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PALGRAVE
STUDIES IN
COMPROMISE
AFTER CONFLICT

RECONCILIATION AND BUILDING


A SUSTAINABLE PEACE
COMPETING WORLDVIEWS IN SOUTH
AFRICA AND BEYOND

CATHY BOLLAERT
Palgrave Studies in Compromise after Conflict

Series Editor
John D. Brewer
Queen’s University Belfast
Belfast, UK
This series aims to bring together in one series scholars from around the
world who are researching the dynamics of post-conflict transformation
in societies emerging from communal conflict and collective violence.
The series welcomes studies of particular transitional societies emerging
from conflict, comparative work that is cross-national, and theoretical
and conceptual contributions that focus on some of the key processes
in post-conflict transformation. The series is purposely interdisciplinary
and addresses the range of issues involved in compromise, reconciliation
and societal healing. It focuses on interpersonal and institutional ques-
tions, and the connections between them.

More information about this series at


http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/14641
Cathy Bollaert

Reconciliation
and Building
a Sustainable Peace
Competing Worldviews in
South Africa and Beyond
Cathy Bollaert
Ulster University
Belfast, UK

Palgrave Studies in Compromise after Conflict


ISBN 978-3-030-03654-6 ISBN 978-3-030-03655-3 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03655-3

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018960497

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature
Switzerland AG 2019
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether
the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse
of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and
transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by
similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt
from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this
book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the
authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein
or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to
jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Cover illustration: Greatstock/Alamy Stock Photo

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature
Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
To my parents
Acknowledgements

The seeds of this book were sown many years ago through countless
stimulating discussions and debates with my family as we sought to
make sense of the realities we lived and continue to live in. It is dedi-
cated to my parents who provided endless support and keenly engaged
me on various issues presented throughout the book.
I would like to thank all the participants in the study and those
who opened doors for me making it possible to carry out the research.
My special thanks go to Professor John Brewer (the editor of the book
series) and Josephine Taylor from Palgrave Macmillan who made pub-
lishing this book possible. The content of this book was informed
by my Ph.D. research with the Transitional Justice Institute, Ulster
University. I will always remain indebted to my supervisors: Professor
Brandon Hamber, Dr. Kris Brown and Professor Fionnuala Ni Aolain
for their guidance, engagement and support throughout the research
process. I want to give special thanks to Stanley McDowell for his help
in proofreading the original script.
To my all family and friends living in Northern Ireland/the North of
Ireland, England, Canada, Angola, Nigeria, Ghana, Switzerland, South
Africa and other parts of the world whose friendship and love gave me

vii
viii   Acknowledgements

the energy to keep going—a very special thank you (you know who you
are)! I would especially like to thank James; your love, craic and contin-
ued presence keep me sane! I will always be grateful for the ways you
have all stood by me.
Contents

1 Introduction: The Significance of Cultural Diversity


on Peace-Building in Divided Societies 1

2 The Rainbow Nation: Identity, Intergroup Relations


and Worldviews in South Africa 21

3 Anchoring Concepts: Sustainable Peace, Identity,


Culture and Worldview 47

4 Worldview Diversity Within South Africa’s Truth


and Reconciliation Commission 83

5 Exploring the Diversity of Worldviews in South Africa 99

6 Through the Eyes of the ‘Other’: Interpreting Peace


and What Is Required for Building a Sustainable Peace 123

7 Transitional Policies, Group Identity and Intergroup


Relations 163

ix
x   Contents

8 Contributions and Recommendations: A Worldview


Perspective for Peace-Building and Reconciliation
in South Africa and Beyond 185

Index 201
Abbreviations

ANC African National Congress


ANCWL African National Congress Women’s League
BEE Black Economic Empowerment
COSATU Congress of South African Trade Unions
CVE Combatting Violent Extremism
DA Democratic Alliance
EFF Economic Freedom Fighters
GEAR Growth, Employment and Redistribution strategy
ICC International Criminal Court
ICTJ International Center for Transitional Justice
IFP Inkatha Freedom Party
KZN KwaZulu-Natal
NDP National Development Plan
NP National Party
NUMSA National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa
PSC Protracted Social Conflict
SACP South African Communist Party
TMT Terror Management Theory
TRC Truth and Reconciliation Commission

