Sustaining peace through school and civil society : mortar, bricks and human agency

Abstract

South Africa has been a high-conflict society for nearly 350 years. The first 300 years were characterised by colonial rule with all the attendant conflicts inherent in such polities where dominance over the subjects was achieved by coercive means. This was followed by a more virulent form of racial domination, called apartheid, which characterised the 50 years before the achievement of democracy in 1994. Thus, a legacy of racial inequality is deeply embedded in the institutional structures and psyche of South African society. The principal underlying assumption of this article is that schools are an indispensable part of a consortium of societal agencies that can help bridge the divisions created by apartheid in a systematic and systemic way. The argument is that the critical elements in South Africa that are responsible, thus far, for maintaining relative stability and offer the potential for sustaining human rights, democracy, social cohesion, and therefore, peace are: a progressive constitution; Chapter 9 institutions; derivative educational legislative and policy instruments; an active civil society and human agency informed by a democratic tradition that was bred and nurtured during the anti-apartheid struggle. These vital ingredients constitute the organic mosaic that can further advance peace and stability in the post-conflict South African society.