Abstract
South Africa's recent higher education protests around fees and decolonizing institutions have shone a spotlight on important issues and have inspired global discussion. We witnessed similar resistance during apartheid, where African languages and ideas were limited. The educational space was the most affected by clashes between languages and ideas; we saw this in the prioritizing of English and Afrikaans over indigenous African languages and the prioritizing of Western medicine, literature, arts, culture, and science over African ones. This chapter will show how formal education and knowledge production in South Africa has been used as a tool to repress Black people, while discrediting their knowledge systems. This discussion will draw from impepho, which is rejected by Christians because its main use is for communicating with ancestors. The herb has many other medicinal uses, but it is still rejected. African practices are used and revitalized by AIC like the Shembe Church and revolutionary movements like FMF.
TopIntroduction
African knowledge systems, science, philosophy and culture have been sidelined from mainstream educational institutions. African inventions and uses have largely been written out of history and left out of school syllabuses. This has been done through the use and abuse of power; Western settlers decided what information was valuable and should be taught. Historically the driving factor has been the Western mission church, which pushed the agenda of the inferiority of Africans and alienated people from their culture for colonial and capitalistic reasons. The “othering” and sidelining of all that is African was perpetuated through vulgar and ethnocentric racism, which Frantz Fanon discusses as having taken place in stages. Bantu Biko believes that this racism has gone as far as instilling self-hatred in black Africans, an issue that has been a huge hurdle in South Africa’s development and in the development of black identity as a whole.
Racism as a controlling tool worked its way into schools and was used to destabilize any system that challenged the Western Christian Church, capitalism or white privilege. Historically this can be seen through the repression of African Independent Churches like the Shembe Church, where missionaries and the state used educational systems and the media to push false propaganda, which put members at odds with schools and earned members the unfair reputation of being backward and uneducated.
The 1976 and more recent #FeesMustFall student protests further showed the oppression directed at black students, African knowledge systems and culture. Students have called for decolonized education that puts more relatable African ideas first, in the hope of restoring cultural identity and dealing with developmental challenges. Indigenous knowledge, like the uses of important herbs like Helichrysum or impepho, remain largely unutilized, despite its functions, accessibility and medical benefits. This chapter will discuss these themes while highlighting the benefits and challenges to decolonizing educational institutions and using indigenous knowledge as a tool to do so.
Key Terms in this Chapter
eBuhleni: Shembe Village located in Inanda, KwaZulu-Natal. It is a Shembe “mecca” and a sacred and holy space. It is where gatherings take place in July and September each year. The direct English translation is “a place of beauty”. eBuhleni is the biggest Shembe faction.
African Traditional Religion: Should preferably be referred to as African Traditional Religion(s) because there are many and they do not carry similar characteristics in the way that Ibramic faiths do. In fact, some reject Ibramic faiths, while others embrace certain aspects and Africanize them. One of the few things that most ATRs have in common is that they respect and honour ancestors.
Orania: Located in Northern Cape, South Africa. It is a whites-only Afrikaner town, where black people are typically only allowed in as low skilled labour.
Bantu Education Act: The act of 1953, also known as the Black Education Act. It led to the erasure of African indigenous languages in schools. Black students were forced to learn in Afrikaans and were only taught low labour skills that would aid in assisting whites.
Sangoma: Diviner, spiritual healer, someone who can connect the living with their ancestors through rituals and prayer.
Soweto Uprising: A series of demonstrations and protests which took place in 1976, whereby students challenged the Bantu Education Act, as well as apartheid as a whole.
African Independent Church(es): Churches that subscribe to African Traditional Religious ideals. Some are big, organised and unite different cultural groups in the way that the Shembe church is, but few are as large or diverse. Many are formed across common cultural identity lines, which is why there are so many different AICs; the different cultures that bind them might have similarities at times, but they are typically vast and diverse.
Isaiah Shembe: Founder of the Shembe Church.
Johannes Shembe: Isaiah Shembe’s third wife’s son. He took over the church after Isaiah’s death in 1935.
Impepho: African herb/plant burnt when awakening/communicating with the ancestors. It can also be used for medicinal purposes. The scientific name of the genus to which it belongs is Helichrysum.
Amaqaba: A derogatory word often used to describe uneducated black people. It loosely translates to “primitive”, “backwards” or “pagan”.
Shembe Church: An African Traditional Religious church that was founded by Isaiah Shembe in 1910. The church mixes African tradition and culture with what it believes to be the best parts of Christianity.
ekuPhakameni: Shembe Village located in Inanda, KwaZulu-Natal, It is a Shembe “mecca” and a sacred and holy space. It is where gatherings take place in July and September each year. The direct English translation is “a higher place of enlightenment”. This branch is the oldest Shembe faction.
Mokgoro: Sesotho name for a traditional mud house.
Inanda: Predominantly black township located in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
Mount iNhlangakazi: Sacred Shembe site where the annual pilgrimage takes place each January.
Amagqobheka: Black Christian converts, forbidden to use African herbs and engage in African practices or rituals.
Fees Must Fall (FMF): South African national student movement, characterized by protests across different universities. It challenged structural and systematic exclusions of marginalized students and employees in university spaces, calling even for a decolonized curriculum. The movement peaked in 2015 and 2016, but arguably still exists today.