African American Now

1. South African Education Tribes Swazi Bushman/San Zulu Devon Mishler Michael Shearer Stephanie Konrad Jennifer Cronen Crystal Chappie Karen Stodola African American Now

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.

4. 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?</DIV></div>

6. 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.

8. 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.

9. 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

10. 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

11. Bushman/San Stephanie Konrad & Jennifer Cronen

12. 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.

13. 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.

14. 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 country’s 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 it’s 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 Mutorwa’s ministry is currently looking into ways of minimizing this type of deviation from the intention of this important language policy.

16. 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 People’s 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

17. 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

18. Zulu Crystal Chappie & Karen Stodola

19. Background Info. • The Zulu kingdom borders the Pongola River and the Indian Ocean. • The formation of the Zulu tribe traces back to the 1750’s and into the late 1800’s. • 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 1830’s 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.

20. 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.

21. 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 didn’t 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.

22. Education • Only children ages 7-16 are required to go to school. • Drop out rates are just below 50%. • Teacher-Child Ratio 1:39. • 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.

23. Zulu Education compared to U.S. Education • Ages 5-18 required to attend school. • Drop out rates 11%. • Teacher-Child Ratio • K-3 grade 1:21 • 3rd-12th grade 1:31 • 95% of teachers have credentials or certification. • Focus on preparation for higher education and white collar job skills. • Language primarily English.

24. 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?