PLACES AND FORMS OF POWER

PLACES AND FORMS OF POWER

 Introduction . Definitions :

“The ability or official capacity to exercise control, authority ( the State, the government, political organizations)”

“strength or force exerted”

“ a person, group, or nation having great control or influence over others”

“The notion of power implies a basic division between those who have and exercise power and those who have none or little of it . Even when authority seems absolute, there are always counter-powers which question it, aim at limiting its excesses and resist it.” Book p 13

  Topic : SOUTH AFRICA

TO WHAT EXTENT COUNTERPOWERS CONTRIBUTED TO LIMITING AND SUPPRESSING THE EXCESSES OF POWER IN SOUTH AFRICA

    POWER IN SOUTH AFRICA:

• Past oppression : Timeline
• Separate and unequal, it's the law p 60: the 4 principles at the heart on the Apartheid
• Legal repression p 62: What was mandatory and forbidden / what were the penalties ?       

COUNTER-POWER FORCES

SOWETO UPRISING

http://youtu.be/TN57-pXEfc4     

1. Nelson Mandela  

• Video : The Life and Accomplishments of a South African Leader

•  The Long Walk to Freedom : trailer

  2. Artists against the Apartheid 

• Richard Attenborough, Cry Freedom . A 1987 British drama set in the late 1970s, during the Apartheid era in South Africa.

In the early 1980s, Nelson Mandela’s name was virtually unknown in the United States. In fact, it was Steve Biko, who died in police custody in South Africa in 1977, who first put the struggles of black South Africans into public consciousness in the U.S.

Peter Gabriel’s song “Biko” was written in 1980, the same year the United Nations established a cultural boycott of the country, and was among the first of the songs that catapulted the plight of apartheid onto the musical airwaves.

It wasn’t until 1984 that The Specials, also known as The Special AKA, released its iconic “Free Nelson Mandela” that the protest genre really took off.

It was against that backdrop that Bruce Springsteen guitarist Steven Van Zandt teamed up with record producer Arthur Baker and then-ABC producer Danny Schechter to create Artists United Against Apartheid and produce “Sun City.”

The anti-apartheid songs on the album, including “Sun City” and “Revolutionary Situation,” inspired a generation of musicians to write their own anti-apartheid songs and albums. Among them were Bono, Stevie Wonder and Johnny Clegg.

• Peter Gabriel, Biko 

 

 

"Biko"

September '77
Port Elizabeth weather fine
It was business as usual
In police room 619
Oh Biko, Biko, because Biko
Oh Biko, Biko, because Biko
Yihla Moja, Yihla Moja
-The man is dead

When I try to sleep at night
I can only dream in red
The outside world is black and white
With only one colour dead
Oh Biko, Biko, because Biko
Oh Biko, Biko, because Biko
Yihla Moja, Yihla Moja
-The man is dead

You can blow out a candle
But you can't blow out a fire
Once the flames begin to catch
The wind will blow it higher
Oh Biko, Biko, because Biko
Yihla Moja, Yihla Moja
-The man is dead

And the eyes of the world are
watching now
watching now

CONCLUSION:

Video: South African Youth 18 years after Apartheid

Social inequalities: still a reality

OTHER TOPICS CONNECTED TO THE NOTION:

        2. The power of the  media : TV Reality . The Truman Show  

         3. African American recognition (ch 7 p 144):The African American artists who aimed at changing the balance of powers and making the voice of their community heard .

• The American ideal : the declaration of Independence, the American Dream / reality : slavery, segregation, inequalities
• The Civil Rights movement and political recognition : Rosa Parks, M L King, Malcolm X
• Art as a weapon : Harlem Renaissance, music (jazz), literature, painting, photography
• The situation today : first African American president, worldwide recognition of AA culture

          3.Other places and forms or power (personal document):

• Political power : dictatorships
• The media and The Press: the fourth power . How the press can influence the life of millions and manipulate citizens'state of mind, its impact on society, how newspapers shape the public opinion.   
• Financial power: the power of money
• Schools : American schools, bullying
• Families : how the gender roles can lead to influence and submission
• Sects
• The Civil rights movement in the US / Martin Luther King: fight against segregation
• Gandhi and the National movement in India! struggle against Bristish colonisation
• The power of advertising : how advertising has changed and adapted over the years to influence our choices, a weapon that people, businesses and countries can use (propaganda)    
• ……..