The Development of Educational Policy for Black Africans in South Africa : 1652-1948
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University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014 1-1-1984 The development of educational policy for black Africans in South Africa : 1652-1948. Ingrid P. Babb University of Massachusetts Amherst Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_1 Recommended Citation Babb, Ingrid P., "The development of educational policy for black Africans in South Africa : 1652-1948." (1984). Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014. 3931. https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_1/3931 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014 by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE DEVELOPMENT OF EDUCATIONAL POLICY FOR BLACK AFRICANS IN SOUTH AFRICA 1652-1948 A Dissertation Presented By INGRID PATRICIA ANNE BABB-BRACEY Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF EDUCATION September 1984 SCHOOL OF EDUCATION © INGRID PATRICIA ANNE BABB-BRACEY 1984 All Rights Reserved THE DEVELOPMENT OF EDUCATIONAL POLICY FOR BLACK AFRICANS IN SOUTH AFRICA 1652-1948 A Dissertation Presented By INGRID PATRICIA ANNE BABB-BRACEY Approved as to style and content by: i i i ACKNOWLEDGMENT I wish to acknowledge my indebtedness to my chairman, Meyer Weinberg, and the members of my dissertation committee, E. Jefferson Murphy and Josephus Olagemi Richards for their patience, support and, much appreciated valuable comments and searching criticism. I also wish to acknowledge with thanks, the librarians at the UMass library who were always helpful in tracing references and unearthing sources. A special debt of gratitude must be made to Nancy Arnold for her persistent encouragement and the many hours spent deciphering my handwriting and the many more spent in professionally typing this manuscript. I am also indebted to Sherry Ferraro for her time and her indispensable suggestions and comments. Finally, to my family: my mother and father, Joyce and James Babb, my brother and sister, John and Frances, my husband John and children, Bryan, Kali and John, I am deeply grateful for their encour¬ agement and forebearance during the entire period of research. i v ABSTRACT THE DEVELOPMENT OF EDUCATIONAL POLICY FOR BLACK AFRICANS IN SOUTH AFRICA 1652-1948 September 1984 Ingrid Patricia Anne Babb-Bracey B.A., Friends World College M.Ed., Ed.D., University of Massachusetts Directed by: Professor Meyer Weinberg The white settlers of South Africa have historically justified their domination of Africans by a crude, but effective, policy based upon the tenets of white supremacy. Although the vast majority of whites in South Africa over the centuries have united in favor of perpetual white dominance and black subordination, all were not agreed on how this should be accomplished nor whether schools were to play a part in this dominance. This dissertation attempts to analyze the changing, often con¬ tradictory, nature of educational policy for Africans in South Africa during the period 1652 to 1948. The study demonstrates that, from a colonial perspective, decisions governing educational policy for Africans were shaped by white supremacy and tempered by economic and political concerns. Formal schooling, whether initiated by missionaries or government officials, was used in two ways: 1) as a means for establishing cultural, political, and economic hegemony over Africans, and 2) for reducing Africans to subordinate roles in their own country. v However, this dissertation is not restricted to the rela¬ tionship between education and the domination of Africans. It is an assessment of Africans' resistance and adaptation to this form of cultural imperialism and it concludes that Africans responded to schooling based on the stages of colonial development and on their proximity to the imperialistic forces of colonialism and white settler rule. Thus, initially, Africans resisted western schools but, as Europeans emerged as the dominant force, a dichotomy in Africans' view emerged. Africans in traditional areas acquiesed in schooling, but only to the extent necessary for survival; while Africans in urban areas not only accepted the assertion of western schooling as the most viable training, but also defined the redemption of Africa in terms of schooling. They struggled, often unsuccessfully, to define education as a tool, not of oppression, but of liberation—a struggle that continues today. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS . ABSTRACT . LIST OF TABLES . Chapter I. the development of educational policy for black AFRICANS IN SOUTH AFRICA 1652-1948 1 Introduction . 1 The Problem. 