South Africa: Apartheid and After
1) Apartheid: Resistance, Consequences
& Cultural Responses
2) Post-Apartheid Society
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
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 SouthAfrican 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
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
Apartheid:
Texts to Read or Miss
Race Relations
& Education
• “The Music of the Violin,”
• “The Prophetess” [Nadine
Gordimer stories”]
Anti-Apartheid
Movements
• Cry Freedom; [“The Day of the
Riot” "Amnesty”]
Cultural
Expressions
Musical
Crossover Style
• [The postmodern vs. the
Realistic
• the poems on bodily pains
• art works]
• Graceland
History of Apartheid
(1) Causes
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.
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
History: Triangle formed
 1652 --The Dutch East
India Company arrived,
displacing the BantuThe Dutch
speaking black Africans;
 1795 -- The British seized
(Boer, Afrikaners)
Cape Town, and the
Afrikaners began the
'Great Trek' to find new
bases.
The
Xhosa
 1814 –The British
British
(the
displaced the Dutch, who
blacks)
moved inland to Natal, the
Orange Free State, and
the Transvaal
Boer Wars
 1867 -- 1886 Gold
and diamond
discovered in
these areas 
Boer War (18991902)
 (clip Cry Freedom
45:56)
DVD 987.83 6625
Boer women and children
in British concentration camps
(source)
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
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 )
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.
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.
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 - )
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)
History of Apartheid
(2) Institutionalization (1948-1994)
Sharpville
1952
Soweto
1975
1994
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 )
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
Consequences (1):
Shantytown & Lack of Resources
(e.g. CF:  Black townships: e.g. Sophiatown, Soweto near
Squatters – Johannesburg
opening;
– In crowded, often unsanitary, and potentially
Pass -- clip
dehumanizing living conditions;
57:30
– 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).
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
Tsotsi (黑幫暴徒 2005)

http://www.starblvd.com/cgibin/Movie/MV_Film?file=2006/Ts
otsi/Tsotsi.html
Note: U.S. vs. South Africa
U.S.
S.A.
modern, industrialized
an African, third-world
Western democracy with country with a white
an oppressed but
minority enjoying a
culturally assimilated
first-world living
black minority;
standard
separate schools,
native reserves and
transportation, and
locations
eating facilities
50’-60’s resistance movements
1964 the Civil Rights
1960s -- apartheid
Act; 1965 the Voting
reached its zenith.
Rights Act.
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.
Resistance movements (1): example
 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.
1.
2.
3.
Painting
Photo
Oasis
Maulers of children
Shame???
 “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 (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)
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
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)
Apartheid: Repeal Efforts
 1980’s: International sanctions + radicalization of
resistance movements 
1. Some minor laws (e.g. interracial marriage) were
abolished by 1990;
2. 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.
Apartheid: Cultural Responses
Response 1: Realistic
Treatments Anti-Apartheid
movements & Race Relations
Bessie Head
Mbulelo Mzamane
“Amnesty”
Nadine Gordimer
Response 2 : Indirect/Postmodern
Treatments
 J. M. Coetzee -- Foe:
Historical revision or metafiction.
Waiting for the Barbarian
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”)
Ndebele on Children
 "South African literature has generally
handled the images of childhood as
social criticism:
1. an infant abandoned by its mother.
2. 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 )
Prophetess: Plot
in front of
the
prophetess
entering the
dark room
Room
On a bus
Blessing the
holy water
Boys on
the Street
entering
Bringing
the water
home
Prophetess: Discussion
Questions
1. People on the Bus: How do they relate to each
other? And to the prophetess?
2. 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?
3. What does the ending mean? Do you see any
traces of apartheid in this story, or seeds of the
anti-apartheid movements?
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?
Prophetess –seen from different
perspectives
1. 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?
the other women
the big woman
the man with a balaclava (Woollen hat);
the young man at the back
the young man with
immaculate dress
“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)
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)
Traces of Apartheid?
