1. South African Independence, Mandela, and Apartheid

2. Who is Nelson Mandela? Mandela, Nelson: (pron. man-DEL-ah)
South African nationalist (b. 1918)
Leader of the African National Congress Imprisoned for 27 years - treason, sabotage, & conspiracy to overthrow the apartheid government of South Africa
Elected president of South Africa in 1994, 4 years after he was finally released from prison.

3. YouTube: Biography Nelson Mandela 6:50

4. S. Africa much different from India, internal opponent
White settler minority: Less than 20% of pop.
Black African majority: No political rights whatsoever within the central state
Struggle was against this internal opponent rather than against a distant colonial authority, as in India.
“Afrikaner” reflected their image of themselves as “white Africans,” permanent residents of the continent rather than colonial intruders.
Had unsuccessfully sought independence from a British-ruled South Africa in a bitter struggle (the Boer War, 1899–1902), & a sense of difference & antagonism lingered.

5. Why did white rule last almost 50 years longer in South Africa than it did in India (1994 versus 1947)?
Sizeable & powerful community of permanent white settlers in South Africa, but not in India, controlled the country.
Bottom right pic: Young South African man holds up his identity card, which labels his race & restricts his movements & job opportunities under the Apartheid regime

7. S. Africa Differed from India: prominence of race
Unlike India, S. Africa had a mature & industrialized economy (gold, diamond mining)
South African situation: the overwhelming prominence of race, expressed most clearly in the policy of apartheid: attempted to separate blacks from whites in every conceivable way while retaining Africans’ labor power in the white-controlled economy.
Enormous apparatus of repression enforced that system.
Rigid “pass laws” monitored and tried to control the movement of Africans into the cities, where they were subjected to extreme forms of social segregation.
Rural areas: impoverished & overcrowded “native reserves,” or Bantustans, served as ethnic homelands that kept Africans divided along tribal lines.
Even though racism was present in colonial India, nothing of this magnitude developed there.

10. African National Congress: advocating for the black African majority before being banned in 1960.
South African political party, established in 1912 by elite Africans
Sought to win full acceptance in colonial society; it only gradually became a popular movement that came to control the government in 1994.
Many of the political parties that had led the movements for independence in Africa were soon swept away by military coups.

11. Soweto: (pron. sow-WAY-toe)
Impoverished black neighborhood outside Johannesburg, South Africa
The site of a violent uprising in 1976 in which hundreds were killed; that rebellion began a series of violent protests & strikes that helped end apartheid years later.

12. Soweto
Young people were at the center of an explosion of protest in 1976 in a sprawling, segregated, impoverished black neighborhood called Soweto, outside Johannesburg, in which hundreds were killed.
Initial trigger for the uprising was the government’s decision to enforce education for Africans in the hated language of the white Afrikaners rather than English.
However, the momentum of the Soweto rebellion persisted, & by the mid-1980s, spreading urban violence & the radicalization of urban young people had forced the government to declare a state of emergency.
Furthermore, South Africa’s black labor movement, legalized only in 1979, became increasingly active & political.
In June 1986, to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the Soweto uprising, the Congress of South African Trade Unions orchestrated a general strike involving some 2 million workers.

14. Cry Freedom 1987 feature film directed by Richard Attenborough
Set in the late 1970s, during the apartheid era of South Africa.
South African journalist Donald Woods:
Forced to flee the country after attempting to investigate the death in custody of his friend the black activist Steve Biko.
Film was shot in neighbouring Zimbabwe
Although not banned in South Africa, cinemas showing the films were faced with bomb threats.
Film was seized by authorities on July 29, In some cases, there were reports that prints of the films were wrenched off the cinema projectors & the film remained unseen in South Africa until 1991.
Denzel Washington - nominated for an Academy Award for best actor in a supporting role for his portrayal of Steve Biko.

15. End Apartheid!
The combination of these internal and external pressures persuaded many white South Africans by the late 1980s that discussion with African nationalist leaders was the only alternative to a massive, bloody, and futile struggle to preserve white privileges.
The outcome was the abandonment of key apartheid policies, the release of Nelson Mandela from prison, the legalization of the ANC, and a prolonged process of negotiations that in 1994 resulted in national elections, which brought the ANC to power.
To the surprise of almost everyone, the long nightmare of South African apartheid came to an end without a racial bloodbath.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu: South African activist and Anglican bishop who rose to worldwide fame during the 1980s as an opponent of apartheid. He was the first black South African Archbishop of Cape Town, South Africa and primate of the Church of the Province of Southern Africa (now the Anglican Church of Southern Africa).

18. Peter Gabriel - Biko 6:58 Also a great version of this song here.
September '77
Port Elizabeth weather fine
It was business as usual
In police room 619
Oh Biko, Biko, because Biko
Yihla Moja, Yihla Moja
- The man is dead
When I try to sleep at night
I can only dream in red
The outside world is black and white
With only one colour dead
You can blow out a candle
But you can't blow out a fire
Once the flames begin to catch
The wind will blow it higher
And the eyes of the world are
Watching now
Also a great version of this song here.

19. YouTube: Cry Freedom by Dave Matthews Band (6:11)
How can I turn away - Brother/Sister go dancing
Through my head - Human as to human
The future is no place - To place your better days
Cry freedom cry
From a crowd 10,000 wide - Hope laid upon hope
That this crowd will not subside
Let this flag burn to dust
And a new a fair design be raised
While we wait head in hands - Hands in prayer
And fall into a dreamless sleep again
And we wave our hands
Hands and feet are all alike - But gold between divide us
Hands and feet are all alike - But fear between divide us
All slip away
There was a window and by it stood
A mirror in which
He could see himself
He thought of something
Something he had never had but hoped would come along
Cry freedom, cry
From deep inside - Where we are all confined
While we wave hands in fire - Wave our hands
Hands and feet are all alike - But gold between divide us
Hands and feet are all alike - But fear between divide us,
Slip away
In this room stood a little child
And in this room this little child
She would remain - Until someone might decide
To dance this little child - Across this hall
Into a cold, dark, space
Where she might never trace her way across this crooked mile
Across this crooked page
From deep inside where
We are all confined
Till we wave our hands

20. YouTube: Nelson Mandela NY Times Video Obituary