Strangers In Their Own Country: A Curriculum Guide on South Africa

Teaching Guide. By Bill Bigelow. 1985.
Lessons on apartheid in South Africa and the global anti-apartheid movement.

Time Periods: 20th Century

Themes: Art & Music, World History/Global Studies

Download PDF of book.

Strangers in Their Own Country, made available for download on the African Activist Archive website, presents the lives and struggles of the people of South Africa with stories, poems, role plays, news articles and historical readings.

This is the first and still one of the best collections of readings and lessons for students on the history of apartheid.

Preface

Perspectives of Teaching South Africa

Lesson 1: South African m & m Simulation

Lesson 2: Facts on South Africa

Lesson 3: Film: Last Grave at Dimbaza

Lesson 4: The “Homelands”: Point/Counterpoint

Lesson 5: Laws of South Africa

Lesson 6: The Pass Laws: And a Threefold Cord

Lesson 7: South African Story Writing

Lesson 8: Film: Afrikaner Experience

Lesson 9: Film: Generations of Resistance

Lesson 10: Nelson Mandela: The Rivonia Trial Speech to the Court

Lesson 11: Black Unions Struggle for Justice

Lesson 12: South Africa in the Region

Lesson 13: Learning to Resist: Namibia

Lesson 14: Debate: Should U.S. Corporations Invest in South Africa?

Lesson 15: Letters on South Africa

Lesson 16: Final Project

Student Handouts

ISBN: 0865430101 | Africa World Press

Classroom Story

I used Strangers in their Own Country to talk about South African apartheid. I used it in connection with Facing History and Ourselves, about justice and reconciliation, and identity. I would connect the content to current issues. It helped my students understand the topic through different themes of identity, forgiveness, and reconciliation.

—Tamaria Crider

High School Social Studies Teacher, Chicago, Illinois

More Online Resources

	African Activist Archive. In addition to the lessons above, the website provides extensive multimedia historical materials and interviews with activists in the U.S. movement in solidarity with struggles of African peoples against apartheid, colonialism, and injustice.
	South African History Online: toward a people’s history. SAHO’s mission is “to break the silence of our past and to create the most comprehensive online encyclopedia of South African history and culture. SAHO has committed itself to involve heritage and academic institutions as well as ordinary South Africans in rewriting our history and in that way contributing to reconciliation, the building of a common humanity and a non-racial, non-sexist, and democratic society.”
	Africa Access provides an online database with critical reviews of children’s books to help teachers, librarians, and parents select titles that do not reinforce stereotypes about Africa.