Religion Education Policy and Conflict over Religious Performance in Post-Apartheid Schools 1. by Abdulkader Tayob (University of Cape Town)

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1 Religion Education Policy and Conflict over Religious Performance in Post-Apartheid Schools 1 by Abdulkader Tayob (University of Cape Town) Do not quote without permission by the author Abstract In this paper, I argue that recent controversies over religious and cultural practices in post- apartheid schools bring out the ambiguity in policies, state vision and popular responses. I regard them as performances that capture moments of conformity, resistance and contradiction. Schools are particularly interesting sites for examining the ambiguities of religious practices and performances in post-apartheid South Africa. The history of schooling in South Africa is deeply rooted in religious institutions, and post-apartheid schooling has disrupted but not yet radically changed the status quo. Schools are particularly interesting sites for examining the ambiguities of religious practices and performances in post-apartheid South Africa. The history of schooling in South Africa is deeply rooted in religious institutions, and post-apartheid schooling has disrupted but not yet radically changed the status quo. In this paper, I argue that recent controversies over religious and cultural practices in post- apartheid schools bring out the ambiguity in policies, state vision and popular responses. I regard them as performances that capture moments of conformity, resistance and contradiction. In 2003, the Minister of Education published the National Policy on Religion and Education for the teaching of religion in both public and private schools in the country. The Policy proposed some clear guidelines on the teaching of religion as an educational exercise for a nation united in diversity. But the policy also retained some contradictory elements and sentiments from the public debate and deliberation that began during the interim period leading to the first democratic elections. Not surprisingly, therefore, the Policy generated both support and resistance. It was supported by the major religious groups in the country and academics engaged in the teaching of religion. But it was opposed by some theologians and Churches that until 1994 held a monopoly on teaching religion in schools, in public media and in the political sphere. The Policy is apparently ignored by a large number schools for not knowing how to teach religion from a nonconfessional perspective, or refusing to adopt such a perspective. Since the promulgation of the policy, however, South African media has been regularly 1 Paper delivered at Social Transformation, Social Policy and Social Service in BRICS. Shanghai, November 2015 and Religious Violence and/ or Violence in the Name of Religion, 37 th Congress of the Association for the Study of Religion in Southern Africa (ASRSA), Johannesburg, October 26-28,

2 reporting on controversies over religious practices displayed by learners at schools. In contrast, there are relatively fewer articles and media discussions on religion education at schools. There have been cases of parents objecting to continued Christian indoctrination, but these are not as widely reported as practices that allegedly disrupt the normal flow of schooling. In most of these controversies, learners were suspended or dismissed for some form of religious attire or bodily display, and only reinstated after the courts of law or various government bodies demanded that schools modify their codes of conduct. In 2002, a pupil at Settlers High School in Cape Town got into trouble for dreadlocks on his head. In 2005, a Grade 11 learner at Durban Girls High School was threatened with suspension for wearing a nose ring. Lerato Motshabi and Odwa Sitayaya were ordered to cut their dreadlocks or face expulsion at Navalsig High School and Joe Slovo Engineering High School respectively. In the Free State, Leseding Technical High School demanded that Lerato Radebe cut her dreadlocks before being admitted into class. In 2013 and 2014, two schools in Cape Town were forced to revise their uniform policy and accommodate Muslim head coverings. These cases were serious enough to be taken up by parents or by members of the Department of Education with the highest courts of the land. Apart from the cases reported in the media or taken up in courts, there are many other cases of learners punished, suspended and otherwise singled out for wearing religious attire, or adopting various forms of bodily conduct. The reported and unreported cases indicate the extent to which some religious practices disrupted prevailing norms and expectations in schools. A very large number of the cases, both reported and unreported, are related to the wearing of dreadlocks at schools. A closer examination of the case at Leseding Technical High School reveals the working of the policy, and also the expectation of religion in public schools in particular, and publics in general. Lerato Radebe was a 13-year-old admitted to Leseding Technical High School. When she presented herself at school in 2013, the school objected to the dreadlocks on her head. She was not allowed to join class unless she was prepared to cut her hair in conformity with the school code. Some mornings, she