By Jan Goehring
Representatives from 66 countries, 28 states and the District of Columbia gathered in Cape Town, South Africa the end of May for the World Congress on Civic Education, a Civitas International Program. Directed by the Center for Civic Education, Civitas brings civic education curriculum to students worldwide through partnerships with organizations and educators in 70 countries. Civitas assists international civic educators in establishing effective programs in their countries, brings civic education programs to students in the United States to help them understand emerging democracies, and facilitates the exhange of ideas. The World Congress is a forum to share ideas and best practices in democracy education. I had the distinct privilege of attending this meeting.
The conference theme, Civic Education: Reconciling our Past, Building a Democratic Future, provided a powerful framework for the presentations. We had the opportunity to learn about the history of South Africa and the promise for its future. South Africa struggled through 300 years of conflict including the implementation of apartheid in 1948. But in 1994, democracy came to this nation, and Nelson Mandela was elected president. For the past 15 years, South Africa has sought to reconcile its past and renew itself through democracy.
Gugu Ndebele, deputy director general, South Africa Department of Education spoke of the challenge of coming to terms with the country's past so it can move forward as a unified nation. He also says that true democracy will be achieved when they change the prospects for young people. In other sessions, we heard about strides in South African education.
South Africa is not the only nation reconciling a difficult past and building a democratic future. A panel presentation with speakers from Ireland, Israel and Poland provided a very interesting discussion of the themes of the conference. Alicja Pacewicz, co-director, Poland Center for Citizenship Education, offered an eloquent description: Civic education is about ghosts and miracles. The ghosts are the history of war and lost independence. The miracles are independence and democracy. Civic education needs to fulfill the promise of the miracles.
Woven into the agenda were musical and dramatic performances by young South Africans. Their enthusiasm and talent were amazing. We also had the opportunity to hear Project Citizen presentations by a number of students from the area. They showed real pride in their work and an understanding of how they can now have a voice in their government. It was interesting to note that some of the community problems they chose to address are also common themes in Project Citizen presentations in the United States, such as bullying and vandalism. The scale and character of the problems, however, were different.
The conference concluded with comments from Father Michael Lapsley with the Institute for Healing of Memories. An Episcopal priest, he opposed apartheid and was exiled from the country in 1976. He joined the African National Congress as a chaplain. He returned to South Africa in 1992 to what he called a "damaged nation." When democracy came to the country in 1994, the nation needed to deal with its past. And they started their healing publicly through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that allowed citizens to come forward and tell their stories, examine amnesty, hear of human rights violations and consider reparations.
This is just a brief overview of a very interesting conference. It does not do justice to the many excellent presentations nor the fascinating history of South Africa.