"Wiping the Slate Clean of What Has Never Been Written". The Sout African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, History Education and the Building of National Identity

Sammanfattning: During Apartheid, the history subject in South African national education and the use of history served as fuel both for apartheid as well as for counterhistoriography. Afterthe 1994 elections, the official debate used phrases like "reconciliation through truth" and "knowledge about the past" in order to"move on". The national institution the Truth and Reconciliation Commission advocated a shared understanding of the past for promoting reconciliation. Considering historiography’s earlier contested use, one might expect the history subject in post-apartheid national education would be emphasised as very important, serving as an important tool for the general shaping of South African identity. Earlier research as well as my own study, has shown that this is not the case. From the viewpoint of history teachers in South African schools and through various documents on South African post-apartheid education, it seems that the major shift in South African education is the one to an outcome-based approach (OBE). The approach and the new Curriculum (C2005) seem, in fact, have minimised the history subject to the extent that it is no longer a subject in its own right. In addition, the new Curriculum does not list a specific content, which allows the individual teacher large freedom to teach as much or as little about the past as they like. Moreover, what have been emphasised are subjects like science and technology, as well as learning practical skills of "constitutional value". In addition, phrases like "the new patriotism" and "allegiance to the flag" seems to be a recent way to create and promote a shared South African identity.