xi
xii   Abbreviations

UDF United Democratic Front


UK United Kingdom
UN United Nations
List of Figures

Fig. 2.1 Excerpt of the classification certificate issued to the author 26


Fig. 3.1 The identity-culture-worldview nexus 64
Fig. 3.2 Schematic diagram depicting the interplay between
worldview and racism in South Africa 68
Fig. 5.1 Flyer advertising spiritual power and protection 102
Fig. 5.2 The relationship between worldview and group identities 119

xiii
List of Tables

Table 6.1 Comparing pillars for building a sustainable peace


with group identity 124
Table 6.2 Comparing pillars for building a sustainable peace
with worldview 155

xv
Series Editor’s Introduction

Compromise is a much used but little understood term. There is a


sense in which it describes a set of feelings (the so-called spirit of com-
promise) that involve reciprocity, representing the agreement to make
mutual concessions towards each other from now on: no matter what
we did to each other in the past, we will act towards each other in the
future differently as set out in the agreement between us. The compro-
mise settlement can be a spit and a handshake, much beloved in folk-
lore, or a legally binding statute with hundreds of clauses.
As such, it is clear that compromise enters into conflict transforma-
tion at two distinct phases. The first is during the conflict resolution
process itself, where compromise represents a willingness among parties
to negotiate a peace agreement that represents a second-best preference
in which they give up their first preference (victory) in order to cut a
deal. A great deal of literature has been produced in Peace Studies and
International Relations on the dynamics of the negotiation process and
the institutional and governance structures necessary to consolidate the
agreement afterwards. Just as important, however, is compromise in the
second phase, when compromise is part of post-conflict reconstruction,

xvii
xviii   Series Editor’s Introduction

in which protagonists come to learn to live together despite their former


enmity and in face of the atrocities perpetrated during the conflict itself.
In the first phase, compromise describes reciprocal agreements between
parties to the negotiations in order to make political concessions suffi-
cient to end conflict; in the second phase, compromise involves victims
and perpetrators developing ways of living together in which conces-
sions are made as part of shared social life. The first is about compromises
between political groups and the state in the process of statebuilding (or
rebuilding) after the political upheavals of communal conflict; the second
is about compromises between individuals and communities in the pro-
cess of social healing after the cultural trauma provoked by the conflict.
This book series primarily concerns itself with the second process, the
often messy and difficult job of reconciliation, restoration and repair in
social and cultural relations following communal conflict. Communal
conflicts and civil wars tend to suffer from the narcissism of minor dif-
ferences, to coin Freud’s phrase, leaving little to be split halfway and com-
promise on, and thus are usually especially bitter. The series therefore
addresses itself to the meaning, manufacture and management of compro-
mise in one of its most difficult settings. The book series is cross-national
and cross-disciplinary, with attention paid to interpersonal reconciliation
at the level of everyday life, as well as culturally between social groups,
and the many sorts of institutional, interpersonal, psychological, socio-
logical, anthropological and cultural factors that assist and inhibit soci-
etal healing in all post-conflict societies, historically and in the present. It
focuses on what compromise means when people have to come to terms
with past enmity and the memories of the conflict itself, and relate to for-
mer protagonists in ways that consolidate the wider political agreement.
This sort of focus has special resonance and significance for peace
agreements are usually very fragile. Societies emerging out of conflict are
subject to ongoing violence from spoiler groups who are reluctant to give
up on first preferences, constant threats from the outbreak of renewed
violence, institutional instability, weakened economies and a wealth of
problems around transitional justice, memory, truth recovery and vic-
timhood, among others. Not surprisingly therefore, reconciliation and
healing in social and cultural relations are difficult to achieve, not least
because interpersonal compromise between erstwhile enemies is difficult.
Series Editor’s Introduction   xix

