Weaving Together a Tapestry of Historical Knowledge in the Post-apartheid School History Curriculum: The Case of Palesa Beverley Ditsie

Abstract

In this article, we investigate the exclusion of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer/Questioning, Intersex and Asexual (LGBTQIA+) experiences, contributions and narratives in the post-apartheid South African school history curriculum. We position the historical contributions of Palesa Beverley Ditsie, a pivotal human rights activist, freedom fighter and filmmaker who fought against apartheid and during the HIV/Aids crisis, as a critical case study of this erasure. The article is situated against the backdrop of the 2015-2016 student protests, notably the #MustFall movements, which catalysed a national reckoning with the pervasive coloniality of South African higher (and basic) education and demanded, amongst others, the radical decolonisation of curricula and the explicit inclusion of LGBTQIA+ experiences, contributions and narratives. However, despite students’ calls for epistemic and ontological justice, the contributions of Ditsie and her contemporaries, such as Tseko Simon Nkoli, remain peripherised. Employing decolonial queer theory and the metaphor of knowledge as a tapestry of the theoretical orientations, and using critical discourse analysis as the methodology, we make a direct appeal to the History Ministerial Task Team (HMTT) (Department of Basic Education [DBE], 2015, 2018), by arguing that the project of Africanising (and by extension: decolonising) the school history curriculum must be expanded to urgently include, rehistoricise and recentre Ditsie’s experiences, as well as her contributions to the fight against apartheid and her contributions to the country’s constitutional democracy. Such an inclusion, we argue, is fundamental to weaving a more complete tapestry of historical knowledge, enabling history educators and their learners to challenge the heteronormativity of traditional history writing and fostering a truly intersectional understanding of the struggle for liberation and human rights in South Africa.