Dear Colleague,

Thanks very much for your inquiry about our National Endowment for the Humanities institute, South Africa: History and Culture. In this letter I want to acquaint you with the many exciting aspects of our institute. The letter in the second attachment contains NEH application information and instructions for applying to the institute.

The institute faculty are certain that twenty-five teachers in June of 2009 will embark on an intellectual adventure of discovery, learning, and travel in South Africa which has the potential to transform your classroom activities when you teach about Africa. For the first three weeks we will be affiliated with the University of the Western Cape in Bellville, suburban Cape Town. Professors at the university will deliver lectures to us and we’ll also visit interesting places in and near the city. During the second three weeks we’ll travel throughout the country, interacting with South Africans and seeing the varied sites of cities, farms, savannas, mountains, lowlands, and coast.

Perhaps a very old quotation is apropos here:

"I could have only studied about Egypt, and learned. I could have only traveled in Egypt, and learned. As I both studied and traveled in Egypt, I learned and understood."

–Herodotus, fifth century BCE Greece

As did Herodotus in the far northeast of the continent 2,500 years ago, in the summer of 2009 participants will both study and travel in the most southern part of the African continent. Similar programs that we at the University of Arkansas at Monticello have conducted in various countries on the continent, including four in South Africa in this decade, were quite literally a life-changing experience for many participants.

The bustling Victoria and
Alfred Waterfront Mall in Cape Town.

INSTITUTE DATES AND LOCATION

The institute, to be conducted in South Africa, will run from June 23 to August 4, 2009. These are the target dates. It’s possible that our flight schedule to Cape Town and back to the U.S. may be a day before or after each of these dates.

The institute faculty designed the project for twenty-five participants who teach or supervise in grades 6-12 in the following subjects: (1) social studies, including world history, American history, global studies, world geography, and related subjects; (2) English; and (3) other subjects in the humanities.

Each participant will receive a stipend of $4,400. This stipend is for: (1) airfare; (2) books needed for the institute and other research expenses; and (3) meals and lodging for the six weeks of the institute.

The biggest variable in the teachers’ expenses will be the round trip ticket from their home airports to the American airport from which we will all depart for Cape Town as a group.

As group ticket fares to South Africa are several hundred dollars per ticket cheaper than buying individual tickets, I will arrange for us to travel as a group from an American departure city to Cape Town and back. From their stipends, teachers will themselves buy a round trip ticket from their home airports to the departure city.

In today’s world economy it’s quite difficult to estimate what a participant’s total expenses will be. The decreasing value of the US dollar, ever increasing plane ticket prices, and sharply higher costs in South Africa for food, hotels, admissions, and travel all contribute to this difficulty. The $4,400 stipend each participant will receive will therefore not cover all of the costs. I am estimating, and it’s just that–an estimation-- that participants will have to spend from their personal funds approximately $450-$500 during the course of the project. Even so, I hope that everyone will agree with me that this opportunity to study and travel for six weeks in South Africa which the NEH is providing is still an extraordinary one.

After we have accepted twenty-five participants into the program, we will use money from the stipends to buy our plane tickets to Cape Town and pay deposits to hotels in South Africa. The necessity of taking care of these items as a group also saves the participants from investing a lot of time and effort in accomplishing these tasks themselves.

The beautiful wine-producing area around Stellenbosch.

Africa is a vast continent of over 50 countries and more than 700 million people. We have therefore selected South Africa for our study, which will permit us to concentrate on a single country and its people. The remarkably rich and complex history and culture of South Africa will become the subject for a multidisciplinary study. Many themes in South Africa history are also found throughout much of sub-Saharan Africa.

Here is an overview of the project.

Fly from participants’ home airports to American departure city, then onward as a group to Cape Town, where a bus we will charter for our entire stay in the country will pick us up and deliver us to our hotel in the central part of the city.

The goals of the orientation program are: (1) to examine such practical matters as South African customs, manners, and acceptable behavior; (2) to discuss curriculum development; and (3) to create as quickly as possible a sense of camaraderie, the feeling that "we’re all in this together."

