Shikaya has put together  a list of  the resources from our library. These resources are available for all our Facing the Past teachers. The Resource list consists of  Books, Dvd’s, classroom sets as well as teacher guides that can be used in their classrooms.

Click here to access the Resource List

Contact Lauren at our offices on 021 671 7200 for more information on the availability of resource material.

You may also contact Nicola Frick regarding ideas for resources to use.

LAND OF HOPE

Milton Mphangwa is a Facing the Past teacher. He teaches history at a school in the Western Cape Province of South Africa.  His history course uses Holocaust and Human Behavior as a foundational case study, and then moves into a study of South Africa’s history of apartheid.  Milton has created a project about anti-refugee and immigrant violence that has plagued the country, including the school’s area.  His students will interview local people, including refugees and local government people.

Land of  Hope is a short film about  how Milton together with his students started to educate themselves and others about xenophobia and brought change in their community.

Our first speaker, George Hallett, was the official photographer for the TRC. To hear his anecdotes and explanations of his photos was a real privilege, and gave us an intimate glimpse into the Commission’s internal workings.

We were also fortunate enough to have a poetry reading by Ingrid de Kok, who had attended the TRC hearings as a journalist. Participants were given a copy of her anthology, “Seasonal Fires,” upon registration, and many enjoyed reading the poems whilst hearing them. Her poems dealt with powerful themes of guilt and responsibility, but also questions of how to build a reconciled future. Both George and Ingrid were present in the “fluid conversations” which followed, where participants were invited to engage with the speakers on a more informal and personal level. Liza Key, director of the documentary REwind, also attended the fluid conversations.

Philip Miller, composer of the internationally-acclaimed REwind cantata, spoke about the process of creating a living sound memorial, with vocal arranger Mduduzi Mofokeng. Shikaya had been able to offer 450 students and teachers the opportunity to watch the performance at the Baxter Theatre earlier that week, so the discussion was enthused and engaging.
Philip revealed that the name of the cantata arose from the story of Eunice Miya, who found out that her son had been killed when his body was shown on television. When relating this in her testimony she said, “I wish that picture could just rewind.” We were very lucky to have Mrs Miya share her emotional story later in the day.

After Philip and Mduduzi spoke, the musical theme was continued with one of the highlights of the conference: a performance by Vusi Mahlasela, one of the most inspiring African artists of this generation. Some of his songs dealt with the pain of apartheid, whilst others were uplifting, aptly captured the beauty of forgiveness and ubuntu.

The first session of Saturday was held in the Listening Room, which was set up into individual stations with headphones to mirror the experience of the TRC audience. Here participants listened to a 20 minute clip of testimonies, in preparation for the next set of informal conversations with Louis Nel and Abubaker Peterson. They were interpreters at the TRC, and spoke about the personal impact of reporting both the pain of victims and the guilt of perpetrators in the first person.

Perhaps the most intensely moving experience of the conference was the story of Nomonde Calata. She was one of the first to testify at the TRC about the murder of her husband, Fort Calata, one of the Cradock Four. She hopes that by sharing her story she can inspire people to carry on her husband’s legacy, as he was a committed teacher and believed in the power of education.

Having worked through the Up2Us Xperience the delegates began to create their own campaigns.They were asked to address the following: “How do you create a campaign which will inspire young people in racially and economically diverse communities to take a stand?”

The campaigns were created around issues close to them and included among others:

Σ-fi-Education for infinity (Education)

Life (make the powerful choice for prevention of alcohol and drug abuse)

Be a child Day (for child abuse)

I am Blue (for abuse against boys and men)

Hungry for Education ( for Education)

We started 2012 off with the roll-out of our Facing the Past seminars that have been well received by our teachers. These seminars are geared towards the new CAPS curriculum and afford teachers the opportunity of engaging with us and each other, as we unpack the topic, identify the challenges, and address our personal feelings and how they impact our teaching. We have hosted the following seminars this year:

