The Collapse of Apartheid and the Dawn of Democracy in South Africa, 1993

Fred Morton, John C. Eby

Description

This game situates students in the Multiparty Negotiating Process taking place at the World Trade Center in Kempton Park in 1993. South Africa is facing tremendous social anxiety and violence. The object of the talks, and of the game, is to reach consensus for a constitution that will guide a post-apartheid South Africa. The country has immense racial diversity--white, black, Colored, Indian. For the negotiations, however, race turns out to be less critical than cultural, economic, and political diversity. Students are challenged to understand a complex landscape and to navigate a surprising web of alliances.

The game focuses on the problem of transitioning a society conditioned to profound inequalities and harsh political repression into a more democratic, egalitarian system. Students will ponder carefully the meaning of democracy as a concept and may find that justice and equality are not always comfortable partners with liberty. While for the majority of South Africans, universal suffrage was a symbol of new democratic beginnings, it seemed to threaten the lives, families, and livelihoods of minorities and parties outside the African National Congress coalition. These deep tensions in the nature of democracy pose important questions about the character of justice and the best mechanisms for reaching national decisions.

Free supplementary materials for this textbook are available at the Reacting to the Past website. Visit https://reacting.barnard.edu/instructor-resources, click on the RTTP Game Library link, and  create a free account to download what is available.

Sujets

• Histoire
• Republic of South Africa
• South Africa under apartheid
• South
• Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• F. W. de Klerk
• Apartheid
• History
• Africa
• Frederik de Klerk
• Nelson Mandela

Informations

• Publié par: The University of North Carolina Press
• Date de parution: 17 avril 2017
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781469633176
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

The Collapse of Apartheid and the Dawn of Democracy in South Africa, 1993
 
REACTING TO THE PAST is an award-winning series of immersive role-playing games that actively engage students in their own learning. Students assume the roles of historical characters and practice critical thinking, primary source analysis, and argument, both written and spoken. Reacting games are flexible enough to be used across the curriculum, from first-year general education classes and discussion sections of lecture classes to capstone experiences, intersession courses, and honors programs.
Reacting to the Past was originally developed under the auspices of Barnard College and is sustained by the Reacting Consortium of colleges and universities. The Consortium hosts a regular series of conferences and events to support faculty and administrators.
Note to instructors: Before beginning the game you must download the Gamemaster’s Materials, including an instructor’s guide containing a detailed schedule of class sessions, role sheets for students, and handouts.
To download this essential resource, visit https://reactingconsortium.org/games , click on the page for this title, then click “Instructors Guide.”
 
The Collapse of Apartheid and the Dawn of Democracy in South Africa, 1993

JOHN C. EBY AND FRED MORTON

The University of North Carolina Press
Chapel Hill
 
Participants in this game may play historical characters. The representation of historical people by individuals playing this game is a matter of personal interpretation and should not be considered a thorough or precise depiction of the character.
© 2022 The University of North Carolina Press
All rights reserved
Set in Utopia and The Sans by Westchester Publishing Services
The University of North Carolina Press has been a member of the Green Press Initiative since 2003.
Cover illustration: Frederik de Klerk and Nelson Mandela shake hands at the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum held in Davos in January 1992. Copyright World Economics Forum ( www.weforum.org ).
ISBN 978-1-4696-3316-9 (pbk.: alk. paper)
ISBN 978-1-4696-3317-6 (e-book)
 
Contents
Abbreviations Used in the Text
1. INTRODUCTION
Brief Overview of the Game
Prologue: A Country on the Brink
What Is a Historical Role-Playing Game?
How to Play
Game Setup
Game Play
Game Requirements
Skill Development
Counterfactuals
2. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
Map
Timeline
1990
1991
1992
1993
The Struggle for a Democratic South Africa
Toward the Multi-Party Negotiating Process (MPNP)
The Multi-Party Talks (Kempton Park, April 1993)
South Africans All
The Road to the Multi-Party Talks
3. THE GAME
Major Issues for Debate
Rules and Procedures
Roles
Prestige Points
Cards
Objectives and Victory Conditions
Constitutional Working Groups
Assignment
Constitutional Working Groups Online
Guidelines
Assignments
4. ROLES AND FACTIONS
The African National Congress (ANC)
The National Party (NP)
Concerned South African Group (COSAG)
Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP)
Bophuthatswana, Ciskei
Afrikaner Volksunie (AVU)
Conservative Party (CP)
South African Communist Party (SACP)
Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC)
Democratic Party (DP)
Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU)
Natal Indian Congress (NIC)
5. CORE TEXTS AND SUPPLEMENTAL READINGS
Core Texts
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)
Hendrik F. Verwoerd: Explaining Apartheid (1950)
The Freedom Charter (1955)
Nelson Mandela: “Verwoerd’s Grim Plot” (1959)
Nelson Mandela: “I Am Prepared to Die” (1964)
Steve Biko: “White Racism and Black Consciousness”
Statement by the UDF National Executive Committee (1983)
The Kairos Document: Challenge to the Church (1985)
Supplemental Readings
Constitution of the African National Congress
ANC Policy Guidelines for a Democratic South Africa
AZAPO Constitution (Excerpts)
Address by State President F. W. de Klerk
Joe Slovo: “Has Socialism Failed?”
The Birth of the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP)
Buthelezi: “The Future of South Africa Should Be Determined by All Its Citizens”
Negotiation Agreements
Nelson Mandela Speeches
Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika
Violence: The Role of the Security Forces
Founding of COSATU, November 1985
Constitution of the South African Communist Party
Significance of the African and Indian Joint Struggle
Appendix 1—Homelands, Regions, and Countries
Appendix 2—Pronunciation Glossary
Appendix 3—Constitutional Worksheet
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
 
