‘Total War,’ ‘People’s War,’ ‘Wars’ of Inequality and Education in South Africa

Abstract

Wars, whether of full-scale invasion and military aggression or on a lower scale of intensity, destroy educational infrastructure and aspirations. But during war, education can also hold out the possibility for alternatives. Using South Africa in the 1980s as a case of low-intensity war, this article shows how parts of the system became militarised but also how an alternative vision was created through and in education. Nationalism, militarism and gendered identities romanticising war and violence were closely linked in white schools. For black youth, militarism became a defence against state violence. Apartheid was defeated, but the violence produced by the conflict has lived on in the society in different ways. Redrawing the boundaries of the nation after apartheid has created new Others. Education can and must continue to create the possibilities for thinking about different ways of organising society and looking to a future without war.