The issue of sexuality education in South Africa has been one of the most polarising, yet important issues of public discourse.
The issue of sexuality education in South Africa has been one of the most polarising, yet important issues of public discourse. Parents in general are disapproving and oppose its introduction in schools, while the department of education states that sexuality education aims to eradicate social issues and ills facing the youth (Department of Basic Education, 2021). These include sexual abuse, gender-based violence (GBV), femicide (GBV+F), HIV/Aids and other related issues.
According to the department of basic education’s 2021 report, Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) was introduced in 2000 within the subjects of life orientation and life skills “to ensure that learners do not get confusing and misleading messages on sex, sexuality, gender and relationships”.
Scholars, communities, religious organisations and researchers have long discussed the merits of sexuality education, but there has been no consensus on whether it should be included in scripted lesson plans (SLPs), although the department has been testing SLPs in five provinces since 2015.
Parents are concerned that sexuality education would bring moral decay. They also believe a child’s innocence should be preserved and African values protected.
The issue of protecting African values has been prominent among research discourses in academia, with relevance to the protection of human rights in general. In African society, values are said to be at the core of our existence. As Africans, we believe in interdependence, shared responsibility and humanity (ubuntu). We also believe in the value of morality.
Psychology, like other academic disciplines, is a Western epistemological source, which teaches that the development of a human being starts at conception. It also states that human beings learn through socialisation. There are seven elements or aspects that are said to be important in the development of a human; physical, psychological and emotional aspects, speech, moral reasoning, self-awareness and the spiritual aspect.
Developmental psychology encourages a human being to develop holistically with all these aspects taken into consideration. But an observation is that Western epistemologies tend to neglect the spiritual aspect and focus more on psychological, mental and developmental issues. Conversely, in African epistemologies and ontological ways of understanding existence, socialisation and being, the spiritual aspect is regarded as crucially important in the development of a human being and is seen to guide moral reasoning and decision-making. Furthermore, the spiritual aspect is reflective of African realities and is at the core of African ways of doing things, of culture.
Proceeding from the above, one would argue that the spiritual element is very important in the African context. If you visit an ordinary African home you would see how spirituality is recognised. This is particularly true when something is not going well at home or in one’s life. You’ll hear words such as masithandaze, translated as “let us pray”, to encourage a person seeking answers to whatever situation they’re in. Similarly, there are ways of living and understanding that contrast between Western and African philosophies, such as the belief in curing mental illness. African epistemologies believe that mental illness can be cured by taking the spiritual route while Western epistemology believes in temporal treatment of ailments through the administration of drugs and therapy.
To further deepen the argument, spirituality in the African context is a way of life, it resonates deeply with African people as it is reflective of our subconscious and conscious ways of socialisation and understanding of the world. Personally, I believe discourses on African spirituality or spirituality in relation to human development and in relation to morality, education and particularly sexuality education, is of paramount importance because they build, among others, a positive, violence-free and morally stable society.
The advent of social media, and unlimited access to the internet has made the African child, regardless of their geographical position, exposed to digital content, which can be graphically explicit, leading to an erosion of morality in African communities. Many communities are grappling with ways to respond to the intensification of GBV and other social ills. African society finds itself in a predicament, where seemingly, the West provides ways to deal with these problems. But the Western ways of understanding are contrary to African values and lead to conflicts over issues such as sex education. Providing sexuality education as a tool to deal with issues of health, domestic violence, and GBV among others, has left the African continent with more serious concerns than it already had. Suggestions made in this article aim to reinforce the spiritual aspect of development, to teach the African child to acknowledge and appreciate self, and that all knowledge relating to morality must be African-centred, valuing the culture of African people.
To encourage morality where sexuality education is concerned, we need to allow Afrocentric discourses at a local level and allow those discussions to further influence our school curricula, social activities, and other existing spheres central to the development of a person. This, rather than looking to the West or relying on Western knowledge to provide us with solutions to our problems. In conclusion, it is also important to allow parents to be at the centre of decision-making, especially where issues of morality, sexuality and general values are concerned, for parents are the ones who have the best interests of their children at heart.
Siphosethu Mase is a candidate for a master’s degree in education at Walter Sisulu University.