The struggle for the language was waged perhaps in its bitterest form around the school; because this was the nursery where the seeds had to be watered which were to spring up and form the future generation. The tactical objective of the fight was the winning over of the child, and it was to the child that the first rallying cry was addressed: 'German youth, do not forget that you are German' and 'Remember, little girl, that one day you must be a German mother'. HITLER in Mein Kampf

For the apartheid state to endure, the Nationalists must exercise complete control over the minds of the young. The Afrikaner, the Englishman, the White man and the Black man - each must be brought up to understand the role which has been allotted to him by the State. There must be unquestioning acceptance, by the White man of his superiority, by the Afrikaner of his right to leadership, by the non-White races of their duty to serve. To a programme of education for all sections of the people the Nationalists devoted the same intensive preparation as had gone into the draft constitution issued during the war.

A congress for Christelik-Nasionale Onderwys (C.N.O.) or Christian National Education was held by the F.A.K. (Federation of Afrikaans Cultural Organizations, a Broederbond offshoot) at Bloemfontein in July 1939, mainly to devise an answer to the Hertzog government's dual medium education plans which were regarded, in the words of Professor van Rooy as 'a renewed attempt to anglicize our children'. The congress set up an Institute (I.C.N.O.) to propagate the 'historic ideal' of C.N.O., and directors included some of the most prominent names in Nationalist Afrikanerdom - Dr T.E. Donges, later Minister of Finance; Dr E.G. Jansen, later to be Governor-General of South Africa; Advocate G.F. de Vos Hugo, later to be Chairman of the Group Areas Board and still later to be elevated to the Bench; J.H. Greijbe, former President of the Transvaal Afrikaans Teachers' Association; Dr C. Coetzee, Rector of the University of Potchefstroom; Dr J.G. Meiring, later Superintendent-General of Education in the Cape and now Principal of the apartheid university college for Coloured students; Rev. D.P. Laurie, Professor H.P. Wolmarans, Dr E. Greyling, and Rev. G.D. Worst.

Ten years later, in February 1948, the I.C.N.O. issued a pamphlet containing its recommendations. Professor van Rooy, Chairman of the Broederbond and of the F.A.K., wrote a preface in which he explained that various drafts of policy had been considered by all the directing bodies of the F.A.K. and all the organizations on which the F.A.K. and the I.C.N.O. were represented, 'and that means by all Afrikaans bodies and organizations that have any interest in education. Therefore, the policy in its present form has been approved by the whole of Afrikanerdom in so far as it is represented by the F.A.K.' This declaration should be carefully noted in the light of later half-hearted attempts by some Nationalist leaders to disavow the I.C.N.O. programme when it became politically embarrassing to them.

Professor van Rooy congratulated the I.C.N.O. on formulating this policy as a guide in 'our cultural struggle, which is now also a school struggle'. He added:

There is too much at stake for us to relax in the struggle. With the use of our language as medium, we have not yet got everything. On the contrary, we have got very little. Afrikaans as a medium of instruction in a school atmosphere that is culturally foreign to our nation is like sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. The true cultural stuff is not yet there. Our culture must be carried into the school and that cannot be done merely by having our language as medium. More is needed. Our Afrikaans schools must not merely be mother-tongue schools; they must be places where our children will be saturated with the Christian and National spiritual cultural stuff of our nation. The dual medium struggle has opened our eyes, and there is going to be a struggle about the realization of these ideals. We want no mixing of languages, no mixing of cultures, no mixing of religions, and no mixing of races. We are winning the medium struggle. The struggle for the Christian and National school still lies before us.

The programme enunciated in the I.C.N.O. pamphlet is fundamentalist and totalitarian. It is based on outmoded scientific and educational precepts, and envisages rigid centralized control of all educational establishments. It takes no account of the multi-racial character of South African society and proposes to enforce the views of a minority on the whole population.

