from the Macalester Public Knowledge Base

Syllabus for Comparative Freedom Movements: the United States and South Africa

Contents 1 Course information 2 Description 2.1 Class Expectations 3 Texts 4 Weekly syllabus 4.1 M 1/24 Introduction to the course 4.2 M 1/31 Structures and Ideologies of White Supremacy 4.3 M 2/7 Leadership, Ideology, Organization, and the South African Freedom Movement 4.4 M 2/14 Leadership, Ideology, Organization, and the African American Freedom Movement 4.5 M 2/21 Comparative Freedom Movements: Leadership, Ideology, Organization 4.6 M 2/28 Grassroots Activism: The U.S. 4.7 M 3/7 Grassroots Activism: South Africa 4.8 M 3/14 Comparative Freedom Movements 4.9 M 3/21 and W 3/23: SPRING BREAK 4.10 M 3/28 Grassroots Activism: Students in the U.S. 4.11 M 4/4 Grassroots Activism: Community Organizing in South Africa 4.12 M 4/11 Grassroots Activism: Labor in the U.S. and South Africa 4.13 M 4/18 Comparative Freedom Movements: Uses of Culture 4.14 M 4/25 Repression and Resistance: South Africa 4.15 M 5/2 Repression and Resistance: The U.S. 4.16 Th 5/5 Optional final paper due, noon today 5 Resources

[edit] Course information

• Comparative Freedom Movements: the United States and South Africa
  • Macalester College Spring 2005
  • History 394-01/American Studies 394-11
• Monday nights, 7-10 PM Old Main 009
  • Optional films, Wednesday nights, 7 PM Old Main 010
• Peter Rachleff 6371 Old Main 306
  • Office hours: M 10 am -12 noon T 8:30 am – 10 am Th 12 noon – 2 pm

[edit] Description

Two of the most important movements to challenge institutionalized racism in the second half of the 20th century were the civil rights movement in the United States and the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa. This course will explore these two movements in a comparative fashion: the nature of institutionalized racism, structures, ideologies, and identities in each society; the leadership produced by both movements; the functioning of both movements at a grassroots level; internal tensions, conflicts, and diversity within each movement; the roles of particular cohorts – women, workers, youth, allies – in each movement; the uses of culture – music, theater, poetry, visual art, etc. – in each movement. We will also be interested in the ways that the power structure – particularly the state – responded to the challenges raised by these movements. In addition to our comparative structure, we will also be interested in how the movements influenced each other, became interwoven, and can be understood in a transnational, diasporic sense. We will rely on scholarly readings, memoirs, biographies, autobiographies, primary documents, music, documentary and dramatic films, and guest speakers to help us explore both of these movements.

[edit] Class Expectations

This is an advanced level course which assumes that students have some knowledge of the processes of comparative racial formations and anti-racist activism, some experience interpreting primary documents, weighing historical arguments, and writing analytical papers. There are no expectations that students have any prior knowledge of the histories of South Africa or the United States, let alone these particular movements, or any prior experience in a History course at Macalester.

This course is intended to provide a substantial learning experience and students should take it only if you are prepared to make a substantial commitment. In order to accommodate interest and to build a certain level of energy, the class size will be a bit larger (35 in contrast to a more typical 25) than normal, and, with the class meeting formally only once a week, there is the danger that students who assume a passive orientation to the class could become lost. Please ask yourself if you are prepared to make a substantial commitment to this course before signing on for keeps. The reading load is heavy, essentially one book a week required. There are also recommended readings that will be valuable when you are writing a paper or taking a lead role in a class presentation. I have also decided to schedule an optional Wednesday night session for film viewing in Old Main 010. While I cannot require you to attend these additional sessions, they will be a valuable source for the gathering of additional information and additional layers of understanding. I do have personal copies of most of this visual material and so, if you are unable to attend a Wednesday night session, it should be possible to make other opportunities possible. There will also be additional events – the African American Studies Conference on February 11-12, performances by John O’Neal, the founder of the Free Southern Theatre Movement, on March 5-6, and other learning opportunities – that I will expect you to attend and that we will fold into our work in the course.

