Open Letter to Pietermaritzburg schools: Investigate claims of racism

Dear Philosophers,

I write to you all out of a place of concern, a concern arising from recent events at two schools in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal. As an alumnus of one of these schools, I am aware of how institutional culture functions veiled under the guise of tradition, school values and ethos. Institutional culture [which] serves to suffocate, silence and repeatedly muffle the lived realities of Blackness in Historically White Institutions.

Having attended what is termed one of the best schools in the country, I am ashamed of this institutional culture, which militates against Blackness and negates its existence – in spaces previously reserved for whiteness. These school – fundamentally the bastions of coloniality – arguably create of Blackness, the Native of Nowhere.

I recall, at times, how I loathed going to school because a white teacher tormented me daily, to the extent that I contemplated taking his life. At the age of 16, instead of concerning myself with the next test, or outstanding homework, I constantly worried about what I might be called out of assembly for, what might be used against me as a petty offence to berate me in the view of my peers and reduce me to a sense of trepidation, worthlessness and self-hate. Daily, I stood at 4^th Form (Grade 10) assembly in fear, heart racing and palms sweating, because I knew something was coming, some act, some misdeed would be used against me, all in the name of institutional culture. A practice which continued all the way through to my 5^th Form (Grade 11) days, even as I had nothing to do with the said teacher – I was neither his student, nor was he my HoD.

In hindsight, and as a member who serves on the Working Group for Transformation within the PSSA, I am of the view that pupils should never have to go through what I, and many others, endured, all in the name of a good education.

Allegedly, in recent events, two senior students at Maritzburg College and Pietermaritzburg Girls High School respectively used the “K” word to refer to their peers: I urge every Head of Philosophy in South Africa to petition the MEC of Education in KZN to investigate these allegations.

I further call for all philosophers committed to ending the scourge of race/racism and racial discrimination to support an investigation by the South African Human Rights Commission into the allegations against both schools.

As a student of philosophy, who considers justice to be a principal tenet which governs the ethics of pedagogical praxis, I cannot be silent while so many young black bodies endure a system of institutionalised oppression and ontological negation. As a community of philosophers committed to ending racism(s) and racial discrimination within our discipline, I urge you all to showcase this commitment through condemning, unequivocally, racism and racial discrimination in our schools. DM

Siseko H Kumalo is a Bachelor of Social Science (Rhodes University) and Mandela Rhodes Scholar (2017)