AMID the cacophony about xenophobia and the squelching sounds of a government locked in a marathon bout of pious hand-wringing and forelock-tugging regarding same, word reaches us here at the Mahogany Ridge that the departments of Basic Education, Higher Education and Arts and Culture are to tinker with history.
There are reportedly plans to make it compulsory at school. But before this can happen, the relevant authorities would need to review history’s “content” and, to this end, a round-table discussion is envisaged with “stakeholders” –– that usual gang of suspects –– to get input, as one newspaper put it, “on changes to be made to the subject”.
As basic education spokesman Elijah Mhlanga explained, “Tied to this matter is the issue of balancing the South African story. We need to revise the content to be taught as well.”
The news that, if implemented, we would be following the Cuban example here does not exactly fill one with much in the way of hope. We may not be able to change the past, but we can certainly fashion ourselves a whole new one to suit a future agenda. The old Nationalists did it – and now the new ones are having a crack at it, too.
In this regard, the man tasked with “balancing” the South African story –– Arts and Culture Minister Nathi Mthethwa –– is perhaps greatly indebted to Chumani Maxwele, the University of Cape Town politics student whose faecal behaviour set in motion the #RhodesMustFall vandalism that so gripped the imaginations of revolutionaries across the land.
The open season on colonial symbols had given much impetus to Mthethwa’s campaign for a “national consultative” forum to discuss the vexing problem of public statues. That meeting was held last week, and participants have reportedly called for an audit of sculptures, names and other heritage symbols to determine what could stay and what must go.