South African Past and Present

Catalog description

Explores the history of modern South Africa from the beginning of the mineral revolution in the 1860s to the post-apartheid present. We will cover mining-centered industrialization, the emergence of Afrikaner and African nationalism, segregationist ideology, and the construction of apartheid. We will examine the plethora of anti-apartheid struggles, and the regional and wide-ranging global efforts to end apartheid and usher in democracy. The establishment and promise of multi-party democracy, the AIDS epidemic, and the reemergence of social movements are all topics we will consider and we will conclude by reflecting on the place of South Africa as a regional, continental, and world power.