Here are a few extracts from the pamphlet:

ARTICLE (1): Basis

All white children should be educated according to the view of life of their parents. This means that Afrikaans-speaking children should have a Christian-Nationalist education, for the Christian and Nationalist spirit of the Afrikaner nation must be preserved and developed.

By Christian, in this context, we mean according to the creeds of the three Afrikaner churches; by Nationalist we mean imbued with the love of one's own, especially one's own language, history, and culture.

Nationalism must be rooted in Christianity.

ARTICLE (2): Christian Education

The key subject in school should be religion (the study of the Bible and the three Afrikaner creeds); and the religious spirit should permeate all subjects and the entire school.

ARTICLE (3): Nationalist Education

Teaching should also be nationalist, the child to become an heir to and worthy carrier of the national culture.

ARTICLE (6): Content of Education (i) Introduction.

In order to achieve the above aim, all God's creation and man's works must be studied. But the spirit of all teaching must be Christian-Nationalist; in no subject may anti-Christian or non-Christian or anti-Nationalist of non-Nationalist propaganda be made.

(ii) Religious Teaching. This includes Bible study and the study of the Christian doctrine. Religious teaching (key subject and permeating influence) must accord with the religious convictions of the parents as expressed in their church creeds. The recognized Church song of the Afrikaans Churches must be used in Schools.

(iii) Mother-tongue. This should be the most important secular subject, and the only medium of instruction except in teaching other modern languages. Bilingualism cannot be the aim of education, and the second official language should not be taught until the child has a thorough knowledge of his mother-tongue.

(v) Geography. Every nation is rooted in a country (Landsbodem) allotted to it by God. Geography should aim at giving the pupil a thorough knowledge of his own country and the natural objects pertaining to it, in such a way that he will love his own country, also when compared and contrasted with others, and be ready to defend it, preserve it from poverty, and improve it for posterity.

(vi) History. History should be seen as the fulfilment of God's plan for humanity. The turning-point of history is Jesus Christ - history teaching must therefore include such facts as the Creation, the Fall, the Incarnation, Life and Death of Christ, the Second Coming, and the End of the World; and history must be seen as the struggle between the Kingdom of God and the Empire of Darkness. Also, God has enjoined on each nation its individual task in the fulfilment of His purpose. Young people can only undertake the national task fruitfully if they acquire a true vision of the origin of the nation and of the direction of the national heritage. Next to the mother-tongue the history of the Fatherland is the best channel for cultivating love of one's own, which is nationalism.

ARTICLE (8): Control of Education

(i) No Mixed Schools. There should be at least two kinds of primary and secondary schools; one for the children of Afrikaans-speaking parents, with only Afrikaans as a medium, and the other for children of English-speaking parents, with only English as a medium. In each there should be the right relationship between home, school, Church, and State.

(iv) The Church. The Church must exercise the necessary discipline over the doctrine and lives of the teachers. The vigilance must be exercised through the parents. The Church must also stimulate all parents and give financial aid to needy ones to perform their educational task.

(v) The State. The State must ensure a proper scientific and moral standard in education, and therefore law and right in school life. It may not, however, determine the directing spirit of education providing that, as judged by God's law, it is not harmful to the State. Where the child's natural guardians, the parents neglect their educational duties, the State, as paramount guardian, should step in and establish schools until such time as the parents desire to exercise their own rights.

(vii) Organization of Education.... Our ideal is the Christian Nationalist school; but for the time being we must be content to leaven the existing public schools.

ARTICLE (9): The Teacher

(ii) ... Training college personnel should also be Christian and Nationalist.

ARTICLE (11): Higher Education

(i) The basis for this should be the same as for schools.

