Apartheid in South Africa
Resources and Supplies
 Overhead projector
 Access to internet, Youtube
 Recordings of South Africa jazz
 Copy of film, The End Game, or
 Exerpts from Nelson Mandela’s
autobiography, Long Walk to
Freedom: The Autobiography of
Nelson Mandela
Key Terms/Phrases/People
 Apartheid
 Nelson Mandela
 Soweto
 Exile
 Najority Rule
 Mbaqanga
 F. W. de Klerk
 Boycott
 Desmond Tutu
Standards Addressed
10.1.3 – Consider the influence of the U.S. Constitution on
political systems in the contemporary world.
10.10 – Students analyze instances of nation-building in the
contemporary world in at least two of the following regions or
countries: the Middle East, Africa, Mexico and other parts of
Latin America, and China.
California Common Core Content Standards for English
Language Arts and Literacy in Social Studies (see Appendix A)
Key Questions
1. What effect do government controls and sanctions have on
society?
2. In what ways can people resist governmental controls and
sanctions?
3. Should people resist governmental policies that they disagree
with?
Suggested Time
Block – 2 class periods;
Standard – 3 class periods
Topic Outline
Suggested Teaching Activities
Suggested Resources
Important Points
South Africa was colonized
by the Dutch and English in
the seventeenth century.
Over the following centuries,
the white settlers used force
to take control of the land
and establish a system of
domination over Africans
who originally inhabited the
region.
1. Review the history of jazz with
students, including its birth, and
ancestry.
For the teacher: “Apartheid
from 1950s to 1991”, Facts on
File: Modern World History on
Line.
http://www.fofweb.com/NuHist
ory/default.asp?ItemID=WE53
&NewItemID=True
Musicians returning from
WWII brought with them the
sounds of World War II dance
bands and the brass
instruments that populated
them. They had learned to
play with those bands, they
could read music and they
developed a “kind of
sophistication about them.”
When the country gained
independence from Britain in
1910, the new constitution
put political control in the
hands of the white minority
and institutionalized
Remind students of the blending of
many nations (Africa, Spain, France)
and styles (marching music,
quadrilles, gospel songs, call and
response techniques, etc.) of music
that went into the creation of the first
jazz sounds.
2. Ask students to listen to a few
selections from the suggested
recordings and think about the
similarities and differences they hear
in the music using the following
South African Jazz: Timeline
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/p
hp/article.php?id=1953
Music:
Freedom Blues: South African
Jazz Under Apartheid
Various Artists
Available for free at:
By the 1950s, the guitar and
saxophone were prominent in
South African jazz and for a
few years, Black musicians
were hired in Cape Town
clubs more frequently than
discrimination against
Africans, who made up 80%
of the population. Apartheid
was the legalized system of
racial segregation that
characterized the state of
South Africa from 1948 to
1991. The word means,
literally, "aparthood," or
separateness, in Afrikaans,
the language spoken by the
descendants of the Dutch
settlers.
The history of strict racial
segregation in South Africa
dated back to the founding
of the Union of South Africa,
in 1910. After that time the
country's all-white
parliament successfully
pushed legislation that
limited blacks' participation
in society, politics, business
and industry and ultimately
led to complete separation of
the races.
The minority government
banned social contact
between whites and black,
established segregated
schools, hospitals and
neighborhoods, with the best
facilities and spaces reserved
for the white population.
questions as a guide:
 Does this music represent a
particular kind of jazz?
 Are there "sounds" that are
different from what you’ve heard
when listening to earlier lessons?
 If so, how were the sounds
created, what might they
represent, and why are there
differences?
 What do you think it was like for
the musicians and composers as
they tried to play their music?
 What do the likes and dislikes of
society have to do with the
definition of jazz as an art form?
http://www.allmusic.com/albu
m/freedom-blues-southafrican-jazz-under-apartheidr403424
Next Stop Soweto Vol. 3:
Giants, Ministers And MakersJazz In South Africa 1963-1984
Suggested tracks: Sangiomo
3.56 (Malombo), Joe's Jika
(Dudu Pukwana), Next Stop,
Soweto (Dollar Band), Switch
(Chris McGregor & The Castle
Lager Big Band)
See Table 1 for recording
details.
Grazing in the Grass: The Best
of Hugh Masakela
Suggested tracks: Grazing in
the Grass, Bring Him Back
Home (Nelson Mandela),
African Secret Society (reflects
the smooth jazz sounds of the
‘80s), Thanayi (contains
touches of mbaqanga)
See Table 1 for recording
details.
3. Cut the Apartheid Timeline
(Appendix H) into strips as indicated
by the dotted lines.
 Divide students into groups and
give each group one strip.
 Ask students to take turns reading
aloud read the descriptions on their
strip.
 As each description is read, the
group should decide if the
paragraph describes discrimination,
resistance to it, or both.
Adapted from LESSON ON
DISCRIMINATION BASED ON
RACE, from the U.N.
Cyberschoolbus website
http://cyberschoolbus.un.org/d
iscrim/race_b_ita_print.asp
Appendix H is an Apartheid
Timeline that describes key
events in South African History.
