History 8B
Southern Africa
Spring 2011
Professor Burke
This course is a survey course intended to give a broad overview of the history of southern Africa since 1500. The primary focus of the class is on South Africa, especially from the mid-19th Century to the present day, but we will also be looking at the region as a whole.
Students will be assessed based on their work on two short (5 pg.) paper assignments and a final exam, with the final exam having the most weight. Students are also expected to attend class regularly and participate in discussion. Lecture sessions for the class cover material which is not covered by any other source, some of which will be a part of the final exam.
Monday January 17
Introduction and Overview
Wednesday Jan 19
Lecture: Southern Africa before 1600
Reading: Elphick, ed., The Shaping of South African Society, Chapter 1, “The Khoisan to 1828†[pdf]
Friday Jan 21
Lecture: Initial Contacts with Europe: Portugal and the Netherlands
Reading: Portuguese documents [pdf]
Monday Jan 24
Lecture: The Establishment and Growth of Dutch Settlement at the Cape
Wednesday Jan 26
Lecture: The Western Cape and the World to 1840
Reading: Elphick, ed., Shaping of South African Society, Ch. 11, “European Dominance at the Cape†[pdf]
Friday Jan 28
Discussion: Working With Primary Texts
(There will be a variety of readings distributed on Jan 28 in-class for groups in the class to work with and discuss.)
Monday Jan 31
Lecture: The Mfecane
Wednesday Feb 2
Lecture: British Rule, the Eastern Frontier and The Great Trek
Hermann Giliomee, The Afrikaners, Chapter 4. [pdf]
Friday Feb 4
Lecture: Between Imperialism Old and New: Southern Africa in the Mid-19th Century
Monday Feb. 7
Discussion: The Xhosa Cattle-Killing
J.B. Peires, The Dead Will Arise [pdf]
Wednesday Feb. 9
Lecture/Discussion: Writing Essays in History Courses
Friday Feb. 11
Discussion: Missionaries and Christianity in 19th Century Southern Africa
Blackboard reading: Thomas Morgan Thomas, Eleven Years in Central South Africa [pdf]; Tiyo Soga: http://www.dacb.org/stories/southafrica/soga1_tiyo.html; Paul Landau, The Realm of the Word [pdf]
Monday Feb. 14
Lecture: Blood River to Mafeking: Africans, Afrikaners and British in the South African Interior
Wednesday Feb. 16
Lecture: Diamonds and Gold: The South African Industrial Revolution
First paper due by 4pm
Friday Feb. 18
Lecture: Cape to Cairo: Cecil Rhodes, the “Scramble for Africa†and the South African War
Monday Feb 21
Lecture: The Roots of Segregation, the Land Act and Afrikaner Nationalism
Film showing: “African Jimâ€
Wednesday Feb 23
Discussion: The Cultural and Social World of Migrancy Before 1948
Ellen Hellman, Rooiyard [pdf]
Friday Feb 25
Discussion: Rural Life
Herman Charles Bosman, Mafeking Road
Monday Feb 28
Discussion: Lives Across the Color Line
Lily Patience Moya, Not Either an Experimental Doll, all
Wednesday March 2
Discussion: The Origins of Resistance
Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom, pp. 1-140
Friday March 4
Discussion: Indirect Rule
Michael Crowder, Flogging of Phineas Macintosh; Charles Rey, Monarch of All I Survey [pdf]
SPRING BREAK
Monday March 14
Lecture: The Establishment of Apartheid
Wednesday March 16
Discussion: The World Apartheid Made I
Blackboard Reading: Charles Van Onselen, The Seed Is Mine; Eskia Mphahlele, Down Second Avenue (pdf)
Friday March 18
Discussion: The World Apartheid Made II
Film showing: “Mapantsulaâ€
Monday. March 21
Discussion: The World Apartheid Made III
Henk van Woerden, Mouthful of Glass [pdf]
Wednesday March 23
Discussion: Resistance to Apartheid: ANC
Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom, pp. 141-448
Friday March 25
Lecture: The Development of Apartheid, 1948-1976
Monday March 28
Discussion: Resistance to Apartheid II: Black Consciousness
Steve Biko, I Write What I Like
Wednesday March 30
Lecture: Apartheid from Soweto to De Klerk
Friday April 1
Lecture: The Divergent Colonialisms of Southern Africa, 1880-1965
Monday April 4
Lecture: Decolonization and War in Southern Africa, 1965-1990
2nd paper due
Wednesday April 6
Lecture: Why Did Apartheid End?
Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom, pp. 511-559
Friday April 8
Discussion: Freedom and its Discontents
Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom, pp. 559-626
Film showing: “A Long Night’s Journey Into Dayâ€
Monday April 11
NO CLASS
Wednesday April 13
Life in the present I
West, Kupilkula
Friday April 15
Life in the present II
Dlamini, Native Nostalgia
Monday April 17
Lecture: The comparative politics of contemporary Southern Africa
Wednesday April 19
Discussion: Zimbabwe
Film showing: “Mugabe and the White Africanâ€
Heidi Holland, Dinner With Mugabe [pdf]
Friday April 21
Discussion: Botswana
Richard Werbner, Reasonable Radicals and Citizenship in Botswana [ebrary through Tripod]
Monday April 24
Lecture/Discussion: Thabo Mbeki, NEPAD and Jacob Zuma
Timothy Burke, “Misrule in Africa: Is NEPAD the Solution?â€, http://www.worlddialogue.org/content.php?id=312&PHPSESSID=b434d3ba46336de34f8cf56b1c56b041
Wednesday April 26
Discussion: What’s Next?
Friday April 28
Final exam review session
FINAL EXAM