpville protest

20. Consequences (1): Shantytown & Lack of Resources • Black townships: e.g. Sophiatown, Soweto near Johannesburg • In crowded, often unsanitary, and potentially dehumanizing living conditions; • Shacks – made of corrugated tin, newspaper, cardboard boxes, and whatever else could be found to keep out wind and rain. • "Most of the yards had a single lavatory and one tap which were shared by 150 to 200 residents" (Mattera, p. 50). (e.g. CF: Squatters –opening; Pass -- clip 57:30

21. Consequences (2): Tsosti & Black Rebels • Education: 1938 -- fewer than one-third of the country's black school-aged children were actually enrolled in schools. • Tsotsi: meaning -- Someone who steals, lies and generally is not to be trusted. A township gangster. -- the many black youths who turned to street hustling (theft or murder). e.g. Cry, the Beloved Country -- Absalom Kumalo.  Tsotsi (黑幫暴徒 2005) Issues of Education in Njabulo Ndebele’s stories

22. Tsotsi (黑幫暴徒 2005) http://www.starblvd.com/cgi-bin/Movie/MV_Film?file=2006/Tsotsi/Tsotsi.html

23. Note: U.S. vs. South Africa

24. Resistance movements (1): • 1943 Nelson Mandela  ANC; PAC • 1946 – Miners’ strike • 1960 -- The Abolition of Passes and Coordination of Documents Act,1952 (all blacks should carry passes Sharpville Massacre); a large group of blacks in Sharpeville refused to carry their passes; the government declared a state of emergency. The emergency lasted for 156 days, leaving 69 people dead and 187 people wounded. (source) • 1960’s -- the banning of African National Congress (ANC) and the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC)  armed resistance; International sanctions and sabbotage • state of emergency (1960 – 1989):those who went on demonstration can be sentenced to death, banished or imprisoned.

25. Sharpville Massacre – anti-pass movement on March 21, 1960, in Sharpeville. 69 people were killed (including 8 women and 10 children), and of the 180 people who were wounded, 31 were women and 19 were children. “Our Sharpville” I was playing hopscotch on the slate When the miners roared past in lorries, Their arms raised, signals at a crossing, Their chanting foreign and familiar Like the call and answer of road gangs Across the veld (大草原), building hot arteries From the heart of the Transvaal Resistance movements (1): example • Oasis • Maulers of children • Shame??? Painting Photo

26. Resistance movements (2): • 1970  Black Consciousness (BMC); In Steven Biko's own words, 'we black people should all the time keep in mind that South Africa is our country and that all of it belongs to us'  e.g. Cry Freedom 32:00, 38:34 • -- insists on Black autonomy; formed a community, including a community clinic, Zanempilo • banned during the height of apartheid in March 1973, meaning that he was not allowed to speak to more than one person at a time, was restricted to certain areas, and could not make speeches in public. • Uprisings: • language education ( Soweto uprising 1976, the beginning of the end) • Arrested in 1977 (Biko killed on 12 September 1977)

27. Examples: Cry Freedom (1987) • Plot: South African journalist Donald Woods is forced to flee the country after attempting to investigate the death in custody of his friend the black activist Steve Biko. • Opening – The raid on Crossroads squatter’s camp • Ending –Soweto uprising (2:24:30) • Biko’s ideas – • Black Consciousness • his speech (31:32) • his self defense (naked racism) (38:34) • The community to a visit to a black township (18:30-) • Afrikaner’s version

28. Resistance movements: Soweto Student Uprising • "It was a picture that got the world‘s attention: A frozen moment in time that showed 13-year-old Hector Peterson dying after being struck down by a policeman's bullet. At his side was his 17-year-old sister. ” (source)

29. Apartheid: Repeal Efforts • 1980’s: International sanctions + radicalization of resistance movements  • Some minor laws (e.g. interracial marriage) were abolished by 1990; • 1985-1988, the P.W. Botha government’s elimination of black oppositions; • 1991 -- President de Klerk obtained the repeal of the remaining apartheid laws and called for the drafting of a new constitution. • 1993 -- a multiracial, multiparty transitional government was approved, and fully free elections were held in 1994, which gave majority representation to the African National Congress.