Component II of the Project: Academic Study on the Campus of the University of the Western Cape

The principal objective of the academic study will be to provide the best current scholarship to enable the participants to acquire a sound knowledge of the major themes and their interpretations in the history of South Africa and southern Africa. On most days there will be two or three lectures delivered by professors from the university.

During our time in Cape Town we will visit places of interest in and near the city. Highlights include: (1) ferry ride to Robben Island in Cape Town harbor, where Nelson Mandela and political prisoners were held for decades; (2) District Six Museum which celebrates a formerly bustling area of central Cape Town populated largely by Colored/Mixed Race residents until the apartheid government removed these residents in the 1960s; (3) Khayelitsha, Guguletu, and Langa townships where the apartheid government forced Africans and Colored/Mixed Race people to live; (4) cableway to the top of Table Mountain; (5) the South African National Art Gallery; (6) the Cape of Good Hope; and (7) Stellenbosch and Franschhoek in the wine country near Cape Town.

The imposing campus of the University of the Western Cape.

The lectures for the institute will be organized around these four seminar topics.

South Africa contains vast geographic diversity ranging from the subtropical southeast coast, to the savanna, or veldt, in the central region, to the Drakensburg Mountains in the east, to the semiarid and arid regions of the northwest, to the Mediterranean climate of Cape Town in the far south. South African history encompasses the fascinating story of the accomplishments and interaction among the country’s rich, complex, and varied mix of people: the Khoisan, the first people into this region; the Bantu language family speakers–Xhosa, Zulu, Tswana, Sotho, and others--who today comprise the majority of the population; European settlers, mainly Dutch and British, who alone on the continent gained control of the government, in the early years of the 20^th century; the Colored/Mixed Race people, centered in Cape Town and the Western and Northern Cape provinces; and the Asians, mainly from India, who are concentrated in Durban and KwaZulu Natal province. The last fifty years in South Africa feature the struggle of the African National Congress and most South Africans to end the racist rule of the apartheid government instituted by European-descended South Africans in late 1940s. These efforts resulted in the election of 1994 which brought an end to apartheid and carried Nelson Mandela and democratic government to power. Although much has changed in the last fourteen years, millions of South Africans still live and work in conditions similar to those under apartheid.

There will be lectures on South African literature and music. Participants will also study health and urbanization, two vital aspects of change all over Africa. Visits to three of the most vibrant cities on the continent, Cape Town, Durban, and Johannesburg, will enable us to explore all aspects of this complex mix of peoples and cultures. Participants will discover how apartheid influenced culture and society and how its pernicious influences still extend into the post-apartheid period.

In his shop in Khayelitsha, Golden proudly displays his artistic work.

Seminar 3: Religion and Education

African religion still permeates many aspects of life in South Africa and Africa as a whole, and aspects of it have entered into the practice of Christianity and Islam throughout the continent. There will be lectures on these three religious tradition. A look at South African education features the great disparity between the schools for children of the well off and those for the children of economically poor families. There will also be attention given to the more limited Muslim educational tradition of Cape Town. Participants will visit schools to get a first hand view and will also have the opportunity to teach a class for thirty minutes or so. Usually the American teachers discuss aspects of life in an American classroom and then answer myriads of questions which the South African students ask. Another activity which has proved quite popular in the past will consist of a panel of South African secondary school teachers who will describe for us their lives in a South African classroom.

Topics here include economic development under apartheid which has benefitted mainly the English– and Afrikaner-speakers, the struggle of the African National Congress to achieve equal economic opportunity, the many changes after the election of 1994, and the myriad problems left from the apartheid decades which still remain to be solved. Participants will get the opportunity to analyze economic and political changes since the demise of apartheid in order to evaluate the extent to which Africans have benefitted or still live in conditions virtually as hopeless as under apartheid. Also studied will be South Africa’s role on the African continent and in the world at large.

There will be four lectures in each seminar.

African penguins frolicking on the beach at Boulders, near Simon's Town.

