Topic Exploration: Apartheid

1. What was the protest? If it was part of a larger movement, where are you drawing the boundaries (geographical, chronological, legislative, etc.) around your project? 

The anti-apartheid movement was a fight against discrimination, separation and segregation toward people of color that lasted decades. Since the movement lasted for about 50 years I will be drawing the boundaries specifically around protest in the african continent and the legislative goals of prominent African leaders like Nelson Mandela. 

2. Why do you believe that this identity is tied to this protest in a significant way? For whom is this tie significant? 

The identity of persecuted Africans is a specific but appropriate one in regards to the anti-apartheid movement. While under persecution and scrutiny, groups of people are more likely to band together; united through a common goal for peace and change. The identity of these natives is linked to apartheid because without community involvement, positive cultural changes could never have occurred. This protest was a key turning point for the relationship between people of color and whites and how they interacted in a post-colonization society. 

3. How did the group you’re looking at participate in the protest? 

African people of color were the main and sometimes only participants in the anti-apartheid movement. They participated in communal, legislative and occasionally violent ways through boycotts and staged protests throughout the African continent. 

When you think about this project, what are you worried or concerned about? Do
your worries have anything to do specifically with whether you can tie your identity to the protest clearly? Are there questions that you think it will be hard to answer? Do you have methodological concerns? What part of this project do you think will be the most difficult for you? 

I think the most difficult part of this project will be the research; particularly because the part of the protest at which I'm looking into took place in a foreign continent. I'm worried the only information that I will be able to find will be American involvement and influence in the anti-apartheid movement. Additionally, because Nelson Mandela was such a prominent and well-known figure of the movement that the paper and research I find will reflect too much on the genre of a biography rather than focusing on identity. Also because some white people also had a role in the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, the identity of African Natives might lose some of its specificity.