South African Choral Music (Amakwaya): Song, Contest and the ...

82 Shaping a New World: The Mrican Middle Class's Quest for Identity
domestic welfare of natives".89 In an address given in 1884, Elijah Makiwane 90 acknowledged: "the
members [of the NEA]... have an important work to do - that of showing their countrymen the
value of Education and also that they are in danger of having it taken away".91
In the 1860s and 70s enthusiasm for education grew so rapidly that local missionary resources
could not keep pace with the demand. 92 This trend continued and on March 2, 1891 The Christian
Express announced: "The re-opening of the school-year had proved the truth of what careful observers
have suspected for some time, that the desire for education among the Natives has of late
been growing rapidly, and is exceedingly strong and wide-spread".93 The demand for education grew
to such an extent that missionary societies could not supply African demands. Wherever schools
failed to measure up to black middle class expectations, either through inefficiency or through defects
in curricula, people were quick to demand improvement. Etherington reports that pupils and
parents took matters in their own hands at Edendale to protest at the incompetence of a teacher
sent to them. They asked that she be replaced by a young black teacher from one of the American
stations which had the best reputation in Natal at that time. When they found that their demands
were ignored, they hired the black teacher on their own account. A later inspection of both schools
by the Methodist District Chairman revealed that this independent operation produced much better
results than that of the regular school".94
In view of the fact that education became a key issue for the black middle class, it comes as a
surprise that in the Applications for Exemption education is specified by only one applicant as a
means of justifying his application. There are, however, a number of references to education, which
suggest that education was of the utmost importance to black middle class communities. When, for
instance, some applicants declared that Native Law was "opposed to instruction and improvement",
they obviously remembered their missionaries impressing on them that education was an important
tool, ensuring advancement and upward mobility. In adapting to a capitalist economy, the black
middle class pursued education with a fervour that sharply distinguished them from their heathen
neighbours.
Throughout their history the black middle class looked to education to lift them to the 'civilised'
status of European culture. They were convinced that "they [would] be automatically absorbed into
friendship with the Europeans of South Africa, because they will all be having one thing in common
interest, namely, education".95 There was agreement among the members of the black middle
class that "there was no hope in the progress of the Bantu if they were discouraged in acquiring
proper education".96 In 1938, after having visited the elite Natal Midlands white school, Michael­
house, students of Adams College reported back to their teachers:
The one thing that made us feel at home was that we had something in common. That is to say, we had
education as a common factor in us all. For that matter, even if they did not intend to be kind to us, they
89 Imvo, January 26,1885; Ibid.
90 Elijah Makiwane, a minister in the Free Church of Scodand, was born in 1850 in the Victoria East District of the
Cape Colony. During his lifetime he was one of the most prominent spokesmen of the Xhosa school elite. Through his
social standing and his participation in politics, Makiwane epitomised the newly-established school leadership.
91 See Imvo,January 26,1885; quoted in R. H. Davis, 1979: 28-29.
92 This is evidenced in the Official Natal Bluebooks for 1858, 1859, 1864, and 1865, which provides a rough measure of
educational progress. According to these figures, the total number of Africans attending some sort of mission school
rose from a low on 124 in 1858 to a high of 1,853 in 1965. During the years 1876 to 1880 the numbers of black
students varied between 2,295 to 3,153 (see N. Etherington, 1978: 128-9).
93 The Christian Express (March 2,1891).
94 N. Etherington, 1978: 132.
95 Ilanga, (May 28, 1938).
96 Ibid. (December 28,1940): 13.