Two Races, One Body
The apartheid was the force of segregation on the basis of race, notoriously famous in South Africa. In this project, we had to challenge ourselves to look at why white people in South Africa needed to be protected and why the major population of black people were being attacked. For us, this was not so black and white as we were raised in different times, but still experience the day-to-day news of attacks against black people. Inspired by stories of survivors, we wanted to bring justice to these people throughout each portion of our project, to justify our means for action with fact rather than stereotypes and opinions. In each of our components, we challenged ouslef to seek reason in why we have created our products as we have ended for them to be used rather than be put in a glass box to look at. For English, we wanted to write an essay that would be judged by the Apartheid government, but be celebrated by the people under the apartheid. For History, we wanted to create a mind map with facts to demonstrate the aggressive actions of the apartheid and allow it to be easily read for anyone. Lastly, as art tends to serve, we wanted to build a mock poster inspired by Steve Biko and the people of South Africa. We know that the apartheid has ended, but why is that the segregation of people on the basis of race not a surprise to people anymore? Where is the reasoning behind that?
HistoryTo demonstrate our opinions have formed from a strong root, we took it upon ourselves to create a mind map to hopefully piece together the facts of the apartheid operation rather than the propaganda of it all. We focused our efforts into proving how the apartheid system was designed to attack the black South Africans rather than protect the white minority as it was supposed to. In our mind map, we have collected numerous reasons for why the apartheid reigned for so long, but also the reasons why resistance formed and why the apartheid crumbled. In the mind map, we present the numerous policies, which has resulted in the suffering of black South Africans which were only created worse by the police, then how people like Steve Biko came to be, then to understand the perspectives from domestic and worldly and how that caused a reaction. Simply put, we wanted to create a way to understand the apartheid and how it targeted the victims rather than the criminals. The reasoning is demonstrated through the connections we put, to show the cause and effect of the apartheid and the domino effect it had on South Africa from then on.
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EnglishTo understand the apartheid, specifically, the ban of interracial marriage and intercourse, we wanted to gather the motivation to understand the perspective to better our reasoning. In part of research, we read the autobiography of Trevor Noah - a mixed race South African - who lived under the lingering end of the apartheid. In this biography, it shared some of story of Noah's mother - a Xhosa woman - and Noah's father - a Swiss German - man who lived under the egregious rule of the apartheid and manage to break the rule they were under to have their child. With this book, we had an understanding of the opportunities that lie for a mixed child with understanding what it was like to just be a child under the apartheid rule. Understanding just the basics and first person perspective of what it like to live under the apartheid rule helped benefit the motivation we had to write an essay to end the apartheid in South Africa if we could go back in time. With our research and motivation, we wrote a persuasive essay to end the ban of interracial marriage and intercourse on the basis of large issues at hand (abuse against black South Africans), limit a mixed child's opportunity and attack the minor minority of those who are interracially married.
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Art
For this portion of the project, we had designed a poster which we had transferred to the art of punch needle. As people who aren't particularly gifted in art, we always want to try to push ourselves to try something new and for this project, we aimed to make a rug by the way of punch needling. Looking back, it was quite the experience as we had some snags along the way. Some mistakes included learning the consistency of loops, having to draw the reflection of the image you want to create and learning how to make detail successfully. Eventually, we had collaboratively discussed ways to improve and develop the best product we could that served a greater purpose. The subject it self, a black South African, shows just one in a million, but represents the millions suffering. The hair with the pattern comes from a native tribe in South Africa which had rebelled against the apartheid. Additionally, the hair ties to the pencil test to "properly identify" yourself in the apartheid: If the pencil had fallen out of your hair immediately, you were to be considered white; if it had taken a couple shakes to get the pencil out, you were labeled as mixed, but if it was stuck, you were labeled as black. The quote across the boys chest says, "It is better to die for an idea that will live, than to live for an idea that will die." which was said famously by Steve Biko. Then the South African flag as the background shows the lingering spirit of what it means to be South African and how the apartheid is only happening to those is South Africa.
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Steve Biko tribute song by Peter Gabriel