Bantu

From Captivity of Political Shackles to Freedom in South Africa Throughout history, South Africa has experienced a long, severe, and unrelenting periods of sacrifice and struggle for freedom. South African citizens had to withstand colonization of Great Britain which stripped them of political freedom, roles in national decision making, and also led to the depletion of rich cultures. In addition, South Africa fought extremely hard to achieve decolonization from Great Britain. After decolonizing…

Apartheid was the codification of laws and regulations to keep Africans in an inferior position to the white Afrikaners in South Africa. Nelson Mandela described apartheid as ‘a poison that bred moral decay in all areas’ and it was this poison that he spoke of which dominated South African society from 1948 to the early 1990’s. Apartheid was implemented by an Afrikaner government in 1948 named the Nationalist Party under the leadership of DF Malan. Afrikaans ideology was that they were to unite…

The picture I chose to analyze through various lenses was taken during a very important time that shall be embedded in world history until the end of time. This picture is a reflection and provides insight as to what black South-Africans endured from 1948 to 1991(Staff, 2010). This photo can be examined and debriefed through three different social sciences, anthropology, sociology and psychology. Using anthropology, the time era will be examined, what exactly was happening in south Africa. Along…

Apartheid policies replaced traditional African business practices with European commercial activity. In precolonial Africa, the economy relied on subsistence-oriented trade and the exchange of surplus goods for commodities not locally producible. Bartering, in which goods are exchanged for items of similar value, was the bedrock of local markets. The economy under apartheid shifted to a price-based market, and The Conservationist examines the effects of this sudden change. Those in the general…

Coconut oil! Kinky Curls! Bantu knots!Two strand twist! Moisturizer! Natural hair vs. Relaxed hair has been a controversial topic among for quite some time. Natural hair is versatile, healthier, less expensive than relaxed hair and more! Having natural hair doesn’t make you a saint and an addiction to the creamy crack doesn’t make you a sinner. Natural hair is more admirable for black women. Ladies with rich tones of melanin should be inclined to flaunt their own exquisite, god-given texture…

"Never forget where you came from". The meaning behind this popular saying is that, after you reach success, do not become vain and forget your past struggles. The past shapes one’s individuality, and without the past, society cannot learn from errors and anticipate the future. But with all the attention brought to the topic of Immigration by the US Election, a bigger question to ask is: Where exactly do we come from? According to Donald Johanson, a professor of anthropology and Director of the…

Much of Africa’s history is shaped by the geography and environment. In fact, a lot of people believe there was no history in Africa a long time ago because they did not have a lot of written documents. The reason there were not many written documents is because of several contributing factors including disease, weather and geography. These factors led to the rise and fall of many civilizations, as well as an interest in resources by foreigners. Although this made it difficult for…

The American civil rights movement and the apartheid movement in South Africa show similarities in their tensions with inequality regarding race but portray a difference in how the protestors went about changing these issues. The issues that related these two events are education and opportunity, which were big issues among the people but a main difference can be seen in how the protestors reacted in the two different countries. Kaffir Boy, a book that tells the story of Johannes later called…

Tshepang: The Third Testament was written in a post-apartheid South Africa, still struggling with the culminations of the past. Lara Foot Newton adopted a Post-modernism style in order to depict the conditions of our country and to raise society’s consciousness level regarding the issues crippling South Africa. In 2001, a brutal rape of a nine month old devastated South Africa, on which “Tshepang” was based. This act was a symptom of the conditions that an ailing South Africa was facing. In a…

With that being said, Africa began dividing culturally and it was ultimately transformed by Islam due to the fact, that the Arabs had transformed their languages, writings, and began building mosques. Firstly, “Arabic vocabulary was absorbed into the Bantu languages to form the Swahili language” (Trade and the Spread of Islam in Africa). This means that the North Africa society…