Walking the Tightrope: Recollections of a Schoolteacher in Soweto

As a young white teacher of English, Elizabeth de Villiers entered the gates of the high school in Soweto where she was to teach for two years with some trepidation. A black colleague picked up her apprehension as she arrived in the staffroom. "Welcome to the circus", he greeted her laconically. "Are you a tightrope walker or are you a clown?" Walking the Tightrope is a shocking and eye-opening book, with elements both of tragedy and farce. Presenting the bald facts of education for blacks in South Africa, the pages give forth the odour of corruption and despair. The daily frustrations of teaching are compounded by often disinterested or lazy colleagues, inefficiency and a system of departmental red tape guaranteed to block the most enthusiastic teacher. Faced with the non-existence of a school timetable, a hopelessly outdated curriculum, overcrowded classrooms and minimal text books for the first six weeks of term, the teachers while away the hours chatting in the sunshine or drinking tea in the staffroom while the school's 1000 pupils wait patiently to be taught. While conditions were at times horrifying - from the daily sjambokking of children for minor misdemeanours to blatant cheating at sports meetings - there were also many moments of pleasure and joy with the pupils under de Villiers' care, such as winning the English Festival competition and Peter Mokwena's 15th birthday party. The stark reminders of township life, of violence and threat hovered constantly on the periphery during the first year and were thrust brutally to the fore during the second under apartheid's state of emergency. Towards the end of 1985 the presence of the SADF disrupted school attendence and a general feeling of hostility and unease pervaded the school buildings.