Aspects of the Failure of Bantu Education as a hegemonic strategy: School Boards, School Committees and Educational Politics 1955-1976¶
Hyslop, J. (1987). Aspects of the Failure of Bantu Education as a hegemonic strategy: School Boards, School Committees and Educational Politics 1955-1976. University of the Witwatersrand History Workshop, 'The Making of Class', 9-14 February 1987. University of the Witwatersrand.
| Type | conference paper |
| Scope | Wider apartheid literature |
| Method | archival narrative |
| Period studied | 1955–1976 |
| Regions | South Africa, Transvaal (PWV/Soweto), Cape (Langa, Cape Town), Eastern Cape/Transkei, Lebowa, Bophuthatswana, KwaNdebele |
| Themes | politics ideology elections, education human capital, bantustans removals influx, resistance social movements, labour markets wages |
| Citation key | hyslop1987 |
Argument¶
Hyslop argues that Bantu Education was a hegemonic strategy as well as a coercive one. The school boards and committees were meant to win black consent by giving an illusion of self-government, and to shift education costs onto communities. The system failed to build legitimacy. It was established amid 1950s mass mobilisation, staffed by marginal and unpopular figures, and run by an authoritarian, racist department that refused to listen to its own boards. Teachers, a key group, were never integrated and gave only sullen acquiescence. In the Bantustans the boards became tools of chiefs and corrupt petty despots. In 1974-76 the urban boards opposed the Afrikaans medium policy, were repressed, and were bypassed by the students in 1976.
Evidence and method¶
Contemporary press (The Torch, Rand Daily Mail, Star, Evening Post and others), SAIRR Surveys and Horrell's Decade of Bantu Education, Hansard, Dugard's and Brookes's memoirs, and the Cillie Commission report. Also archival material from the TUATA and ANC papers (AAS and AD collections at Wits), including letters and legal files on cases such as Malebye and Motsepe.
Place in the debates¶
- Bantu Education as coercion vs hegemony/consent (see Education, Bantu Education and skills). Builds on Christie and Collins. Argues Bantu Education had a genuine hegemonic component, an attempt to win consent, but that official racism and authoritarianism undercut it.
- Historiography of the 1976 uprising (see Education, Bantu Education and skills). Argues that writing on 1976 has generally ignored the school boards' role in opposing Afrikaans as a medium of instruction from 1974.
- Collaboration vs rejection in black responses to Bantu Education (see Education, Bantu Education and skills). Warns against a simple picture in which 'the people' reject the system and only a handful of 'traitors' participate. Finds significant constituencies willing to enter the board structures for varied motives.
Findings¶
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The school board and committee system failed in its intended hegemonic role. (p. 2)
the school board and committee system failed to play the hegemonic role which it was aimed towards.
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The boards were meant to win ideological allegiance and also extract finance from black communities to subsidise cheap mass education. (p. 4)
Not only would they play the essential ideological role of winning parents allegiance to Bantu Education, but they would also provide a means of squeezing black communities financially
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Control of teacher salary subsidies gave boards effective power over hiring and firing, creating friction with teachers. (p. 5)
From 1955 all African teachers salaries were paid as subsidies to the School Boards, which meant they effectively controlled hiring and firing
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Despite ANC and Unity Movement boycott calls, the state built the system quickly. (p. 7)
By 1956 there were 300 school boards and 4,000 committees in existence.
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Board numbers grew in the 1960s once overt political attack subsided, though friction with communities persisted. (p. 10)
By 1969, there were 509 school boards and 4,108 school committees, involving over 50,000 persons.
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Parental contributions raised through the boards were mostly used to pay teachers' salaries rather than build schools. (p. 10)
By 1971 these contributions had risen to the level of Rl,7 million - of which only R350,000 was spent on repairs and new buildings, while the remainder was spent on teacher's salaries.
