Freedom in Our Lifetime: South Africa's Struggle explores the dilemma faced by black South Africans in the early 1960s of how best to battle the racial discrimination imposed by the apartheid system. Readings, lessons, and videos prepare students to consider thoughtfully the complexities of South African society. Students explore the history of South Africa and the development of a race-based society, the effects of apartheid on individuals, the challenges to the system of apartheid, and the end of apartheid and South Africa's transition to a democratic, multi-racial society. www.choices.edu
This document includes a student text and a teacher resource book. The student text booklet introduces students to precolonial and colonial South Africa and the development of apartheid. Students have the opportunity to evaluate decisions made by anti-apartheid activists and to reflect on South Africa's transition to a post-apartheid society. The booklet is divided into 10 parts: (1) "Introduction: A Negotiated Revolution"; (2) "Part I: Precolonial and Colonial South Africa"; (3) "Part II: Apartheid and Its Opposition"; (4) "The Moment of Decision"; (5) "Options in Brief"; (6) "Options" (Option 1: Continue Nonviolent Struggle with Multi-Racial Support; Option 2: Use Limited, Structured Violence with Communist Party Support; Option 3: Advocate Guerrilla War Tactics for Africans Alone); (7) "Epilogue: Becoming South Africa"; (8) "Chronology of South African History"; (9) "Supplementary Documents"; and (10) "Supplementary Resources". The booklet is part of a continuing series of curriculum resources on international public policy issues. The teacher resource book contains a day-by-day lesson plan and student activities. The suggested lesson plan is divided into 11 sections: (1) "About the Choices Approach"; (2) "Note to Teachers"; (3) "Integrating This Unit into Your Curriculum"; (4) "Day One--Colonial South Africa"; (5) "Day Two--Poetry and Politics"; (6) "Day Three--Role Playing: Organization and Preparation"; (7) "Day Four--Role Playing the Three Options"; (8) "Day Five--Violence as Protest"; (9) "Key Terms"; (10) "Making Choices Work in Your Classroom"; (11)"Alternative Three-Day Lesson Plan". (BT).
The human rights movement in South Africa’s transition to a postapartheid democracy has been widely celebrated as a triumph for global human rights. It was a key aspect of the political transition, often referred to as a miracle, which brought majority rule and democracy to South Africa. The country’s new constitution, its Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and the moral authority of Nelson Mandela stand as exemplary proof of this achievement. Yet, less than a generation after the achievement of freedom, the status of human rights and constitutionalism in South Africa is uncertain. In government the ANC has displayed an inconsistent attitude to the protection, and advancement, of hard-won freedoms and rights, and it is not at all clear that a broader civic and political consciousness of the importance of rights is rooting itself more widely in popular culture.
In this fascinating memoir, the anti-apartheid activist recounts his lifelong fight for emancipation and the years he endured in a South African prison. From June 1963 to October 1964, ten antiapartheid activists were tried at South Africa's Pretoria Supreme Court. Standing among the accused were Nelson Mandela, Ahmed Kathrada, Walter Sisulu, was Denis Goldberg. Charged under the Sabotage and Suppression of Communism Acts for “campaigning to overthrow the government by violent revolution,” Goldberg was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment. The only white man convicted during the infamous Rivonia trial, he played a historic role in the struggle for justice in South Africa. Goldberg grew up acutely aware of the injustice permeating his homeland. He joined the South African Communist Party and helped found the Congress of Democrats. But it was his role as an officer in the armed underground wing of the African National Congress that led to his life sentence—which left him behind bars for twenty-two years. While in prison, the dogma of apartheid imposed complete separation from his black comrades, a segregation that denied him both the companionship and the counsel of his fellow accused. Recounted with humor and humility, Goldberg's story provides a sweeping overview of life in South Africa during and after apartheid. It also illuminates the experiences of the activists and oppressors whose fates were bound together.
The most important historical and journalistic portrait to date of a nation whose destiny will determine the fate of a continent. A brutally honest exposé, After Mandela provides a sobering portrait of a country caught between a democratic future and a political meltdown. Recent works have focused primarily on Nelson Mandela’s transcendent story. But Douglas Foster, a leading South Africa authority with early, unprecedented access to President Zuma and to the next generation in the Mandela family, traces the nation’s entire post-apartheid arc, from its celebrated beginnings under “Madiba” to Thabo Mbeki’s tumultuous rule to the ferocious battle between Mbeki and Jacob Zuma. Foster tells this story not only from the point of view of the emerging black elite but also, drawing on hundreds of rare interviews over a six-year period, from the perspectives of ordinary citizens, including an HIV-infected teenager living outside Johannesburg and a homeless orphan in Cape Town. This is the long-awaited, revisionist account of a country whose recent history has been not just neglected but largely ignored by the West.
In 1976, when he was imprisoned on Robben Island, Nelson Mandela secretly wrote the bulk of his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom. The manuscript was to be smuggled out by fellow prisoner Mac Maharaj, on his release later that year. Maharaj also urged Mandela and other political prisoners to write essays on southern Africa’s political future. These were smuggled out with Mandela’s autobiography, and are now published for the first time, 25 years later, in Reflections in Prison. This collection of essays provides a unique ‘snapshot’ of the thinking of Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, Ahmed Kathrada and other leaders of the anti-apartheid struggle on the eve of the 1976 Soweto Uprising. It gives an insight into their philosophies, strategies and hopes, as they debate diversity and unity, violent and non-violent forms of struggle, and non-racism in the context of different interpretations of African nationalism. Each essay is preceded by a short biography of the author, a description of his life in prison, and a pencil sketch by a leading black South African artist. The collection begins with a foreword by Desmond Tutu and a contextualising introduction by Mac Maharaj. These essays are far more than historical artefacts. They reveal the thinking that contributed to the South African ‘miracle’ and address issues that remain burningly relevant today.
Every Step of the Way celebrates the tenth anniversary of South Africa's first democratic election but also seeks to widen and promote a conversation about South Africa's contested pasts.
