HISTORICAL TRIPOS Part I 2018
Paper 1
THEMES AND SOURCES
Option vi
Comparative histories of race, class and culture: Southern Africa, 1850-2013
Write an essay of 3000 to 5000 words on ONE of the following questions. Your essay must
be typewritten and should be provided with footnotes and a bibliography giving references in
a consistent format to the primary sources and secondary literature used.
For further details on presentation (including how to count footnotes, bibliography and
statistical graphs and tables), consult the Faculty Style Guide. Please also read carefully
the Themes and Sources Guidance document, on the Faculty website.
Indicate the question number and copy in full the wording of the question at the start of your
submission.
Unless your question requires otherwise, you may concentrate on any particular period or
region within the scope of the course.
All essays should be related to the issues discussed in the classes. You should make use of
the primary sources in your course materials and any sources your supervisor advises you to
consult.
If you choose a topic from Section B, you must formulate a specific essay title within the
general theme identified by the topic heading and then obtain approval for that title from the
course organiser before the end of Easter Full Term (Friday, 16 June 2017).
TWO hard copies of your essay must be submitted to the Themes and Sources
Secretary in the Faculty Office and ONE electronic copy must be uploaded to
Turnitin, via Moodle.
Section A: Essay Questions
1.
Was the Xhosa cattle-killing a consequence of conspiracy?
2.
Did the mineral discoveries of the 1870s and 1880s fundamentally reshape the
societies of southern Africa?
3.
In the context of southern African history, how exceptional were the early twentiethcentury massacres of Namas and Hereros by German colonists?
4.
‘White settlers in Southern Rhodesia were particularly prone to “Black Peril”
hysteria.’ Discuss.
5.
How were African urban experiences shaped by ethnicity and class during colonial
rule?
6.
To what extent did apartheid transform urban life in the 1950s and 1960s?
7.
Did liberation movements in southern Africa articulate a common class and race
consciousness?
8.
Was Nelson Mandela a revolutionary?
Section B: Topics
9.
Oral traditions and southern African history.
10.
Race in nineteenth-century southern Africa.
11.
Colonial conquest in southern Africa, 1870-1907.
12.
Gender and southern African settler colonies.
13.
Urbanisation and class.
14.
Apartheid and popular protest.
15.
Liberation struggles and transnational connections.
16.
The end of settler colonialism in southern Africa, 1980-1994.