30. Apartheid: Cultural Responses

31. Response 1: Realistic Treatments Anti-Apartheid movements & Race Relations Bessie Head Mbulelo Mzamane “Amnesty” Nadine Gordimer

32. Response 2 : Indirect/Postmodern Treatments • J. M. Coetzee -- Foe: Historical revision or metafiction. Waiting for the Barbarian

33. Responses 3: Confirmation of traditional culture -- Njabulo S. Ndebele: Pay more attention to individual psychology and the influences of tradition. e.g. “Prophetess” (“The Music of the Violin”)

34. Ndebele on Children • "South African literature has generally handled the images of childhood as social criticism: • an infant abandoned by its mother. • Friends going against each other. • the entrance of the young in national politics education affected (i.e. Soweto uprising) • Reconstruction should begin with the recovery of childhood and innocence. (source: http://www.uni-ulm.de/~rturrell/antho4html/Ndebele.html )

35. Prophetess: Plot in front of the prophetess Room On a bus entering the dark room Blessing the holy water entering Bringing the water home Boys on the Street

36. Prophetess: Discussion Questions • People on the Bus: How do they relate to each other? And to the prophetess? • The boy & the Prophetess: On what is the boy’s attention focused when he visits the prophetess? Compared with the people on the bus, how does the boy relate to the prophetess? What breaks the spell the prophetess has on him? What does she teach him? • What does the ending mean? Do you see any traces of apartheid in this story, or seeds of the anti-apartheid movements?

37. Group Questions for Yesterday • 1. What filming technique does the director use? What are the effects? • 2. Why does John call yesterday beauty at the end? What does it suggest? • 3. Do you believe Yesterday when she says she's not angry? Why or why not? What could be the potential cause of her angry?

38. Prophetess –seen from different perspectives • On what is the boy’s attention focused when he visits the prophetess? Are they signs of her spirituality? dog; darkness, vine, his own sensations, memory, doek (African headscarf, 11); camphor (12); her coughing 2. The people on the bus – How do they relate to each other? And to the prophetess? How are they different from each other?

39. “The Prophetess” vs. the boy The boy • fearful of -- dog; darkness, vine, • attentive to -- his own sensations (shiver, warmth from the dog fur), the prophetess’ doek (African headscarf, 11), her coughing (12) • feel relaxed by – the smell of camphor (12); the mats ( his mother); her smile and her knowing his mother (14), memory of his mother (16) • touched by –the religious ambience, her prayer and her touch (which smells of soap and wax)

40. the prophetess’ lessons • Learn and serve 14 • Always listen to new things; then try to create • the song – “We too will survive the fire that is coming…” • What grows out of the barren wastes has a strength (15) • blessing the water with “the flower of newness” and faith (16) • we are all made of all that is in the world 17

41. Traces of Apartheid? The prophetess’s allusion to their hardships

42. The Other Views of the Prophetess • the bus passengers  superstition and sexism • The mother – try all the possibilities (western medicine, herb and holy water

43. Street Experience –also sexism • Timi discusses with Biza about a girl the latter claims that he’d “conquered” • a contrast between the two kinds of “liquid” • The boy’s sense of superiority (20) • Accident—bump into a bicycle • feels pain first, then sees/hears the bike-rider • then he realizes the loss of the water

44. The Boy’s Growth • sees thru’ the macho type of heroism • Controls his sense of pain; conquers his fear of being punished because of telling a white lie. • takes the prophetess’ lesson to heal the mother with “the water in the world” (24)

45. Response 4: Paul Simon’s Graceland (1987) • “an exquisite, multifaceted fusion of his own sophisticated stream-of-consciousness poetry with black South Africa's doo-wop-influenced “township jive” and Zulu choral music” (Britanica.com). • Township Jive (鎮區爵士樂 ): this “very up, very happy music” • acapella (無伴奏和聲 ) group Ladysmith Black Mambazo (segment 2; 7:30; Homeless 9:24); • General M.D. Shirinda and The Gaza Sisters; Miriam Mekeba (1—29:45)

46. Response 7: Music --"crossover style" • Enoch Sontonga's beautiful African hymn "Nkosi Sikilel'i Africa" (God Bless Africa; 1897); an anthem and symbol of struggle to generations of Africans -- the influence of the missionary school music training -- the innovative a cappella vocal harmonies of mbube music • Ladysmith Black Mambazo Mbube mellowed into iscathamiya ("to walk on one's toes lightly").

47. Ladysmith Black Mambazo • ISICATHAMIYA (Is-Cot-A-Me-Ya): born in the mines of South Africa. Black workers were taken by rail to work far away from their homes and their families. Poorly housed and paid worse, they would entertain themselves after a six-day week by singing songs into the wee hours every Sunday morning. Cothoza Mfana they called themselves, "tip toe guys", referring to the dance steps choreographed so as to not disturb the camp security guards. When miners returned to the homelands, the tradition returned with them.(source http://www.mambazo.com/bio.html ) • Example 1

48. HOMELESS(Paul Simon and Joseph Shabalala) Emaweni webaba Silale maweni . . . Homeless, homeless Moonlight sleeping on a midnight lake Homeless, homeless Moonlight sleeping on a midnight lake . . . Strong wind destroy our home Many dead, tonight it could be you Strong wind, strong wind Many dead, tonight it could be you

49. Response 8 : Artwork re. Anti-Apartheid movements, Black Identity & Race Relations • Dumile Feni (1939-1991)

50. Responses 8: Artwork re. Anti-Apartheid movements & Race Relations Ironic ad.—guerilla style, torn down soon