The video "How Did South African Apartheid Happen, and How Did It Finally End?" featuring the DHHS’s Thula Simpson as Creator and Scriptwriter, won the ‘Jury Award for a Commissioned Film’ at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, the world’s largest and most prestigious animation fest, which was held in the town of Annecy in France from 9-15 June 2024.

Watch: "How Did South African Apartheid Happen, and How Did It Finally End?" 

Directed by Aya Marzouk and the Animation Studio Giraffics, produced by TED-Ed, with Safia Elhillo as Narrator and Salah Hassan as Storyboard Artist, the video represents a truly international collaboration by creatives in the USA, South Africa and Egypt, with the intellectual content being based on the University of Pretoria’s second-year GES 220 module ‘The shaping of a modern South Africa’, which in turn is based on Professor Simpson’s award-winning History of South Africa: From 1902 to the Present.

The video, which has notched up over 490 000 views and counting so far, represents just one of the materials that Professor Simpson developed as the Educator for the Ted-Ed lesson. The resources, in turn, form the basis of lessons on apartheid that are being delivered by educators worldwide, reflecting the growing global reach and impact of Professor Simpson’s work, which is further testified by, among other recent contributions, the Al Jazeera explainer video "What is apartheid and why do some accuse Israel of it?", and the podcast series on the history of apartheid that forms part of the ‘Anti-Apartheid Legacy: Centre of Memory & Learning’ Project based at the African National Congress’s (ANC) former London headquarters at 28 Penton Street, Islington.

Watch: "What is apartheid and why do some accuse Israel of it?"

The Annecy Award testifies to the potential inherent in integrating teaching and research, and the capacity of UP academics to deliver world-leading outputs in both spheres through smart South-South and North-South partnerships.