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12 August 2020 | Story Charlene Stanley | Photo Supplied
Dr Rebecca Swartz’s book Education and Empire: Children, Race and Humanitarianism in the British Settler Colonies, 1833-1880 has been honoured with various international awards.
Dr Rebecca Swartz, postdoctoral scholar in the International Studies Group, received glowing international recognition for her publication: Education and Empire: Children, Race and Humanitarianism in the British Settler Colonies, 1833-1880 (Cham: Palgrave, 2019). 

The book has won the prestigious Grace Abbott Book Prize (best book in English) from the Society for the History of Children and Youth (SHCY), which is awarded biannually, as well as the International Standing Conference for the History of Education (ISCHE) First Book Award. It has also been nominated for the Kevin Brehony prize from the History of Education Society (UK).

“It feels wonderful to have my work recognised by the international academic community,” said a delighted Dr Swartz.

Education as tool for oppression

She explains that the book traces the involvement of government in the education of indigenous people across a number of former British colonies.  

“It shows how education was increasingly seen as a government responsibility towards indigenous people during the nineteenth century. However, this does not mean that there was widespread access to education in the colonies; rather, education was provided along racial lines. In the two major sites of my study, KwaZulu-Natal (then Natal) and Western Australia, education for indigenous people was used to train them as workers, rather than to provide a literary education. The book shows that even when education was posed by imperial and colonial governments as a humanitarian intervention – something that would ‘uplift’, ‘improve’ or convert or ‘civilise’ the population – in settler colonial contexts such as South Africa and Australia, it was part of the apparatus of control and dominance over colonised people.”

For her, the most remarkable thing that her research has brought to light, was how the colonial project was full of contradictions. The imperial government provided education to the very same people it dispossessed of land and coerced into settlers’ labour forces.
“It was important for the British imperial government to appear to be humanitarian in outlook. However, they did not consider halting colonial settlement, and continued to violently colonise other parts of the world. As the nineteenth century progressed, they increasingly turned to rigid racial hierarchies to justify their practices,” says Dr Swartz.

International accolades

The SCHY called Dr Swartz’s work “a tour de force and an impressive template for how to do a multi-sited history where childhood is central to questions of imperial, political and educational history.”

The award committee’s commentary also stated: “Drawing on detailed archival research relating to the education of indigenous children in a range of British settler colonies, Rebecca Swartz offers convincing new insights into the centrality of childhood to shifting ideas around race and indigeneity in the British imperial project.”Some of the criteria considered by adjudicators of the ISCHE award were: Excellence and thoroughness of historical research, innovative and rigorous thinking, use of original and primary materials, and impact on history of education. 

Relevance for SA education today

Dr Swartz believes the book shows that education (both schooling and broader social education, such as teaching children good manners and morals, for example) is always reflective of broader political contexts.

“My work shows how in this country, education systems were actually set up to support and sustain forms of colonial rule by keeping certain skills, institutions, and systems of knowledge away from the majority of the population, while simultaneously denigrating their pre-existing knowledge and education systems. We need to understand more about the colonial origins of our education practices if we are to radically shift these in order to make education more equitable and inclusive,” she explains. 

ISG stimulating intellectual excellence

Dr Swartz describes the International Studies Group as “the most stimulating intellectual home that I have had in my research career to date”. She is grateful to be part of a community of brilliant scholars from all over the world, guided by Prof Ian Phimister, ISG Head, sharing ideas in formal seminars and also enjoying informal exchanges of ideas over coffee in the mornings.

“Prof Phimister has been a wonderful host and mentor. He is always available for advice and to read work, but also allows us postdocs to get on with what we do best: research and writing.”

News Archive

UFS awards honorary doctorates during its centenary week
2004-10-07

The University of the Free State (UFS) will award 12 honorary doctorates on Thursday 14 October 2004 to a diverse group of outstanding South Africans and international experts.

This will be the last in a group of 18 honorary doctorates that the UFS will be awarding in its centenary year.

The awards comprise of a number of well-known language experts and writers, experts in higher education, first-time awards in community service and development studies, as well as music.

“This reflects quality and also diversity, a spectrum of convictions as well as the recognition of persons who played a major role in changing society in the last couple of decades, “ says Prof Frederick Fourie, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the UFS.

The awards can be grouped in the following categories:

Language and literature:

Mr Karel Schoeman (D Litt (hc)) – well-known Afrikaans author and former student of the UFS. Some of the awards he has received include the Hertzog prize for prose (1970, 1986 and 1995), the CNA prize (1972 and 1994), the Old Mutual prize (1985 and 1991), the SABC prize for best television drama in 1990, the M Net book prize in 1997 and the State President award (former President Nelson Mandela: Order for Excellent Service – silver) in 1999. It is an honor for the UFS to have this gifted and creative person among its former students. This conferment is a fitting recognition of his status as leading South African writer.