(ii) The content should be scientific, but founded on the Christian Faith. The Christian doctrine and philosophy should be taught and practised. But we desire still more; the secular sciences should be taught according to the Christian and Nationalist view of life. University teaching should be thetic rather than anti-thetic, never purely eclectic and never reconciliatory. Science should be expounded in a positively Christian light, and contrasted with non-Christian science. Universities should never give unintegrated instruction, merely choosing here and choosing there; there should be no attempt to reconcile or abolish the fundamental oppositions; for Creator and created, man and beast, individual and community, authority and freedom remain in principle insoluble in each other. Especially in the universities do we need the right personnel; for professors and lecturers make the institution and determine its guiding spirit. It is all-important therefore that the teaching staff should be convinced Christian Nationalist scientists.

ARTICLE (14): Coloured Education

The education of Coloureds should be seen as a subordinate part of the Afrikaner's task of Christianizing the non-White races of our fatherland. It is the Afrikaner's sacred duty to see that the Coloureds are brought up Christian-Nationalist. Only when he is Christianized can the Coloured be truly happy; and he will then be proof against foreign ideologies which give him an illusion of happiness but leave him in the long run unsatisfied and unhappy.

He must also be a nationalist. The welfare and happiness of the Coloured lies in his understanding that he belongs to a separate racial group (hence apartheid is necessary in education), and in his being proud of it.

Coloured education must not be financed at the expense of White education.

ARTICLE (15): Native Education

The White South African's duty to the native is to Christianize him and help him on culturally.

Native education should be based on the principles of trusteeship, non-equality, and segregation; its aim should be to inculcate the White man's view of life, especially that of the Boer nation, which is the senior trustee.

The mother-tongue should be the basis of native education but the two official languages should be learned as keys to the cultures from which the native will have to borrow in order to progress. Owing to the cultural infancy of the native, the State, in cooperation with the Protestant Churches, should at present provide native education. But the native should be fitted to undertake his own education as soon as possible, under control and guidance of the State. Native education should lead to the development of an independent, self-supporting Christian-Nationalist native community.

Native education should not be financed at the expense of White.

The assumptions implicit in this programme are: that C.N.O. is valid not only for the Afrikaner but also for the English speaking South African; that the outlook of the Afrikaner is to be dominant in South African education; that the views of the White man are to be imposed on the non-Whites through the medium of education; that the aim of education is the indoctrination of the child with Christian-Nationalism. In other words the outlook of the Broederbond is to be imposed on the rest of the population by means of education, whether they like it or not.

Quite understandably, many educationists and parents became gravely concerned when the Nationalists came to power so soon after the publication of this pamphlet and members of the I.C.N.O. took up leading positions in the new government. There was an outburst of opposition and an Education League was established with the aim of exposing C.N.O. to the public at large. Nationalist spokesmen back-pedalled hurriedly, proclaiming that the pamphlet was entirely unofficial and did not represent government policy, but behind the scenes the government itself proceeded with the implementation of the C.N.O. programme almost to the letter.

APARTHEID BETWEEN ENGLISH AND AFRIKANER

Just as Hertzog, in the period following the Boer War, saw the salvation of the Afrikaner in isolation, so the C.N.O. supporter believed that his programme could only be implemented if the Afrikaans child was separated from the English. In parallel or dual medium schools, Afrikaans culture would be submerged. Only when the Afrikaans child was isolated from all foreign contracts could he be ' saturated with the Christian and National spiritual cultural stuff of our nation'.

In justification of his standpoint, the Nationalist invoked the historical precedent of the C.N.O. schools established by the Dutch Reformed Churches after the Boer War to resist Milner's avowed policy of anglicization. Milner flooded the State schools with teachers imported from England and made English the sole medium of instruction. The Afrikaner accordingly sought refuge in his own C.N.O. schools, of which several hundred were set up and maintained until financial pressure and the grant of self-government to the former Boer republics by the Liberal administration in England induced the Boer leaders to consider merging their schools with the State ones.