When we travel we will visit most of South Africa’s provinces. To the southeast is the subtropical Indian Ocean coast of KwaZulu Natal province with its rolling hills, many of them dotted with sugar cane and banana plantations. The largest city, Durban, is a center of South Africans of Indian ancestry. There we’ll visit the KwaMuhle Museum which contains exhibits concerning the hated pass system under apartheid; a Hindu temple; and the Victoria Street Market which is chock full of Indian products, foods, and spices. To the north we will visit Zululand battlefields and historical sites, Hluhluwe-Umfolozi National Park which conservationists world-wide acclaim as an outstanding example of responsible ecological management, and the Drakensburg, the highest mountain range in southern Africa. Johannesburg contains an eclectic population comprised of representatives of all of South Africa’s population groups. Just outside the city is Soweto Township, the nerve center of the struggle against apartheid. Here on the same street are the houses of Nelson Mandela (now a museum) and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The new museum of apartheid is a highlight of a visit to the city. We’ll also spend a day in Pretoria, the administrative capital of the country. A three-day visit to Botswana provides a visit to a neighboring people and culture. Then on to Kimberley, a center of the diamond industry. The outdoor museum there permits visitors to go through historic buildings, many dating to Cecil Rhodes and the earliest days of diamond mining in the 1860s. West of Kimberly the savanna, known locally as the Karoo, holds sway during the drive back to Cape Town.

We will travel in a chartered bus. Our hotels will run from modest to quite nice and will contain a bathroom with sink, shower or bath, and toilet. There will be two teachers to a room.

Living, studying, and traveling in any sub-Saharan African country requires both intellectual and physical energy from participants. As an example of the latter, teachers will need to be ready and able to do a great deal of walking, sometimes in very hilly places with no sidewalks. Participants must also handle their own luggage during our travels. And that’s certainly an inducement to travel as light as possible, about which successful applicants will hear a great deal more later!

Flight from Cape Town to the American departure airport and then home.

INSTITUTE FACULTY

The faculty of the institute consists of three people. I’m Rich Corby, the project director, a history professor at the University of Arkansas at Monticello (UAM) where I teach world and African history. My special interests include Western and Muslim education on the continent and fiction by African writers. Publications center around aspects of Islam in West Africa. I have taught and conducted research in West Africa for nine years altogether and have traveled widely in other parts of the continent. I do understand both the opportunities and problems of teaching in grades 6-12 as I have taught social studies at these levels in both Sierra Leone and in central Illinois, where I grew up. In the past fifteen years I have directed a number of institutes for teachers on campus here at UAM, two funded by the NEH on Islam in West Africa. I have also been the leader of eight Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad programs, funded by the United States Department of Education, in which I led teachers on six-week curriculum development study/travel projects in various African countries. The most recent such program was to South Africa in June and July of this year.

Kay and Rich trying to maintain their equilibrium
on top of windswept Table Mountain.

Ms. Kay Grant taught a broad array of subjects in the humanities at Drew Central High School in Monticello, Arkansas before her recent retirement. She now works as an education consultant. For many years she introduced much African content into her social studies and English classes. At institutes here at UAM and in other universities in Arkansas she has worked extensively in helping teachers to incorporate African material into their classes. She has presented on African topics at conferences and workshops at schools and universities throughout Arkansas and twice at the annual conference of the National Council for the Social Studies. Kay is always a favorite with teachers as she is knowledgeable, friendly, and completely unflappable.

Dr. Liesel Hibbert, our South African faculty member, is exceptionally qualified for her position. She teaches English and linguistics at UWC and just finished a very successful three-year tenure as the director of the Iilwimi Centre for Multilingualism and Language Professions at UWC. Her specialty is sociolinguistics and she has conducted research and published on a number of topics including the idea of "standard English," using the South African parliament as a case study. Pertinent to our project, Dr. Hibbert has had extensive experience in curriculum development, often working with teachers in Khayelitsha Township. Most importantly, in the summers of 2002, 2005, and 2008 she served as the in-country faculty member for the Fulbright-Hays GPA six-week programs in South Africa which Dr. Corby led and as a faculty member in the 2006 NEH institute held in South Africa. Liesel is well-organized, energetic, hardworking, and friendly. Teachers will enjoy and learn from their association with her.

Liesel demonstrates her musical ability at Babanango.

