CBB Cape Town Student Handbook

Colby, Bates, and Bowdoin Colleges offer semester-long programs at their Cape Town Centre. Students take two courses at the Centre and two courses at the University of Cape Town. They also participate in community service projects at two Cape Town townships.

Tentative Schedule

FALL SEMESTER 2004
Boston departure June 24th
Orientation begins June 28th
Classes begin July 12th
Fall Break August 28th-September 5th
UCT classes end October 15th
UCT exams end November 12th
Program ends November 13th

SPRING SEMESTER 2005
Boston departure January 28th
Orientation begins January 31st
Classes begin February 14th
Spring Break April 2nd-10th
UCT classes end May 20th
UCT exams end June 17th
Program ends June 18th

CBB in South Africa

South Africa has been occupied by humankind and its ancestors for millions of years. Home to the first identified Australopithecine skull (Taung child, 2-3 million years ago), discovered by Raymond Dart in 1924, it is still a mine of controversial new paleoanthropological finds and ideas. Taung, Sterkfontein, Swartkrans, and Kromdraai are South African sites still producing finds of early hominids today. Early Homo sapiens also lived in South Africa, and their early footprints can be seen at Langebaan Lagoon, fossilized in old lake mud. Many of these important finds can be seen in museums and research institutes around the country, or tours can be taken to the better-known sites.

South Africa is also home to some of the earliest rock art in the world. Dating back at least 10,000 years, these elegant portraits of early life were probably done by ancestors of the San people, who are thought to have been living in southern Africa for at least the last 40,000 years. Before the arrival of the Europeans there were several major population shifts within southern Africa, motivated by advancing technologies, population expansions, and contact with neighboring groups. By the time the Europeans arrived the San had been joined by the Khoikhoi and Bantu-speaking agriculturalists.

Although it was the Portuguese who first named the Cabo da Boa Esperança (Cape of Good Hope), the Dutch and British came to exploit it as part of their colonial empires. The first Dutch fort was built in Table Bay in 1647 by a shipwrecked crew of Dutch sailors. In 1652 a permanent Dutch fort was officially established and the first Dutch farmers (burghers) left the Netherlands to start farms around the fort.

These early Dutch farmers were joined by other Europeans and their populations grew. The Dutch East India Company imported slaves from Angola, Mozambique, Madagascar and other parts of the Dutch Empire to work on large plantations close to Cape Town. The seminomadic Dutch farmers expanded their settlement further from the Cape and came into conflict over land with local African populations. Their contact with the local Dutch government became more and more tenuous and most of them lived hard rural lives, moving farmsteads frequently, and quite independent of government and education. By 1745 they were known as Trekboers, which means "wandering farmers," a term which was later shortened to Boers. They were unaware of the changing politics in Europe.

By 1814 what is Cape Province and Natal today had been ceded to Britain by the Dutch, and in 1833 slavery was abolished. Attitudes had changed; it was cheaper to hire labor than pay for slaves. The Dutch brought in indentured labor from the East Indies. This was followed by almost two hundred years of social conflict between the rural Boers; the urban, ruling white elites of predominantly British origin; and the Africans and colored peoples (mixed Khoisan, former slaves, and peoples from the East Indies). The rise of Shaka, the great Zulu leader and his expanding empire, and attempts by Boer farmers to establish states independent of British rule in time led to what are known as the Boer wars.

In 1910 the Union of South Africa had gained independence from Britain. By the early 20th century the clear social divisions that underwrote apartheid were in place In 1948 apartheid laws and policies were formalized by the governing National Party. For the next four decades heroes such as Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Ahmed Kathrada, and Helen Suzman led resistance to apartheid, resulting in crackdowns by the South African state. By the late 1980s continuing resistance to apartheid and South Africa's economic isolation from the global community led top government officials to begin secret talks with Mandela to negotiate the transition to fully enfranchised democratic governance. In 1994 the first all-race election was held in South Africa, which made Mandela, former terrorist, the first elected president of post-apartheid South Africa.

In modern post-apartheid South Africa, many museums and institutions have displays that describe the conditions, conflicts, and changes leading up to democracy. Thousands of visitors a year visit District Six in Cape Town, a focus of black and colored cultural life, that was destroyed in 1966, when the government declared it a "whites-only" area. The District Six Museum shows what life was like in the predominantly Muslim community before clearing. Visits can be made to Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela and other black dissidents were imprisoned; guides to the island are often former prisoners. South Africa today is forging innovative ways to overcome its legacy of political and social strife. Laboring under the overwhelming problem of economic inequality, the country is working hard toward a more egalitarian future. Once banned arts, music, people, and ideas are now proudly displayed, heard, and listened to. World conventions and athletic competitions are a common occurrence.

CBB Off-Campus Study / 4800 College Station / Bowdoin College / Brunswick ME 04011