Ein Jahrzehnt der Ungewissheit: Von der Segregation zur Apartheid in einer südafrikanischen Schule: Lemana Training Institution 1948 - 1958

A Decade of Uncertainty: From Segregation to Apartheid in a South African School: Lemana Training Institution 1948 – 1958
The M.A. thesis written in German is a microstudy of a mission school during a crucial decade in the history of education in South Africa. Lemana  was established by the Mission Suisse romande (later Swiss Mission) as a teacher training institution in 1906 and handed over to the South African Government in 1958. Today Lemana High School at Elim in Limpopo is one of the historical mission schools in South Africa that benefit from the Historic School Restoration Project established by Anglican Archbishop Ndungane.
The scope of data resources used for the work involves films, bulletins, interviews, photographs, and a survey. The primary material was consulted at the Swiss Mission Archive in Lausanne (Switzerland) and at Cullen Library of Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg (South Africa). Primary resources were written in three different languages (French, English and German).The thesis is accompanied by a CD Rom with all recorded interviews, maps of the region and school complex and dozens of photographs of the remaining historical school buildings, as well as of former students and teachers. The structure is mainly created by describing similar topics across different time periods.
The thesis starts with the founding of the Swiss Mission in the canton of Vaud and then turns to look at the Mission and its work on southern Africa. The second chapter provides a long and detailed examination of the establishment of the school, the influences of Booker T. Washington and the model of adapted education at Tuskegee. The finances of the fledging school, its rules and ethos, levels of pay and qualifications are investigated. The third chapter dealing with education politics in the years 1910 – 1948 links the first chapter with the main part of the thesis. Chapter four provides a full description of the school as it existed in the early 1950s and its everyday running: the teachers, the size of classes, the content of courses, boarding-school life, food, sports and social activities. Chapter five examines the way apartheid started to impact on the school from 1948 onwards. It takes the reader into the lives of the missionary-teachers who saw in Bantu education a means of acquiring more funding for the school even at the cost of compromising their control of the institution. However, the deeply liberal ethos of the school put the school on a path of direct confrontation with the governing National Party. Chapter six deals with the years 1953 till 1958. During this time african functionaries started to take control of the school. Government control led to an increase in the number of black teachers at the school, and most importantly, from 1958 only Tsonga-speakers were allowed to attend the teachers’ training college. This “ethnicisation” of education contradicted the spirit of the Mission, but the Mission had little alternative other than to collaborated with the government. Chapter eight examines the difficulties for members of different “race groups” who lived together on campus and yet were separated by apartheid politics. A section on “opposition” is also introduced. Chapter nine describes the take-over of the boarding house by the Schools’ Inspector and how the Mission staff members slowly left the campus as living at what was becoming an apartheid institution became extremely difficult. The thesis ends with a strong reference to the “team spirit” developed at Lemana as an institution. The mission instilled in its pupils self-discipline, a willingness to learn, and a firm dedication to hard work.
The thesis is basically descriptive. It is mainly based on the idea of writing a school history of Lemana Teacher Training Institution in order to serve Lemana Highschool today.