ORAL, READING, AND WRITING REQUIREMENTS OF THE INSTITUTE

For forty-five minutes after the last lecture of each seminar a committee of teachers from our group will summarize and analyze the important points of the four lectures and pertinent assigned readings. After we select the 25 participants, we’ll send information to them regarding the four seminars. The teachers will indicate a first, second, and third choice of seminar committees and, based on their stated preferences, we will divide them into three committees of six teachers each and one committee of seven.

Texts for the institute will be: Paul Bohannan and Philip Curtin, Africa and Africans, 4^th edition, 1995; Leonard Thompson, A History of South Africa, 2002, reliable and well written by a foremost South African historian; Rita M. Byrnes, ed., South Africa: A Country Study, 2001, which covers political, social, and economic aspects of South African society; Allister Sparks, Tomorrow Is Another Country, 1996, an engrossing account of the negotiations in the early 1990s between President F.W. de Klerk and the National Party on one hand, and Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress on the other which ended apartheid; Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom, 1995, a much acclaimed autobiography; Alex La Guma, A Walk in the Night, 1968, insightful short stories set in District Six in Cape Town before its destruction during apartheid; and Wayne Edge, editor, Global Studies: Africa, 11^th edition, 2007, which contains a country-by-country survey of the entire continent, and articles on economic, political, and social matters in various African countries. Finally, there are two very informative and practical guide books. Buy one of these: Lonely Planet: South Africa, 2006 or Rough Guide to South Africa, 2008. As all of these books are in paperback, it will be possible for participants to take them to South Africa.

I recommend that teachers read these works in their entirety except for the two reference works, Global Studies: Africa and the guide book, either Lonely Planet: South Africa or Rough Guide to South Africa. In addition, in the daily schedule I’ll list appropriate readings for that particular seminar. Many of these readings will come from the works listed above and other selections will be from articles which I’ll send to participants in April.

Lodging in Tendele Camp in the Royal Natal National Park
with the Amphitheatre (mountain) in the background.

The writing portion of the institute consists of a personal and group journal. The personal journal will prove invaluable as teachers record events, ideas, reactions, frustrations, and triumphs throughout the six weeks. We will not ask to read teachers’ journals, but there will be a number of opportunities for participants to read selections from their journals if they choose to do so. In addition to the personal journal, the participants will also keep a group journal. That is, each day a different person will write about the events and their impressions of that day in a collective journal. After returning home, we will send a copy of the group journal to all participants. The journals, then, will provide teachers with the opportunity simultaneously to look "inward and outward" in a process of reflection, both objective and subjective.

Another project activity is to develop curriculum materials. There will be institute sessions to help teachers to translate the academic content and field experience into meaningful learning experiences for students. During the six weeks each participant will begin to develop lesson plans and materials based on the lectures, field experience, and collected materials. Kay Grant will direct this component of the project. She will be assisted by Drs. Hibbert and Corby where appropriate.

MISCELLANEOUS

Successful applicants will apply for an international teacher’s ID from STA Travel which costs $22. The most helpful feature of the ID is that it provides insurance coverage while we are in South Africa.

Due to the nature of our program of study and travel, it will not be possible for a relative or friend of a participant to join the group at any time during our six weeks in South Africa.

Our affiliation in South Africa is with the University of the Western Cape in Cape Town. The university’s website address is

Nelson Mandela Museum in Umtata.

Over the years Kay and I have found that to be successful in studying and traveling in sub-Saharan Africa, there are several types of behavior and attitudes that are indispensable.

1. Be adaptable. Our schedule is made months prior to our arrival in Cape Town. Yes, changes will occur between now and them. The weather also may influence what we can do at a specific time. For instance, it’ll be winter in Cape Town in June and July and that’s the rainy season. Proceedings may not occur at the appointed time, in the order you expect, or in the manner you anticipate, but be patient, and they will happen! When we travel in South Africa, differences will command everyone’s attention–sights, food, smells, customs–just about everything. If you work hard to adapt, before long you’ll become accustomed to this new environment and will actually begin to appreciate, even enjoy, many of these differences.