would be taken out of class and forced to sit in the staff room throughout the day. She was told that she would not be allowed in class unless she cut her hair. Supported by the NGO Equal Education, Lerato s father raised the matter with the school, then with the local office of the Department of Education, and then eventually in the Free State High Court. According to affidavits presented in court, the school took a number of positions on the matter. It argued that dreadlocks were a hairstyle in conflict with the school code. It did not accept that dreadlocks were part of Lerato s commitment to Rastafarianism. In fact, it argued that Lerato was not a Rastafarian since she attended Church where she took Holy Communion, and had two siblings who did not wear dreadlocks. Lerato could not apparently be Rastafarian and a Christian at the same time, and she could not be a Rastafarian if her siblings were not so. The school also contested the representation of Lerato s father who insisted that she be allowed to wear dreadlock as a right guaranteed by the constitution. It preferred to deal with the grandmother who allegedly raised the children and also registered Lerato at this school. Unlike the father who challenged the school, the grandmother seemed more willing to cut Lerato s hair in conformity with the school code. The school also claimed that its use of machines and chemicals posed a danger to Lerato. But the main objection was clearly directed at the religion represented by Learto s dreadlocks. At a parent meeting called by the school, the affidavit declared that parents supported the school s policy. They were appalled at the practice of smoking cannabis in Rastafarianism, and did not agree that the school should make special provision for Lerato and Rastafarianism. The school s claimed that it attempted to find an alternative for Lerato, but it is clear from its affidavit that such schools would not have accepted Lerato to keep her dreadlocks. 2

3 What is interesting in this case is that the school was fully supported by the local Department of Education. But the Free State High Court ruled that the school had to modify its school code, and accept learners who belonged to the Rastafarian religion. The judge urged the school and the Department to deal with the evident discrimination at the school, for religious intolerance could ruin the country. The judge feared for South Africa if it ignored what religious intolerance can do... in our own African continent, as in Northern Mali and Northern Nigeria (Paragraph 21). Theoretical Framework The wearing of dreadlocks at Leseding Technical High School and other schools in South Africa is a good example of what scholars in the study of religion and anthropology have increasingly called performances. Performances have generally been approached as discourses, and take their cue from Wittgenstein s approach to language and language games. Like a linguistic act, a performance is a practice that forces attention to the wider context, the stage, the reception, the emotions invoked, the presence of sensory signals, and of course the terms and metaphors. Turner and Schechner have emphasized that performances follow a script, but also reveal the creativity of the actor and the context (Turner 1986; Schechner 2013). Without a script there could be no performance. But the best performances are those that displayed the creativity of the actors. Some post-structuralists have taken this creativity one step further by arguing that like linguistic practices, performances do not merely reflect a reality. They construct realities through their enactment. Using this theoretical framework, I would like to argue that these controversial religious practices are performances on the stage of South African schools. The wearing of dreadlocks was not merely following a requirement in Rastafarian religion, but brought to the fore the debates, positions and contradictions on religion education and religious representation in post-apartheid South African society. I submit that such performances point to the social construction of a new reality emerging at schools that includes competing visions of democratic practice, religious freedom, social order and values. Analysis The various courts in the country have had to play a pro-active role in promoting equity and redress in schools. They have been supported by NGO s like Equal Education and earlier the Freedom of Expression Institute. In all the cases that have come to the attention of the media, schools and governing bodies have made it very difficult for learners to express cultural distinctions that are not part of the dominant norms. Under pressure of the courts, schools have had to change or amend their uniform and discipline codes to reflect new school demographics. Schools have been very proactive at addressing diversity, and almost oblivious of the demands of the new constitution. The Leseding School was even supported by the local office of the Department of Education in its rejection of Lerato s dreadlocks. In a similar case in the Western Cape in 2011, the office of the MEC for Education was quite sure that no constitutional right was violated. Even the Equality Court in Kwazulu Natal sided with the school against a learner and her family in 2015 for displaying a nose-ring as part of a Hindu tradition. The right to display a religious symbol has required a number of constitutional court judgments. And it seems that these judgments do not dissuade schools from setting up dress code requirements that do not accommodate the diverse body of learners. Clearly, there are dominant and hegemonic dress codes in schools being challenged by such religious performances. A closer attention to the performance suggests that schools adopt what may be called a 3

