Patrick van Rensburg

255 pages. Temps de lecture estimé 3h11min.
This sensitive and compelling biography of Patrick van Rensburg does justice to a giant of a man, controversial throughout his life but undeniably a hero.Patrick van Rensburg (1931–2017) was an anti-apartheid activist and self-made ‘alternative educationist’ whose work received international recognition with the Right Livelihood Award in 1981. Born into a broken home and raised as an Anglophone in KwaZulu-Natal, Van Rensburg only discovered his Afrikaner heritage when applying for his first job in 1948, the year the Afrikaner National Party came to power with its programme of apartheid. His Damascene conversion to an opponent of apartheid occurred in the Belgian Congo eight years later, when he dramatically resigned as South Africa’s youngest vice-consul. Forced into exile from South Africa in 1960, Van Rensburg settled in Bechuanaland (Botswana), where he challenged conventional educational wisdom, founded three self-built schools, and established vocational training ‘brigades’ which offered a second chance to primary school ‘drop-outs’. Regrettably, his ideas failed to gain traction in liberated South Africa, but the strong network of self-reliant community trusts throughout Botswana represents an enduring testament to his unfailing commitment to justice and equality. Van Rensburg was an energetic, innovative and charismatic visionary who captured the zeitgeist of the late twentieth century, and whose work and vision still have resonance for debates in educational policy today. Acknowledgements Abbreviations and acronyms List of illustrations Maps Introduction Chapter 1 Origins and Identity in South Africa Chapter 2 An Anglophone South African, 1936–1948 Chapter 3 The Making of an Afrikaner, 1949–1953 Chapter 4 Diplomat and Rebel, 1953–1957 Chapter 5 Anti-Apartheid Activist, 1957–1959 Chapter 6 Boycott, 1959–1960 Chapter 7 Into Exile, 1960–1961 Chapter 8 Return to Africa, 1961–1962 Chapter 9 The Founding of Swaneng Hill School, 1962–1963 Chapter 10 Challenging ‘the Ladder to Privilege’, 1963–1965 Chapter 11 The Alternative Educationist, 1965–1967 Chapter 12 Expansion and Replication, 1967–1969 Chapter 13 Time of Crisis, 1969–1971 Chapter 14 Education with Production, the 1970s Chapter 15 Foundation for Education with Production and Spreading the Word, the 1980s Chapter 16 Education with Production and South Africa, the 1990s Chapter 17 Return to Botswana Epilogue Bibliography Index