The prophetess’s allusion to their
hardships
The Other Views of the
Prophetess
 the bus passengers  superstition and
sexism
the other
women – “really
happened” like a chorus
the big woman --- evidence?
the young man at the back – “heard” the young man with
it; “love is having women like you” immaculate dress – “We laugh
the man with a balaclava– cursing at everything.” No proof
them
The mother – try all the possibilities
(western medicine, herb and holy water
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
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)
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)
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").
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
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
Response 8 : Artwork re. AntiApartheid movements, Black Identity &
Race Relations
 Dumile Feni (1939-
1991)
Responses 8: Artwork re. AntiApartheid movements & Race Relations
Ironic ad.—guerilla style, torn down soon
Post-Apartheid Society
Long Night’s Journey into the Day
& In My Country
 Yesterday
Response 1: Long Night’s
Journey into the Day
South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC)
Purpose: Restorative Justice, rather than retributive justice
 Mandated to produce "as complete a picture as possible of
the nature, causes and extent" of these violations”
committed during the apartheid period. They did it with
the testimonies of the victims and pepetrators.
Reasons:
 chose Restorative justice but not retributive justice. The
perpetrators …” [had] to confess publicly, in the full glare
of television lights, that they did those ghastly things.“-Desmond Tutu
 Since the past cannot be un-lived, we have to face it.
 Criticized: justice before reconciliation
Response 1: Long Night’s
Journey into the Day
Case 1
1. Amy Biehl-- Amy Biehl, an American student in
South Africa working with the ANC, was killed by
four Black youths during political unrest in
Guguletu township.
 Why they kill -- "Killing someone like her exposed
both our anger and the conditions under which we
lived. If we had been living reasonably, we would
not have killed her."
-- Easy Nofemela on the killing of Amy Biehl
Long Night’s Journey into the
Day
Case 2. "Cradock 4." – Eric Taylor, a white person who
had worked (and killed) to uphold the apartheid
government and who now had a change of heart
and was remorseful for his acts.
His way of killing: beat the four persons (who were
supposed to be movement leaders, but one was
actually unknown to them) to death and then burn
them.
(clips 1—his belief, 2 –his change )
 The widows refused to agree with amnesty.
Long Night’s Journey into the
Day
Case 3. Robert McBride-- an ANC activist
 "No one has apologized to me yet for
either oppressing me directly or indirectly
or happily benefitting from my oppression"
-- Robert McBride on apology
Clip 3
 Is he a terrorist? Clip: MaBride vs. a
victim’s family
Long Night’s Journey into the
Day
Case 4. Guguletu 7--the story of seven young
men who were killed in what now appears
to have been a set-up designed to make
the apartheid police look as if they had
killed a group of dangerous terrorists.
clips
 Mbelo as a black policeman/informant;
 the process of reconciliation
Questions to ponder over (1)
What is truth? What is justice?
 TRC – presents conflicting testimonies;
Archbishop Tutu refers the past as a ‘jigsaw
puzzle’ of which the TRC report is only a piece,
and alludes to a search “for the clues that
lead . . . To a truth that will . . . never be fully
revealed.” (TRC report 4, qtd in Graham 11).
Factual and forensic truths vs. personal and
narrative truths
 Desmond Tutu on restorative versus
retributive justice
Questions to ponder over (1)
What is justice?
 Cases in Contrast:
– The endless hunting for Nazi regime supporters;
– Victims? Absalom in Cry, my Beloved Country.
– Victims? The US: The Washington Post (June
8, 2000) - "The nation's war on drugs unfairly
targets African Americans, who are far more
likely to be imprisoned for drug offenses than
whites, even though far more whites use illegal
drugs than blacks,.... Overall, black men are sent
to prisons on drug charges at 13 times the rate
of white men.... Overall, one in 20(1/20) black
men over the age of 18 is in a state or federal
prison compared with one in 180 (1/180) white
men."