You will be expected to attend all of the Monday night classes and to come prepared to discuss the night’s reading assignment. We will do a variety of things in these three hour blocks – some lecture from me, perhaps a guest lecture, listening to music, viewing film, reading and interpreting primary documents, meeting in small groups, raising questions within the class as a whole. I guarantee you that time will not lag. You will be expected to make at least one brief oral presentation to the class about a recommended reading – a tight five minutes in front of the class and 2-3 written pages to me – in which you analyze the relationship of that reading to the night’s required text(s). There will be a short paper in response to the African American Studies Conference, three analytical papers of 4-5 pages in length and an optional final paper. These will not be “research” papers that require you to go beyond the syllabus for information, but I will offer “A” grades only to those papers which make some use of the recommended readings and the films. You will be expected to articulate and support an argument/ hypothesis in each of your papers, and to provide footnotes and references in a conventional scholarly format. Your grade for the course will be based on your weekly participation, your oral presentation, and your papers. I will be available to you to discuss your work all along the way, from strategizing an oral presentation to developing an argument for a paper, to deciding whether to commit to the optional final paper. I hope you will make it a habit to visit me in my office to discuss all of this and the material we will be engaging.

[edit] Texts

The following books are available for purchase:

• G. Frederickson, WHITE SUPREMACY
• N. Mandela, LONG WALK TO FREEDOM
• D. Garrow, BEARING THE CROSS
• A. Marx, LESSONS OF STRUGGLE
• C. Carson, IN STRUGGLE
• M. Mayekiso, TOWNSHIP POLITICS
• C. Payne, I’VE GOT THE LIGHT OF FREEDOM
• A. Krog, THE COUNTRY OF MY SKULL
• W. Churchill, THE COINTELPRO PAPERS

Additional readings will be available via weblinks such as JSTOR, on Electronic Reserve via the Library’s website or in the Electronic Course Folder that you can find through any college computer.

[edit] Weekly syllabus

(subject to change)

[edit] M 1/24 Introduction to the course

• View and discuss Mapantsula
  • reflecting on MAPANTSULA

W 1/26 Nothing but a man

[edit] M 1/31 Structures and Ideologies of White Supremacy

• Required:
  • Frederickson, WHITE SUPREMACY: A COMPARATIVE STUDY IN AMERICAN AND SOUTH AFRICAN HISTORY
    • reading WHITE SUPREMACY

• Recommended:
  • Frederick Cooper, "Race, Ideology, and the Perils of Comparative History," AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW (October 1996), 1122-1138 [JSTOR]
  • Shula Marks, "White Supremacy: A Review Article," COMPARATIVE STUDIES IN SOCIETY AND HISTORY (April 1987), 385-397 [JSTOR]
  • Harold Wolpe, "Capitalism and Cheap Labor Power in South Africa: From Segregation to Apartheid" [E-Reserve]
  • Philip Bonner, Peter Deltus, and Deborah Posel, "The Shaping of Apartheid: Contradiction, Continuity, and Popular Struggle" [E-Reserve]
  • Leonard Thompson, A HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA, ch.6: "The Apartheid Era, 1948-1978," and ch.7: "Apartheid in Crisis, 1978-1989" [E Course Folder]
  • Joseph Lelyveld, MOVE YOUR SHADOW: SOUTH AFRICA, BLACK AND WHITE, ch.11: "W-A-R" [E-Reserve]
  • Nan Woodruff, AMERICAN CONGO: THE AFRICAN AMERICAN FREEDOM STRUGGLE IN THE DELTA, ch.6: "A War Within a War" [E-Reserve]
  • Manning Marable, HOW CAPITALISM UNDERDEVELOPED BLACK AMERICA, ch.1: "The Crisis of the Black Working Class" [E-R]
  • Cedric Robinson, BLACK MARXISM, ch.1: "Racial Capitalism: The Non-Objective Character of Capitalist Development" [E-R]

W 2/2 Bamboozled

[edit] M 2/7 Leadership, Ideology, Organization, and the South African Freedom Movement

Hand out topic and guidelines for Paper #1, due 2/21

• Required:
  • Nelson Mandela, LONG WALK TO FREEDOM

W 2/9 Boesman and Lena

• Reading available:
  • Errol Durbach, "'…No Time for Apartheid': Dancing Free of the System in Athol Fugard's Boesman and Lena," in Marcia Blumberg and Dennis Walder, eds., SOUTH AFRICAN THEATRE AS/AND INTERVENTION

F 2/11 and Sat 2/12: African American Studies Conference: "Incarcerated Intelligence"

[edit] M 2/14 Leadership, Ideology, Organization, and the African American Freedom Movement

Short paper due on the conference and its relation to the course

• Required:
  • David Garrow, BEARING THE CROSS: MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR., AND THE SOUTHERN CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE
• Recommended:
  • MAGAZINE OF HISTORY (January 2005), articles on Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Civil Rights Movement [click here]

