Two steps forward, one step back: opportunities and challenges in the transformation of South African archaeology.

South African archaeology has been much criticized in recent years for the lack of racial transformation in both the academic and professional sector. Complaints to this effect spurred the professional association (the Association of Southern African Professional Archaeologists) to initiate a process that has culminated in the adoption of a “Transformation Charter” and the devising of a “transformation strategy” that would allow for the implementation of the charter in all levels of archaeology. This paper examines the implications of this process for archaeology in South Africa in the university classrooms where it is taught, particularly from the perspective of a distancelearning
institution. Drawing on interviews with students and lecturers, I address issues of pedagogy, curriculum design, institutionalized racism in South African universities and the pressures of having.