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Schools, Sport and Britishness: Young White Natal, 1902–1961

The purpose of this article is to elucidate the formal education of white youth in the British colony and later South African province of Natal from the end of the South African War to the establishment of the Republic of South Africa. Natal faces the Indian Ocean on the East and is set off from the rest of South Africa by the Kahlamba (Drakensberg) escarpment on the West, while the northern and southern bounds of the region are well defined by rivers and difficult terrain. The geographical separateness has encouraged a political separatism among the inhabitants of the region, irrespective of ethnicity. Between 1902 and 1961 Europeans were the dominant political group, although they were only just over 10 per cent of population. About three-quarters of this polity were English-speaking, being British immigrants or their descendants. The ‘Natal English’, as we shall call them, were aware of the precariouness of their power and looked to Britain and the imperial connexion for justification and sustainment. From 19 10 to 196 1 the Union of South Africa was a Dominion of the British Empire and later Commonwealth. In a referendum in 1909 the majority of English voters in Natal did not support the union with the other, ‘Dutch’-dominated colonies of South Africa, and in a referendum in 1960 practically all ofthem rejected the Afrikaner republic. Thus the quip that they were Natalians first, British second, and South Africans third. This brief survey will focus on only one aspect of their Britishness: the British character of education in Natal and its adaptation to changing circumstances during the period. First, the British tradition itself will be described, and then its relationship with Afrikanerdom. The great importance of organized sport in schools will be considered next. The pupil population burgeoned, creating new pressures in the schools, while outside them, new social forces, from home and abroad, also tested the traditional order. The crisis is the subject of the last section.