Chapter 2: Remembering Apartheid: Political Discourse in School Space

The apart-ness of South Africa’s apartheid system was a literal spatial separation of people on the basis of race. The legal framework for this system took shape following the 1948 whites-only electoral victory of the National Party, and only began to be dismantled in the early 1990s when the National Party conceded the need for non-racial democracy. Legislation of the apartheid era (1948-1994) encompassed the racial identification of every person, racialized residential zoning, and restrictions on movement and employment. State schools were an important part of institutionalizing racial segregation and for ‘fixing’ every child’s racial identification. Each school was geographically located to serve only the racial category for which the area was zoned. Fourteen education departments administered and provided personnel, resources and curriculum for the spatially segregated schools.