5 - Building a Community School: The Rise and Fall of Bethel School

Summary

The previous chapter analysed the significance of Bethel Farm in the Basotho's construction and negotiation of belonging in the Dewure Purchase Areas. Focusing on the challenges the Basotho faced in establishing and running Bethel School, this chapter explores the link between the provision of education and immigrants’ negotiation of belonging. The chapter examines the challenges that the Basotho faced in establishing Bethel School and their attempt to project it as a Basotho school by maintaining control of the school and also by insisting that the Sesotho language become part of the school curriculum. The chapter also seeks in many ways to demonstrate how Bethel School illustrates the triumphs, failures and challenges faced by the Basotho in Gutu in their quest for belonging; it highlights how the way the Basotho ran the school exposed otherwise subtle cleavages and schisms within the community; and it endeavours to evaluate the success of an attempt at an education system that is aimed primarily at catering for the needs of an immigrant minority group.

BETHEL SCHOOL: EDUCATION AMONG THE BASOTHO

The 1920s saw most British colonies adopting an education policy that was specifically modelled to cater for Africans. This policy gained currency in the aftermath of the publication of the findings of the Phelps Stokes African Education Commission in 1920. The commission was led by Thomas Jesse Jones, who had earlier made a similar survey in the United States of America (Southern states) and recommended that ‘schools for Negroes should place more emphasis on the industrial and agricultural aspects of education’. As well as industrial work, the Phelps Stokes Fund advocated an education system that would inculcate Christian values, which explains why missionaries were greatly involved in the programme. One of the conduits for introducing these policies in Southern Rhodesia was A. E. Alvord, an American missionary and agriculturalist who was appointed Agriculturalist for the Instruction of Natives in 1926. In 1929, Alvord was transferred from the Native Affairs Department and joined Jowitt's Native Development Department with all his staff.

Southern Rhodesia's ‘Native education’ policy had not changed much from the time of occupation up until the end of company rule in 1923. ‘Native’ education was generally the concern of missionaries, who were given some financial assistance by the government. The education policy was broadly geared towards the production of educated African elites and emphasised academic subjects.