4 modernist or Protestant approach to religion in general, and religious symbols in particular. The Leseding High School questioned the truth of Lerato s commitment to Rastafarianism. It could not accept the fact that Lerato chose to continue practicing Christianity, or chose not to follow her siblings. Was she a real Rasta? Or was she merely following a fashion? A group of teachers from George in the Western Cape informed me that their learners used the Rastafarian religion simply to be part of gangs, or smoke cannabis. They too questioned the sincerity of the learners adoption of Rastafarian practices. In the nose stud case in Durban, the principal took advice from experts on the wearing of nose-rings in the Hindu tradition, and was satisfied that the school was not obliged to accept it as a non-compulsory religious practice. At the final Supreme Court hearing, the school s approach was overturned. Judge Pius Langa stressed that the freedom exercised by a learner to express a cultural practice was guaranteed by the constitution. But the dissenting judge in this case argued for the school, making a distinction between a religious practice which was founded on personal conviction, and cultural practices that were shared. Kate O Reagan argued that the nose stud was a culturally shared practice and not a religious practice in this sense. She said that such culturally shared practices should be considered by the school as special exemptions from school codes after careful consultation with the school community. In the framework offered by the judge, the norms of the schools would be carefully expanded to include new traditions. The distinction between inner conviction and shared practices that could be observed by the school was similar to the Leseding High School making a determination of Lerator s Rastafarianism. Both could accommodate inner conviction, but not outer symbols. The judge provided a more sophisticated mechanism for the Durban Girls High School to police prevailing norms. This concern about the intention behind practices seems to be the schools reaction to new practices brought by learners to the school grounds. I am not arguing that all these are all sincerelyheld religious or cultural practices. But the approach taken by the schools shows how they are judging religious practices on the basis of a sincerity of intention, or the degree of compulsion within a cultural tradition. All these concerns emerge from modernist or Protestant frameworks of religion where intention and acts are easily separated and judged. Acts with strong religious intentions are considered more pregnant with meaning than those shared or practiced as a result of peer pressure, or cultural trends. Such distinctions are easily made about other peoples practices, and are blind to the cultural practices that inform dominant norms and traditions. The learned judge in the nose ring case did not consider the cultural provenance of existing norms in South African schools. Like whiteness, she did not consider that such norms are not as neutral and natural to everyone. In the Western Cape, for example, I was told by teachers that Muslim headscarves are more easily accommodated in most schools than dreadlocks. The presence of Muslims in schools, not in all schools, is more normal than dreadlocks. A related matter in Leseding School was the suspicion cultivated among parents that Rastafarianism might not be a religion, or a harmful religion. The discrimination faced by Rastafarians in a number of contexts persuaded the Chapter 9 Commission for the Protection of Cultures, Languages and Religions (CLR) to set up a commission of inquiry. After a number of meetings, the CLR compiled a report that declared that Rastafarianism was indeed a religion that should enjoy the protection of the Constitution. A similar exercise was carried out by the CLR when parents complained that Satanism was spreading in schools. Pagan and other new religious groups were lambasted in a public outcry against Satanism by mainly Christian groups. I am sure Rastafarians and Pagans were not holding their breath at this decision of the CLR commission, but the recognition of religion has direct implication for schools and their parent governing bodies. Both the Education Act and the Policy on Religion and Education make provision for the presence 4

