African American Now

1
African American Now

• South African Education
• Tribes
• Swazi
• Bushman/San
• Zulu

• Devon Mishler
• Michael Shearer
• Stephanie Konrad
• Jennifer Cronen
• Crystal Chappie
• Karen Stodola

2
South Africa

• The region of South Africa is located on the
  southern of the tip of Africa bordered by the
  Atlantic Ocean on the West and Indian Ocean on
  the South East.
• South Africa became a republic in 1910,this
  region is made up of several nations and
  cultures.
• South Africa was originally populated by
  Europeans such as Dutch, Portuguese, British,
  and French.
• South Africa is made up of several different
  tribes. The three we will be focusing on are the
  Swazi, Bushman/San, and The Zulu.

3
Apartheid

• An official policy of racial segregation
  practiced in the Republic of South Africa,
  involving political, legal, and economic
  discrimination against nonwhites.
• Classification of all South Africans into 4
  groups
• Black
• White
• Colored (mixed race)
• Asian
• Literacy by race
• Black 65
• White 90
• Colored (mixed Race) 75
• Asian 85
• Lifted in 1991, but not completely implemented
  within education until complete integration of
  all schools in 1995.

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Swazi

• Devon Mishler
• Michael Shearer

5
Background Info.

• Languages that they learn are English and Nguni
  or Swazi. English is used for government and
  educational process.
• 84 of South Africa are of the Swazi Tribe.
• Men
• Seen caring battle axes and shields.
• Wearing maniya, which is a colorful native
  costume.
• When they marry, each marriage involves a
  payment of a Bride-price.
• Women
• Also wear maniya.
• Married women traditionally wear a bee-hive hair
  du.
• Study questions
• 1. What is the most important ceremony in Swazi
  tradition?
• 2. What are the goals of the ministry of
  education?lt/DIVgtlt/divgt

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Ceremonies

• Incwala- most important ceremony, it brings the
  country together to gain the blessing of
  ancestors, sanctify the kingship, and kick off
  the harvest season with a party.
• Umhlanga- Reed Dance- It is a dance which
  attracts young maidens from every area of the
  Kingdom and provides the occasion for them to
  honor and pay homage to the Queen Mother
  (iNdlovukazi).

7
Early Education

• Ministry of Education
• Provide basic skills in reading and writing so
  that they can function in daily life
• Prepare for secondary education
• Expose to various skills
• Only 61 who start going to school will complete
  school ages 10-19. 25 of them being girls and
  15 being boys.
• 42.1 of Swazi over the age of 25 have never been
  to school.
• Education is not free.
• Many children are orphans because of HIV and
  AIDS.
• 1/3 of the population is infected.
• Children start school between the ages of 6-13
  years of age.
• School is seven years long.

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Education

• The Swazi people hold strong beliefs regarding
  the importance of age.
• No general term for adolescence in the SiSwati
  language.
• One is referred to as either a child or an adult.
• Terminology is the same for both boys and girls.
• Respect and obeying of elders as a central
  element in process of socializing their young.

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Historic Education

• Historic traditional Swazi education
• Prepare for adulthood.
• Prepare for every stage in life.
• Mothers are primary care givers taking on brunt
  of responsibility for education.
• The entire community views education for that
  child as its responsibility.
• The backbone of the Swazi traditional curriculum
  is life skill.
• Trained to share and cooperate
• Practice generosity
• Bravery
• Loyalty
• Condemn selfishness, cowardice and independent
  action

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The education of boy's and girl's

• Boys - physically tough and mentally disciplined.
• Girls - given less freedom than boys.
• Girls taught life skills including domestic
  duties to prepare for adult lives as wives and
  mothers.
• The best of both worlds.
• The Ministry of Education and their plan.
• Instead of a seven year program, a nine year
  program has been established
• Offer a diversified curriculum
• Academic and Practical subjects
• The importance of education is now recognized

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Bushman/San

• Stephanie Konrad
• Jennifer Cronen

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Background Info.

• Regions earliest inhabitants.
• Hunter/gatherers who migrated in small family
  bands over Southern Africa.
• Men hunt in small groups, practiced as medicine
  men, were tribal leaders.
• Women collect nuts berries, caught small game,
  tended to the children.

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Early Education

• 1. Daily activities for survival were taught
  through guidance by elders and hands on
  experience.
• 2. History, Culture, and Traditions were taught
  by story telling done by elders or through rock
  paintings.

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Education

• Language taught in School
• The estimated 110,000 remaining San live in
  Botswana, S. Africa, Namibia and Angola.
• Their languages are all very similar but vary
  from place to place.
• In Botswana only Setswana and English are taught
  in schools, and in Namibia only Tswana,
  Afrikaans, and English are taught.
• According to Sociolinguist Nigel Crawhall there
  are thirty-five San languages and most of them
  will never be taught in school.
• High rates of illiteracy and school dropouts are
  due to the absence of their languages as subjects
  in school.
• There is currently a group of thirty community
  members that call to the government of Botswana
  to adopt a policy of multilingual education to
  bring the county in line with policies of African
  countries and the United Nations.

