Gender, Race and Class in South Africa, 1880-Present

3 units

By focusing on the complex historical dynamics of race, gender and class in South Africa over the past 120 years, this course is aimed at understanding the development of segregation, apartheid, and racial capitalism, as well as the emergence of multiple forms of resistance to counter white minority rule. Topics include: white settler expansion and the defeat of the African peasantry; the rise of mining capital and the emergence of a racially divided working class; the origins of African and Afrikaner nationalisms; migrant labor and the subordination of African women; and the prospects for a non-racial, non-sexist democracy in a unified South Africa.