HUM 310: (Post-) Apartheid South Africa Midterm Essay

HUM 310: (Post-) Apartheid South Africa

Midterm Exam

Part Two: Essay

Sparked by your interest in apartheid and post-apartheid South Africa, you are spending a year abroad in the California State University's South Africa Program. You would like to land an internship with the Institute of Justice and Reconciliation, which has just finished preparing the second booklet in the Turning Point Series, “Footprints in the Sands of Time.” As part of your application process, you have been asked to explain in an essay of a minimum of 500 words how you would include “a wide variety of interpretations and explanations” and how you would “encourage learners and teachers to explore [South Africa’s] rich past to develop their own informed perspectives on [the country’s] history.” The internship coordinator knows that you are taking HUM 310 and has asked you to make reference to specific examples from the texts you have studied in the first half of the course (including the assigned and recommended videos and internet sources) in your application essay. Because the intern selection process is competitive and the selection committee wants to be as objective as possible, you have also been asked to provide a pseudonym on your application essay (not your real name).

LexisNexis™ Academic

August 04, 2007 Saturday
e1 Edition

SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 11

LENGTH: 629 words

HEADLINE: Filling the gaps in South Africa's struggle history;
Booklet aimed at educating youth

BODY:

By Christina Gallagher

Under the National Party government's Christian National education system, the country's history largely began with the arrival of Jan van Riebeeck in the Cape in 1652 and blacks were portrayed either as savages or bit players.

Even today - despite new post-democracy textbooks being written - there are still glaring gaps in school history books and many of the country's youth, black and white, are better informed on the latest fashion and music trends than on the liberation struggle that turned South Africa into an internationally acclaimed icon of freedom.

Now the Turning Points series - developed by the Institute of Justice and Reconciliation - is trying to put that right.

Footprints in the Sands of Time is the second booklet in the series which forms part of a larger campaign sponsored by the Department of Education to broaden the understanding of young people about the country's past.

"The series is premised on the inclusion of a wide variety of interpretations and explanations and (to) encourage learners and teachers to explore our rich past and to develop their own informed perspectives on our history,' said Lunga Ngqengelele, Department of Education spokesperson.

This year's booklet commemorates 11 key events in South Africa's history, including the abolition of the slave trade on March 25, 1807; the 50th anniversary of the Alexandra Bus Boycott, when the local people walked more than 14km from "Dark City" to town and back every day for three months in protest against an increase in bus fares; the fifth anniversary of the launch of the African Union; and the death of Steve Biko on September 12, 1977.

The booklet is aimed at pupils from Grades 8 to 12 and 50 000 copies will be distributed to all public schools in the country next week.

The new booklet follows last year's The Age of Hope - From Struggle to Freedom, which highlighted events like the 30th anniversary of the 1976 Soweto youth uprising; the 50th anniversary of the Women's March to the Union Buildings on August 9 1956; and the 50th anniversary of the arrest of 156 anti-apartheid leaders on December 5, 1956.

The dates and events featured had been chosen by the Presidency and the Cabinet, said Ngqengelele. "The selection is of course based on ensuring that the omissions and distortions in the historical record are addressed."

Earlier this year Deputy Minister of Education Enver Surty said the commemoration booklets were necessary because the "advent of democracy appears to have created new values gaps in our system".

He said that, through examples set by role models honoured in the pamphlets, "we can show learners that alternatives to violence, abuse and lack of self-discipline do exist ... and sheer hard work can transform their own lives".

Sam Jacobs, of the SA History Archive (Saha), said teaching young people about the country's history, especially about the years from 1976 to 1994, was a "big problem".

"Struggle history has just become the boring equivalent of the Great Trek," said Jacobs. "It is such a part of nation-building that students are turning their minds off because they are so used to it."

He added that learners often perceived the struggle in a "monolithic sense rather than having a sense of the struggle within a struggle."

Teachers, many of whom grew up during the struggle, were resistant to teaching about the past, Jacobs said. "It is still a very emotional topic for many teachers."

He explained South African textbooks often used secondary sources and didn't make use of primary documents, although that issue was being addressed by the Department of Education.

Saha is currently working on a pilot project to prepare students and teachers for the national history exam based upon the use of primary sources from the period.

LOAD-DATE: August 4, 2007