HIGE 307 - Modern South Africa

Credits: (3)
Provides an introduction to the history of the Western Cape of southern Africa, which is today part of the Republic of South Africa. The course is organized around two chronological units: the pre-industrial Western Cape to 1870 and South Africa from 1870 to the present. The first unit explores the interaction between hunter-gatherers and pastoralists, frontiers of interaction between European colonists and the Khoisan, the construction of colonial identities, and slavery, racism, class formation, and politics. Topics in the second unit include: British imperialism, Afrikaner nationalism, “coloured identity,” the growth of working class consciousness, rural transformation and agricultural development, the struggle against apartheid, townships, the 1994 elections, tourism, and South Africa’s relationship with the United States.