1. Homophobia in the South African Context

For Shikaya’s first Facing The Past Teaching Seminar of 2012 Karen Murphy, International Director from our partner organisation, Facing History and Ourselves, hosted a workshop on homophobia. Homophobia is a critical issue in South Africa and has been particularly highlighted in the Western Cape with the consistent delays in the trial of the murderers of Zoliswa Nkonyana in 2006 – a 19-year-old woman who was murdered because she lived openly as a lesbian. The workshop proved to be a rewarding experience for all. Participants were able to express concerns, uncertainties and fears in an open and safe environment. Schools and classrooms were thought of in different ways, leading to a common goal of creating safe spaces for leaners in the school and classroom. Each left with an undertaking to do one thing to make the school a safer place of LGBT learners.

2. Identity in South Africa: African and Afrikaner Nationalism

The second of the Facing the Past seminar series explored issues of identity and nationalisms in South Africa in relation of African and Afrikaner nationalism. This was a significant day for the seminar as it was the opening of parliament and in the evening the President gave his annual state of the nation address! The discussions highlighted the complexities of the concept of nationalism, particularly when coming to grips with nationalisms within a country. While the curriculum directs us to engage with positive and negative aspects of nationalism, there was a feeling that nationalism can never be positive. The discussion was rounded off by reading an extract from an article by Katy Hughes,

What is nationalism?’

http://katy-hughes.suite101.com/what-is-nationalism-a53052. The extract concluded with these words: Even nationalists cannot agree on exactly what constitutes nationalism, as beyond this shared desire for the success of the nation, they have very little in common.’ There are some really important things to think about as history teachers in post-apartheid South Africa. As long as we continue to teach as though group identities exist in South Africa in a fixed way, we continue to emphasise our divisions and run the risk of continuing stereotypes and prejudice among the youngsters in our classes.

3. Choices and Human Behaviour in apartheid South Africa 1960s

4. Choices and Human Behaviour in apartheid South Africa 1970s – 1980s

Our teachers share there comments about the Facing the Past seminars:

“I really enjoy the debate, exchange of ideas and exposure to

challenging processes. All add in to me as an effective teacher.”

“We’re (teachers) constantly looking at new, different, interesting and

exciting ways of presenting history in class. The unanswered questions

and silent conversation is new to me and something that i can use

effectively in class.”

“(These seminars are) personally forcing me to acknowledge certain

feelings…”

They are an eye-opener. They develop your skills in terms of knowledge,

unpacking sources, and different methodology to approach certain

topics.”

One of the most important aspects of a flourishing democracy is an active, tolerant citizen body.

Facing the Past – Transforming Our Future is Shikaya’s core project, in collaboration with Facing History and Ourselves and the Western Cape Education Department, and aims to cultivate students’ awareness of the ways that society is shaped by the choices of individuals, and the role that they can play in the creation of a culture that values human rights, diversity and peace.

By examining case studies from Nazi Germany and apartheid, students are exposed to questions of identity, diversity versus exclusion, apathy versus activism, and are empowered to contribute towards building a more compassionate South Africa. As its content may be adapted for the specific teaching material, the approach is relevant for History, English and Life Orientation classes. By training over 250 teachers in the last eight years, the impact of Facing the Past has reached over 16 000 students.

Facing the Past is based on and supported by the work of Facing History and Ourselves.

In 2008 Shikaya produced History Updated – a series of thirteen filmed lectures by leading South African historians based on what teachers are required to teach. The lectures are hosted by Professor Bill Nasson and include lectures from Professors Nigel Worden, Nigel Penn and Lungisile Ntzebeza.

To order the DVDs or to apply for a sponsored set for your school, contact us.

In 2009, Shikaya launched Conversations with Our Past – a video series of intimate discussions between leading South African historical personalities and History teachers talking about the past they experienced and the past they teach. Anti-apartheid stalwart, Ahmed Kathrada, began the first conversation. The talks are filmed so that they can be distributed to History teachers in the Western Cape and in other Provinces across South Africa.