Section 4: Rights and protest

                                                          Section 4: Rights and protest

Read sources M to P below and answer questions 13 to 16 in the accompanying question paper. The sources and questions relate to case study 2: apartheid South Africa 1949 – 1964; Nature and characteristics of discrimination – segregation of education.

Source M:

Excerpt from Verwoerd’s speech to the Senate on 7 June 1954, quoted in Verwoerd Speaks, Speeches 1948 – 1966 edited by A. N. Pelzer, published by APB Publishers, Johannesburg, South Africa, 1966.

It is policy of my department that education should have its roots entirely in the Native areas and in the Native environment and Native community … The Bantu must be guided to serve his own community in all respects. There is no place for him in the European community above the level of certain forms of labour … For that reason, it is of no avail to him to receive a training which has as its aim absorption in the European community while he cannot and will not be absorbed there. Up till now he has been subjected to a school system which drew him away from his own community and practically misled him by showing him the green pasture of the European but still did not allow him to graze there.

Source N: Statistical chart on the per capita spending on education from 1950 to 1980 produced by the Apartheid museum. Note that R stands for Rand, the South African currency. Currently 148 rand = 10 $US

[pic 1]

Source O:

Excerpt from Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela, published by Abacus, London UK, 2013. Nelson Mandela became the first president of a democratic South Africa in 1994.

… The white Afrikaner has always been unenthusiastic about education for Africans. To him it was a waste, for the African was inherently ignorant and lazy and no amount of education could fix that. The Afrikaner was traditionally hostile to Africans learning English, for English was a foreign tongue to the Afrikaner and the language of freedom for us. In 1953, the Nationalist – dominated Parliament passed the Bantu Education Act, which sought to put Apartheids stamp on African education … Dr Hendrik, the minister of Bantu education, explained that education ‘must train and teach people in accordance with their opportunities in life. There is no place for the Bantu in the European community above the level of certain forms of work’. In short, black Africans should be trained to be menial workers, to be in a position of forever subordination to the white man.

Source P:

From a 2006 interview, Obed Bapela, described his experience in overcrowded Bantu education schools in Alexandra township (in Johannesburg’s northern suburbs):

… the school that I went to was an overcrowded school, there were quite many of them in Alexandra that were overcrowded, there were not enough schools to take care of all of us so we used to share classes. There would be a morning class that goes up to 11 o’clock and then we’ll go home, and then other kids of the same grade will come after 11 o’clock up to 2 o’clock and therefore the teachers will then run two sets of class … in some situations they will even use a tree in the schoolyard … we were around 70 to 80 pupils in each class when I was in grade 1 and grade 2.

Questions:

13. (a) Why, according to Source M, is it important for South African blacks to have their own separate system of education?     (3 marks)

-  It is of little consequence to him to get a preparation which has as its point assimilation in the European people group while he can't and won't be consumed there. Up till now he has been exposed to an educational system which drew him away from his own local area and essentially deceived him by showing him the green field of the European yet at the same time didn't permit him to eat there.

(b) What is the message conveyed in source N?      (2 marks)

- The most percent of money were destiny for white schools and the less of the jerque to blacks. In the middle we can see Indian schools and “coloured”. Since time passed, the difference start to be bigger and being more notorious between white schools and black between 1950 and 1980.

14. With reference to its origin, purpose, and content, analyse the values and limitations of Source P for an historian studying the impact of the Bantu Education Act on non – white South Africans.   (4) marks

The inception of this source was a meeting with Obed Bapela in 2006, and this meeting is viewed as something important since we can see his perspective about the youngsters who endured on account of the nature of the schools they went and that their learning was an essential thing. In any case, even so we can show a few restrictions, for example, that there is just a single viewpoint that is hers and other perspective are not assessed, showing what occurs in different schools from different sides and other impediment might be that she can fail to remember a few things of as youngster discarding some significant subtleties. The primary motivation behind this source is to tell insight of the young lady in her youth and what her life was pretty much as awful as that mean for her learning.

...