What Happened in 1953 in South Africa?
The Bantu Education Act, a piece of South African legislation passed in 1953 and taking effect on January 1, 1954, dictated how Black South African children—referred to by the administration of the nation as Bantu—were educated. It was a component of the apartheid system of the government, which authorized racial segregation and prejudice against non-Whites throughout the nation.
The great majority of schools in South Africa that served Black children began operating with governmental assistance and were run by missions around the 1930s. But the majority of kids didn’t go to these schools. The government established a commission in 1949 under the direction of anthropologist W.W.M. Eiselen to investigate and offer suggestions for the education of indigenous South Africans.
Ideology
The ideological underpinnings of the Bantu Act have their beginnings in a manifesto.
By Afrikaner nationalists in 1939. This paper called for “Christian National Teaching” and promoted segregated schools for each of South Africa’s “population groups”—whites, Africans, Indians, and Coloreds—on the racist and paternalist premise that the education of blacks was a specific obligation of a superior white race. All black groups suffered from segregated education, but Africans were particularly negatively impacted. The group stated in a 1948 pamphlet that “the task of white Southern Africa with regard to the native is to Christianize him and help him ethnically… [N]ative education and teaching must lead to the creation of an independent, self-supporting, and self-maintaining native community on a Christian National basis” (cited in Hlatshwayo, Effect of the Bantu Act).
The Bantu Act
One of the most egregiously discriminatory regulations under apartheid was the Bantu Education Act of 1953. It expanded apartheid to black schools and put government control over education in Africa. Prior to now, missionaries with some governmental funding managed the majority of African schools. Mission schools were attended by Nelson Mandela and many other political leaders. However, the considerable autonomy these schools had up until that moment was terminated by Bantu education. Instead, adoption of a racially biased curriculum delivered by a brand-new Department of Bantu Education became a requirement for receiving government financing for black schools. The majority of mission schools serving Africans opted to close rather than support educational apartheid.
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Bantu education met white supremacy’s needs. Black people were not given access to the same educational opportunities and resources as South African whites. The history, culture, and identity of black people were disparaged by Bantu education. In its textbooks and courses, it encouraged falsehoods and racial prejudices. Some of these concepts were taught to African students in government-run institutions, where they included the assumption that there was a distinct “Bantu civilization” and “Bantu economy.” It was vulgar and oversimplified to convey this so-called “Bantu culture.” The image of Africans and their communities was one of a traditional, rural, and unchanging people. The student’s understanding of “her position” in South African society was significantly constrained by the way that blacks were treated in Bantu school, which saw them as perpetual children in need of parental supervision by whites (Hartshorne, 41).
