Picture of Moegammad Tahier Kara: provided
My name is Moegammad Tahier Kara. I was born and raised in Stellenbosch and am currently living in the suburb called Ida’s Valley. I’ve spent most of my life living in Ida’s Valley. I matriculated from Luckhoff High School, which is in Ida’s Valley, in 1987. I also studied at Stellenbosch University in the early ’90s.
Recently, I attended a conference on race and transformation in higher education institutions in South Africa. The context of the conference was Stellenbosch University’s attempt at grappling with the imperative to transform in conformity with human rights, equity and redress. The plenary sessions in the morning were complemented by visits in the afternoon to the campus and the broader Stellenbosch community to drop the theory into a developmental praxis.
While I was sitting in one of the conference sessions, I recalled a discussion we’d had in school 35 years before. It was about the name of the school which I matriculated from. The issue was, who is this person whom Luckhoff, our school, was named after?
..............
Luckhoff High School was the first coloured high school outside the Cape Town metropolitan area in the Cape Province during apartheid times. At that time, the Cape Province included the current Western Cape province and the Eastern Cape province. Children would come from all over the Cape Province to do their high school studies at Luckhoff. It was a school for coloured people in the Cape.
................
Luckhoff High School was the first coloured high school outside the Cape Town metropolitan area in the Cape Province during apartheid times. At that time, the Cape Province included the current Western Cape province and the Eastern Cape province. Children would come from all over the Cape Province to do their high school studies at Luckhoff. It was a school for coloured people in the Cape.
At the advent of apartheid, the place where the school was situated was declared a white area. This necessitated that everyone living in the vicinity of the school had to be removed. Therefore, the school could not be used as a school for coloured people anymore. A new school was built in Ida’s Valley, a coloured area, to accommodate the children from the school where they were removed from.
The Luckhoff school remained standing, although all trace of a community living there was destroyed by the apartheid government. Every remnant of a community living in the area of the Luckhoff school was systematically demolished. The buildings that were not demolished in that area were buildings belonging to white people. The area in the vicinity of the school was known as “Die Vlakte” by the people who lived there. The Luckhoff school building became a symbol of the community that lived there. The building has been venerated for many generations until now. It was the symbol that we would return to one day after apartheid was defeated.
The building had significance to the people who went to school there or who lived near the school. I don’t think the veneration of the building and the name of Luckhoff ever conjured the question of the name of Reverend Paul Luckhoff and who he was.
Since that day 35 years ago, when I had that brief discussion with some fellow students at my school, I cannot recall that I had any discussion on who Paul Luckhoff was until I had that recollection while sitting in one of the sessions at the race conference. While I was sitting in the session of the conference, I did a Google search on Paul Luckhoff.
Reverend Paul Luckhoff was a missionary who came to South Africa in 1830. The role of Paul Luckhoff could not have been much different from other missionaries. Missionaries did not only reinforce colonialism, but also became an instrument which was used by Europeans to destroy the people’s cultural values. Their main aim was to convert “heathens” to Christianity and introduce them to the skills of reading the Bible. The most important duty of missionaries is to teach people about Jesus Christ, and His great commandment to love God and to love others.
According to SA History Online, the reason why the school was named after Luckhoff was that he was good to coloured people. Luckhoff died in 1890, and at that time there was no categorisation of coloured people. It seems that the reason why the name Luckhoff was given was built on myths and untruths.
...............
There is a parallel process of the university looking at redress regarding symbols and names of buildings and other forms of visual redress on the campus of the university. Numerous names of buildings have been changed in the last while because of the process of visual redress. The Luckhoff school is under the ownership of Stellenbosch University, which hosted the conference.
................
There is a parallel process of the university looking at redress regarding symbols and names of buildings and other forms of visual redress on the campus of the university. Numerous names of buildings have been changed in the last while because of the process of visual redress. The Luckhoff school is under the ownership of Stellenbosch University, which hosted the conference. The ownership of the building was transferred to Stellenbosch University by the South African government. In 2018, the rector of the university, Professor Russel Botman, symbolically handed over the school to the community, but it stayed under the ownership of the university.
The question that was asked by Professor Melissa Steyn at the conference that spiked my interest was why certain symbols and names are being changed and others not. There are no easy answers to these types of questions. South Africa is a country full of contradictions and complexities. Every layer of complexity makes it difficult to transform from apartheid to modern society. In the case of Luckhoff, it is a name that is venerated by many people in the community, and it would be difficult to convince people that it should be changed.
............
South Africa is a country full of contradictions and complexities. Every layer of complexity makes it difficult to transform from apartheid to modern society. In the case of Luckhoff, it is a name that is venerated by many people in the community, and it would be difficult to convince people that it should be changed.
.................
The name Luckhoff brings forth a symbol of resistance because it played a huge role in the memories of people of evictions and removals. But on the other side, the name Luckhoff is associated with a colonial history that was not kind to the people of the Luckhoff community.
Should we now start questioning the name of Luckhoff on the building? This is most probably the best time to raise the issue of changing the name of the building.
