HIST 561: Liberation in Southern Africa

Instructor: Thomas Keegan

Day & Time:
Tuesday/Thursday
11:00 AM - 12:15 PM

Fulfills:
KU Core Goal: 4.2
HIST Category II
A collage of image that depict voting stations in south africa

Liberation in Southern Africa

What, exactly, is liberation? South Africa was one of the last major holdouts of white minority rule, with apartheid ending only in 1994. This course traces the struggle against apartheid and white-settler domination, from resistance and armed struggle, the rise of Black Consciousness as a philosophy of liberation connected to wider currents of Black radical thought, to Nelson Mandela and the transition to democracy. It turns to the difficult aftermath of liberation: efforts at national reconciliation and recent critiques of Mandela and the persistence of deep inequality. In examining these topics, the course asks what liberation achieved and why its promises remain unresolved in South Africa today.
 
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Catalog Description:

  • This course examines struggles for freedom in southern Africa and the consequences of political, economic, and social changes in the region.

  • The end of colonial rule, the demise of white-settler domination, and the fall of the apartheid regime is discussed. As a major political event of the twentieth century, the liberation of southern Africa had both local and global consequences.

  • The course analyzes transnational issues of liberation and resistance to consider broader regional and international perspectives.

  • Course themes pay particular attention to gender and ethnicity and include a focus on democratization and contemporary meanings of liberation. Prior coursework in African Studies is strongly recommended, but not required.