Department of History

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Browsing Department of History by Author "Barnard, Daniela"

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    Institutionalising the ‘skollie’: social labelling and philanthropic institutional reform at Klaasjagersberg State Institution for Coloured boys c. 1934-1979
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2022-03) Barnard, Daniela; Fransch, Chet James Paul; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of History.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Existing research on punishment and (re)education in state institutions in South Africa reflects the shift in penological discourse from punitive to rehabilitation of children deemed delinquent or ‘in need’. This was racially determined and subject to shifts in global penology, complex internal political wrangling, and further complicated by a racially defined, and an overly bureaucratic, educational system. Institutional histories on Porter Reformatory for Coloured boys (c. 1882-1952), Diepkloof Reformatory for Black boys (c. 1937-1952) and Ottery School of Industries for Coloured boys (c. 1937-1968), for example, provide a remarkable foundation from which education, rehabilitation and punishment are critically analysed. The hitherto unknown Coloured Affairs Department projects, the Klaasjagersberg Youth Preparatory Courses of 1956 and the Klaasjagersberg State Institution that existed between 1959 and 1979, are the focus of this dissertation. These were established during a particularly turbulent period of Coloured political fracturing in the Cape. The state and the pro-assimilationist C.A.D. embarked on a joint project to implement a preventative state solution for the supposed ‘skolliemenace’. Intricately intertwined was the changing definitions of skollie and juvenile delinquent; and the ways in which state, Coloured politicians and Coloured communities were drawn into this ‘philanthropic’ endeavour under the apartheid welfare state system between 1937 and 1979. This dissertation argues that more attention should be given to the preventative ambitions during the establishment of Klaasjagersberg State Institution as it served as a proverbial playing field in which local political and community aspirations infused into the national debates on state philanthropy, education, rehabilitation and even the prevention of the elusive skollie.