Week 7: Peer Research

After doing a little bit of research on my own last week, my duty this week was to look at the interesting things my peers found from their own research.

One of the articles I read that was extremely helpful in getting a better understanding of the present day South Africa, was an article posted by Hashem. It focused on South Africa's present day president, Jacob Zuma. I really appreciate this article being posted, because we hadn't really covered the present day politics, and reading this motivates me to do more research on the future president election.

http://articles.latimes.com/2009/apr/19/opinion/oe-gevisser19

The second article that I read was Faith's article which focused on the progress or lack of progress since apartheid. The article gave some alarming facts that proved that there is a lot that still needs to be done to improve the lives of the people who have been oppressed for many decades.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-06-24/news/sns-rt-us-safrica-anc-factbre85n067-20120624_1_blacks-south-africans-african-national-congress

The third article that I found intriguing was the article posted by Larisa Manescu. It is titled "9 Questions About Nelson Mandela You Were Too Embarrassed to Ask". I really like it, because it is a very stripped down version of what we have been learning these past few weeks, but it still hits the main points. Another reason why I like this article was because it contained a different perspective of Mandela. Mandela who is usually praised for leading a peaceful revolution, was depicted as someone who encouraged violence. Not undermining any of the accomplishments of Mandela, I just find this perspective of him interesting since it goes against what we have been learning these past weeks.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/12/06/9-questions-about-nelson-mandela-you-were-too-embarrassed-to-ask/

In this blog post I am only including 3 interesting pieces of information on South Africa founded by my peers. In my next post,  I will be posting my top 10 list of other information that gives great insight of South Africa. Stay tuned! 

Week 6: South Africa Today?

In preparation for our Cape Town trip, we have been looking into the past of South Africa to get a better understanding of the new environment we are going to be exploring. We have looked at the  anti-apartheid movement and South Africa's road to equality, but as discussed in class last week, we were not able to get into depth of everyone's role in the movement and how the movement formed today's culture in South Africa. From my own research I have found out some interesting information that can help us get a rounder understanding of South Africa today and their past.

In a youtube video called " South Africa Post Apartheid Generation" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elrWczhTZBk) we get a glimpse in today's younger south african generation. It's interesting to see how the younger generation has given up on the government post apartheid, and choose to put their fate in their own hands. Instead of waiting on the government to make change in their society, they are trying to rebuild the country themselves. One person who was interviewed expresses his lack of interest in the government saying, "I've seen my grandmother vote too many times, and nothing has changed". It shows that even post apartheid there is still a lot of work to be done, despite all of the countries accomplishments.

In an article called "Effects of Apartheid on the Status of Women in South Africa", we learn how they were effected. The article gets into depth of how different groups of women were effected. Urban and Rural women were effected differently, but both faced extreme oppression during apartheid and were forced to live in "shadowed " positions. I suggest reading this article to get a better understanding of how the apartheid effected women.

Using this new found information, I look forward to seeing how the women of South Africa today are trying to expand their roles in their society as South Africa continues to reconstruct post apartheid.