5 of religious observances and religious traditions on school grounds. Existing religious traditions have a dominant role and position in the schools, and would want to keep out those that they deem cults, heresies or even Satanic. These debates over religious practices and religious traditions might not be administrative matters or simple prejudices that schools are dealing with in post- apartheid South Africa. The religious performances may point to a fundamental fault-line on religion education in postapartheid South Africa, revealed in a closer and more serious look at the regular stream of objections and deliberations on the new policy from theologians at South African universities. Coertzen at the University of Stellenbosch galvanized some religious leaders, mainly Christians but including one Rabbi and Imam, to sign a manifesto in 2009 to demand that the state grants them the right to conduct single-faith religious observances, expression and activities in state or state-aided institutions (Coertzen et al. 2009). Earlier, he developed a more principled but ominous opposition to religion education. He argued that the freedom of expression in the proposed new policy for religion education contradicted the mandate of the Church to be free to preach the Gospel, for the freedom of conscience to serve God according to his Word and for the guarantee that every anti-christian power that would threaten the Church in the exercise of its holy ministrations will be resisted and prevented (Coertzen 2002, 195). Coertzen understood freedom of expression in its Dutch Reformed meaning to root out anti-christ in schools. It is not too farfetched to suggest that such sentiments continue to drive objections to religious groups and denominations in South Africa s deeply religious communities. Not all theologians take the same view. Van der Walt also objected to the policy, but did not support of the theology of Coertzen in post-apartheid South Africa for practical reasons. In his reflections, however, he points to an important shift in government policy on religion education. In the early years after 1994, the government had accepted that School Governing Bodies would be responsible for religious policy at schools. Van der Walt reminded readers that the White paper on Education and Training in 1995 had declared very clearly that parents had a right to choose an education for their children with regard to language, cultural and religious foundations (Department of Education 1995; van der Walt et al. 2009, 226). The Ministerial Committee on Religious Education in 1999 under Minister Bengu had recommended religion specific subjects for schools (Coertzen 2002, 193). Under the leadership of Kader Asmal, however, the focus of religion education shifted to an international human rights framework. When the Manifesto on values, education and democracy was published by the Department of Education in 2001, the focus of religious education had changed: There is no place in the classroom... for an education that promotes any one creed or belief over any other. Yet, there is every reason for schools to expose learners to the diversity of religions that impel and inspire society, and the morality and values that underpin them. This became the guiding principle for the Policy on Religion and Education promulgated in The policy now focused on the educational value of studying religions, and not on the rights of parents to an education for their children founded on language, culture and religion. But our theological friends do not tell us the whole story. While the policy clearly took a more human rights and educative approach to religion education, it did not completely close the door to South African religious traditions and their practices. In fact, the place of religious communities occupies a prominent place in the Policy that has been overlooked by its supporters. The Policy affirms that 5

6 the deeply human value of religiosity can be realized through religious traditions for the good of the society. And, it continues in Paragraph 3, without the commitment and engagement of religious bodies it is difficult to see us improving the quality of life of all our people (para 3). Religion education is distinguished from religious instruction which is the responsibility of the home, the family, and the religious community. Nevertheless, the Policy states in paragraph 55 that more needs to be done to strengthen this role (religious instruction). Schools should allowed the use of their facilities for programmes of religious instruction. Even more interesting is the Policy s support for religious observances for learners, and for the schools as a whole. It lists several ways in which religious observances may be permitted to make use of school facilities. This includes religious observances at school assemblies, and through religious associations including those in which teachers are involved. I have shown that even though the religion education policy focuses on education, controversies over religious practices have dominated public debates. Taking a closer look at these controversies as performances, they point to creation of a new reality in the making. The performances alert us to some key issues in post- apartheid public life in general, and religion in particular. They point first to the unfinished project of equity and redress in schools and in societies, and the important and necessary role played by Constitutional Court. They also point to the reluctance of public institutions, schools in this case, to embrace the values of the constitution. When they are more accommodating, they seem to rely on ideas of religious norms and practice that are principally derived from Protestant reformism. More ominously, underlying these conflicts over norms and values also lie deep and long-standing expectations of public order and conformity from reformed Protestantism. 6