Anne Heffernan. Limpopo’s Legacy

Inspired by the momentous actions of students involved in the Black Consciousness movement at the University of the North at Turfloop and works by other historians, Anne Heffernan tackles the long history of student and youth politics from the late 1960s in South Africa’s Limpopo Province. In Limpopo’s Legacy: Student Politics & Democracy in South Africa, she primarily follows political events at Turfloop, although as the narrative goes beyond the 1970s and involves secondary school and non-student youth groups, the scope broadens. The main argument is that other scholarship has favored histories of urban areas, yet people in this more rural or peripheral area importantly shaped ideas and people at the core of national movements. Moreover, young people were the main drivers of political change in the region, “consistently [having been] at the forefront of new forms of political protest and expression,” which they spread “within and outside the province” (12). Limpopo’s Legacy adds geographic breadth to South African liberation movement history and further evidence of the important role of young people in South African politics. Its chronological span provides insights into crucial transitional periods of the early 1980s and 1990s. Nevertheless it has its limitations.

Argument (complex analysis) · Consciousness · Democracy · History of Africa · Narrative · Political science · Politics · Scholarship · Sociology · African history and culture studies · Anthropology · Communism, Protests, Social Movements · Gender Studies · History · Law · Psychology · South African History and Culture