Includes bibliographical references (pages 407-410) and index.
Contents:
Introduction: The student who got rid of Rhodes. Part I: An Imperial prologue: 1835-1902. 1. A polite war: the role of mission schools in conquest – 2. 'Evangelical workshops': Native education – 3. From kaffir parsons to outcast ghettos: the next conquest. Part II: From Christian Nationalism to Bantu education: 1902-1961. 4. God and Volk: Christian nationalism – 5. 'Quiet influence': the Afrikaner cultural movement – 6. 'Good native, tribal native': retribalisation – 7. 'An efficient force': Bantu education – 8. The assault on academic freedom: universities. Part III: NUSAS and the liberal agenda: 1959-1968. 9. The United States in South Africa: the 'Cultural Cold War' – 10. Insurgent liberals: how the CIA played NUSAS – 11. Gentlemen accomplices: The US-South Africa Leader Exchange Program -- 12. Dummy foundations and funding pass-throughs: the USSALEP plot thickens. Part IV: The Black Student Movement: 1968-1976 -- 13. Psychological liberation: the rise of black consciousness – 14. 'A movement of blacks for blacks': the South African Students' Organisation – 15. The road to Soweto: April 1974 -- October 1975 – 16. 'Year of fire': 1976 -- Part V: The apartheid-skills quandary: 1977-1993. 17. A courtship of favours: business and apartheid – 18. Saving capitalism: Neo-apartheid. Part VI. From lost generation to lost opportunities: 1994-2012. 19. Into democracy: new insiders, old outsiders – 20. Freelance buccaneers, luxury cars and sushi parties: the Youth League cabal – 21. Lost opportunities: the post-liberation generation. Part VII. Reform and rebellion: 2003-2016. 22 Campus concoctions: institutional mergers – 23. High-altitude abstractions: the promise of free education – 24. Occupied Wits: the Fees Must Fall movement – 25. The storm breaks: revolt and reaction – 26. Helter-skelter: things fall apart. Epilogue: 'a tragic optimism.'
Summary:
Free Fall recounts how and why the present education crisis in South Africa has become the leading cause for black university students. Probing deep beneath the surface of the crisis, the book reveals uncomfortable truths about colonial- and apartheid-era education, and traces the tangled web of connections between foreign and South African business interests, the apartheid government, and the role of universities in propping up a white elite and coopting a subservient black class to their cause. It brings to life the people and ideas that, over a century-and-a-half, have created a perfect storm for the present crisis in South African higher education. Malcolm Ray combines intellectual rigour with the intimacy of narrative non-fiction, introducing readers to the main protagonists since the end of slavery in 1834, through the rise of missionary education as an instrument of indoctrinating and subjugating black people, and into the apartheid era. Beyond apartheid, the book details how policy blunders by the democratic government since 1994 have conspired with the past to fuel South Africa’s slide into increasing economic and social disarray. It is the story of the failure of South Africa's democratic government to deal with major fault lines fissuring higher education, and the circumstances that led to the #RhodesMustFall and #FeesMustFall movements in 2015. The book ends on a high note, answering the question: ‘What now?’ This book aims to be the beginning of the solution.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.