Guidelines:  To complete this assignment, you will need to address the following; DO NOT include a cover page: Find 2-3 scholarly and peer-reviewed print sources (article or book chapters; e-books oka

Drafting of the U.S. Constitution

Mao Zedong’s Rule Over China

South African Apartheid

Choose Your Own Topic (insert pre-approved topic here)

In the space below, write a short paragraph about what you already knew about the topic you selected prior to this course, based on your personal history or experiences.

Apartheid was a social and political system of governance that was introduced in South Africa during the colonial rule. The system promoted racial segregation and integration something that made it had for south Africans who were majority blacks to live and access good things in their land and from the government. For instance, the apartheid system made good estates to be for white people as they were the rulers of the time. It was also in these good estates that clean water could be found, high-class schools and other institution, roads, and other amenities. The black South Africans as a result of apartheid could not hold top management positions even in government as racial segregation made them appear like subordinates and casual workers. Apartheid also introduced different means of transport for the blacks and for the whites as well as development funds shares were extremely high for places where whites were living and limited or no development allocated to areas occupied by the blacks.

From personal history shared by older generations, apartheid was made a reality due to the fact that South Africans had been colonized a situation that left them helpless despite the malpractices. Again, during this time, South Africa was a small country that was not grown hence did not have proper government settings in place that would have been used to protect its people. This is also not ignoring the fact that there were no multi-parties in the system of governance hence subjecting the people to one-party rule system of governance. It was from the harsh situations that South Africans faced for approximately 50 years from 1948 to 1990’s that pushed some South African political leaders like Nelson Mandela that started to form political parties to oppose the poor governance that the white government was applying on the people. The coming together of the South African people through the help of their political leaders and international bodies played a major role in gradually bringing apartheid to an end in early 1990s though the white also had put up a great fight for instance jailing some political leaders for a relatively long period.

Identify one question about the topic that you are curious about.

During the apartheid period that lasted for approximately 50 years, the number of South Africans was greater than the number of whites. The South Africans were also aware of the different ways that apartheid was affecting them on individual and community basis. The question I am curious to learn about was what hindered South Africans from taking collaborative action against the whites to force them out of their country and take full control of their land and government. This is also not ignoring the fact that other countries sympathized with South Africa.

Describe why this question matters to you personally.

The above stated question matters to me because with South Africans being the majority and having support from other countries, they had a chance to fight colonial government a move that they seemed to fear to take. Moreover, South Africa had witnessed what other colonized countries had done to attain their independence but took them too long to take the right action.

Describe why this question matters to society.

The question matters to the society because it will help demonstrate the importance of togetherness and working towards same goal for common goodness. The latter is in the sense that South Africa took too long to bring people together to fight against apartheid despite the large society and once collaborative societal measures were put in place, the journey to liberation started.

Identify a second question about the topic you are curious about.

What grounds or factors in South Africa that made apartheid strong and hard to eliminate

Describe why this question matters to you personally.

The question matters to me personally because I feel that maybe apartheid used to exist in South Africa without the realization of locals. The whites only spotted an opportunity to exploit and strategized before making a move. Hence, I feel that South Africans were not cautious initially hence making it even harder for them after the whites taking over.

Describe why this question matters to society.

The question also matters to the society because the traditions and beliefs that people have can be easily noted, learned, and inappropriately used by outsiders. It is a question that should awaken the attention of the society so as not to embrace cultures, practices, values, and beliefs that might pose a threat to the society in the future.

List which secondary sources would be helpful for investigating your first research question.

Farkash, A. T. (2015). The Ghosts of Colonialism: Economic Inequity in Post-Apartheid South Africa. Global Societies Journal, 3.

Lyman, P. N. (2014). Mandela's Legacy at Home and Abroad. Journal of Democracy, 25(2), 21-34.

McKenna, B., Skipworth, J., & Pillai, K. (2017). Mental health care and treatment in prisons: a new paradigm to support best practice. World Psychiatry, 16(1), 3-4.

List which primary sources would be helpful for investigating your first research question.

Jackson, P. B., Williams, D. R., Stein, D. J., Herman, A., Williams, S. L., & Redmond, D. L. (2010). Race and psychological distress: The South African stress and health study. Journal of health and social behavior, 51(4), 458-477.

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Louw, P. E. (2004). The rise, fall, and legacy of apartheid. Westport, Conn: Praeger.

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List which secondary sources would be helpful for investigating your second research question.

Chaskalson, A. (2003). From wickedness to equality: The moral transformation of South African law. Int'l J. Const. L., 1, 590.

Hess, C. A., Cooper, M. J., Smith, M. J., Trueman, C. N., & Schutkowski, H. (2013). Lead exposure in adult males in urban Transvaal Province, South Africa during the Apartheid Era. PloS one, 8(3), e58146.

Gurney, C. (2000). 'A Great Cause': The Origins of the Anti-Apartheid Movement, June 1959-March 1960. Journal of Southern African Studies, 26(1), 123-144.

List which primary sources would be helpful for investigating your second research question.

Mhlauli, M. B., Salani, E., & Mokotedi, R. (2015). Understanding apartheid in South Africa through the racial contract. International Journal of Asian Social Science, 5(4), 203-219.

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Noah, T. (2016). Born a crime: Stories from a South African childhood. New York: Random House Publishing Group.

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Renwick, R. (2015). The end of apartheid: Diary of a revolution.

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Now that you have gone through the research, describe what you have learned about your topic in one to two paragraphs.

After going through the topic, one lesson learned is that South Africa did not have a strong government in place and this made it possible for whites to come in and take over. Secondly, it is evident that even before apartheid; there were some practices that promoted cultural discrimination that made it possible for segregation to be made a reality.

Another lesson learned is that not all whites in South Africa were in support of what the white colonial masters were doing to other races in South African. The latter is in the sense that some whites also joined the segregated races to fight for the end of apartheid.