Lay discourse picks up on the ambivalent nature of compromise


after conflict. It is talked about in common sense in one of two ways,
in which compromise is either a virtue or a vice, taking its place among
the angels or in Hades. One form of lay discourse likens concessions
to former protagonists with the idea of restoration of broken relation-
ships and societal and cultural reconciliation, in which there is a sense of
becoming (or returning) to wholeness and completeness. The other form
of lay discourse invokes ideas of appeasement, of being compromised by
the concessions, which constitute a form of surrender and reproduce
(or disguise) continued brokenness and division. People feel they con-
tinue to be beaten by the sticks which the concessions have allowed
others to keep; with restoration, however, weapons are turned truly in
ploughshares. Lay discourse suggests, therefore, that these are issues that
the Palgrave Studies in Compromise after Conflict series must begin to
problematise, so that the process of societal healing is better understood
and can be assisted and facilitated by public policy and intervention.
This latest book in the series is by a young author and researcher
who grapples with some of the key issues affecting peace, compromise
and reconciliation, namely culture, identity and belief. It is a chal-
lenging and provocative book and takes its inspiration from this series
as a whole, in the way the series seeks to rethink compromise and
peace-building. The book throws out a challenge also to the way apart-
heid should be understood, which has profound implications for how
we need to rethink intergroup relations in post-apartheid South Africa.
South Africa is an iconic case in the study of conflict transformation.
The saintly figure of Mandela, the rhetoric of the ‘rainbow nation’ and its
well-known Truth and Reconciliation Commission have combined with
other events to almost universalise the mechanisms of its peace process. It
is a society, however, where very little social transformation has accompa-
nied its conflict transformation, and it is noteworthy now also for a whole
series of travails and problems, from corruption, continued structural vio-
lence, widening inequality, high levels of anger and disillusion in second
and third generation victims, and growing political instability. The atten-
tion Bollaert gives to South Africa’s peace-building is thus timely.
The book isolates another critical aspect relevant to the series. Culture
and identity are vitally important to the post-conflict process of learning
xx   Series Editor’s Introduction

to live together, and there are many examples of fragile peace processes
that highlight how difficult it is to resolve differences in culture and
identity. This difficulty is understandable in those cases of conflict where
it was about culture and identity, where conflict was understood and
experienced in terms of culture and identity or where intercultural and
multi-identity formations constitute the chief forms of reconciliation.
The first provocative challenge that emerges from this volume is thus
the attempt to assert the importance of what the author calls ‘world-
view’ in mediating culture and identity. This is more than ideology and
belief, for the notion of worldview is portrayed as more deep-seated
and ontological—something rooted in culture and identity but going
beyond them. In applying this to South Africa, the author formulates
her second challenge. The interpretative framework of ‘race’ and class
through which people have commonly understood apartheid and the
problems it has left for post-apartheid South Africa is tested by using
differences in people’s worldview as the organising principle.
Three questions emerge from these challenges, and they help to
define the distinctiveness of this volume. First, Bollaert asks whether
differences in people’s worldview shape and influence how they under-
stand peace in South Africa. Second, she asks how deeply embedded are
the new intergroup relations in post-apartheid South Africa, looking at
whether peace has eroded old apartheid culture and identities. Third,
Bollaert asks about the implications of this focus on worldview for our
understanding of peace-building theory and practice.
These are interesting, challenging and important questions. The
answers will be provocative but in as much as they do cause us to con-
front taken-for-granted ideas, the volume admirably suits the purposes
of the series in encouraging us to rethink what peace means. This vol-
ume makes a valuable addition to the series, and as Series Editor, I
warmly welcome it.

