The Main Reasons For The Bantu Education In South Africa

In the 1930’s it was rare for a black South African to attend college. But Mandela not only attended, he graduated, got a degree from law school, and set up a practice in Johannesburg which he hoped could support his small family. Yet apartheid was always a humiliation to him. When the Afrikaner, or Dutch South African, Nationalists came to power in the 1948 election, the segregation habits of the past three hundred years became law. Hoping for a brighter future, Mandela joined the African National Congress (ANC) and became its first Youth Leader.

The Apartheid was initiated as a ploy for Europeans to better control the exploited populations for economic gain, as maintaining tension between the different racial classifications diverted attention from the Europeans as it fed hatred between groups. This assisted in minimizing unity between the exploited to rally against European control as it backhandedly induced “submission” for survival. One way of accomplishing this was by instilling laws that’d force segregation, classification, educational “requirements”, and economic purposes. The Population Registration Act of 1950 enacted, requiring segregation of Europeans from Afrikaans . Following shortly, the Group Areas Act of 1950 was enacted as a new form of legislation alongside the Population Registration Act. This detailed act separated tribes based on ethnics; consequently, further detailing segregation amongst the natives .

This paper will be outlining the basic structure of the laws that segregated the black population of South Africa throughout the 1900’s. It will also be explaining important people involved in the dismantling of apartheid and the foreign nations that helped to influence South Africa’s government to change. However, the primary goal for this paper is to inform the reader about the reasoning behind apartheid, the events leading up to it, and how it was reformed.

The South African Apartheid, instituted in 1948 by the country’s Afrikaner National Party, was legalized segregation on the basis of race, and is a system comparable to the segregation of African Americans in the United States. Non-whites - including blacks, Indians, and people of color in general- were prohibited from engaging in any activities specific to whites and prohibited from engaging in interracial marriages, receiving higher education, and obtaining certain jobs. The National Party’s classification of “race” was loosely based on physical appearance and lineage. White individuals were superficially defined as being “obviously white'' on the basis of their “habits, education and speech as well as deportment and demeanor”; an

The Land Acts are one of the many laws established by the white supremacy government to separate the different races in South Africa. Under apartheid, native South Africans (black) would be forced to live in isolated areas from whites and use separate facilities, and contact between both races would be permitted unless of certain circumstance (jobs). Despite the consistent opposition to apartheid within of South Africa and around the world, South African laws remained in action for over 50 years. In 1950, the Afrikaners prohibited marriage between different races. Also, The Population Registration Act of 1950 included the basic blue print for apartheid by classifying/ distinguishing all South Africans by race, including Bantu (black Africans), Coloured (mixed race) and white. In 1958 Dr. Hendrik Verwoerd, who was elected prime minister, would redefined/ reestablish the apartheid policy into a management he referred to as “separate development.” In 1959 Bantustans were formed for the black South Africans as communities, this was a part of “The Promotion of Bantu Self-Government Act of 1959. The government began to separating black South Africans from each other to enabled the government to claim there was no black South African majority, and it reduced the chance that blacks would unify into one big oppositionist/ rebellious organization. Every black South African was designated as a

life-long learning process. I was lucky enough to be a part of this social background and brought in a well-educated society that made me personally have faith in “Knowledge is Power & Wealth”. Additionally, I believe “Ignorance is the mother of all evil”. We need to make this Indigenous group understand the value of Education. The government need to take more responsive steps to cover the whole parts of Australia. Therefore, “Education can be used as the most powerful weapon which can use to change the world which is in existence.” According to Deng Adut, Refugee and Defence Lawyer, “There are many stories like mine out there waiting to be unlocked by the key of education.” Henceforward, sound education is a “key to equality.” (Dean

Blacks, coloreds, Indians were not allowed to attend universities as white. Not only along racial line but also ethnic lines. (Different universities for Sotho, Tswana, Xhosa ect.) Indians had their university in Ngoye (KZN) Durban areas. That’s why up to now there is majority of Indians in

The national party achieved power in South Africa in 1948 the government, usually comprised on “white people”, and racially segregated the country by a policy under the Apartheid legislation system. With this new policy in place the black South African people were forced to live segregated from the white people and use separate public facilities. There were many attempts to overthrow the Apartheid regime, it persisted to control for almost 50 years.

When it comes to the educational history of sub-Sahara Africa, it can be divided into three eras: the pre-colonial period; the colonial period; and the period after independence. African children in pre-colonial period, learnt how to survive life through experiences and instructions from their elders. Indigenous forms of education served the needs of the community as a whole, meaning African children, during that period learnt what they lived. Indigenous education systems also varied from one place to another, as different African cultures were present. Director Aïcha Bah-Diallo of the United

These first experiences were often negative, as education was a meaningless tool. Even if Indigenous children achieved outstanding results in their primary education, they were unable to continue their schooling. A confidential submission to the Bringing them home report outlined the disdain of one capable student in her education: “I would have liked to be a nurse or something, but when I finished school they sent me to work as a domestic” (AHRDC, 1997, submission 277). Protection policy advocated the intellectual inferiority of Indigenous people; they were believed to be incapable of standard education.

According to ‘Soweto Uprising’, the government responded harshly to a peaceful protest by students. They injured and killed the students harmlessly.

1960, protest were demonstrated in front of a local police station. As protesters raged on, the police showed brutality. They broke out in gunfire. 100 blacks were injured, and 69 died. Most of the protesters were shot in the back. Contradicting what the Declaration of Human Rights says in Article 19-21, “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression. Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association. Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.” This was an act of retaliation against the passing of the Bantu Education Act. The Bantu Education Act was also passed in 1960. The Bantu Act prohibited blacks from receiving higher education (History p.88.). This act was passed even though the Declaration of Human Rights declares in article 26 “Everyone has the right to education…” Even though it seemed things could not get ant worse for the Africans, their leader, Nelson Mandela, was

Specifically in regards to education, the government targeted the wrong aspect once more. It employed affirmative in university admissions, but with little effect. Recall that the Extension of University Education Act made it illegal for blacks to attend universities without government permission. So when apartheid ended, all universities were open to blacks. But opening a university to blacks doesn’t mean they will attend, and it certainly doesn’t mean they will excel. Just like how apartheid left blacks unskilled and unqualified for jobs, it also left millions of black secondary school students unprepared for higher education. As shown in the figure below, the graduation rate for Africans was 24% lower than that of whites as of 2006. Figure 3: Graduation in regulation time, overall and by population group (%) (http://www.che.ac.za/sites/default/files/publications/Full_Report.pdf

When studying history, it is important to be thorough and complete in your analysis. More specifically, when reading into the African educational system, there are many parts to focus on. These sections range from physical to social to spiritual. From studying these, we can see just what role each part played in the system. Things to consider from this are questions concerning

During the Apartheid era, teachers had to under went changes within the education systems and teaching methods. As the National party introduce the idea of the Bantu Education act of 1953. This act would in its basic forms classify each race into their own future careers. The non-white or black students would have all their classes taught in Afrikaans. This new form of segregation also enforced segregation within schools. This act did not only impact the students but as well as the black teacher’s as the government had the power to decrease their salaries. In the year of 1953 a dramatic drop of teacher trainees as the amount of black teachers to started to decrease. The government also started taking the funds from non-white schools and placed