Questions (2): How to resolve
large-scale conflicts
 law enforcement, & public policy,
 non-violent demonstrations,
 contracts, treaties
 use of force and imposed peace by the victor
over the vanquished.
 TRC: dialogue and collaborative problem
solving, arbitration, mediation, Truth is
‘the Road to Reconciliation’?
 A related question: what drive some people to
brutal killings? How do we avoid making errors
we are induced to make by historic circumstances?
Q (3): How do we face (collective)
violence & survive trauma?
 To REPRESS it, to seek VENGEANCE,
RETRIBUTION, or to UNDERSTAND and
FORGIVE?
 To face it through a certain ritual and with a
group of people, or to face it alone. (Example:
the journalist whose father was killed.)
 Is direct confrontation of the perpetrators’ and
victims testimonies productive?
 Should memory reconstruction be the only means
of ‘facing’ the past?
Q (4): Justice, Truth, Forgiveness,
or merely Amnesty
 Who should be empowered to grant forgiveness
when a person is murdered? Can the family
members ever forgive on behalf of the lost loved
one, or can they only forgive with regard to their own
loss? (e.g. Biko’s family)
 Is the TRC really engaged in offering forgiveness or
only amnesty protection against prosecution? Do
the victims’ testimonies get ignored when the
perpetrators’ are taken as reasons for amnesty?
 Can we forgive were we in the same boat? Do we
dare to confess and apologize?
– 80% of those who applied for amnesty were
black
One Possible Interpretation of TRC
 one effect of the TRC has been ‘the
restoration of narrative. In few countries
in the contemporary world do we have a
living example of people reinventing
themselves through narrative’ (Ndebele
qtd in Graham 12).
 E.g. The Story I am about to Tell, Ubu
and The Truth Commission, The Country
of my Skull ( In my Country), etc.
South Africa: Past and Present
Present Problems:
– increasing gap between the rich (Blacks) and
the poor (Blacks)
– 2007 survey: social unrest –23% of South
Africans worried about corruption problems,
and 21% crime rates.
• Causes: 1) the blacks venting their anger; 2)
conflicts between the capitalists and laborers; 3)
abolishment of death penalty, 4) illegal
immigrants; 5) police corruption (source)
– AIDS (later)
Post-Apartheid Society
1) Blacks’ Economic
Empowerment
Discrepancies
between Rich &
Poor
a. Cape Town apartheid after apartheid (2015)
b. Poor Whites
-- retrenched from the government office
-- injured and losing their work
-- 6:10 Afrikaners less entrepreneurial than the British
SA.
-- 12:30 explanation of the whites’ dilemma
-- 12:40 – argument over white poverty & black poverty
2) AIDS
Reasons and Current Situation (Chinese explanation)
(e.g. Yesterday 2004)
3) Education
4) Drought
(Climate Change)
South Africa's 'fees must fall‘ –more than tuition issue
In Free State (No. 1 corn province)
References
 LONG NIGHT'S JOURNEY INTO DAY:
STUDY GUIDE
http://www.newsreel.org/guides/longnight.htm
 LADYSMITH BLACK MAMBAZO
 “Homeless” lyrics
 South African Music
http://wus.africaonline.com/AfricaOnline/music/Sa
frica.html
 History (SAHO)
 Graham, Shane. “The Truth Commission and PostApartheid Literature in South Africa.” Research in
African Literature 34.1 (2003): 11-30.
References: Yesterday: Music
 WENA SE GOLI (when going to Johannesburg; English My Gold?)
Composed by Mpahleni Latozi
Performed by Madosini
 YAKA YAKA (when she the road workers help Yesterday build the
shack; when Yesterday builds it alone; English Yaka: Be bright and
clear, as pure water.)
Composed by Mpahleni Latozi
Performed by Madosini
 WOZA MOYA (Ending, and a few other places; English: Come
Holy Spirit)
Composed by Smiles Makhama
Performed by Azumah
 Zulu Dictionary:
http://www.archive.org/stream/zuluenglishdict01colegoog/zuluenglishdict01colegoog