Berkley Center

I chose South Africa as a study abroad location because I craved a different cultural experience. I thought it would be the happy medium between the culture shock of life in Africa and the comfort of first world development. I was aware that I would not be living in the bush—I attend a university just outside of a major city—yet I did not expect to be so completely surrounded by Christianity, something I very much associate with the Western world.

I was surprised by how many South Africans are Christian and by how Westernized the nation is. The one service I attended in Cape Town felt as though I could be in my hometown. At first, I was taken aback by all of this. I had not expected to find myself in such a Christian country, and I had trouble understanding the presence of Christianity in one place in particular: public schools. State-run and funded schools are allowed to provide religious services as long as they are optional and equitable. In the school at which I help teach a fifth grade class, the students participate in Christian prayer four times a day, something common throughout Western Cape public schools. This upset me at first because I thought their rights were being infringed upon; I thought they were required to pray in a public institution. But I was wrong, perhaps ignorant even.

Before attending Georgetown, I went to public school, where the separation between church and state was apparent and obligatory. There were no signs of religion. All holidays celebrated were purely secular, and we could not worship in school. Because of this, I associate religious freedom with the strict separation between church and state.

So I was surprised to hear that a government funded institution would be allowed to provide for a certain religious denomination, especially in a nation that is pushing for a culture of freedom and celebrated differences. I knew that the South African constitution is one of the most progressive in the world, and therefore assumed that there would be a similar restriction of religion in public institutions to that in the United States.

However, the South African constitution does not create as harsh of a divide between religion and the state as other countries such as the United States and France. While religious services are allowed in public and state-funded institutions, they must be free and equitable. Schools can provide prayer services as long as students are allowed to choose whether or not to participate, and all religions are accommodated. Additionally, local governing bodies have much say in how this rule is implemented in institutions such as schools.

So while schools must provide opportunity for all religions to be practiced, in rural Western Cape schools like the one at which I help teach, Christianity is the only religion represented. I came to realize that that makes sense, as almost 80 percent of the country is Christian. So all of the students pray together multiple times a day during class. The reason, from what I can see, is twofold. First of all, there is an overwhelming history of Christianity in South Africa, and in South African schools specifically. Secondly, I am told that Christian ideals and morals are used in rural schools to help guide poor and/or at-risk students.

Many of the schools that operate in South Africa today were originally founded by Christian missionaries in the region. Under both Dutch and English rule, a Christian curriculum was present in most schools. The Dutch promoted a more Calvinist form, which was adopted by many white South Africans, particularly Afrikaners, those who identified most with South Africa and chose to speak Afrikaans. The English promoted a more Pentecostal Christianity, which was adopted by many other indigenous South Africans.

After the Anglo-Boer War, in which the Afrikaners fought against British rule, the Afrikaner government established public schools based on Christianity and Calvinist principles, leaving no room for other religions. So although the new South African constitution calls for religious freedom, Christianity was deeply ingrained in the public school system. This education system also played a large role in creating such a high population of Christians in the nation.

Additionally, Christianity played a large role in the defeat of apartheid and the reconciliation process. Many oppressed South Africans used Christianity, albeit a different branch, both as an escape from the horrors of apartheid and as a way to fight it. Many Protestant church leaders officially joined the resistance efforts. Archbishop Desmond Tutu led many efforts to end apartheid, and was then chosen to lead the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which investigated the human rights violations of the apartheid era and sought justice and reconciliation amongst both victims and perpetrators.

The second part of the explanation for the presence of Christianity in many public schools is its use to teach and help poor and troubled children. In the rural communities of the Western Cape and elsewhere, many young children grow up in poverty. These students, however, do not just experience material lack. They were born just after the end of apartheid and live in a somewhat helpless environment. As religion provided hope for those who oppressed under the apartheid regime, Christianity can help prevent young students from falling prey to alcoholism and criminal behavior. While religion is not the only means to that end, embracing South Africa'’s Christian nature makes sense in this context. While I support the separation of church and state in the United States, that does not need to be the case everywhere. The contrast between the two nations’ approaches is fascinating and very complex. Both ways of education are a product of history, and neither is the only correct answer.