In Context: 5 Web Perspectives On A Story In The News

South African race relations

(CNN) A South African university has reinstated two white students who were kicked out last year for allegedly feeding black housekeepers a stew laced with urine. The vice-chancellor at the University of the Free State says the complaints have been withdrawn but that the students may still face outside criminal and human rights charges. A video of the students preparing and serving the stew to the housekeepers was shot in 2007 when the university was considering integrating its black and white residences. The South African education minister condemns this decision, saying the students have not apologized and no reparations have been made to the victims for the humiliation they suffered.

1.

History of South Africa through timelines

South African History Online
South Africa, at the southern-most tip of the African continent, has history dating back more than 100,000 years. The nation was literally built on diamonds and gold, though its history is decidedly less pretty. This website offers a number of different historical timelines for South Africa, from caveman times to present day.

2.

“Apartheid where it belongs – in a museum”

The Apartheid Museum
Apartheid – Afrikaans for “separateness” – legally divided the people of South Africa by race from 1948 to 1994. People were classified as either white, black, Indian or coloured. The cities were divided along the same lines, displacing many non-whites from their homes and moving them out of the city centres. This virtual museum, and its free-standing counterpart in Johannesburg, provides a visual history of apartheid in South Africa.

3.

June 16, 1976 – Student Uprising and Hector Pieterson

About.com: African History
On June 16, 1976 black high-school students marched through Johannesburg to protest a government decree mandating all curriculum be taught in a language they didn’t understand: Afrikaans. While the protest was meant to be non-violent, police reacted with tear gas and bullets, including a direct shot that killed a 13-year-old boy named Hector Pieterson. This violence, which left as many as 200 dead, sparked international attention and outcry which some credit as the beginning of the end of apartheid.

4.

Have the persecuted become the persecutors?

Human Sciences Research Counsel
Fourteen years after the fall of apartheid, South Africa faced charges of xenophobia following violent attacks on Zimbabwean refugees. Some analysts say that a South African superiority complex led to the 2008 attacks, which killed 60 Zimbabweans and displaced more than 10,000 from their shelters. Have the persecuted become the persecutors? This report by the Human Sciences Research Counsel and High Commission of the United Kingdom looks to the root of the conflict and attempts to find ways to keep something like this from happening again.

5.

Africville – Racial discrimination in our own backyards

CBC Archives
Racial segregation and displacement is not limited to South Africa: not even close. This website chronicles the history of Halifax’s Africville through image and sound. In the 1960’s, the Nova Scotia government took land that belonged to Black Loyalists so they could build the A. Murray MacKay bridge. Hundreds of black people lost their homes and were displaced to rural areas outside of the city. In 2005, the NDP government issued a formal apology and the Africville Act was passed to help bring justice to former residents and their descendants.