History and the Emerging Nation: The South African Experience

Abstract The article traces developments in the history curriculum in South Africa from the early 1990s to the present. It describes the ideals cherished for a post-Apartheid curriculum and the grounds for hope at the time. The initial steps towards a new curriculum were contested and only partially successful. What followed, however, was the antithesis of what had been expected: an outcomes-based curriculum which excluded any reference to subjects or disciplines and disallowed any systematic study of the past. Recent reports give new reason for optimism, but the malaise might be more widespread in a society which may be said to be in denial about its past