“Free at Last”: A Course on the Global Antiapartheid Movement

“Free at Last” chronicles the use of multimodal teaching exercises in a three-week class on the global antiapartheid movement. The class drew on, in particular, Connie Field's seven-part documentary Have You Heard from Johannesburg, which proved to be an excellent tool for content delivery and for sparking discussions. Also used were “passbooks” to simulate, though not re-create, the way the apartheid regime used identification books to oppress black South Africans. Two of the most challenging discussions for the students were the idea of the proper use of international intervention and the choice to use violent or nonviolent resistance. The class succeeded in stimulating student interest in South Africa and in racial oppression, challenging students to present their own ideas on those subjects, and opening deep moral quandaries to student discussion.