May 18th

I have so many questions remaining from today’s speakers, Professor Elizabeth van Heyningen and Professor Sally Frankental.

Prof. van Heyningen stated that the Thembu and the Xhosa produced many of the African leaders because they had the first access to education and political rights. This access was caused by being the first place of contact. Therefore, this connection is placing an emphasis on western education. Do Africans still need western education to achieve higher levels of success in South Africa?

Several questions were raised for me in her story about the Xhosa cattle killing of 1856 in which a young girl’s prophecies prompted the destruction of cattle and crops. Why was this event not included in the Apartheid Museum? If the ANC had more influence over the content of the museum (one viewpoint mentioned by Prof. van Heyningen) and many members of the ANC are of Xhosa descent, then I would think that the event would be included.

Both the Xhosa cattle killing and the South African War were written about in poetry but the Afrikaaner poetry seems to be more respected/acknowledged/recognized. If poetry is a form of memorialization, then how are processes/points of memorialization acknowledged?
I asked our second speaker Professor Frankental about identity as South African and/or African. On one hand, there is a common story of everyone in the world being African, and Africa as the cradle of civilization. However, Frankental said in South Africa, African refers to blacks. For intractable conflict within a single state, I think that reconciliation requires a national identity as South Africans. National identity is psychological component important in addressing intractable conflict.