African Aspirations for Education in Rural Natal

Abstract

Natal was annexed by the British in 1843 and defined areas for occupation were set aside for the various tribes. The people of the Bidla tribe (an offshoot of the Zulu) were given Ward 3, Location 2, in the Pholela District. Pholela is approximately 52,300 acres in extent, and although many hundreds of acres of land are uninhabited the average density of population of the area is about 131 per square mile which is somewhat higher than in most reserves. About 1000 African homes (umusi) are in this area today and each home contains on the average a little over seven persons. The area is bounded in the north and north east by the Umkomaas River, which plays a great part in the lives of the local people. Pholela is 44 miles from Pietermaritzburg and the same distance from the Drakensberg Mountains. Since annexation the area has shown the trend that would be duplicated in hundreds of reserves throughout the Union of South Africa--first, settlement; next, the painful development of Christianity, often transmuted by local ancestor worship and other tribal beliefs; then, the establishment of schools and the gradual undermining of the authority of the chief and the substitution of an educated elite that continues to threaten the traditional order and way of life.