4 Need for the Study . 8 Limitations . 9 Theoretical Perspectives . 10 Methodology. 19 Outline of Chapters. 23 Definitions. 24 II. SCHOOLING FOR KHOIKHOIN AND SLAVES UNDER THE DUTCH EAST INDIA COMPANY'S RULE 1652-1806 . 30 Church, State, and Schooling . 30 Christian Education for the Khoikhoin . 33 The First Schools . 42 The Advent of Missionary Education 1737-180 51 III. BLACK EDUCATION UNDER BRITISH RULE 1806-1890 77 Segregating the Schools . 78 The Quest Against Islam . 86 The Mission Stations and British Policy 88 Education for Peaceful Subjugation 95 Missionaries and Africans . 99 The Triumph of Western Schooling . 111 119 IV. EDUCATION UNDER THE MISSIONARIES The Coming of the American Zulu Mission . 120 Proselytizing the Africans . 124 The Return of the AZM . 129 Boarding Schools . 131 The Creation of Permanent Settlements . 137 Schooling and the AZM . 142 The AZM and the Colonist . 158 V. THE ETHIOPIAN CHURCH AND EDUCATION. 168 The Rise of Ethiopianism . 173 The Ethiopian and African Methodist Episcopal Churches . 179 Dwane and the African College. 183 The Creation of a South African College . 187 The First African College: Fort Hare . 203 VI. INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION . 217 Origins of Industrial Education . 218 African Resistance to Industrial Schools . 223 Revamping the Industrial Program . 225 Industrial Education as Social Control . 229 An American Education Model for South Africa . 236 Redefining Industrial Education . 241 Industrial Schools for Africans by Africans. 250 The Phelps-Stokes Commissions: Validating Industrial Education and Counteracting Garveyism . 257 Aftermath. 267 VII CONCLUSION . 276 BIBLIOGRAPHY . 282 vi i i LIST OF TABLES 1. Hierachy of Educational and Religious Authority at the Cape (1652-1795). 33 2. Expenditures on African Schools . 228 CHAPTER I THE DEVELOPMENT OF EDUCATIONAL POLICY FOR BLACK AFRICANS IN SOUTH AFRICA 1652-1948 Introduction White domination, no stranger to the colored races of the world, is manifested in South Africa in the most extreme form of herrenvolk democracy.1 Equalitarian and egalitarian treatment is extended to whites while blacks are deprived of any and all rights accorded by the state through color bars, disenfranchisement, and discriminatory treatment. Indeed, the South African government has demonstrated its willingness to contain, exploit, and murder blacks as indicated by the creation of bantustans, the "civilized labor policy," and the Sharpeville murders.2 Government and social policies state emphatically that there is no place for Africans as equals in the European community. How¬ ever, Africans are everywhere indispensable, performing the low-level underpaid jobs that white South Africa deems unfit for Europeans. Ironically, as the white population remains small, and industrializa¬ tion increases, white South Africa finds itself redefining and expand ing those job categories that can now be performed by blacks.3 This is not an indication that capitalism and the free enterprise system are presently contributing to, or will eventually result in, the democratization of the society.4 Government policy forbids both the 1 2 hiring of blacks, "coloreds" or Asians in supervisory positions and the payment of equal renumeration for professional services.5 In order that white South Africans may enjoy one of the high¬ est standards of living in the world, black South Africans, (70% of the population) are confined to 14% of the land, work for an average salary of R189 a month (as compared with R799 for whites), watch 50% of their children die before age five, and die at a rate five times higher than whites.6 It is certainly not in the interest of white South Africa to democratize the society. The depreciated and humiliating position of blacks in South Africa is evident in its policy statements, as is indicated in a statement regarding education by Hendrik Verwoerd, former head of the Department of Native Affairs: . .if the Native in South Africa today in any kind of school in existence is being taught to expect that he will live his adult life under a policy of equal rights, he is making a big mistake . .There is no place for him in the European community. .What is the use of teaching a Bantu child mathematics when it cannot use it in practice? . .It is therefore necessary that native education be controlled in such^ a way that it should be in accordance with the State."7 Such excessive control is illustrated in 1978 senior high school enrollment figures indicating the reduction to the presence of only 16,671 of the 580,533 African students who entered school in 1966. Blacks who seek education, enter school two years later than whites and at greater expense. Schooling