Livingstone High School celebrates 100 years

In February, Livingstone High School in Imam Haron Road in Claremont joined a small group of schools in Cape Town, reaching a century or more in age. Of course, no school could reach such a venerable age without having faced and overcome tremendous challenges, creating a rich institutional culture and making a sterling contribution to its community.

In South Africa, schools such as Livingstone, which was established as a coloured school, inevitably faced additional obstacles and hardships – presented first by the racial segregation and discrimination against black people that prevailed during the early decades of the 20th century, and then by the institutionalisation of these practices during the apartheid era. Nonetheless, the history and development of Livingstone High School is a storied one that is inextricable from the history of the neighbourhood, suburb and town in which it is situated.

At a time when underfunded churches were mostly responsible for the education of black children, with the government contributing as little as possible in terms of public schools, facilities or funding, the state of the education sector was appalling. An inadequate number of schools, overcrowding of existing schools and a short school career (usually only up to what is now grade six), for those fortunate enough to secure a place, were the norm.

Livingstone’s establishment in 1926 was very much the outcome of agitation by the local community in Claremont, as well as the pressure exerted by Dr Abdullah Abdurahman, a physician and influential local politician. With his lifelong commitment to broadening access to education, Abdurahman ceaselessly used his political position in both the city council and the Cape provincial council to unlock funding for new schools and facilities.

As a result of combined community and political pressure, the Cape School Board agreed to establish a school, and in 1925 purchased a two-acre site in Lansdowne Road with a double-storey house. Alterations to this building resulted in the completion of four classrooms, and the school, now named Livingstone, was opened for enrolment in February 1926.

Headed by the principal, EC Roberts, 200 pupils were enrolled in Standards IV, V and VI during the course of the year. Livingstone had to embark on a period of rapid expansion to respond to the dire need for upper primary and secondary education, funded only in part by the authorities, but frequently through its own fund-raising efforts, support from local communities and donations from well-wishers.

Livingstone began its march towards high school status as secondary classes began to be added, beginning with Std VII in 1928 and reaching Std X in 1931. At this stage, it was classified as an intermediate school, as it also offered primary education, thus high school status was only achieved in 1934.

By the 1940s, the school had begun to embrace the radical ideas of non-racialism and not collaborating with pro-government, segregationist institutions held by a new generation of teachers in the Teachers League of South Africa and its close political ally, the Non-European Unity Movement. This was the point at which Livingstone began to break away from its sectarian origins and the acceptance of race-stereotyping that had divided communities in the past.

As apartheid policies began to be implemented from the 1950s onwards, Livingstone fought back fiercely against attempts by the authorities to impose their race-based thinking on the school. The school took overt action through boycotts, such as the government’s attempt to foist its celebration of the Van Riebeeck Tercentenary on black schools in 1952. Student action included stayaways, such as those to protest against the detention of several of its teachers in 1963, including Dr Neville Alexander, founder of the militant underground Yu Chi Chan Club, and those to protect African students faced with expulsion from the school by the government in 1964.

The apartheid years were a tumultuous period of mass protests, repression, state-sponsored violence and the banning and detention of numerous anti-apartheid activists. Many were forced into exile, such as Alie Fataar, a teacher at Livingstone, who left the country at the end of 1964. The eviction and forced removals of the black residents of Claremont and Harfield Road from the 1960s to the 1980s denuded the entire area of the school’s constituency, but Livingstone nevertheless survived this trauma.

The late apartheid era brought fresh protests and political turbulence, but Livingstone’s reputation as an education institution renowned for its academic excellence remained unaffected. In 1983, it was listed 11th on a list of feeder schools for the University of Cape Town (UCT).

Throughout the school’s history, the committed and dedicated teachers at Livingstone continued to provide their students with a stable school environment, as well as a holistic education, in a hostile political context. Three educators stand out: Ray Carlier, Richard Dudley and Stella Petersen. Carlier, who joined the staff as a young UCT graduate in the mid-1930s, became principal in 1955 – the first woman to head a co-educational high school in South Africa.

Carlier carried on Livingstone’s proud tradition of blending academic excellence with political awareness amid deepening repression in the country. Dudley matriculated at 15, graduated from UCT with a master’s degree in biology and began his teaching career at Livingstone aged only 20, in 1945.

Dudley, whose political activism ensured he never formally became principal, was notwithstanding Livingstone’s de facto head, widely respected for his intellect, decades-long contribution to the eventual attainment of democracy in South Africa and his stewardship of the school until his retirement in 1984.

Petersen, who taught biology at Livingstone from 1966 until her retirement in the 1990s, was the first black woman to earn a master’s degree in botany at UCT, in 1947, and the first South African to be awarded a research fellowship in science education at Syracuse University in the US, in 1949.

In its centenary year, Livingstone can look back with pride on a roll call of distinguished students who have excelled in diverse fields and made outstanding contributions in numerous fields. They include Peter Clarke, who overcame hardship to become a world-renowned artist, and Neal Petersen, who overcame a physical disability to become an international solo racing yachtsman, award-winning author and motivational speaker.

Other notable alumni include Dr Bill Nasson, an academic and historian; Ebrahim Rassool, a former diplomat and premier of the Western Cape; and Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, former minister of public service and administration, among many others.

As an education institution, Livingstone’s legacy – bequeathed by staff and students both past and present – consists of its contribution to constructive societal change in South Africa and its development of well-rounded young people, ready to take up the challenges of their country.

Its most important social contribution, however, is the creation and nurturing of generations of critical and independent thinkers, an achievement that can be said to be the school’s most enduring and outstanding accomplishment. DM

Dr Farieda Khan, class of ’67, has based this article on her current research project on the first 20 years of the history of Livingstone High School.

This story first appeared in our weekly DM168 newspaper, available countrywide for R35.