Belfast, UK John D. Brewer


August 2018
1
Introduction:
The Significance of Cultural Diversity
on Peace-Building in Divided Societies

This book raises the question of identity and how different social groups
make sense of the world around them. It is concerned with the implica-
tions that culture and competing interpretations of reality (worldviews)
have on intergroup relations and building sustainable peace in deeply
divided societies. The significance of this is well illustrated by the furore
that erupted across South Africa following the public exhibition of a
painting by a ‘white’ South African artist, Brett Murray in an art gallery
in 2012. Expressing a strand of public perception relating to the numer-
ous scandals surrounding Jacob Zuma, the former president of South
Africa, it depicts the president in a Lenin-like posture with his genitals
exposed. As well as the painting being vandalised shortly after it was dis-
played, strong opinions both for and against it were expressed in the
media as per the following examples:

It is a sad day for South Africa when creative production is being threat-
ened with censorship from our ruling party…we support our artists’
freedom of speech and expression and encourage them to show work that
challenges the status quo, ignites dialogue and shifts consciousness.
(emphasis mine, Burbidge 2012)

© The Author(s) 2019 1


C. Bollaert, Reconciliation and Building a Sustainable Peace,
Palgrave Studies in Compromise after Conflict,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03655-3_1
2    
C. Bollaert

This man has insulted the entire nation and he deserves to be stoned to
death. (May and Nagel 2012)

This was a fascinating debate to follow as it raised the question of why


something one might have thought as an acceptable form of public
commentary within the context of a democracy could provoke such
an impassioned response. Due to the artist being ‘white’, and bearing
in mind South Africa’s racist past, many have interpreted this painting
through a racial lens. However, to interpret it in this way is insufficient
as it does not account for the way in which the conflicting views crossed
racial boundaries, as indeed many ‘whites’ also took exception to it.
Pointing to different systems of meaning-making (worldviews) at play,
I would argue the furore was the result of an unintended but volatile
clash of values: freedom of speech versus dignity and respect, fuelled by
an unresolved Apartheid past.
In the Western worldview, there is a growing sense that talking about
culture is politically incorrect. Indeed, the extremes to which British
society avoids deeper engagement with the complexities surrounding
culture is inferred in a list of ‘racial micro-aggressions’ that was dissem-
inated by Oxford University’s Equality and Diversity Unit (University of
Oxford 2017). For example, it suggested that avoiding eye contact with
someone was a form of racism. Not only does this trivialise a very serious
and deep-rooted issue but it shows a complete lack of cultural under-
standing (in some cultures avoiding eye contact is a sign of respect) and
is contributing to a social fear that by talking about culture one may be
accused of racism, Islamophobia, xenophobia or perhaps even sectari-
anism. In a society that is driven by values of equality, the consequence
is that the issue of culture has become the proverbial elephant in the
room. Yet, the growing tensions and violence surrounding what has been
dubbed the ‘European migration crisis’ underscores the fact that culture
and worldview matters in fostering positive intergroup relations.
These illustrations raise a number of deeper questions that need to
be probed. For example, it raises the question of identity and how dif-
ferent groups interpret and make sense of the world around them. It
raises the question of social values and how groups prioritise certain val-
ues over others. It requires asking what happens when competing values
1 Introduction: The Significance of Cultural Diversity …    
3

and ways of interpreting reality collide and investigating what this


means for reconciliation and social healing in societies emerging from
conflict and violence. It also requires asking how one’s process of mean-
ing-making influences one’s interpretation of peace and how cultural
pluralism, and potentially competing worldviews, impact on building a
lasting peace. Perhaps more importantly, what does this mean for how
we undertake peace-building in deeply divided, multicultural societies?
It is to this issue of intergroup communication in divided and culturally
diverse transitional societies emerging from conflict this book seeks to
contribute.

