South+Africa


 * Introducing South Africa! **





South Africa is the country located on the southern tip of Africa! The country of South Africa has beautiful attractions that break what the stereotypical views of media portrays. There they speak eleven different languages and as of 2010, the diverse population has grown to about 49.32 million people. South Africa has a long history of struggle where the people were under the harsh restrictions of Apartheid. For those unfamiliar with Apartheid, it is defined as the legal act of racial segregation that the government forced upon the people between the years of 1948 and 1994. This time period is commonly compared to America’s Civil Rights Movement. Since then, the country has been making strides to promote equality amongst the people; although this is the effort, discrimination has not completely vanished from the country.

** Education and Arts; ** ** Or //lack of// “Arts Integration” Rather… **

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South Africa’s history has had a huge impact on their education. The government is currently contributing about 20% of their to expenditure towards education alone because of the backlogging that apartheid has caused. Although there is one set //structure// of education in South Africa, there is still a gap between the quality of education received within different SES groups and the different communities within the country. ======

South Africa has a "National Qualification Framework" that recognizes three broad bands of education: General Education and Training, Further Education and Training, and Higher Education and Training. The band of "higher education" is where students are trained to become future teachers. Before getting certified, they go through a number of classes and have specific qualifications within each University. Usually, one cannot teach in South Africa without certification.



Under the South African Schools Act, education is compulsory for all South Africans from age 7/ grade 1 to age 15/ grade 9. Education for South African students starts at grade 0, which is considered "reception" year. This year is like Pre-School/ Kindergarten in America. From there, they have three structured levels of education which are primary, secondary, and University. Primary is described as grade 0-6 while secondary is 7-12. At the end of grade 12 all students must go through matriculation. Matriculation is the process where students take their "matrics". These are very significant test, in different subjects, that must be passed in order to move onto University.

The central government provides a national framework for school policy, but within the school the administrative responsibility is in the hands of the provinces. Power is further devolved to elected school governing bodies, which have a significant say in the running of their schools. The teachers in the more rural areas are more commonly University certified to teach. On the underhand, in the urban communities there are some teachers that do not even have their credentials. This shows the lack of resources that those on the lower end of the budget have. Contrasting with South Africa’s collective practices (arts, music, dance, religion, etc.) on culture, there was not much information on actual arts “integration” within schools because the system views art and education as two different subject matters. However, in the more suburban areas of South Africa there are a number of arts schools that are offered. These schools are more so for the parents that can afford to pay for their children to attend these performance based schools. Also, there are arts museums and non-profit arts organizations that practice the arts. ** Arts Organization: **



May 19, 1971 the Nico Malan Theatre Centre was introduced, which is now known as Artscape as of March 2001. In 1994 after Apartheid ended, the government policies changed and made it so that arts companies became independent. Therefore, Artscape obtains funding from sponsors, participants, and by those who come to the performances. The organization is a multifunctional creative arts centre with exceptional venue facilities including an equipped opera house. They have a strong emphasis on sustainable theatre practice, education, and development to promote the performing arts.

Artscape’s Audience Development and Education activities are based on five pillars: Promotion of accessibility, different forms of art, and social transformation, affirmation of diverse cultures, and artistic development in job creation.

The way the organization incorporates school and community is by their performers, their performances, and school festivals. There are students from the school community, outside of the general organization that participate in the work that they produce. Also, when they have festivals they display student artwork from schools in the community!

** Artist Profile: ** **FRESHLY GROUND**



Freshly Ground is a very popular Afro-Fusion music group in South Africa and is universally adored. Their music is a fusion of rock, jazz, and afro-pop. The band consists of seven members: **//Zolani Mahola//**- Grew up in Eastern Cape Town, South Africa and is now the Lead singer of the group. She grew up in a community where dance, art, and song were like a language understood by everyone around her. She later studied performance at the University of Cape Town.

**//Peter Cohen//**- Raised in the middle class area of Cape Town, South Africa. He currently holds the position of the drummer in this Afro-Fusion group. He started off going to school to become a lawyer until he realized that his real passion was to play the drums.

**//Kyla-Rose Smith//**- Grew up around different forms of musical expression in Johannesburg, South Africa. She is the violinist of the group. Before joining Freshly ground she was a part of two hip-hop groups. She as well went to University of Cape Town to study music.

**//Simon Atwell//**- Grew up playing in orchestras, and went on to study music in Manchester. He has a degree in English. Within the band he plays the classical flute!

**//Julio Sigauque//**- Is from Maputo, Mozambique. He started studying technical drawing while learning to play the guitar. He later moved to South Africa to learn to read music at the University of Cape Town.

**//Josh Hawks//-** Grew up in Cape Town. He was shipped to the military where he was expelled from the navy to the army and then back. He had a numerous amount of jobs (security guard, bar tender, etc.) before he joined the band playing the bass.

**//Shaggy Scheepers//**- Was born in Eastern Cape Town, South Africa. Surrounded by a musical family and friends he was determined to learn to play the piano. He ended up teaching himself and later joined his uncle’s jazz group. Julio saw him perform one night and invited him to play with Freshly Ground!

They’re quite interesting because they have many success stories starting from their beginning in Cape Town, South Africa the year of 2002. Their first single by the name of “Doo-Be-Doo” was named the most played single in South Africa in 2005. Also their album released the year after, Nomvula, went multi-platinum. They’ve had the opportunity of performing at several universal festivals. Not only this but they have won a number of awards which include: Four South African awards, four metro FM awards, and the MTV Europe awards for “Best African Act” which is a first for any South African musician. The music they produce is unique because not only is it appealing to the youth, but the elders like it as well. Usually the music that teenagers like is the complete opposite of their parents and grandparents. Their most recent recognition was having the honor of co-performing at the 2010 World Cup official anthem “Waka Waka”. Recently, they released their fourth album “Radio Africa.”

Below is a link to play the performance of the song "Waka Waka" at the 2010 world cup. You may be wondering, just as I was, what "Waka Waka" means; In English it translates as "do the job". It is relevant to football (soccer) is that the game is synonymous with doing battle.

Shakira sings for majority of the time, then Freshly Ground comes in at 2:30 minutes.

[|Freshly Ground Performing at World Cup]

** Conclusion ** What surprised me about South Africa’s Arts Integration is the lack of arts integration. The culture in South Africa is so vibrant and it seems as though it’s only right that they of anyone would implement the arts. I feel as though there is not much focus on arts education because it is not something the government really feels is necessary for education itself. Therefore, they do not supply funds for those “extra” programs. They are funding for the minimal efforts to pull them out of the hole from 40 years of Apartheid.

Another thing that was sort of shocking was that there are uncertified teachers teaching within the urban community. It surprises me, but at the same time it doesn’t because In comparison to my community, Detroit, there have been teachers placed within public schools who may have a degree, but who are not certified to professionally teach students. Urban communities have a lack of resources and sometimes it seems as though the government doesn’t hold those schools to the same level of importance as the schools in the suburban/ rural communities. The schools in the townships of South Africa do not have a transportation system and students have to walk miles to get to school in rain or humid weather. I guess the inequality is not only in my community, but in urban communities in South Africa as well.

As far as my experience with Arts Education it’s both similar and different. There were schools that were specifically for arts in my community, but my school did a great job of including art into our education. At my high school are learning was very individualized and hands-on which made learning easier and more fun!

Resources: [] [] [] [] [] [] [|www.google.com/images]

Created By: Zhanae Seaton