Glimpses of post apartheid south africa elaine Haglund, Ph. D



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GLIMPSES OF POST APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICA

  • Elaine Haglund, Ph.D.

  • California State University, Long Beach


GLIMPSES OF POST APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICA

  • Elaine Haglund, Ph.D.

  • California State University, Long Beach



  • Elaine Haglund, Ph.D.

  • California State University, Long Beach



Continent of Africa





Background Data

  • About 42-43 million people (90% of whom are ‘people of color’)

  • Thirteen recognized national parties (both a republic and a monarchy)

  • Nine provinces, three capitals (Pretoria, Bloemfontein, Cape Town)

  • Eleven Official Languages in four major groupings



Early History

  • “Empty Land” Theory



Early History

  • Africa is where our species became human. Four million years of human evolution happened there.

  • About 100,000 years ago, it is believed that a handful of these early ancestors of ours began a journey that took humans to every corner of the globe.

  • Every country on earth is populated by descendents of those first migrants.











Modern South Africa: Diversity



Modern South Africa: Diversity



Modern South Africa: Diversity

  • Eleven Official Languages



Economy (1)

  • Modern industrialized, urban economy but a subsistence economy (low-paid labor)

  • Minerals: World’s leading supplier of gold, chromium, manganese, vanadium, and platinum

  • Private sector: highly centralized and dominated by the interrelated DeBeers and Anglo-American corporations



Economy (2)

  • How do you develop a new financial order without disturbing the old?

  • How do you create equality on a foundation of blatant inequality?

  • To what extent can you rely on the good will of the rich to uplift the poor?







Apartheid Black Sash Movement



Apartheid

  • “No education before liberation !”



Apartheid 1948 and 1990 (1)

      • Approximately 10,000 blacks were killed by the notorious system of racial domination.
      • The greatest damage was the dehumanization and humiliation of non-whites through ruthless laws and practices by about 12% of the population (whites).


Apartheid 1948 and 1990 (2)

  • When apartheid finally collapsed,

    • the oppressors sought amnesty for their crimes...while
    • the victims sought justice.




"The oppressor must be liberated just as surely as the oppressed, for he is the prisoner of hatred, robbed of his own humanity."

      • "The oppressor must be liberated just as surely as the oppressed, for he is the prisoner of hatred, robbed of his own humanity."
      • "While the particulars of our histories may have been different, the heart of our struggles, from Selma to Soweto, has been the same."
      • "Courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it."


Constitution

  • Constitution (1996) of South Africa is among the most progressive in the world.

  • Among the 27 Fundamental Rights is the right not to be discriminated against on any grounds and “in particular on:

    • race, gender, sex, ethnic or social origin, colour, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, conscience, belief, culture or language.”


Gender & the Constitution (1)

  • There shall be no discrimination on the basis of gender (including inheritance and property rights). But . . .

  • CAN THE NEW CONSTITUTION AND TRADITIONAL LAW CO-EXIST?



Traditional Law

  • Traditional Law

  • The National Organization of Traditional

  • Leaders (Contralesa):

  • The chiefs were defeated in their struggle to have the gender equality clause eliminated.

  • However, traditional leaders do have special protection under the Constitution.



Changing the laws of a society is one

  • Changing the laws of a society is one

  • aspect of implementing change, but the

  • most critical aspect is changing the way

  • society views those laws.

      • The hen knows it is morning, but she waits for the cock to crow.
      • The cow never leads the bull.
      • A woman married under custom shall be considered a minor and her husband her guardian.


Restitution - Land Claims

  • The bureaucracy has lagged in addressing the basic issues of restitution for land claims.

  • The government, for example, promised to compensate all families and their descendants who lost their property under apartheid.

  • But of the nearly 70,000 claims, only about 12,000 have been resolved.



Low-Cost Housing



Unemployment

  • Due to the 40% jobless rate among black South Africans, there is a 4% levy on businesses to finance worker training.

  • Job creation and training

  • education are imperative!!!





Job Training



Literacy Projects







Reconciliation - OBUNTU

  • Obuntu is about the essence of being human and the importance of communal harmony. Anger and revenge are corrosive of this harmony.