Abbreviations Used in the Text
ANC
African National Congress
ANCWW
African National Congress, Women’s Wing
ANCYL
African National Congress, Youth League
APLA
Azanian People’s Liberation Army
AVU
Afrikaner Volksunie
AZAPO
Azanian People’s Organisation
CCB
Civil Co-Operation Bureau
CODESA
Convention for a Democratic South Africa
COMSA
Commonwealth Observer Mission to South Africa
COSAG
Concerned South Africans Group
COSATU
Congress of South African Trade Unions
CP
Conservative Party
DP
Democratic Party
DRC
Dutch Reformed Church
IFP
Inkatha Freedom Party
INC
Indian National Congress
MK
Umkhonto we Sizwe
MPNP
Multi-Party Negotiating Process
NEC
National Executive Committee (ANC)
NIC
Natal Indian Congress
NP
National Party
PAC
Pan-Africanist Party
SACP
South African Communist Party
SADF
South African Defence Force
SAP
South African Police
UDF
United Democratic Front
ZCC
Zionist Christian Church
 

The Collapse of Apartheid and the Dawn of Democracy in South Africa, 1993
 
1
Introduction
BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE GAME
“The Collapse of Apartheid and the Dawn of Democracy in South Africa” is a reacting role-playing game in which participants assume roles in the 1993 Multi-Party Negotiating Process (MPNP) at the World Trade Centre in Johannesburg. In their roles, participants seek to navigate complex political relationships, a troubling history, and often dissonant goals and concerns to build a constitution for a post-apartheid state.
While the historical setting for this game was deeply shaped by the legacies of European colonialism, years of racist political policy, and systematic injustice and disproportionate privileging of a minority population, this is not a game about race. Instead, this game reflects the highly complex interrelationships of “racial” groups in the collaborative effort to create a just society out of one that had been defined by injustice.
The immediate context for the game is a tense sociopolitical atmosphere that is on the verge of erupting into violent civil conflict. In fact, everyone expects things to head in that direction after a series of failed attempts at political negotiation. Only you, the participants in the MPNP, can put a halt to what seems to be an inevitable bloodbath.
You will begin in All-Party sessions in which the assembly meets as a whole to discuss some critical initial issues, mostly importantly whether the constitution drafted by the MPNP will be permanent or temporary. The process will then devolve to smaller Constitutional Working Groups (CWG) that will attempt to hash out details of the constitution in more manageable pieces. Finally, you will all reconvene in All-Party Talks to discuss the constitutional recommendations of each CWG and decide whether they are to be adopted or not.
All the while, skepticism abounds on the streets, and daily, even hourly, news comes to you of events looming over your conference, threatening to disable and destroy this last-ditch effort.
PROLOGUE: A COUNTRY ON THE BRINK
1 April, 1993
“Your first trip to South Africa?” he said to me as we took our seats next to one another on the flight from London to Johannesburg. “Let me guess—American?”
“Yeah. My first trip overseas, all right. I’m from Illinois. What about you?” I had no clue. He looked like he was from India or Pakistan or someplace like that.
“I guessed right about you, so what do you think?” he said, looking at me, amused. “Indian?” I said, in what seemed like a whisper.
“Ha ha,” he chuckled. “I’m South African, from Jo’burg, though some of my relatives in Durban came from British India generations ago. Not the answer you expected, eh? Name’s Rahim.”
“Hi, Rahim. John. John Willmaeker.” What’s Jo’burg? Maybe I should get back to my magazine. But I kind of like this guy .
After takeoff, I told him a bit about where I’m from and that I was headed to South Africa to spend a month or two traveling around the region. After that, I planned to do a semester at the University of Cape Town, starting in August. Rahim was taking a break from Sussex University to see his family and attend his first cousin’s wedding, which, from the sound of it, was going to be a big deal.
Then came the meal, a movie, and, surprisingly, sleep. With two hours left before landing, the flight attendants roused us and served up breakfast. The sun was coming up and beaming light into the cabin. I caught my first glimpse of Africa, below.
“So,” asked Rahim, “where do you plan to stay after we clear customs and immigration?”
“Well, I’ve been corresponding with a student at Wits University who says I can always stay with her parents, but I’ve got to figure out how to phone her after we land.”
“Oh, your first acquaintance in South Africa is a female, eh? Are you sure you’re here to study?”
Rahim, I could see, was a jokester. “If I don’t make contact with Fiona,” I told him, “I’ll just find a youth hostel in town and crash there. I’ve got an address of one in a place called Hillbrow.”
“Hillbrow? You’re kidding. Not the safest place to be, Johnny, my boy,” said Rahim. “How much do you know about South Africa?”
“Oh, I’ve done a bit of reading,” I mumbled. Not much, though. I’d signed up for study abroad in South Africa like I’d done before in Europe—without much prior knowledge. It was more just a way to get out and around, do cool things, and have something to boa