Alarming or not, history is crucial

DEAR SIR — The call by the South African National Democratic Teachers Union to make history a compulsory subject should be supported. History is one of the most important subjects that can assist SA to deal with the wounds of the past.

The reality is that there are no blank pages in history and SA has a rich history. Though some would want us to believe that our history started with the arrival of the settlers, in fact our history started long before their arrival.

Those who are against this call are scared of telling the real story of SA and, of course, this story includes, among others, the stealing of our land and cattle by the white colonisers. Some even go to the extreme of claiming that when whites settled in SA, the land was unoccupied.

This is just wrong.

The biggest fear is that no one can tell the story of SA without mentioning the role the African National Congress and its alliance partners played in the liberation of this country after more than 300 years of colonialism and more than five decades of apartheid. They want the people of SA to forget everything and just focus on the future as if the future is delinked from the past.

Young people in particular should support the union’s call as it in their best interest to do so. No country will ever move forward if it does not understand where it comes from.

Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga (pictured) must urgently intervene and speedily change the law to make the study of history compulsory. After all, this is our history, and whether some people like it should not be our issue.

Those who are not comfortable with this must feel free to leave — after all, no one is forced to live in SA. Tom Mhlanga Braamfontein