Apartheid and the Making of a Black Psychologist

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N. Chabani Manganyi. Apartheid and the Making of a Black Psychologist

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Apartheid and the Making of a Black Psychologist

Award from the Psychological Society of South Africa in recognition of the author’s contribution to the field of psychology.

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On a Saturday morning in 2010 I paid a lone and nostalgic visit to my alma mater. I was greeted by an eerie silence as I walked along the unpaved pathways and roads from the male housing complex and around the ornate dull-brown chapel that had looked so much bigger during my school days. Then followed a slow walk down the cascading slope from what used to be the teacher-training part of the campus to the old Douglas Laing Smit Secondary School at the brow of the hill. I could not help thinking that, following their arrival, the Swiss missionaries, educators and medical doctors who had come to this part of the country must have banked on a long stay at Lemana and at the Elim Mission, Elim Hospital and Valdezia, some kilometres to the north-east of Lemana. The old buildings at Lemana Hill, including the superintendent’s residence, as well as the forest plantations along the edges of the hill continued to create an atmosphere of serenity. Even after years of neglect the campus remains remarkably steadfast and visually engaging. I felt that my old school was like a sanctuary waiting for a second coming.

While the vulgarity of Bantu Education was creeping into our classrooms in 1958 and 1959 at Lemana and elsewhere, Afrikanerdom was bringing a splendid educational chapter to a close and, along with it, the intellectual bounty of excellent teachers. My Lemana teachers found me ready for demanding studies in English higher grade, history, geography, Xitsonga and Afrikaans. I left each lesson with the distinct feeling that the teachers knew what they were doing. What I needed to do was to take full advantage of what was on offer.

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