Also read:
Internasionale konferensie: Slow intimacy (Langsame intimiteit)
Universiteitseminaar: Jan Heunis SC beskou die Khampepe-verslag
Konstitusionele Hof, Gelyke Kanse en Universiteit Stellenbosch
Gelyke Kanse-inisiatief bou momentum: Breyten Breytenbach rig ope brief aan US-rektor
Stellenbosch language debate: Speech by David Jantjies at the DAK meeting with the SAHRC
DAK Netwerk language submission: A petition to the Minister of Higher Education
Afrikaans oorleef by US solank dit "redelikerwys doenlik" is
US-taalbeleid: Breyten Breytenbach reageer op Anton van Niekerk se brief
Baqonde-meertaligheidsprojek: "Laat hulle verstaan" (en laat die tegnologie help)
BAQONDE and multilingual education in South Africa: An interview with Lorna Carson
A response to Marlene van Niekerk’s contribution to the Stellenbosch University language debate
Persverklaring: Universiteit Stellenbosch is verbind tot meertaligheid
Persverklaring: StudentePlein oorweeg appèlopsies ná hofuitspraak in US-taalsaak
Reaksie op Andrew Nash: "Kan die Akademie uitnemendheid oorleef?"
BAQONDE, boosting the use of African language in education: an interview with Bassey Antia
Kommentaar
Moegammed T Kara's message regarding "The ambiguity of name Luckhoff High School" (Stellenbosch) refers. Like Kara, I too matriculated at Luckhoff HS as have all my siblings, Pamela, Calvin, Russel and Elvera Van Wyk. We weren't born in Stellenbosch (but Cape Town), but my parents at the time were business people in Kylemore, across Helshoogte. After we completed high school SU wasn't an option (in fact we weren't white ito of that heinous racial classification). Russel the 3rd eldest sibling was especially bitter because SU wouldn't admit him to study Medicine (although he was in top ten achievers in the country). Our only options either UWC or UCT the latter we also had to apply for a study permit to do so. The irony is that despite the Apartheid/colonial roots of the "coloured education" we received at Luckhoff HS all of us Van Wyks (without exception) became high-end academic achievers. This is true for many other Luckhoff alumni of our generation, among others, eg in executive positions at USA universities and elsewhere around the globe. The irony was that the post-Apartheid regime ito their Affirmative Action policy currently doesn't regard us as "black enough". Double discrimination!
You will appreciate the fact how "taken aback" I was, when after my interview for a job at SU they appointed me to a senior position. Regarding my insight into Critical Identity Theory (both theory and praxis), I initiated a somewhat "new" enterprise about something that was different (esp academics ... not actually spoken of, except a few like Prof Amanda Gouws) which was either uncomfortable or "foreign" to the traditional culture,. One either assimilated or left the university. I'd daresay my portfolio (maybe me too because I was the face of diversity issues ... we weren't actively encouraged to use the term Transformasie/Transformation. Equity/Diversity Division wasn't quite spontaneously received/accepted the way the subsequent "Stellenbosch must fall" "radical" yet transient popular activism. When I invited people like Rhoda Kadalie, Jonathan Jansen, Sipho Seepe, Jody Kollapen, Danny Titus, among others, as speakers to SU, the campus responses among the executive and academics were at best "lukewarm" - less than excited. When I advertised the speaker Tony Ehrenreich (Cosathu), all hell was lose.
Therefore, when I launched the portfolio of Equity/Promotion of Diversity Prof Melissa Steyn (Wits) was happy - she's a friend aand valued associate re. Diversity and Identity Politics (especially "Whiteness ain't what it used to be"). Steyn's acceptance to speak was refreshing, unlike the in the case of the invitation extended to Kadalie ... etc al ... with the preface by (ie explain yourself vis-a-vis SU) - "Jerome, give me one good reason why I shouhld speak at SU".
I continue to follow the debates about "race" and the "taaldebat" at SU publicly - from a distance. I also do so with regard to UCT and the "crisis" of my erstwhile colleague, VC Mamogethi Phakeng. Beide universiteite het groot en gewigtige (strategies en NIE taktiese) ras-verwante (taal by SU) goeters om uit te sorteer. Dus, my Luckhoff HS-jare is lankal in die vergetelheid ... so ook my wonderlike dae met die Libertaskoor (ek salueer Johan, Lawina De Villiers en natuurlik die Libertaskoorlede - 'n voortreflike en navolgenswaardige voorbeeld van "Eenheid in Diversiteit"). My passies is nou op ander plekke (steeds die HO-tendense in SA), maar nou gefokus op die kunste (musiek in al sy vorme), taal, letterkunde ens. Luckhoff HS was natuurlik vir my 'n deurslaggewende vormingskrag itv die Duitse taal, my Philosophie Studies aan Tuebingen Universiteit (Duitsland) en latere jare aan Harvard Universiteit (Massachusetts, VSA). Opregte voorspoed aan die US-bestuur, alle range van personeel en studente. Ek WAS daar en het begrip vir daardie moeilike en nimmereindige persoonlike en institusionele uitdagings! Maties, pak dit aan met energie-gedrewe MOED!