For the understanding of Southern Africa, here defined as Africa from the Democratic Republic of Congo to the Cape of Good Hope, it is necessary for the following main themes to be studies: the irrelevance of boundaries both now and in the past. Ethnic and, today, state boundaries have always been permeable. Students of the region are thus forced to look outside the most obvious units of study. They will also have to investigate the similarities and differences within Southern African kinship structures, gender relations, political ideologies etc. the variable length of colonial domination. In some areas this lasted three hundred years, in others barely a generation. This has obvious consequences for the ways in which pre-colonial ideologies have survived. This lies at the core of the understanding of politics in the region. the prime importance of extractive industries for the economy of the region, In some places this has led to a relatively self-sustaining industrial revolution; in others the decline of the mining industry has produced urban collapse. In this, of course, the central significance of Gauteng to the region’s (and indeed the continent’s) economy cannot be overemphasised. the processes whereby technologies, material and immaterial, have been absorbed into African societies, or imposed upon them. This allows the understanding not merely of “development” initiatives but also of the (far more influential and successful) Christianisation of the region. Within this framework it will be possible to investigate the political traditions and the current politics of the region, the development of economic structures across the region, and extending well beyond it, the specificities of Southern African religious life, the virulence of the HIV-AIDS epidemic, the patterns of poverty and wealth etc.
Onderwijsvorm
The course consists of three blocks of two lectures each. The blocks cover different subregions, historical periods, and themes. The lectures provide students with basic knowledge and give an overview of canonical studies and topics. Students will read 100 pp. per week
Leerdoelen
The course provides basic knowledge about the region in terms topics, historical processes, current events, canonical studies and recent trends in research agenda’s.
Literatuur
to be given during the course
Toetsing
paper
Overzicht
- Long-term historical processes in southern Africa till the 1920’s & the basis of Southern African society
- Southern African society I
Basic ethnography of Southern African societies—Khoesan & Bantu-speaking—centred around the relationshipship between wealth in cattle and wealth in women, with the centrality of lobola, labour service, and Khoesan plutocracy. From here to the basis of political power and the establishment of African chieftainship, and of the formation and institution of states, with a comparison of the states of the Southern Savanna, the Zimbabwe plateau and of South Africa in the nineteenth century. Further on the centrality of witchcraft etc.
- Southern African society I
- South Africa II
In this lecture I will concentrate on the period from 1850 to around 1920, looking at the processes of colonial conquest, of the expansion of Christianity and of the social and economics changes consequent on the development of mining in Kimberley and the Witwatersrand. Emphasis will be placed above all on the social and intellectual responses of African communities to the imposition of colonial rule and to the economic possibilities created by the new urban centres, opportunities which might be as much agricultural as urban.
- South Africa II
- Colonial and postcolonial history of northern Rhodesia/Zambia and Rhodesia/Zimbabwe
The lecture on northern Rhodesia/Zambia will, pay particular attention to the developments after the 1930’s. Even though the development of the mining industry was the major determining factor in this period, political scientists have hardly dealt with this phenomenon. The second lecture will analyze the violent struggles in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe, and the way this was described and analyzed by political scientists. Particular attention will be given to the ways the role of Robert Mugabe has been portrayed.
- Colonial and postcolonial history of northern Rhodesia/Zambia and Rhodesia/Zimbabwe
- Recent History of South Africa: Apartheid and Post-Apartheid South Africa
Social movements against Apartheid. After the election victory of the National Party in 1948, Apartheid became a cornerstone of South African government policy. Apartheid can be understood as a philosophical construct, as a political model and as a socio-economic system. In response to Apartheid policies and principles, South Africans have initiated a wide variety of protest and resistance movements in the field of labour, politics, religion, civic issues, human rights and culture. After being banned in 1960, the African National Congress and the Pan-Africanist Congress took to armed insurgency and shifted their headquarters to other African capitals. Inside South Africa however, new movements sprang up, beginning with Steve Biko’s Black Consciousness Movement in the 1970s and culminating in widespread social protest in the 1980s. This course will discuss different reactions to Apartheid, with a focus on the broad-based mobilisation of civil society organisations under the umbrella of the United Democratic Front in the 1980s.
- Recent History of South Africa: Apartheid and Post-Apartheid South Africa