HSY1512/201/1/2018
Tutorial Letter 201/1/2018
Southern Africa until the Early 1800s:
Encounters and Transformations
HSY1512
Semester 1
Department of History
This tutorial letter contains the following:
1 Comments on Assignment 01
2 Comments on Assignment 02
3 Comments on Assignment 03
4 Guidelines for the examination
BARCODE
,Dear student
We have already provided you with electronic feedback on each of the three assignments for
Semester 01 on the myUnisa site for this module. Hopefully, you managed to access this
feedback after each closing date and used it to improve your assignment writing. For your
convenience, we are sending you a printed summary of our tutorial feedback on the
assignments in the hope that it will make your preparation for the examination easier.
The assignments that have been set for the semester cover the main themes of this module and
are therefore valuable preparation for the examination. If you have submitted all the
assignments and produced work of good quality, you will have built a strong semester mark
which will have a positive influence on your final result. You will also have familiarised yourself
with the types of questions you can expect in the examination paper (short answer, paragraph-
type and essay questions) and developed a basic understanding of the core aspects of each
main theme. By studying Tutorial Letter 201 (this tutorial letter), you will deepen your insight into
the module content and be better prepared for the examination. This tutorial letter should be
read in conjunction with Tutorial Letter 102 (available under ‘Official Study Material’ on the
myUnisa module site), which provides you with specific guidance for the examination. For your
convenience, these exam guidelines are summarised below under heading 4: Guidelines for
the examination.
1 COMMENTS ON ASSIGNMENT 01
Assignment 01 was designed to achieve four objectives: the first was to help you appreciate the
importance of the precolonial history of southern Africa which paved the way for historical
developments after 1652; the second was to help you understand the lifestyles of, and
interaction between, the different precolonial societies, and how these aspects were shaped by
environmental conditions in southern Africa; thirdly, the assignment offered you an opportunity
to develop your skills in answering short and paragraph questions which will prepare you for the
later assignments and the examination; lastly, it alerted you to the importance of avoiding
plagiarism in academic writing.
The first ten questions required short answers of only a few lines each and are similar to short
answer questions in your other assignments and the examination paper. Questions 11 and 12
required you to write logically constructed paragraph answers, while Question 13 alerted you to
the nature of plagiarism and how it can be avoided. Students who followed our guidelines and
assessment criteria for this assignment on pages 15-16 and 24-25 of Tutorial Letter 101,
produced competent answers, while those who read the sections on plagiarism in Tutorial
Letters 101 and 301 had no difficulty in answering Question 13 on how plagiarism can be
avoided.
The assessment criteria which guided us in our written comments and mark allocation were
your understanding of the contents of Learning Unit 1, which deals with precolonial lifestyles
and environmental conditions in southern Africa;
your ability to select relevant information from the study guide (Tutorial Letter 501) and
express this in your own words;
your ability to formulate your own arguments and substantiate a point of view;
your ability to write focused and concise answers to short questions;
your ability to write logically structured paragraph answers;
your understanding of the nature of plagiarism and how it can be avoided.
2
, HSY1512/201
SHORT QUESTIONS
The purpose of the short questions for all the assignments and the examination is to alert you to
key aspects of the tutorial material. In answering each short question in Assignment 01, you
needed to provide only two core issues in order for full marks to be awarded. Answers should
therefore have been focused, concise (usually no longer than five lines) and well structured. Our
answers below tend to be more comprehensive, because we need to accommodate all relevant
student responses and, in some cases, provide you with clarification, additional information and
a broader perspective.
In view of our specific instruction on page 29 of Tutorial Letter 101, namely to present answers
to short questions in full sentences (the same applies to the short questions in Assignments 02
and 03), you were penalised for submitting one-word answers, or answering in single phrases,
point-form or memo-style. Remember that this will also apply to the examination. Do not lose
marks unnecessarily by not adhering to the requirements stipulated in the tutorial letter or in the
examination paper.
1 Mention two ways in which references to South Africa’s precolonial past play
a role in current political debates. (2)
Some present-day South Africans (both Bantu-speakers and people of Khoesan descent) trace
their historical roots back to the precolonial period and use knowledge of southern Africa’s
precolonial past to support their claims for land restitution. They argue that southern Africa was
not an empty land which belonged to nobody, as has been claimed by the colonisers and later
colonial historians, but that it belonged to their ancestors. Another argument which frequently
surfaces in current political debates, is the claim for official recognition of a Khoesan cultural
heritage and identity as the first inhabitants of southern Africa. In addition, some South Africans
use their knowledge of powerful Late Iron Age kingdoms such as Mapungubwe, which has been
proclaimed a world heritage site, to celebrate the historical contribution of Bantu-speaking
communities in southern Africa with regard to economic development, state formation and
international trade.
(Tutorial Letter 501, pp 10-11; see also Activities 1.1, 1.2 and 1.4 for Learning Unit 1 on
myUnisa)
2 Give two reasons why southern Africa frequently experiences drought. (2)
The first important point that you should have raised was that the largest part of South Africa
experiences low rainfall. The western two-thirds of the country, for example, receives less than
625 mm of rainfall per year, which is the international minimum for sustainable agriculture. For a
second mark, you could either have indicated that rainfall – even in the wetter north-eastern
region – is erratic, which leads to frequent drought. Alternatively, you would have received
credit for any one of the following factors that contributed towards drought conditions: the high
rate of evaporation as a result of high summer temperatures; lack of absorption caused by
quick, heavy thunderstorms; limited underground water sources; and a lack of perennial rivers,
which could again be linked to low and erratic rainfall.
