Indigenous People In South Africa

Indigenous people are groups of people who are protected in international or national legislation – they have an explicit set of rights based on their historical ties to a certain territory, and how they culturally or historically differ from others.

South Africa had three main groups of indigenous people. The first people to settle in South Africa were the Khoi/Khoikhoi also known as the ‘Hottentots’ (Booyse et al. 2012:38). This group of people originated from what we now know as Botswana. The second group of people among the indigenous people in South Africa were the San, also known as the ‘Bushman’ (Booyse et al. 2012:39). They originated in the southern part of Africa. The third group, a more complex group of people who inhibited South

The Formal education was through initiation rites or craftsmen (Booyse et al. 2012:44). It can be defined as the “institutionalised, chronologically graded and hierarchically structured educational system” (Coombs & Ahmed, 1974:8) (Booyse et al. 2012:44). Whereas, on the other hand the informal education was by parents and elders in society through a socialisation process (Booyse et al. 2012:44). According to Coombs and Ahmed informal education is the “lifelong process by which every person acquires and accumulates knowledge, skills, attitudes and insights from daily experiences and exposure to the environment” (Coombs & Ahmed, 1974:8) (Booyse et al. 2012:44). The two ways in which indigenous education was transmitted differ drastically. There are various differences and reasons for this.

Socialisation began in the heart of the home. Families created the behaviours, attitudes, and identity of the next generation. Families had influences on the child’s religion and culture and how the community would see and accept them socially. Spindler saw education as “the means by which individuals are recruited to be members of a culture, and by which the culture is maintained.” (Booyse et al. 2012:44). The socialisation process of indigenous education started with the values, socialisation of the people and in what they believed in as a cultural

Indigenous education focused on transmitting the African ideology and methodology through the following concepts. Native language was taught verbally for the fundamental understand and passing of the function of the society and cultural to future generations. Language starts at a very young age between a parent and a child. Language is vital for future education. Language was also important to indigenous groups because that was how their education, cultures and beliefs where pass on to the next generation. Tales and folklores where told verbally and through this children learnt more of their own languages, values, culture, history and they were also told for