Boer War camps don’t make subject cut

● In trimming the history curriculum to accommodate the shortened academic year, the experiences of Afrikaners in British concentration camps got the cut — for this year at least.

Erasing a slice of Afrikaner history from the grade 10 curriculum silences an important voice and erases experiences from memory, said some commentators.

Those involved in trimming the history curriculum to accommodate the shortened academic year excised certain sections of the Anglo-Boer War fought between the British and the Boers from 1899 to 1902.

More than 20,000 British soldiers and 14,000 Boer commandos died in the war, and a further 26,000 Boer women and children died in British concentration camps from malnutrition and disease.

In the grade 7 history curriculum, the section on the Kora and Griqua (people of mixed descent and runaway slaves who escaped from the Cape colony) was deleted.

The revised curriculum and assessment plans state that the trimming of the curriculum is to assist teachers to cover the core content of each subject.

Chrissie Virasamy, head of humanities at Southlands Secondary School in Durban, said the removal of the sections “is taking out something that affected the psyche of the Afrikaner”.

“There may be some who may be offended that their history is being negated in favour of something European,” she said.

Virasamy said that when her subject adviser asked for her input on what should be left out of the curriculum, she said teachers or a cluster of schools should be allowed to decide what to keep and what to leave out.

“If you wanted to teach the French Revolution, you could do so, or if you wanted to teach the [Anglo-Boer War], you could do it. But it became a very top-down approach.”

Social scientist and historian Thando Sipuye, who is an executive member of the Africentrik Study Group at the University of Fort Hare, said Afrikaners would be justified in being up in arms over the removal of the sections from the curriculum.

“It is very serious when your voice is silenced or your experience is erased from memory. Everyone deserves their history and story to be told,” said Sipuye.

Meanwhile, matrics studying music will study only one of SA’s jazz legends, choosing from among Miriam Makeba, Dolly Rathebe and Thandi Klaasen. Previously, they would study all three.

Pupils will no longer deliver prepared speeches in any of the languages, “to reduce the rate of discomfort caused by pupils wearing masks”.

In a circular, department of basic education director-general Mathanzima Mweli said the changes are being implemented for this year only, and schools will teach the original curriculum again next year.