7/21 UFS and South African War Museum

UFS

This is my first time attending a university campus outside of USA. UFS's campus looks very similar to USA campuses. We had to attend a workshop that discussed the UFS history. Originally college lectures were in English. Then it changed to Afrikaans. In addition, the student body were predominately white and did not admit Black Students. SA higher education coincided with the history of South Africa. SA went through 3 phases. The first phase was British colonization. The British originally invaded South Africa. While the British were invading SA, the Dutch invaded South Africa. Once the Dutch defeated the English, the start of the Apartheid movement began-Afrikaner Nationalist Party. Apartheid was determined to prevent Blacks and Colored people to be considered equal to Whites. This impacted admitting people of color to universities. 

Eventually, UFS became a majority black population and incorporated a multilingual studies or and became an integrated school. The transition from segregated to integrated institution was not easy. The president of the University, Johnathan Jansen spearheaded the integration movement at the university.

South African War

After UFS, we visited the South African War Museum where we learned in more detail about the "Anglo-Boer War" between the British and the Boers. Through the museum it depicted Boers and Africans placed in concentration camps. The pictures of malnourished children was disheartening. Through the museum, we learned that Africans played a role with the war. Since they were indigenous people, they were able to inform the British/ Boers about the land,environment and best routes to defeat their opponents. We also learned that through the Anglo-Boer war, the African Nationalist Congress was formed.


The Anglo-Boer War name was changed to the South African War. One of the presenters by the name of Dr. Twala said "You cannot have a war in South African soil without the black people being involved and not call it a South African war". He said it with so much passion. After the museum, we went to one of the founder members of the ANC house name Thomas Mtobi Mapikela and learned about how he influenced people in the township to stand up against apartheid.
 
After the tour, we came back to UFS and learned that we are going to be split up in two groups. One group was going to visit the homeless shelter and another group will visit a high school discussing teen pregnancy.  I decided to join the group that focused on teen pregnancy.