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| Semester | spring semester 2020 |
| Course frequency | Once only |
| Lecturers | Kai Florian Herzog (kai.herzog@unibas.ch, Assessor) |
| Content | From the second half of the nineteenth century onward, Southern Africa witnessed the introduction of industrial mining. In the context of intensifying colonisation, copper, gold and diamond mines emerged in today’s South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia, amongst other places. The large-scale extraction of mineral resources in this setting refigured the region’s political landscape and transformed economies. Moreover, the mines in question shaped societies, households, families and individual lives profoundly—not least as work and life in and around the mines was considerably characterised by violence. The course focuses on mining labour and violence in Southern Africa. We will engage with topics ranging from migrant labour, imprisonment and forced labour to the mine’s working conditions and everyday life as well as colonial labour discourses. The course also addresses issues such as masculinity, gender and race. In connection with the above, we will investigate different contexts and forms of violence and the ideas and discourses that shaped them, namely violence as form of punishment of workers, interpersonal violence between miners, and sexual violence. One of the course’s goals is to teach students how to approach and work on a historical topic, particularly the issue of violence. Therefore, we will engage with sources on mining labour and violence, including newspaper articles, folktales, government reports as well as criminal records and the individuals’ testimonies captured therein. Through the lens of mining and violence, the course will also give insights into the social history of Southern Africa in the 19th and early 20th centuries as well as the history of labour and (settler) colonialism. |
| Bibliography | Breckenridge, Keith. “The Allure of Violence: Men, Race and Masculinity on the South African Goldmines, 1900–1950.” Journal of Southern African Studies 24, no. 4 (1998): 669–693. Brown, Carolyn A. “Mining.” In General Labour History of Africa: Workers, Employers and Governments, 20th–21st Centuries, edited by Stefano Bellucci and Andreas Eckert, 151–176. Suffolk: James Currey, 2019. Dedering, Tilman. “Compounds, Camps, Colonialism.” Journal of Namibian Studies 12 (2012): 69–46. Kynoch, Gary. “Of Compounds and Cellblocks: The Foundation of Violence in Johannesburg, 1890s–1950s.” Journal of Southern African Studies 37, no. 3 (2011): 463–477. Van Onselen, Charles. Chibaro: African Mine Labour in Southern Rhodesia, 1900–1933. London: Pluto Press, 1976. |
| Admission requirements | Für Studierende des BSF Geschichte im Grundstudium mit abgeschlossenem Einführungskurs Geschichte. Teilnahme an der ersten Sitzung ist obligatorisch. Die Teilnehmerzahl ist auf 25 beschränkt. Bei Überbelegung werden Studierende des BSF Geschichte, die noch kein Proseminar in dem Modul absolviert haben, bevorzugt zugelassen. |
| Language of instruction | English |
| Use of digital media | No specific media used |
| Interval | Weekday | Time | Room |
|---|
No dates available. Please contact the lecturer.
| Modules |
Modul: Basis Neuere / Neueste Geschichte (Bachelor's degree subject: History) Modul: Sachthemen der Ethnologie (Bachelor's degree subject: Anthropology) |
| Assessment format | continuous assessment |
| Assessment details | Aktive Teilnahme. |
| Assessment registration/deregistration | Reg.: course registration; dereg.: not required |
| Repeat examination | no repeat examination |
| Scale | Pass / Fail |
| Repeated registration | no repetition |
| Responsible faculty | Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, studadmin-philhist@unibas.ch |
| Offered by | Departement Geschichte |