2. Be sensitive. You should not continuously compare what you see and experience in South Africa with the same situations and events in the U.S. (although a certain amount of this is inevitable). If you try, over time you will begin to accept the customs and behavior of South Africans in terms of how these fit into life as South Africans strive to live it, and not worry about what Americans would likely do in similar circumstances.

3. Be considerate. Remember, we’re guests in South Africa. We’re not doing South Africans any big favor by visiting their country, although this is an attitude many Westerners, particularly Americans, have. This is the perspective that’s expressed in such statements as "Well, why can’t we do this! Just think of all the money we’re spending here in this country." We believe, however, that the truth lies in the reverse of this attitude--we Americans are going to be the recipients of many favors and acts of kindness by South Africans.

4. Be focused. You must always remember that this is an NEH institute with high academic expectations, not primarily a touristy sightseeing and shopping trip.

Like children everywhere, these youngsters
in Khayelitsha eagerly strike a pose.

ADMONITIONS

If potential applicants have managed to read this far, we’re sure that virtually all of you have concluded that everyone will work hard during our six weeks in South Africa. And we will! Even though the following remarks will apply to just a few potential applicants, Kay and I think it’s necessary to include these admonitions, so here goes.

1. If you want to visit South Africa to engage in endless trips to big game parks while the South Africans themselves remain in the background practically invisible, as in the Hollywood films The African Queen and Out of Africa, for example, this is NOT the institute for you. (We will, however, spend two days in a park.)

2. If you want to be a participant in order to go mountain climbing in the Drakensburg, this is NOT the institute for you. (We will though travel to the Drakensburg.)

3. If you want to visit South Africa to spend most of your time on the gorgeous beaches this is NOT the institute for you. (We will spend several days in places, however, where it will be possible to visit one of these beaches a time or two.)

4. If you want to visit South Africa and expect to stay in American-style luxury hotels, this is NOT the institute for you. (As I indicated above, most of our hotels will be modest.)

5. If you want to visit South Africa and expect to have porters available to carry luggage everywhere we go, this is NOT the institute for you.

If, however, your goal is to learn as much as possible while you study and travel in South Africa and then transfer the knowledge and understanding you gain, and materials you collect, into curriculum materials for your classroom, Kay and I would be delighted to receive your application. And, yes, during our six weeks in South Africa, we will have a good time too as we create memories that will last a lifetime!

COMMENTS FROM TWO TEACHERS CONCERNING THEIR EXPERIENCE IN SOUTH AFRICA

One teachers wrote:

I cannot fully express how much my NEH study and field experience in South Africa helped me to put past and present world events in perspective and to become a better teacher. Africa often times gets overlooked. The intense training this summer, however, via lectures, hand-on experiences, useful classroom materials and handouts, and travel have all given me the tools necessary to help students comprehend, analyze, and eventually evaluate data on contemporary issues as well as the history of the country. I have really developed an understanding of the creation, evolution, and emergence of this modern nation.

Another teacher commented:

This project in South Africa was extremely beneficial. The UWC faculty gave really great lectures and Rich, Kay, and Liesel were knowledgeable and helpful. The historical background and different perspectives have provided me with a greater understanding of the events leading to the elimination of apartheid and the formation of a new democratic society under the leadership of Nelson Mandela. This NEH program in South Africa made it possible for us teachers to attend lectures and interact with local people, giving an "insider’s" perspective of South Africans and their culture. We were able to research topics of interest on-site. I am now integrating information from lectures, personal conversations, interviews, and research into my classroom activities.

Elephants find a watering hole in Hluhluhwe-Imfolozi Park.

PERSONAL SAFETY

Kay and Rich have conducted four programs for teachers in South Africa in this decade. We can therefore say from our personal experience that this is a country which is safe from terrorism and with a well developed infrastructure which makes travel a delight. South Africans are also very friendly and eager to interact with Americans.

All of this may seem pretty formal, when actually we really aren’t! Do you have any questions? If so, contact me, Rich Corby: office phone - 870/460-1847; evening

phone - 870/367-9281. E-mail address: corby@uamont.edu

I look forward to receiving your application. You can be assured that all of us on the selection committee will give it our most careful attention.

Sincerely yours,

          Rich