JAUNDICED EYE
In her announcement that History would become a compulsory subject through to matric, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga made a revealing comment. It inadvertently showed exactly why this should not happen, at least not under the control of apparatchiks masquerading as educationalists.
“This is not a propaganda exercise destined to shore up and buttress support for the oldest liberation movement in Africa, the African National Congress,” Motshekga said. “As a principle, we are against the rewriting of History for the sole purpose of achieving short-term political expediency.”
But the Basic Education Department must make sure that our History books reflect correctly the “true story”. Motshekga says History has a number of positive effects especially in a country like South Africa, by contributing to nation building, social cohesion and cultural heritage.
Any good History teacher, especially those of that liberal mindset that the task team appears to find so offensive, would mark down Motshekga for such triteness. Similarly, an English teacher would question the ambiguities exposed in her aim to rewrite history not for the “sole purpose” of benefitting the ANC.
Nation-building and social cohesion may possibly result from the inhabitants of a geographical space understanding from whence they came and how they got to where they are now. That is especially so in SA, where there are so many contending narratives, many of which have been, and continue to be, suppressed.