The Roles Of Bantu Education In South Africa

So what was it like living during the apartheid as a black individual? The answer is: terrible.
“The first phase of apartheid entrenched white supremacy, imposed sweeping and systematic bureaucratic controls over black people, centralized and strengthened the capacity of the state and decisively delimited permissible forms of political opposition. The weight of apartheid legislation lay heavily across the lives of black South Africans in the most public and the most intimate spheres. For Africans, “all the minutiae of everyday life – where and with whom they lived, worked, had sex, travelled, shopped, walked or sat down, what they owned and consumed” were governed by permits, passes and prohibitions” (Bundy) Because of white supremacy, many

“This so-called "Bantu culture" was presented in crude and essentialized fashion. African people and communities were portrayed as traditional, rural, and unchanging. Bantu education treated blacks as perpetual children in need of parental supervision by whites, which greatly limited the student 's vision of "her place" in the broader South African society. (Hartshorne, 41) The Bantu educations system definitely served the white supremacy interests. They made if so black people were denied access to the educational opportunities and resources that were enjoyed by the white south African people. The Bantu education was put in place to teach the black learners to learn wood and mining so that the white-run economy can be benefited by these new learned skills. One of the best quotes I have read that ties Bantu up real nice with apartheid is from the Minster of Native Affairs, Dr. Hendrik F. Verwoerd, “There is no space for him [the "Native"] in the European Community above certain forms of labor. For this reason, it is of no avail for him to receive training which has its aim in the absorption of the European Community, where he cannot be absorbed. Until now he has been subjected to a school system which drew him away from his community and misled

Because of the laws put in place for the areas in which they may live, people were living on top of people. HIV and AIDS were rampant during this time and still very much are. The situations for the blacks where just not good. Around the 1950’s, protests started against this awful system. Civil disobedience was a common recurrence and sometimes they resulted in terrible violence from police. In 1952, the great Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress (ANC), traveled the country portraying a message to all blacks called the 1952 Campaign for the Defiance of Unjust Laws. They wanted full citizenship for all South Africans, not just the whites. They did this through strikes, boycotts, civil disobedience, and many other nonviolent methods. Mandela was the leader in all of this to free his people. Thousands were arrested but eventually the ANC had to call off the campaign because the violence was getting so bad. The white police later killed 69 protesters outside of the Sharpeville police station. This made everything worse considering the protest was nonviolent. The struggle of violence continued for years. He traveled across the country to organize these protests against the terrible policies of apartheid and promote the good of the manifesto known as the Freedom Charter. Mandela and another leader of the ANC Tambo, opened up the countries first black