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| author | Kai Stevenson <kai@kaistevenson.com> | 2022-11-21 15:27:25 -0800 |
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| committer | Kai Stevenson <kai@kaistevenson.com> | 2022-11-21 15:27:25 -0800 |
| commit | 8ee99a5a2a4776cfbe350ab0b599d3473430622f (patch) | |
| tree | 107e5b48eed3d88e0f26ba767419a40b73df4779 /hstr122/nelson_mandela.md | |
| parent | 7c5df7e8b7b90eaf2b1fec1e94682e687a94ea42 (diff) | |
nelson mandela notes
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diff --git a/hstr122/nelson_mandela.md b/hstr122/nelson_mandela.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..36975f0 --- /dev/null +++ b/hstr122/nelson_mandela.md @@ -0,0 +1,33 @@ +Nelson Mandela +Dr Elizabeth Wyberg? + +Opens with video. Song written by South African musician. Nelson Mandela was imrposined, song written about "Madiva" clan name for Mandela. + +One page describing agency and structure. Remark if the primary sources influence your answers. + +Background to Mandela's election: +Mandela did not himself shape the history of the nation singlehandled. A member of a large cadre of people seeking reform towards democracy and liberty for all, not just the white minority. + +The Dutch were the first to colonize what would become South Africa. Under the Dutch East India company in the 1600s spread widely around the world. Initially, they started with a supply station on the southern tip of Africa, for their ships on their way to the "spice islands." +Once they established a small settlement on the SW tip of SA, they became more interested in the colonial oppurtunities. They did not come into an empty land. As the colony spread in-land, they came into contact and conflict with the Indigenous and African peoples. + +Into the 19th century, the British began to take over the Cape Town colony. The British then spread farther east, taking over more of the western and central regions of what would become South Africa. "The scramble for Africa"--Berlin conference, partitioned Africa. + +The British, in developing and exploiting all these resources, they needed a lot of labour--principally, the African natives. First enslaved people, later, migrant labour. People who were brought in from the rural regions into the mines and cities to work for the white minority population. Completely defines the labour practices of the 20th century. +In 1913, the natives land act was brought in. Black africans were restricted to the native reserves, which already existed but became formalized in 1913. About 7% of land for 75% of the population. Farmland, industrial land controlled by white minority, only 19%. A few years later, increase and remain at 13% of land. Natives should only be allowed in urban areas when their presence is demanded. The movements of blacks were determined by the interests of the white minority. + +African national congress founded 1910, opposition party to forward the interests of blacks. In 1944, young mavericks were impatient with the interests of the ANC, Mandela thought they needed to be shunted aside. Nelson Mandela attended the university of Fort Hare, first to accept black students. Mandela is often memorialized. He describes his time in school as a time where he learned to listen to what everyone had to say before venturing his own opinion. Humble man who wanted to understand all facets of a problem. +After a few years of BA, he went to Johannesburg, worked for a Jewish law firm. "Jews more open-minded than whites due to their experiences with prejudice." He started studying law in 1944, founding ANC youth league.1948 post war election in south africa. National party came to power. Only whites could vote at this point. Very right leaning party, some connections with Nazis. They held power into the early 1990s. They launched apartheid. "Apartness," segregation. Afrikaners as "God's chosen." Mission to create a space of white supremacy at the South tip of the continent. +Another part of the platform was Baasskaap "supremacy of the white minority." Authoritarian model of institutionalized racial discrimination. Grand Apartheid, the project to fully segregate south africa. Apartheid did not make anything new, rather it codified and put under one umbrella all the things that had kept blacks oppressed for centuries. "Natives" "Coloureds" and "Indians" innately inferior to whites. +Apartheid used various methods to enforce the segregation of the groups, namely violence +Population Registration Act divided the population into "clear" racial groups. However, the law was unclear. A white person is a person who is "obviously white" but not if they are "generally accepted as coloured." +Daily propogation of fear necessary for apartheid. Signs: "caution beware of native" "you are entering a white space." Bantu education act of 1953: Bantu being black africans, not permitted to be educated. +Nelson seeking to build a "rainbow nation." Freedom Charter of 1955 collected wishes for a free country from the people. The freedom charter informed the first democratic government of south Africa and the constitution of the new South Africa in 1996. "We declare that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white." Protests against the pass laws from the start. Early resistance mostly civil disobediance, but later, armed uprising--violence resistance to the violent nature of apartheid. +Mandela says "the oppressor defines the nature of the struggle." ANC had an armed wing, and was increasingly moving to armed resistance. And this was the era for armed resistance across much of Africa. Violence became very visible around the world from 1960 onwards. 1960 was the Sharpeville massacre, when a a march on a police station turned violent. The police shot and killed 69 people, 29 of them children. 250 additional casualties. Images! Perhaps because of those images, the story was a turning point for the international community. Next year, South Africa left the commonwealth. +Political leaders like Mandela were rooted out, went through 10 month Rivonia trial, and were sentenced to life in prison for carrying out acts of sabotage. Remained in prison for 1964 to 1990. +By the late 1960s and early 1970s, other young leaders took up the mantle. Many of them students. Afrikaans medium decree made it mandatory for 50% of school education to be Afrikaans. Afrikaans was the language of the oppressor, where English was spoken by educated Blacks. Growing resistance to Afrikaans, by 1976, student leaders were encouraging students to take the wide view: think to the larger structural inequities that shaped South Africa. The largest being white minority rule. Protests spread nation-wide, and up to 700 school children and university students were killed by police. This story, too, went international. +A global anti-apartheid movement began to grow. Parents began to come around: "they're shooting our children in the streets." Combination of students, parents, and international pressure. After 1976, youth became more oganized and politically aware. Part of a growing strategy to make the country ungovernable. Strikes, civil disobedience. +1985, in the midst of pressure, the government sought to negotiate with Mandela. They would free him if he would renounce violence. He did not. Finally, the president released the political prisoners and negotiations began to build a non-racial democracy. Mandela famous balcony speech. First international trip to Canada. Mandela voted in the first non-racial election in 1994, and was chosen as president of South Africa. +South African constitution, building on the Freedom Charter. One of the most progressive constitutions in the world, gives a right to land, a right to meaningful livelihood, etc. Economic rights. +And yet! Mandela faced with huge wealth disparities, 40 million population, half with electricity, a quarter without water, a third illiterate. Government financial reserves nearly empty. In order to access loans from the World Bank, they had to promise to do things such as cutting salaries of public service workers and state spending. Those policies tended to protect the wealth of the existing white CEOs. +Inequalities deepened by global neoliberalism. "To be free is not to merely cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enchances the freedom of others." |