The significant fact about the C.N.O. schools of those days, however, is that they did not incorporate the principle of mother-tongue education which the Nationalists now hold to be sacred. Afrikaans itself was not taught in the C.N.O. schools - it was only recognized as an official language in 1925 - but Dutch, which was one of the two official languages. Nor were the C.N.O. schools single medium. Both English and Dutch constituted the media of instruction up to standard 3, while from standard 4 to matriculation English became the medium. Thus the Afrikaans child of those days was in reality educated through the medium of two foreign languages, while his mother tongue was ignored.

Now, however, Nationalist Afrikanerdom can only survive if its children are prevented from mixing with the children of other sections in the schools. Not only must there be apartheid between Black and White, but there must be apartheid between English and Afrikaner. Why? Are there different facts to be taught to the two sections? Yes, there are. 'You can't,' declared Dr Stoker, a C.N.O. apologist, at a public lecture in Johannesburg, 'you can't have mixed schools because you can't teach Afrikaans-speaking children about their own heroes of the Boer War if there are English-speaking children in the same class-room' (quoted in Blackout, a commentary on Christian National Education, published by the Education League, Johannesburg, September 1959). For the purposes of Afrikaner Nationalism, the divisions of the past must be perpetuated. There must be no attempt to form a single nation, with a single outlook and a single loyalty. There must be different nations, even amongst the Whites.

Nationalist leaders may have been chary of acknowledging C.N.O. (with the exception of the egregious de Wet Nel, later Minister of Bantu Administration and Development, who when Minister of Education said, 'Christian-National Education should be the basis of all planning and the object should not merely be academical education'). But they have promoted C.N.O. in other ways.

In 1955 Dr W. Nicol, Administrator of the Transvaal, condemned dualism in the family, religion, or love, adding that in education 'it is cruelty to a child's mind and spirit comparable to a child's being horse-whipped by its parents'.

Harm Oost, Nationalist Member of Parliament for Pretoria District, declared during a language debate in 1952 that the bilingual child was not a problem child, but a bad Afrikaner, because he was 'neither fish nor flesh and had no national backbone '.

And Dr Verwoerd himself proclaimed in March 1953, while still Minister of Native Affairs: 'The fundamental thing about education is not the wish of the parents, often a selfish wish, but the interest of the child.' As soon as they gained power over the provincial councils which control White education, therefore, the Nationalists introduced their policy of separatism. In the Transvaal from 1945 to 1949, when the United Party was in power, mother-tongue instruction was given as a rule - but with the final choice yielded to the parent - for primary education, and dual-medium education thereafter. After 1949, when the Nationalists acquired a majority in the provincial council, mother-tongue education was made compulsory up to standard 8 or the leaving age of sixteen, and parental choice eliminated, with inspectors and school principals empowered to decide the home language of a child. The same policy was extended to the Cape in 1953. The Orange Free State has always been a Nationalist stronghold. The only province retaining parental option was Natal, where the Nationalists were in the minority, until at last the direction of educational policy was withdrawn altogether from the control of the provincial councils and placed under that of the central government by the National Education Policy Act of 1967.

This Act, which deals only with the education of White children, gives the Minister of Education, Arts and Science the power to determine the 'general policy' of school education. Among the criteria to be observed by the Minister in laying down this 'general policy' are:

(a) that education shall have a Christian character;

(b) that education shall have a broad national character;

(c) that the medium of education shall be the mother tongue;

(d) that there shall be national coordination of syllabuses and examinations.

Fears were expressed by the Opposition, by teachers' leaders and others that this meant Christian National Education as defined by the I.C.N.O. in 1948 had finally become the law of the land. During the Parliamentary debate on the Bill, the Minister denied this, but his explanation of his aim did little to dispel suspicion.

'My interpretation of the "Christian character of education" is that education shall build on the basis of the traditional Western culture and view of life which recognize the validity of the Biblical principles, norms and values,' he said. 'By "national" it is understood that education shall build on the ideal of the national development of all citizens of South Africa, in order that our own identity and way of life shall be preserved, and in order that the South African nation may constantly appreciate its task as part of Western civilization'. One of the aims of education, said the Minister, was to build national unity, and it was presumably in order to ensure that this unity was of the type desired by the Nationalist Party that the government was given the express power to legislate on educational matters if the provincial authorities failed to implement government policy.