Ms Antjie Krog (D Litt (hc)) – well-known South African poet and former student of the UFS. Her popularity as poet is evident in her piercing honesty and unequalled power of expression. Some of the awards she has received include the Eugéne Marais prize in 1973, the Rapport prize in 1987, the Hertzog prize in 1990 and the RAU prize in 2000. Her writing has been translated into seven languages. She has also received numerous honors for her involvement in and journalistic documentation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC) proceedings. It is therefore an exceptional privilege for her alma mater to honor her with an honorary doctorate.

Prof Jaap Steyn (D Litt (et phil) (hc)) – recently, Prof Steyn again distinguished himself as biographer whose thorough research is apparent in the published biographies of illustrious writers such as NP van Wyk Louw and MER. The numerous awards, among which the Stals prize from the South African Academy of Science and Art for the Van Wyk publication, are a matter of record. He conducted the research for this great prize-winning work as honorary professor at the UFS.

Prof Jakes Gerwel (D Phil (hc)) – Chancellor of the University of Rhodes and Director of Naspers, Old Mutual, Gold Fields and Brimstone. His doctoral thesis was published in The Netherlands under the title Literatuur en apartheid. Konsepsies van “gekleurdes” in die Afrikaanse roman tot 1948 (1983). He received an honorary doctorate from Clark College ( Atlanta), the City University of New York and Missouri in the USA, the University of the Western Cape, the University of Cape Town, the University of Natal, Rhodes University, the University of Stellenbosch and the University of the Witwatersrand. He is also outstanding professor in the Humanities at the University of the Western Cape, honorary professor in the Humanities at the University of Pretoria, and was the chairman of the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC).

Development Studies:

Dr Frederick van Zyl Slabbert (D Phil (hc)) – for his academic achievements, his endeavors for bringing about a peaceful transition in South Africa and his demonstration of the social investment role of the corporate sector. Dr Van Zyl Slabbert has received honorary degrees from the University of Natal and the Simon Fraser University in Canada. He has published seven books and various academic articles.

Community Service:

Prof Robert G Bringle (D Phil (hc)) – from the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) in the USA. He is currently Chancellor’s Professor of Psychology and Philanthropic Studies at the IUPUI and also Director of the IUPUI’s Centre for Service Learning. He is honored for his exceptional contribution to several of the UFS’s community service projects as well as his role in the advancement of a multi- and inter-disciplinary approach to academic development and the integration of service learning within the faculties of the UFS. He has also made a valuable contribution to the conceptual framework of the UFS’s unique community service policy and more recently to the advancement of a research culture regarding community service.

Higher education:

Dr Khotso Mokhele (D Phil (hc)), President of the National Research Foundation (NRF) is honored for his contribution to the South African higher education sector. He has also made a substantial contribution to the development of the research capacity of universities and technikons in South Africa. Dr Mokhele was born in Bloemfontein and matriculated at the Moroka High School in Thaba Nchu.

Prof Saleem Badat (D Phil (hc)), the Chief Executive Officer of the Council on Higher Education (CHE). Prof Badat has devoted himself to transforming and building South African higher education, and has constantly challenged the higher education sector to retain the moral basis of higher education and tackle its challenges with intellectual honesty, ingenuity, creativity and courage. He is honored for his intellectual leadership in the development of a equitable, just and quality higher education system in South Africa.

Law:

Prof HA (Boelie) Wessels (D Legum (hc)) – for his contribution to the fields of Roman Law, Legal History at the UFS. He is currently a part-time lecturer at the UFS’s Faculty of Law.

Medicine:

Prof CJC Nel (D Phil (hc) Posthumous) – for the way in which he strived for the advancement of excellent medical education in the country. Prof Nel also did pioneering work in the field of transformation in higher education. Under his guidance the School of Medicine at the UFS became one of the first medical schools to adopt a parallel-medium system of instruction.

Music:

Prof Leo Quayle (D Mus (hc)) – for the significant contributions he has made to the development of music – not only in Bloemfontein, but also on national level and abroad. His initiative, enthusiasm and dedication contributed to the eventual founding of the Free State Musicon, as well as the first symphony orchestra and the first string quartet in Bloemfontein. Prof Quayle is a former head of the Department of Music at the UFS.

Prof Jack de Wet (D Mus (hc)) – well-known for his exceptional contribution to violin tuition in South Africa. As pedagogue of international stature, he still moulds violinists who compete at national and international level. At an advanced stage of his career, he still actively conveys his knowledge, experience and distinctive insight in his field of speciality to yet another new generation of young violin teachers. Today the symphony orchestras in Bloemfontein and Port Elizabeth also stand on the foundations laid by him.

Media release
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Media Representative
Tel: (051) 401-2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: loaderl.stg@mail.uovs.ac.za
7 October 2004

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