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Board-paid teachers earned markedly less than departmentally paid teachers, which deepened teacher resentment of the boards. (p. 11)
board salaries could be 45 to 55 per cent lower than regular departmental salaries.
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In the Bantustans, board members showed contempt for teachers, and chiefs used the boards for discipline and misappropriation. (p. 12)
Teachers are but dogs. We can dismiss them at any moment.
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Urban boards opposed the Afrikaans medium policy and organised against it. The central contradiction was that the state wanted participation without sharing decision-making power. (p. 18)
The Department wanted community participation in education, but only as long as the community's views coincided with its own.
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By June 1976 the boards lacked credibility, and parents and students were already bypassing them. (p. 20)
A few days before June 16th, parents in Soweto began to establish their own representative committees, precisely because they felt that the boards were not representing them properly.
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Bantu Education included an attempt to win consent and was not purely coercive. (p. 20)
Bantu Education was not simply a coercive strategy. It did embrace an attempt to win the consent of sections of black South Africans.
Evidence ledger¶
Sources used¶
| Source | Kind | Period | How used |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hansard vol. 82-3 (1953), Verwoerd's 1953 parliamentary speeches on Bantu Education | parliamentary debates | 1953 | Establishes Verwoerd's stated aim of black 'co-responsibility' for control and finance of education, the hegemonic design behind the boards. |
| Bantu Education Act No. 47 of 1953, Statutes of the Union of South Africa 1953 | legislation gazette | 1953 | Shows the Minister's sweeping powers to establish councils, boards and other bodies for black participation in educational administration. |
| M. Horrell, A Decade of Bantu Education (SAIRR, 1964) | secondary literature compilation | 1955-1964 | Source for the regulations on composition, election and appointment of school committees and boards. |
| The Torch (Cape Town newspaper), 1955-1958 | newspapers periodicals | 1955-1958 | Main source for resistance to establishing committees in Langa, Paarl and elsewhere, and for teacher dismissals by boards. |
| Rand Daily Mail, Star, Sunday Times, Evening Post, Eastern Province Herald, Natal Witness, The Friend, Cape Times, Weekend Post (press reports) | newspapers periodicals | 1964-1986 | Evidence for removals of board members, dissolved boards, ethnic school reorganisation, parental finance and board protests over Afrikaans. |
| The World editorial, 26 September 1966 (quoted in TUATA) | newspapers periodicals | 1966 | Used to show urban petty-bourgeois and teacher attitudes toward school boards. |
| SAIRR, A Survey of Race Relations in South Africa (1955-6, 1969, 1972, 1975, 1976 editions) | official statistical series | 1955-1976 | Source for numbers of boards and committees (1956), ethnic reorganisation, Lebowa politics and the Afrikaans medium dispute. |
| Race Relations News, February 1969 | newspapers periodicals | 1969 | Source for the 1969 figures of 509 school boards and 4,108 committees involving over 50,000 persons. |
| ANC records, AD 1812 (Ea 1.2 press release March 1955; Ea 1.8.3 Dube meeting transcript June 1955) | union or movement records | 1955 | Documents the ANC's boycott call and divisions within ANC over boycotting committees. |
| CATU archive, AAS 212 (File: CATU Conferences I), 1957 conference resolution | union or movement records | 1957 | Shows teachers' resolution that board and committee members should have minimum education. |
| TUATA archive, AAS 121 (TUATA correspondence - unsorted) and AAS 120 (L.M. Taunyane - legal cases) | union or movement records | 1968-1980 | Basis for the Malebye corruption case and the Motsepe forced circumcision litigation and failed enforcement. |
| Potgietersrust Regional Court trial record: Die Staat Teen Patrick Kekana (held in AAS 120) | state archives | early 1970s | Cross-examination of a circumcised teacher illustrates teacher-traditionalist hostility. |
| TUATA periodical, May 1966 and September 1966 | union or movement records | 1966 | Source for Transvaal teachers' 1966 memorandum complaining boards ignored committee recommendations. |
| Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Riots at Soweto and Elsewhere (Cillie Commission), Vol. 1, 1980 | commission or official report | 1974-1976 (published 1980) | Source for school board meetings, dismissals, circulars and conflict over Afrikaans medium 1974-76. |
| SAIRR, South Africa in Travail: Evidence Presented to the Cillie Commission (1978) | commission or official report | 1976-77 | Supports account of Meadowlands Tswana board vote for English medium. |
| Bantu Education Journal (e.g. April 1965 editorial) | newspapers periodicals | 1965 | Illustrates crude racist ideology of the department's teacher-oriented publications. |
| J. Dugard, Fragments of my Fleece (1985) | secondary literature compilation | 1950s-60s | Memoir used as insider testimony on resistance, administrative replacement and racist practices of officials. |
| Surplus People Project, Forced Removals in the Transvaal, Vol. 5 (1983) | secondary literature compilation | 1970s | Source for Bantustan politics and the creation of KwaNdebele. |
| Lebowa Legislative Assembly verbatim report, 1974 session | commission or official report | 1974 | Cited for Chief Matlala's views in Lebowa politics. |
Inference¶
Quantification: Illustrative figures.
Qualitative historical narrative built from press reports, movement archives and secondary accounts, tracing the evolution of the school board system over time with illustrative case studies (Langa, Malebye, Motsepe, Soweto boards) to argue the hegemonic strategy failed.
Key claims¶
| Claim | Basis | Strength |
|---|---|---|
| The school board and committee system was designed to incorporate sections of the black community and shift costs to local communities, but its structure (appointee-dominated, unaccountable to parents) undermined its legitimacy. (p. 5) | Hansard 1953 speeches, Bantu Education Act, Horrell 1964 on regulations. | Partial data |
| The system met strong initial resistance, yet the state still established boards and committees because significant constituencies were willing to participate. (p. 7) | The Torch reports, Dugard memoir, ANC archive items, SAIRR Survey figure of 300 boards and 4,000 committees by 1956. | Partial data |
| Boards were used to extract parental finance and to purge dissident teachers, alienating teachers and parents. (p. 10) | Press reports (The Torch, Evening Post, Eastern Province Herald) giving a few cases and financial figures. | Illustrative or anecdotal |
| In the Bantustans boards became instruments of chiefs and petty despots, with corruption and violence against teachers, which did not build popular legitimacy. (p. 13) | TUATA archival correspondence and court documents on Malebye and Motsepe cases, SPP reports, SAIRR surveys. | Illustrative or anecdotal |
| Teachers were never genuinely incorporated; they gave only acquiescence owing to board powers over them and the crude racism of officials and the department's ideology. (p. 16) | Dugard and Brookes memoirs, Bantu Education Journal, The World editorial, press complaints. | Illustrative or anecdotal |
| From c.1971 urban school boards on the Rand opposed ethnic school separation and the 50-50 Afrikaans medium policy, and the Department responded with dismissals and threats. (p. 18) | Cillie Commission volume, SAIRR surveys, Star, RDM, The Friend reports. | Partial data |
| The boards gained no popular credibility even when opposing the department, and were bypassed by parents' committees and students in 1976, leaving an intra-elite politics. (p. 20) | Assertion with a footnote ('forthcoming') for parent committees; general interpretation. | Asserted |
The author's caveats¶
Little explicit acknowledgement; the author notes Bantustan board material is illustrative and that footnote 121 is still 'forthcoming'. He cautions that 'elite' is a theoretically suspect term.
Gaps in the evidence¶
The argument rests on press reports and selective archive files, with no systematic data on board membership, social composition, finances, or the extent of boycotts across regions. Board and committee minutes, Department of Bantu Education files, and interviews with former board members and teachers would test the legitimacy claims better; some of these exist in state and university archives. A systematic sample of local committee records would show whether the anecdotes are representative.
Replicability: Data described but not public.