When Professor Anne-Maria Makhulu returned to South Africa to start her research in the late 1990s, the South African Truth & Reconciliation Commission was just beginning to start its work. She says that while the newly established transparency was important for understanding the workings of the government during apartheid, the commission’s function was largely symbolic.<\/p>\n
“It concretely didn’t address the needs of the vast majority of South Africans who had suffered forms of systemic and structural violence, not the kind of violence that a human rights framework would address.” In her research as a cultural anthropologist, Makhulu seeks to untangle the racial and class disparities that still exist in South Africa despite the transition\u00a0to a Black-majority, democratic\u00a0government.<\/p>\n
Anne-Maria Makhulu<\/a>\u00a0is an associate professor of\u00a0Cultural Anthropology<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0African & African American Studies<\/a>\u00a0at Duke University. She is also core faculty in\u00a0Innovation & Entrepreneurship<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0has an appointment in the department of\u00a0Gender, Sexuality, & Feminist Studies<\/a>. In her first book,\u00a0Making Freedom: Apartheid, Squatter Politics, and\u00a0the Struggle for Home<\/em><\/a>, Makhulu explores illegal settlements and squatting practices outside of Cape Town just after the end of apartheid. She is currently working on another book called\u00a0South Africa After the Rainbow: Aspiration, Ambition, and\u00a0Social Mobility.<\/em><\/p>\n