  • It is the best form of self-interest to forgive you, because if I do not, my anger that is directed toward dehumanizing you will dehumanize me in the process.

  • So if I can enhance your humanity, my humanity is enhanced.



The South African Interim Constitution sought to provide "Transitional Justice."

  • The South African Interim Constitution sought to provide "Transitional Justice."

  • It lay the secure foundation for the people of South Africa to transcend the divisions and strife of the past, which generated:

      • Gross violations of human rights;
      • The transgression of humanitarian principles in violent conflicts; and
      • A legacy of hatred, fear, guilt, and revenge.


Those violations could then be addressed on

  • Those violations could then be addressed on

  • the basis that there was a need for:

      • Understanding but not vengeance;
      • Reparation but not retaliation; and
      • "Ubuntu" but not victimization.


Truth & Reconciliation Commission (TRC)

  • Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation

  • Act,1995

    • Making known the fate of victims of gross violations by letting them relate their experience
    • Possible granting of amnesty to the oppressors in exchange for the truth;
    • Submitting report with recommended reparation measures.


Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC)-1995

  • Committee on Human Rights Violations

  • Committee on Amnesty

  • Committee on Reparation and Rehabilitation

  • The five-volume report cannot do justice to the complexities and nuances behind the decisions, such as resolving the role of the multiple bystanders.



Victims of Torture

  • Victims who experienced

  • brutality during Apartheid

  • now, at times, feel more

  • alienated—because the

  • most dramatic part of the

  • struggle that bonded

  • people together is now

  • over.



Other ‘Truth Projects’

  • 13 Truth Commissions - 1974-1994

    • Argentina (cessation of repressive military rule);
    • Bolivia; Cambodia, Chad (military victory);
    • Chile (gradual democratization);
    • East Timor; El Salvador (settlement of civil war);
    • Germany; Philippines; Rwanda; South Africa (gradual democratization);
    • Uganda (cessation of repressive military rule);
    • Uruguay (military victory)
  • Non-Governmental and United Nations Projects to Document Injustices

    • Benin, Bosnia, Brazil, Czechoslovakia, Eritrea, Zambia, Zimbabwe


Possible Sources of Revenue

  • Return of the Swiss Bank investments made by Apartheid leaders at the end of the regime;

  • Foreign investment – only if jobs are created;

  • Forgiveness of Apartheid-established debts by world banks.

  • The ability to attract foreign investment will largely depend on how effectively South Africa can implement its very progressive constitution.



Education

  • A single national education system, managed by nine provincial systems

  • Compulsory education for learners between 7 and 15 years old

  • More than 4 million have had no education; 3.5 million have had some primary education

  • Public and private primary/secondary schools; higher education (Technikons and universities)









Secondary Schools







The equal status of the eleven official languages, plus sign language, is protected by law.

  • The equal status of the eleven official languages, plus sign language, is protected by law.

  • All eleven languages serve as a medium of instruction up to grade 3.

  • In each region, at least 3 languages are officially taught. (There is no monolingual region in South Africa.)



The two official languages of English and Afrikaans are the languages of instruction/examination at grade 12.

  • The two official languages of English and Afrikaans are the languages of instruction/examination at grade 12.

  • In practice, there is only one language of record in secondary schools — English.

  • The language issue is an extremely complex one, and the reality is that the status of the official languages is NOT equal.



Languages in the Schools (3)

  • Concerns and Recommendations and a Possible Model for Language in Education

  • Toward a Language Policy that accommodates 11 official languages



Textbooks’ Differing Accounts



Higher Education University of Natal-Durban







Resources

  • Books:

    • No Future Without Forgiveness (Bishop Tutu)
    • Afrikaners’ Interpretation of South African history (Verwoerd, Prime Minister)
    • Long Walk to Freedom : Autobiography of Nelson Mandela
  • Resources for teaching about Africa and South Africa: http://www.csulb.edu/~ehaglund/africa.html

    • 1. Teaching-Related Web Sites
    • 2. Video Cassettes (South Africa)
    • 3. Youth Literature (South Africa)
    • 4. Children’s Literature (South Africa)
  • Fulbright-Hays Seminars Abroad Program http://www.ed.gov/offices/OPE/HEP/iegps/sap.html











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