15
Education Cont.

• John Mutorwa A minister of basic education,
  sport and culture in Namibia
• Mother tongue is medium of instruction during the
  first three years of formal schooling with a
  gradual switch to English which is the countrys
  official language, in the fourth grade.
• Namibian languages are still taught up to the
  twelfth grade.
• Mutorwa believes that their educational language
  policies rest on the research that the use of the
  mother tongue enhances learning in the early
  grades.
• The implementation of the policy increases the
  costs of educational materials and teacher
  training, because there are thirteen different
  languages used for the quarter million children
  that are at the primary phase of education.
• There are materials that need to be developed and
  not enough people qualified to teach in these
  languages.
• Unqualified teachers are pulled from the San
  community and provided with on the job training
  and opportunity to obtain formal qualifications.
• In a number of the schools the different home
  language groups are too small each to justify
  its own teacher, consequently one of the
  languages might be ignored.
• Students are deprived of the benefit of learning
  through the medium of their own language, and
  miss out on the opportunity of taking their home
  language as a subject.
• John Mutorwas ministry is currently looking into
  ways of minimizing this type of deviation from
  the intention of this important language policy.

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Education Today

• (Namibia)
• Won independence in March 1990-Government saw
  education reform as a principal means of
  investing capital.
• to promote socioeconomic development.
• SWAPO (South West African Peoples Organization)
  worked with the government.
• with the primary focus of providing training for
  teachers, drafting syllabi, and providing new
  textbooks on the broad curriculum subjects for
  students.
• including
• European Languages
• African Languages
• Social Science and Humanities
• Math
• Natural Sciences
• Agriculture

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Education Today Cont.

• (Botswana)
• Since their independence, 83.5 of children of
  primary school age, were attending school
  according to a survey done by the Botswana
  Ministry of Education in 2002.
• The Ministry and Government together state their
  aim in primary school.
• Education is to equip students with the basic
  skills and knowledge required in preparation of
  future careers.
• Current Issues Facing the Education Systems
• Increasing Population Growth has placed stress on
  the urgency for
• acquiring additional education facilities
• Lack of Resources (textbooks, libraries,
  teachers, etc)
• Large Percentage of Drop Outs

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Zulu

• Crystal Chappie
• Karen Stodola

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Background Info.

• The Zulu kingdom borders the Pongola River and
  the Indian Ocean.
• The formation of the Zulu tribe traces back to
  the 1750s and into the late 1800s.
• The founder of the Zulu people was a warrior
  named Shaka.
• Zululand-Natal provided great resources for
  agriculture and farming, their main market was
  with wheat and grains, which would become
  cereals.
• By the 1830s the European advance into South
  Africa restricted the expansion of the Zulu
  people. However, Shaka managed to spread the
  remainder of tribe from Zululand and into Parts
  of Natal and Southeast Africa.

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Zulu Lineage

• The Zulu lineage is a cultural way of linking
  each member to the tribe. The ways in which the
  Zulu connect their people is through the
  following ways
• Trace descent to one, known founding ancestor
• Share a common structural behavior
• Marked by a strict taboo on intermarriage
• Characterized by ceremonial and ritual unity
• The Zulu people conduct themselves in a very
  proper and diligent way. They remain true to
  their traditions and proud of their people.

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Early Education

• The Zulu make a clear distinction between
  socialization (growth patterns) which they call
  imfundiso or inkuliso and education (imfundo).
  The words imfundiso or inkuliso are used to mean
  the upbringing of a human child, the growth
  patterns, it is the nurturing from childhood
  which equips them with the values and the
  requisite knowledge and skills of the culture,
  they become fully socialized.
• The idea that school education, imfundo, is the
  passing on of new values and skills was so strong
  in the past. Many parents who chose to send
  their children to school preferred the white
  teachers to Africans because the Africans didnt
  know the secrets of the white man or western
  civilization.
• The Zulu traditional system of education was
  mainly informal and non-institutional in the
  sense that there were no regular school buildings
  or specific times or places where teachings took
  place.
• Children learned through play and observation.
• Older children taught the younger siblings what
  they learned at their age and through their lives
  so far.
• The mother taught Family, Gods, and Rituals.
• Boys were taught to milk the cows, hunt, and make
  tools.
• Girls were taught housecrafts, how to raise
  crops, and how down to the minute raise a baby.
• The Zulu regard the education of the children
  very highly and as not only the responsibility of
  the parent but of the society as well.

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Education

• Only children ages 7-16 are required to go to
  school.
• Drop out rates are just below 50.
• Teacher-Child Ratio 139.
• Only 1 in 10 teachers are certified.
• Focus on skills that can be used within blue
  collar and mental jobs.
• Emphasis on transmission of cultural values and
  skills
• Oral Traditions
• Tales of heroism and teachery with in the group
• Practice in the skills necessary for survival
• Afrikaans and English are the languages used.

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Zulu Education compared to U.S. Education

• Ages 5-18 required to attend school.
• Drop out rates 11.
• Teacher-Child Ratio
• K-3 grade 121
• 3rd-12th grade 131
• 95 of teachers have credentials or
  certification.
• Focus on preparation for higher education and
  white collar job skills.
• Language primarily English.

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Study Guide Questions

• Swazi
• 1. What is the most important ceremony in Swazi
  tradition?
• 2. What are the goals of the ministry of
  education?
• 3. What is the backbone of the Swazi traditional
  curriculum?
• 4. Who do the Swazi people respect and obey?
• Bushman/San
• 1. How did the Namibia government see the
  education of children?
• 2. What are the current issues facing the South
  African education systems today?
• 3. How many San languages are there?
• 4. Why is some of the San education considered
  deprived?
• Zulu
• 1. Who was the founder of the Zulu tribe?
• 2. Who did the parents want to teach their
  children in school?
• 3. When did the children of the Zulu tribe go to
  school?
• 4. What is apartheid?
• 5. What ages of Zulu children are required to go
  to school?