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Full-Text Articles in African History

Kofifi/Covfefe: How The Costumes Of "Sophiatown" Bring 1950s South Africa To Western Massachusetts In 2020, Emma Hollows Jul 2020

Kofifi/Covfefe: How The Costumes Of "Sophiatown" Bring 1950s South Africa To Western Massachusetts In 2020, Emma Hollows

Masters Theses

This thesis paper reflects upon the costume design process taken by Emma Hollows to produce a realist production of the Junction Avenue Theatre Company’s musical Sophiatown at the Augusta Savage Gallery at the University of Massachusetts in May 2020. Sophiatown follows a household forcibly removed from their homes by the Native Resettlement Act of 1954 amid apartheid in South Africa. The paper discusses her attempts as a costume designer to strike a balance between replicating history and making artistic changes for theatre, while always striving to create believable characters.


Inkatha, Propaganda, And Violence In Kwazulu-Natal In The 1980s And 90s, Michael Macinnes Jan 2020

Inkatha, Propaganda, And Violence In Kwazulu-Natal In The 1980s And 90s, Michael Macinnes

War, Diplomacy, and Society (MA) Theses

The 1980s and 1990s marked the beginning of the end of Apartheid in South Africa but before the first fully democratic election in 1994, the KwaZulu-Natal region was being torn apart by a low level civil war. This conflict was not the black majority fighting against white minority, but part of so-called black on black violence. One side was the African National Congress (ANC) and the United Democratic Front (UDF) and on the other was Inkatha, secretly backed by the Apartheid state. Originally a Zulu nationalist liberation movement aligned with the ANC, Inkatha separated with the ANC over issues of …


The South African Women's Movement: The Roles Of Feminism And Multiracial Cooperation In The Struggle For Women's Rights, Amber Michelle Lenser Aug 2019

The South African Women's Movement: The Roles Of Feminism And Multiracial Cooperation In The Struggle For Women's Rights, Amber Michelle Lenser

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the historiography of South Africa’s recent past, focus has been most heavily placed on apartheid and the anti-apartheid movement, with much emphasis placed on male involvement and men as the primary agents of change in the country. Women are largely viewed as playing a supportive role to male activists throughout the movement, and far less has been written on female involvement or women’s activism in its own right. Running parallel to the anti-apartheid movement, however, was a women’s movement characterized by women across the racial and socioeconomic spectrum struggling to secure their own rights in a very hostile and …


The Politics Of Land Rights In The Transition To Democratic South Africa: The Rise And Fall Of The Constitutional Property Clause, Anna Louisa Roosevelt Lennon May 2019

The Politics Of Land Rights In The Transition To Democratic South Africa: The Rise And Fall Of The Constitutional Property Clause, Anna Louisa Roosevelt Lennon

Honors Projects

No abstract provided.


Genocide Masquerading: The Politics Of The Sharpeville Massacre And Soweto Uprising, Jessica P. Forsee Apr 2019

Genocide Masquerading: The Politics Of The Sharpeville Massacre And Soweto Uprising, Jessica P. Forsee

Honors College Theses

Apartheid South Africa represented a paradox as a US ally and human rights pariah. “Genocide Masquerading” uncovers the implications of US foreign policy on the rise and decline of apartheid, looking specifically at the 1960 Sharpeville Massacre and the 1976 Soweto Uprising. By comparing Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Ford, and Carter foreign policy responses, this thesis creates a comparative analysis of how effective, or ineffective, the United States was during pivotal moments in apartheid history. This thesis will not only expand on the developing South African literature but add to the conversation of international aid, diplomacy practices, and North-South relationships.


Models Of Reconciliation: From Conflict Towards Peace In Northern Ireland And South Africa During The 1990s, Alec Timberlake Bishop Jun 2016

Models Of Reconciliation: From Conflict Towards Peace In Northern Ireland And South Africa During The 1990s, Alec Timberlake Bishop

Honors Projects

This paper is a critical analysis of two case studies that serve several purposes. One, it familiarizes the reader who may have a cursory understanding of the historical events involving the peace processes in Northern Ireland and South Africa during the 1990s with the narratives of conflict and peace that occurred in these countries during this time. It also analyzes the distinction between a peaceful resolution of conflict and reconciliation, making the claim that within instances of conflict, positive and sustained contact is essential to moving beyond a peaceful resolution of conflict towards reconciliation. In this way, this work adds …


The Hegemony Of English In South African Education, Kelsey E. Figone Apr 2012

The Hegemony Of English In South African Education, Kelsey E. Figone

Scripps Senior Theses

The South African Constitution recognizes 11 official languages and protects an individual’s right to use their mother-tongue freely. Despite this recognition, the majority of South African schools use English as the language of learning and teaching (LOLT). Learning in English is a struggle for many students who speak indigenous African languages, rather than English, as a mother-tongue, and the educational system is failing its students. This perpetuates inequality between different South African communities in a way that has roots in the divisions of South Africa’s past. An examination of the power of language and South Africa’s experience with colonialism and …


“Lost In Translation?”: Women’S Issues In The Struggle For National Liberation In South Africa (1910-1985), Carly F. Bower Jan 2010

“Lost In Translation?”: Women’S Issues In The Struggle For National Liberation In South Africa (1910-1985), Carly F. Bower

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

This study examines the struggles of South African women from the beginning of the Union of South Africa and the period of Segregation to the period of national defiance during Apartheid, throughout all of its ebbs and flows. By contextualizing women’s struggle for political and gender liberation within the political struggle of black men in South Africa, this study broadens the picture of female involvement within the anti-Segregation and anti-Apartheid struggles. In formal organizations such as trade unions and the Federation of South African Women, by the force of grassroots movements and boycotts, and through the persistence of informal economic …