W 2/16 Malcolm X

[edit] M 2/21 Comparative Freedom Movements: Leadership, Ideology, Organization

• Required:
  • Lewis V. Baldwin, "Soaring on the Wings of Pride: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the 'New' South Africa," SAFUNDI, 15 (July 2004)
• Recommended:
  • Shaun Johnson, "'The Soldiers of Luthuli': Youth in the Politics of Resistance in South Africa" [E-Reserve]
  • Steve Biko, I WRITE WHAT I LIKE, selections
  • Lewis Gordon, "New Introduction to the American Edition of Steve Biko's I WRITE WHAT I LIKE [E-Course Folder]
  • Nigel Gibson, "Black Consciousness 1977-1987: The Dialectics of Liberation in South Africa" [E-Reserve]
  • Richard Monroe, LESSONS OF THE 1950S, a critique of the ANC and the South African Communist Party from a small Marxist group in SA
  • Lance Hill, THE DEACONS FOR DEFENSE: ARMED RESISTANCE AND THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT, ch.4: "Not Selma" and ch.5: "On to Bogalusa"
  • Timothy Tyson, "Robert Williams, 'Black Power,' and the Roots of the African American Freedom Struggle," JOURNAL OF AMERICAN HISTORY (Sept. 1998) [JSTOR]
  • Film: Freedom on My Mind

W 2/23 Cry Freedom

• Paper #1 due tonight read assignment
• Reading:
  • Elaine Dubourdieu, "Biko, Blackness, and Black Consciousness in Richard Attenborough's Cry Freedom" [E-Course Folder]

[edit] M 2/28 Grassroots Activism: The U.S.

Hand out topic and guidelines for Paper #2, due 3/14

• Class will go to the St. Paul Labor Center instead. Meet at the Parking Lot behind Carnegie at 6:30pm. More information on tonight's program at: Speakers Club Program celebrates civil rights movement

• Required:

W 3/2 Eyes on the Prize Four Little Girls

• Recommended:
  • Diane McWhorter. Carry me home.

[edit] M 3/7 Grassroots Activism: South Africa

• Required:
  • Charles Payne, I'VE GOT THE LIGHT OF FREEDOM: THE ORGANIZING TRADITION AND THE MISSISSIPPI FREEDOM STRUGGLE
  • M. Bahati Kuumba. You've Struck a Rock":Comparing Gender, Social Movements, and Transformation in the United States and South Africa"
  • Kalpana Hiralal "We Shall Resist". The role of Indian Women in the Passive Resistance Campaign 1946-1948

W 3/9 Finally Got the News Serafina

[edit] M 3/14 Comparative Freedom Movements

Paper #2 due tonight

• Catch up on readings
• Food for thought:
  • Anthony Marx, LESSONS OF STRUGGLE: SOUTH AFRICAN INTERNAL OPPOSITION, 1960-1990
  • Gerhard Maree, "Race Thinking and Thinking About Race In Contemporary South Africa" [E-Course Folder]
  • Film: Freedom Song Read and discuss "Day of Absence" [E-Course Folder]

W 3/16 Serafina

[edit] M 3/21 and W 3/23: SPRING BREAK

[edit] M 3/28 Grassroots Activism: Students in the U.S.

• Required:
  • Clay Carson, IN STRUGGLE: SNCC AND THE BLACK AWAKENING OF THE 1960S
• Recommended:
  • Barbara Ransby, ELLA BAKER AND THE BLACK FREEDOM MOVEMENT, ch.8: "Mentoring a New Generation of Activists" [E-Reserve]

W 3/30 Four Little Girls

[edit] M 4/4 Grassroots Activism: Community Organizing in South Africa

Hand out topic and guidelines for paper #3, due 4/25

• Required:
  • Mizwanele Mayekiso, TOWNSHIP POLITICS: CIVIC STRUGGLES FOR A NEW SOUTH AFRICA

W 4/6 Compelling Freedom; You Have Touched a Rock

• Available reading:
  • EAR TO THE GROUND: CONTEMPORARY WORKER POETS, esp. Frank Meintjies [E-Course Folder]