Under Nationalist control, many dual and parallel-medium schools have been disestablished, irrespective of the wishes of the parents concerned, while Afrikaans children have been prevented from attending English-medium schools and forced to attend 'their own' schools instead. The system of school board elections has been altered so that only parents of children actually at school may vote. This has worked in favour of the Nationalists because of the higher proportion of Afrikaners among the school-going population, and school board elections have often turned into political demonstrations with no holds barred on either side.

In all three Nationalist dominated provinces, Nationalist propaganda is being assiduously disseminated through school textbooks. History is presented through the eyes of the Afrikaner, and racial prejudice against the non-Whites is commonplace. In the Transvaal, school reading has been controlled through the introduction of a book guide, and teachers are forbidden to allow on school premises any book which does not appear in the guide. In these circumstances, the opportunity of the teacher to promote independent reading or thinking by his pupils is reduced to a minimum.

In a thesis for which he received the M.Ed. degree with distinction at the University of the Witwatersrand in April 1964, Mr F.E. Auerbach, senior assistant at a Johannesburg government school and vice-chairman of the Johannesburg Council for Adult Education, examined history textbooks and syllabuses in Transvaal high schools and came to the conclusion that, under the influence of Christian National Education, the Transvaal education system was being used to perpetuate past differences and to 'divide the people'.

He noted that there are significant differences in the presentation of history between textbooks for English-speaking and those for Afrikaans-speaking children; that the concentration on their own race embodied in certain Afrikaans textbooks has now become part of the aims and content of syllabuses prescribed for all schools; that textbooks are likely to imbue White children with the belief that 'Africans are permanently tribal and inherently inferior to Whites'. (The results of Mr Auerbach's research are now available in book form under the title The Power of Prejudice in South African Education, published by A. A. Balkema, Cape Town, in 1966.)

Examples of Nationalist propaganda in textbooks published for the Transvaal schools are innumerable. English is branded as the 'language of the conqueror', and support is lent to the bulk of apartheid legislation. Here are some further titbits:

Although our forefathers since the time of Jan van Riebeeck had been in daily contact with the non-White inhabitants, there was virtually no inter-marrying.

(A ludicrous lie).

Our forefathers believed, and we still believe today, that God Himself made the diversity of peoples on earth. It is therefore bad for White and non-Whites to inter-marry. ...

It has become the traditional standpoint that although White and non-White share a common fatherland, there should be no mixing of races, and that there should be no eating, drinking, and visiting together. This viewpoint is also set down in various laws. Inter-racial residence and inter-marriage are not only a disgrace, but are also forbidden by law.

It is, however, not only the skin of the White South African that differs from that of the non-White. The White stands on a much higher plane of civilization and is more developed. Whites must so live, learn, and work that we shall not sink to the cultural level of the non-Whites. Only thus can the government of our country remain in the hands of the Whites.

In these trade unions which had Whites and non-Whites, social mixing at their meetings was common. They ate and drank together. Sometimes they had parties together. The Industrial Conciliation Act of 1956 put an end to many of these wrong things.

In one text-book, children were set the following exercise:

The Special Branch of the South African Police is responsible for the internal security of the country. Although these men receive no publicity, they have the most difficult task of all the police. It is common knowledge that spies from other countries are even at this moment trying to obtain vital information about South Africa. Every hour of the day secret transmitters transmit messages in code to various parts of the world.

In an era of phone tapping and hidden microphones, of riots and sabotage, the security forces have to combat espionage tactfully and efficiently without causing international incidents. This extremely difficult task is further complicated by the fact that unscrupulous agents use embassies of their country and abuse the immunity accorded to diplomats in foreign count