Students will interact with the
timeline, become experts on
one segment, and then create
white musicians. All of these
developments influenced
South African musicians in
profound ways, showing the
possibilities and opportunities
that music afforded them.
Much like what was
happening in the American
jazz scene at the time, the
lure of impromptu jam
sessions lured musicians away
from the rigid structure of the
big band orchestras and to
smaller combos. Two of the
most important jazz groups in
South Africa at this time were
Dollar Brand/Abdullah
Ibrahaim’s Jazz Epistles
(mentioned above) and the
Chris McGregor’s Blue Notes.
However, the pre-Apartheid
laws were becoming
increasingly restrictive and
devastating for Black
musicians. Legislation
prohibiting the mixing of
races in social situations put
an end to mixed-race bands
and combos as well as
multiracial audiences. The
demolition of black
communities to make way for
white settlement destroyed
many of the places where
musicians gathered and
performed, cutting out the
heart of Black South African
cultural life. Many Black
musicians, who spoke out
against the growing
restrictions found themselves
without a venue for
performance and voluntarily
 Ask students to write their decisions visuals to share and explain


next to each of the paragraphs.
Note: Be sure to include attempts
to resist discrimination that failed or
were prevented.
Next, tell students that they are
responsible for creating
representations of at two of the key
events from their timeline section.
Encourage them to include an
example of discrimination, and
another of protest or resistance.
Groups are responsible for agreeing
on which items will be depicted, and
how they will be represented.
Finally, each group is responsible
for presenting their product to the
class. The group should be
prepared to explain their selections
and their representations.
their section to the rest of the
class.
4. After the groups have presented
their selections, engage the class in a
discussion, using the following guiding
questions:
 What are some examples of
discrimination that were carried out
through economic, social, and
political institutions?
 What prevented the early resistance
efforts of Africans from being
effective?
 What were some key acts of
resistance against apartheid?
 What was the role of the
international community in ending
apartheid?
 What economic tactics were used to
protest apartheid?
Help students make
connections and engage in the
discussion by bringing up
issues of racism that they,
their friends or families may be
facing. Do they see instances
of institutional discrimination
today? Where, who is
targeted, how are they
targeted, and why?
5. Play some of the selections from
the recommended recording, The
To help students hear what
was happening on the radio
exiled themselves (Abdullah
Ibrahaim). In some cases
(Miriam Makeba, Hugh
Makasela) musicians found
them selves barred from
returning home, or forcibly
exiled after touring Europe or
the United States. Many of
these musicians were not
allowed to reenter South
Africa until the fall of
Apartheid or chose not to
return home until the release
of Nelson Mandela.
With the growing frustrations
caused by the oppressive and
restrictive Apartheid
legislation, the place and
purpose of music from the
1970s until the end of
Apartheid changed in South
Africa. Workers looked to
music that provided symbolic
images of their once
independent African cultures
and in which “men and
women possessed their full
ubuntu (Zulu) ‘humanity’.
Musicians still played Jazz and
found places to congregate
and perform, however, they
added African drums and
hand percussion with guitar,
vocals and the flute.
Indestructible Beat of Soweto, various
artists. Ask students what they hear
in these later recordings.
 How has the music changed?
 How has it stayed the same?
 Based on what you now know
about South Africa, what might
the composers and musicians
have been thinking as they wrote
and played this music?
 Does this music inspire ideas of
conformity or non-conformity?
Why or why not, and what are
your reasons?
 Compare this to other post-war
jazz - What are some of the
differences and similarities?
and in the dance clubs of
Soweto in the late 1970s and
early 1980s, as mbaqanga
swept through the country,
play selections from the
following:
6. Handout the article, “South Africa
after Apartheid” (Appendix I). Assign
students a section (the opening, first
half of The Day the Music Died,
second half of The Day the Music
Died, or Advice on Rebuilding
Audiences). Sort students so that a
representative of each reading is in a
group. Have each student describe
her/his section to group members.
“South Africa after Apartheid”,
The Christian Science Monitor.
http://www.csmonitor.com/The
-Culture/Music/2011/0622/
South-African-jazz-afterapartheid-Looking-for-a-newdirection
7. As a culminating activity, and time
permitting, show The Road to Riches,
an episode of PBS’ Wide Angle Series,
that focuses its lens on black
economic empowerment in postapartheid South Africa, where whites
still earn an average of $6,300 each
year, while blacks bring home only
$950.
This site provides access to the
documentary in addition to a
photo essay, interview and
other rich resources.
http://ec2-75-101-14973.compute1.amazonaws.com/wnet/widea
ngle/episodes/road-toriches/introduction/916/
Music:
The Indestructible Beat of
Soweto, various artists.
Suggested tracks: Joyce No. 2
(Johnson Mkhalali), Thul'ulalele
[Just Stop and Listen
(Amaswazi Emvelo),
Sobabamba [We Will Get
Them] (Udokotela Shange
Namajaha), Nanci Imali (Here
is the Money) (Ladysmith Black
Mambazo)
See Table 1 for recording
details.