[edit] M 4/11 Grassroots Activism: Labor in the U.S. and South Africa

• Required:
  • David Montgomery, "Introduction: Union Activists in Industry and in the Community," in Horace Huntley and David Montgomery, BLACK WORKERS' STRUGGLE FOR EQUALITY IN BIRMINGHAM, and
  • interviews with Harvey Lee Henley, Jr. and George Price [E Course Folder]
  • Robert Korstad, CIVIL RIGHTS UNIONISM: TOBACCO WORKERS AND THE STRUGGLE FOR DEMOCRACY IN THE MID-20TH CENTURY SOUTH, ch.11: "It Wasn't Just the Wages We Wanted, But Freedom" [E-Reserve]
  • Ari Sitas, "The Sweat Was Black: Working for Dunlop" [E-Reserve]
  • Phillip van Niekerk, "The Trade Union Movement in the Politics of Resistance in South Africa [E-Reserve]
  • John Hinshaw, "The Politics of Steel in the United States and South Africa" [E-Course Folder]
• Recommended:
  • Johann Maree, ed., THE INDEPENDENT TRADE UNIONS, 1974-1984: TEN YEARS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN LABOUR BULLETIN:
    • "Trade Unions and the State: The Question of Legality,"
    • "Overview: Trade Unions and Politics," and
    • "The Workers' Struggle: Where Does FOSATU Stand?" [E Course Folder]
  • Roger Kerson, "The Emergence of Powerful Black Unions" [E-Reserve]
  • Robin D.G. Kelley, "'We Are Not What We Seem': Rethinking Black Working-Class Opposition in the Jim Crow South," JOURNAL OF AMERICAN HISTORY (June 1993 ) [JSTOR]

W 4/13 At the River I Stand

[edit] M 4/18 Comparative Freedom Movements: Uses of Culture

• Required:
  • Rob Nixon, HOMELANDS, HARLEM AND HOLLYWOOD, Ch.1: "Harlem, Hollywood, and the Sophiatown Renaissance [E-R]
  • Helen Kivnick, WHERE IS THE WAY? SONG AND STRUGGLE IN SOUTH AFRICA, "Let Freedom Sing" [E Course Folder]
  • Rolf Solberg, "Introduction," ALTERNATIVE THEATRE IN SOUTH AFRICA [E-Reserve]
  • Keyan Tomaselli, "The Semiotics of Alternative Theatre in South Africa" [E-Reserve]
  • Astrid von Kotze, ORGANIZE AND ACT: THE NATAL WORKERS THEATRE MOVEMENT, ch.1: "The Dunlop Play" [E-Course Folder]
  • P.V. Shava, A PEOPLE'S VOICE: BLACK SOUTH AFRICAN WRITING IN THE 20TH CENTURY, ch.6: "The People's Cause: Popular Theatre and the Political Ferment of the 1970s"[E-Reserve]
  • Ari Sitas, "Traditions of Poetry in Natal," in Liz Gunner, ed., POLITICS AND PERFORMANCE: THEATRE, POETRY, AND SONG IN SOUTHERN AFRICA [E-Course Folder]
  • EAR TO THE GROUND: CONTEMPORARY WORKER POETS, 7. selections [E-Course Folder]
  • Bhekizizwe Peterson, "Apartheid and the Political Imagination in Black South African Theatre," in Liz Gunner, ed., POLITICS AND PERFORMANCE [E-Course Folder]
  • Errol Durbach, "'…No Time for Apartheid': Dancing Free of the System in Athol Fugard's Boesman and Lena," in Marcia Blumberg and Dennis Walder, eds., SOUTHERN AFRICAN THEATRE AS/AND INTERVENTION [E-Course Folder]
  • THE FREE SOUTHERN THEATER BY THE FREE SOUTHERN THEATER, selected documents [E Course Folder]
  • Komozi Woodard, A NATION WITHIN A NATION: AMIRI BARAKA (LEROI JONES) & BLACK POWER POLITICS, ch. 1: "Groundwork: The Impact of Fidel Castro, Patrice Lumumba, Robert Williams, and Malcolm X on Amiri Baraka and the Black Arts Movement" [E-Reserve]

W 4/20 Amandla!

[edit] M 4/25 Repression and Resistance: South Africa

Hand out topic and guidelines for optional final paper, due 5/5

• Required:
  • Antjie Krog, COUNTRY OF MY SKULL: GUILT, SORROW, AND THE LIMITS OF FORGIVENESS IN THE NEW SOUTH AFRICA
• Paper #3 due tonight

W 4/27 Long Night's Journey Into Day

[edit] M 5/2 Repression and Resistance: The U.S.

• Required:
  • Ward Churchill and Jim Vander Wall, THE COINTELPRO PAPERS, selected sections to be announced

[edit] Th 5/5 Optional final paper due, noon today

[edit] Resources

moved to supplementary materials