The Individual, Auto/biography and History in South Africa

teachers qualified to speak on matters of education” had received “pubic acclaim among
the African people”. 153
In CATA in the 1950s, there had been a concerted effort to analyse the political
intentions of the emerging education system. In addition to submitting a memorandum
to the Eiselen Commission, its 1952 CATA conference devoted a significant amount of
time to discussing its implications. 154 Livingstone Mqotsi had devoted substantial
attention to researching and analysing the emerging system, and had presented a couple
of formal addresses, first at the 1953 CATA Conference and at the 1954 AAC Conference,
both held in Queenstown. 155 Tabata had participated in these discussions, particularly
about how teachers should respond to the new system, and how problematic it may be
to advocate a boycott of schooling under the emerging system of Bantu education. In
addition, AAC affiliates produced pamphlets and arranged study circles and lectures on
the Bantu Education Act. 156
By the late 1950s, there certainly was a substantial body of research based inside the
movement on the political economy of black education policy. Drawing undoubtedly
upon these discussions and accumulated organisational knowledge, Tabata completed a
manuscript on the system of Bantu education in September 1958, no doubt having been
assisted by Dora Taylor once again. In April 1959, he received advanced copies of his
booklet, Education for Barbarism, by airfreight from the publishers, and the first
consignment was delivered in May. In spite of being banned, the booklet was published
153 The Eiselen Commission Report was published in 1951, its recommendations made into law in 1953,
and it was put into full effect from 1955. See Jonathan Hyslop, The Classroom Struggle: Policy and
Resistance in South Africa, 1940‐1990, Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal Press, 1999, p 42.
154 Programme of the CATA Conference, Cape Town, June 1952, I.B. Tabata Collection, BC 925. The
TLSA also submitted a memorandum on African education to the Commission.
155 Livingstone Mqotsi, ‘Coloured Education Commission’ (An Address Delivered at the 32 nd Annual
Conference of the Cape African Teachers’ Association, Queenstown, 24‐27 June 1953, I.B. Tabata
Collecton, BC 925; ‘Politics of Eiselen/De Vos Malan Schooling’, in Minutes of All African Convention
Conference, Queenstown, December 1954, Crowe‐Rassool Papers.
156 See for example reports from affiliates in Minutes of All African Convention Conference,
Queenstown, December 1954. Among the activities reported on were a Progressive Forum pamphlet
and lectures by Jane Gool. See also Leo Sihlali, AAC Secretarial Report, 1958, I.B. Tabata Collection, BC
925.
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