SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.— L. 409 



Cape Town. The Bomvana are a people still in a very backward condition, and the 

 difficult nature of their country ha3 resulted in the persistence of tribal custom in a 

 more or less pure form up to the present time. 



Part I. 

 Tribal Education as a System. 



(a) To understand an educational system the entire social system to which it is 

 directed must be brought into focus. The social organisation of the Bomvana will be 

 described briefly so as to indicate the manner of life and the type of individual which 

 the system of education is designed to produce. 



(6) Bomvana ideals of life. How a man grows in the sight of Ms fellows, aims 

 and morality. 



(c) The organon of tribal education is not knowledge as we understand the term. 

 It is chiefly ritualistic. A brief analysis of typical rites of passage, dances, &c., to 

 demonstrate this point. 



(d) Initiation of boys and girls as educative processes. The case of tribes who 

 have abandoned these rites. 



(e) Specific education, i.e. of witch doctors, chiefs, lightning doctors, iron doctors, 

 &c. The parallel between the social position and the education of the specialists. 

 The specialist is always the ordinary man plus some extra power, and his education is 

 thus the ordinary course plus a specific training. 



{/) Economic training. The dichotomy of sex. Men's work, women's work. 

 Who teaches these arts ? 



(g) The agents of tribal education. The family is the true social unit and accord- 

 ingly it is the agent which undertakes the economic, sib, religious and tribal or ' civic ' 

 education. 



Part II. 



Tribal Education as a Basis for Future Work. 



Reconstruction or education for the adaptation of the tribal native to suit or 

 conform to European Civilisation must be viewed chiefly from the viewpoint of satisfy- 

 ing needs which the Native feels himself. By satisfying these ' needs ' further 

 advance can be assured. Such headings as the following will be briefly considered 

 together with the basis, which the system of tribal education already provides in each 

 case : — Economic, informational or functional needs (e.g. reading and writing), 

 philosophical and religious, recreational, &c. 



Discussion : Mrs. R. E. A. Hoernle. 



(d) Mr. D. D. T. Jabavu. — The Professional Edvcation of South African 

 Natives. 



The education of the aboriginal people of South Africa in the professions began with 

 the two professions of Teaching and the Ministry as a result of the advent of European 

 missionaries. About eighty years ago a number of secondary schools were founded 

 under missionary auspices to train Native Africans to go out among their folk as 

 teachers and preachers. The level at first reached was quite modest, being the equiva- 

 lent of two or three years' tuition after the sixth standard ; but it has steadily risen 

 until we have now got about a dozen aboriginal men and women whose attainments 

 will compare favourably with those of the best in the Western countries, namely, the 

 qualifications of a British graduate possessing a post-graduate education diploma. 

 One of these has been appointed an examiner in the B.A. degree for the University of 

 South Africa. 



In the case of the Ministry several Natives have secured the Doctorate of Divinity 

 at the University of Rome, whither they were sent by the Roman Catholic Church. 

 Those who are trained locally by the various religious denominations usually undertake 

 theological training after obtaining the equivalent of a Junior School Leaving certi- 

 ficate, and in this training they spend from four to seven years, and we have one who 

 took a course equal to a degree before going into training. 



In Medicine the requirements of the medical associations in both Great Britain 

 and South Africa have Umited the number of black practitioners down to the very few 

 who can financially manage to proceed overseas and take the course there. Not- 

 withstanding this handicap, we have seven Native doctors possessing qualifications 