(Tutorial Letter 501, pp 13-14; see also Activity 1.3 for Learning Unit 1 on myUnisa)
3
Tutorial Letter 201/1/2018
Southern Africa until the Early 1800s:
Encounters and Transformations
HSY1512
Semester 1
Department of History
This tutorial letter contains the following:
1 Comments on Assignment 01
2 Comments on Assignment 02
3 Comments on Assignment 03
4 Guidelines for the examination
BARCODE
,Dear student
We have already provided you with electronic feedback on each of the three assignments for
Semester 01 on the myUnisa site for this module. Hopefully, you managed to access this
feedback after each closing date and used it to improve your assignment writing. For your
convenience, we are sending you a printed summary of our tutorial feedback on the
assignments in the hope that it will make your preparation for the examination easier.
The assignments that have been set for the semester cover the main themes of this module and
are therefore valuable preparation for the examination. If you have submitted all the
assignments and produced work of good quality, you will have built a strong semester mark
which will have a positive influence on your final result. You will also have familiarised yourself
with the types of questions you can expect in the examination paper (short answer, paragraph-
type and essay questions) and developed a basic understanding of the core aspects of each
main theme. By studying Tutorial Letter 201 (this tutorial letter), you will deepen your insight into
the module content and be better prepared for the examination. This tutorial letter should be
read in conjunction with Tutorial Letter 102 (available under ‘Official Study Material’ on the
myUnisa module site), which provides you with specific guidance for the examination. For your
convenience, these exam guidelines are summarised below under heading 4: Guidelines for
the examination.
1 COMMENTS ON ASSIGNMENT 01
Assignment 01 was designed to achieve four objectives: the first was to help you appreciate the
importance of the precolonial history of southern Africa which paved the way for historical
developments after 1652; the second was to help you understand the lifestyles of, and
interaction between, the different precolonial societies, and how these aspects were shaped by
environmental conditions in southern Africa; thirdly, the assignment offered you an opportunity
to develop your skills in answering short and paragraph questions which will prepare you for the
later assignments and the examination; lastly, it alerted you to the importance of avoiding
plagiarism in academic writing.
The first ten questions required short answers of only a few lines each and are similar to short
answer questions in your other assignments and the examination paper. Questions 11 and 12
required you to write logically constructed paragraph answers, while Question 13 alerted you to
the nature of plagiarism and how it can be avoided. Students who followed our guidelines and
assessment criteria for this assignment on pages 15-16 and 24-25 of Tutorial Letter 101,
produced competent answers, while those who read the sections on plagiarism in Tutorial
Letters 101 and 301 had no difficulty in answering Question 13 on how plagiarism can be
avoided.
The assessment criteria which guided us in our written comments and mark allocation were
your understanding of the contents of Learning Unit 1, which deals with precolonial lifestyles
and environmental conditions in southern Africa;
your ability to select relevant information from the study guide (Tutorial Letter 501) and
express this in your own words;
your ability to formulate your own arguments and substantiate a point of view;
your ability to write focused and concise answers to short questions;
your ability to write logically structured paragraph answers;
your understanding of the nature of plagiarism and how it can be avoided.
2
, HSY1512/201
SHORT QUESTIONS
The purpose of the short questions for all the assignments and the examination is to alert you to
key aspects of the tutorial material. In answering each short question in Assignment 01, you
needed to provide only two core issues in order for full marks to be awarded. Answers should
therefore have been focused, concise (usually no longer than five lines) and well structured. Our
answers below tend to be more comprehensive, because we need to accommodate all relevant
student responses and, in some cases, provide you with clarification, additional information and
a broader perspective.
In view of our specific instruction on page 29 of Tutorial Letter 101, namely to present answers
to short questions in full sentences (the same applies to the short questions in Assignments 02
and 03), you were penalised for submitting one-word answers, or answering in single phrases,
point-form or memo-style. Remember that this will also apply to the examination. Do not lose
marks unnecessarily by not adhering to the requirements stipulated in the tutorial letter or in the
examination paper.
1 Mention two ways in which references to South Africa’s precolonial past play
a role in current political debates. (2)
Some present-day South Africans (both Bantu-speakers and people of Khoesan descent) trace
their historical roots back to the precolonial period and use knowledge of southern Africa’s
precolonial past to support their claims for land restitution. They argue that southern Africa was
not an empty land which belonged to nobody, as has been claimed by the colonisers and later
colonial historians, but that it belonged to their ancestors. Another argument which frequently
surfaces in current political debates, is the claim for official recognition of a Khoesan cultural
heritage and identity as the first inhabitants of southern Africa. In addition, some South Africans
use their knowledge of powerful Late Iron Age kingdoms such as Mapungubwe, which has been
proclaimed a world heritage site, to celebrate the historical contribution of Bantu-speaking
communities in southern Africa with regard to economic development, state formation and
international trade.
(Tutorial Letter 501, pp 10-11; see also Activities 1.1, 1.2 and 1.4 for Learning Unit 1 on
myUnisa)
2 Give two reasons why southern Africa frequently experiences drought. (2)
The first important point that you should have raised was that the largest part of South Africa
experiences low rainfall. The western two-thirds of the country, for example, receives less than
625 mm of rainfall per year, which is the international minimum for sustainable agriculture. For a
second mark, you could either have indicated that rainfall – even in the wetter north-eastern
region – is erratic, which leads to frequent drought. Alternatively, you would have received
credit for any one of the following factors that contributed towards drought conditions: the high
rate of evaporation as a result of high summer temperatures; lack of absorption caused by
quick, heavy thunderstorms; limited underground water sources; and a lack of perennial rivers,
which could again be linked to low and erratic rainfall.
(Tutorial Letter 501, pp 13-14; see also Activity 1.3 for Learning Unit 1 on myUnisa)
3
