South African Fiction

The big context you need to remember

1) The Global Economy

2) The History of European expansion

3) The spread of colonial attitudes, esp. racism

= parallels with U.S. history / U.S. world the involvement SA has in the US world – and the US in SA world

The extent of the British empire – noteThe 13 colonies along the eastern seaboard of the North American continent. The US was formed as part of the same process as it all

2nd century AD – world known to the Roman world

Early 15th century – when Europe was marginal

Then ---

1543 Constantinople falls to the Turks – becomes Istanbul

Henry of Portugal sends out ships to find an alternate way to the East – that bypasses the Silk Route.

Bartholomew Diaz) (c. 1450 – May 29, 1500)rounds the tip of Africa in 1488.

Then ---

1453 Constantinople falls to the Turks – becomes Istanbul

Henry of Portugal sends out ships to find an alternate way to the East – that bypasses the Silk Route.

Bartholomew Diaz) (c. 1450 – May 29, 1500)rounds the tip of Africa in 1488.

Vasco da Gama sails 1497 – rounds the Cape – and reaches Calicut, India in 1498 – the first European to reach India bytraveling round the tip of Africa – circumventing the Silk Route.

His journey was not entirely successful – only half his fleet, traveling back around the Cape, returned to Portugal. But he opened the way for others to follow.

In 1652 – Jan van Riebeeck claimed a corner of what is now Cape Town for the Dutch East India Company so they could reach the islands we now know as Indonesia more easily. The Cape would provide the Company fleets with fresh produce and water.

1544 – Sebastian Munster

Armed Resistance

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In response to the Government’s response to their peaceful protest, the ANC & PAC take up arms, leave the path of non-violence

British Control the Cape

---

The Cape is ceded to the British after the Napoleon-ic wars….

Early Inhabitants

---

before written records

Union of South Africa

---

The Anglo-Boer wars ended, the country receives its modern boundaries, incorporat-ing Boer Republics & British colonies

Colonial Beginnings

---

the first settlement

of the Dutch - at the Cape

Colonialism to Apartheid

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The victory of the Nationalist Party emerges in 1948 from the ground laid by colonialism

Apartheid against the Ropes

---

External pressures and internal turbulence bring the status quo to a point where it’s probably not going to last in ways recognizable

---> | 1652 > | 1814 > | 1910 > | 1948 > | 1960 > | 1985 >

---------------1990 & 1994

The South Africa created at the Union(1910) – with the 4 provinces. And the old flag symbolizing the union of English and Afrikaners

Black Lines @ Sea - route from Holland to Dutch East Indies – founding of Cape ColonyInland Black Lines - trekkers radiating from the Cape, before 1814Inland Orange Lines - Voortrekkers 1834, who moved out of the Cape Colony to form independent Boer RepublicsNOTE: these lines represent approximations ;~)

Armed Resistance

---

In response to the Government’s response to their peaceful protest, the ANC & PAC take up arms, leave the path of non-violence

British Control the Cape

---

The Cape is ceded to the British after the Napoleon-ic wars….

Early Inhabitants

---

before written records

Union of South Africa

---

The Anglo-Boer wars ended, the country receives its modern boundaries, incorporat-ing Boer Republics & British colonies

Colonial Beginnings

---

the first settlement

of the Dutch - at the Cape

Colonialism to Apartheid

---

The victory of the Nationalist Party emerges in 1948 from the ground laid by colonialism

Apartheid against the Ropes

---

External pressures and internal turbulence bring the status quo to a point where it’s probably not going to last in ways recognizable

---> | 1652 > | 1814 > | 1910 > | 1948 > | 1960 > | 1985 >

---------------1990 & 1994

A contemporary image of the fateful encounter at the Cape (note the mountains)These would be Khooi people. The Dutch are The bringers of gifts – in exchange for which They get animals (lower right)

---> | 1652 > | 1814 > | 1910 > | 1948 > | 1960 > | 1985 >

---------------1990 & 1994

Contemporary image of European landowner ‘working’ his land ….

Dutch merchant in the Cape – with household slave, keeping his pipe steady.

---> | 1652 > | 1814 > | 1910 > | 1948 > | 1960 > | 1985 >

---------------1990 & 1994

A PS:

During the South African War 1899-1902 – the Boer Republics engaged in guerrilla tactics.

The British determined that they would break the spirit (and supply chain of these guerrilla fighters by rounding up the women, old people and children and placing them in “camps” – which have come to be viewed as the first modern “concentration camps.”

Figures suggest 93,940 whites and 24, 457 blacks interned. Hunger and disease led to appallingly high mortality rates. “an estimated 27,927 whites, of whom 26,251 were women and children, and at least 13,315 Africans died because of the poor location and bad administration of the camps, insufficient rations, and disease.” (Grolier) A British woman, Emily Hobhouse, took it as her struggle to expose the policy & its effectsto the British public.

Lloyd-George, leader of the Opposition, in Parliament asked asked, "Why pursue this disgraceful policy, why pursue war against women and children."

On the next slide is one of Emily Hobhouse’s most famous photographs, of a young Afrikaner girl.

It must be said that outcry was mostly directed at the treatment of ‘European’ – not African people.

Recent South African Fiction

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