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Unisa Press

Seeds of Separate Development: Origins of Bantu Education 

Author                        Cynthia Kros
Unisa Press, world rights
Format           245 x 165  mm(Laminated softcover)
Pages             +
April 2010
ISBN 978-1-86888-552-0
Forthcoming, 2010
SA price: R210,00 (VAT incl)
Rest of the world:
Africa: R,00 (Airmail incl)Contact Mr Mike Mokone, mokonpm@unisa.ac.za
US$27.55(Airmail incl)
GB₤16.10 (Airmail incl)
€21.45(Airmail incl)

UNEDITED FROM LINDSEY, END APRIL 09:
author’s blurb suggestion for KROS: Seeds of Separate Development:

As the memory of apartheid recedes it becomes ever harder to capture what philosopher Hannah Arendt might have described as its appearance of normality – which is not to deny in any sense that it was a cruel and destructive system which has left a deeply ingrained legacy of bitterness and harm in its wake. But, how was it that so many people who thought of themselves as just and decent citizens subscribed to the ideas of apartheid, and believed that it was the only way in which South Africa’s many diverse ‘communities’ could live in harmony?

This book, through tracking the intellectual development of one of apartheid’s deftest ideologues, W. W. M. Eiselen, explores how the seeds of separate development were sown in at least one quarter of apartheid’s toxic fields, and the conditions under which they began to take root.

Description
‘As the memory of apartheid recedes it becomes ever harder to capture what philosopher Hannah Arendt might have described as its appearance of normality – which is not to deny in any sense that it was a cruel and destructive system which has left a deeply ingrained legacy of bitterness and harm in its wake. But, how was it that so many people who thought of themselves as just and decent citizens subscribed to the ideas of apartheid, and believed that it was the only way in which South Africa’s many diverse ‘communities’ could live in harmony?’

Cynthia Kros’s study tracks the intellectual development of one of apartheid’s deftest ideologues, W. W. M. Eiselen, exploring how the seeds of separate development were sown in at least one quarter of apartheid’s toxic fields, and the conditions under which they began to take root.

The book opens with a location of the topic within the literature on apartheid and Bantu Education, and goes on  to examine the shaping of Eiselen’s discourse over several stages of his career before he entered politics. Later chapters explore the world of the 1940s, emphasising both the upheavals and the sense of possibilities that were its defining characteristics. The study concludes with an examination of the context, procedures, and finally the Report, of the Eiselen Commission.

 ‘Many students have been battling to overcome the treacherous legacy of Bantu Education. What this means, I think, from my work with them, is that they have been deprived of essential language skills: their reading and writing abilities have been almost irredeemably stunted by the time they come to the university. They have been so conditioned to rote learning and authoritarian styles of teaching that, at first, they can make no sense of a question that asks for critical evaluation or an argued response. And this continues to be the case for many black students, despite the advent of Outcomes-Based Education, which is aligned to the democratic principles of our fabled constitution. For those children obliged to go on attending township schools – for the most part (though there are some honourable exceptions) – Bantu Education continues to exercise its brain-numbing potency, transmitted by new generations of hapless teachers.’ -Cynthia Kros

Contents
TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

Acknowledgements

ii

 

Table of Contents

vii

INTRODUCTION

 

1

 

Why Not a Biography?

2

 

The Politics of Knowledge

9

 

Mixing Modes of Analysis?

10

 

What Follows…

11

CHAPTER ONE

REVISING NATION AND NATIONALISM

12

 

Introduction.

12

 

On Nation and Nationalism

12

 

An Early Digression

14

 

O’Meara Revisited

15

 

Giliomee’s Retort

17

 

Discourse Theory?

19

 

Hyslop and Education History

21

 

Taking Ideas Seriously

23

 

Conclusion

26

CHAPTER TWO

SON OF THE BERLIN MISSION

27

 

Introduction

27

 

The Impact of the BMS

28

 

‘Place of Refuge’-- Botshabelo

29

 

The Press Battle

33

 

The Turning Point

42

 

The Naturellevraagstuk

43

 

Conclusion

46

CHAPTER THREE

THE STELLENBOSCH ACADEMIC

48

 

Introduction

48

 

Eiselen and the English-speaking anthropologists?

48

 

Not Quite at Home

52

 

The Anthropology of the ‘Changing Native’

54

 

Inter-War Optimism

61

 

Face-Off

66

 

Conclusion

68

CHAPTER FOUR

CHIEF INSPECTOR OF NATIVE EDUCATION

69

 

Introduction

69

 

Eiselen Leaves Academia

69

 

The Impasse

71

 

Not at Peace

72

 

Eiselen the Afrikaner Nationalist?

76

 

The Taalstryd (Language Struggle)

78

 

The Other Language Struggle

80

 

A Feeble Bureaucrat?

85

 

Conclusion

87

CHAPTER FIVE

THE 1940S – CHANGING HORIZONS

89

 

Introduction

89

 

Economic Features

89

 

The UP Government and its Advisers

91

 

SEPC’s Report Number Nine

95

 

Smit and the DNA

99

 

The Smit Report

100

 

Smit and the ‘New Hotheads’

102

 

Conclusion

103

CHAPTER SIX

THE RIOT AT LOVEDALE

105

 

Introduction

105

 

Not only Sugar

105

 

The Riot

107

 

Not the ‘bumptious’ City Lad

109

 

Domestication of the Elite?

111

 

Not the Lambeth Walk

113

 

But Where Did They Get Their Ideas?

115

 

Conclusion

117

CHAPTER SEVEN

PRELUDE TO THE EISELEN COMMISSION

119

 

Introduction

119

 

Fagan

120

 

Sauer

123

 

The Fagan Critics

125

 

Appointment of the Eiselen Commission

128

 

Conclusion

128

CHAPTER EIGHT

THE EISELEN COMMISSION AND ITS REPORT

133

 

Members of the Commission

133

 

The Commission’s Work

136

 

Social Planning

138

 

Findings

140

 

Culture

142

 

The Report: Culture, Development and Modernity

148

 

The Report and the Curriculum

151

 

The Report and Administrative Structures

153

 

The Report and Mother Tongue Instruction

154

 

Conclusion

155

AFTERWORD

 

158

NOTES

 

162

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

191