1.1 Book Rationale


In South Africa, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC)
marked the country’s transition from a long history of inequality and
racism that reached its zenith during Apartheid, to a state of democ-
racy in which majority rule and equal rights for all were recognised
(Terreblanche 2002).1 As embodied in Desmond Tutu’s symbol of
the Rainbow Nation, this was accompanied with the hope of national
unity, social reconstruction, peace and reconciliation (Truth and
Reconciliation Commission of South Africa 1998: vol. 1). However,
since then, persistent economic inequality, intergroup conflict, racial
and ethnic divisions, xenophobic violence and disputes around land
redistribution are impeding national stability and the building of a sus-
tainable peace. More recently this has been exacerbated by public dis-
plays of police brutality, such as the events that took place at Marikana,2
bringing into question the full impact of police reform (Dixon 2013).

1The post-amble to South Africa’s Interim Constitution [See Appendix 1] and the Promotion
of National Unity and Reconciliation Act No. 34 of 1995 (Department of Justice and
Constitutional Development 1995) provide the framework in which to understand the mandate
and work of the TRC (Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa 1998: vol. 1).
2In August 2012, 34 miners were killed when police opened fire during a strike at the Lonmin

mine in Marikana. It was seen to be one of the worst incidents of police use of force since
Apartheid (Amnesty International 2015; Davies 2015; South African History Online, n.d.).
4    
C. Bollaert

Since the TRC, a number of policies (referred to as transitional pol-


icies) were implemented through which to facilitate the country’s tran-
sition to democracy. These include, among others, affirmative action
policies which were implemented to promote employment equity;
Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment which was developed
as strategy to assist with the economic transformation of the coun-
try (from here on it shall be referred to simply as Black Economic
Empowerment [BEE]); land reform processes aimed at increasing land
ownership among ‘black’ South Africans; and other policies relating to
housing, education, social welfare and health that were developed under
the Reconstruction and Development Programme.3 However, despite
these efforts at redressing the wrongs of the past, almost 25 years since
the birth of its democracy South Africa remains a deeply divided society
largely on the basis of race.
The study is anchored in three interconnected concepts namely: iden-
tity, culture and worldview. Located within the constructivist school
of thought identity is understood as the unit of survival that speaks to
one’s sense of survival, safety and belonging in the world (Arthur 2011a;
Northrup 1989).
Culture is often understood by scholars as a shared system of
meaning-making for making sense of the world and through which
the behaviour and actions of others are interpreted (Geertz 1973; Ross
2007, 2009). However, this is sometimes referred to as a ‘worldview’
which underscores the complexity and the lack of conceptual clarity
around these concepts. To distinguish between the notion of culture
and worldview, in this book culture is understood as that which gives
expression to a society’s worldview which is embodied, among oth-
ers, in its social institutions, organisations, social rules, values, sym-
bols and rituals (Ross 2007, 2009; Avruch 1998). Worldview refers
to the ontology and epistemology informing how one interprets one’s
social reality and ‘truth’ (Berger and Luckmann 1966; Goffman 1986;

3The RDP framework was later replaced by the Growth, Employment and Redistribution

(GEAR) strategy, followed by the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa, and
most recently the National Development Plan (NDP). Nonetheless, many of the policies devel-
oped under the RDP framework are still relevant today.
1 Introduction: The Significance of Cultural Diversity …    
5

Koltko-Rivera 2004). Moreover, it is what provides the social rules


for how one engages with the world and it gives order to social prior-
ities and values (Ross 2007, 2009; Clark 1989; Schwartz 1999; Atran
2010). Recognising that one’s identity and process of meaning-making
(worldview) are interconnected, this study seeks to apply a worldview
lens to interpreting South Africa’s intergroup conflict and understand-
ing what is required for building a sustainable peace. Sustainable peace
is understood to be concerned with the question of transforming con-
flicts to ensure a peace that will be both resilient and lasting (United
Nations Security Council 2001). (These definitions are taken up again
in Chapter 3.)
Against this backdrop, the book invites the reader to look beyond
the normative interpretative frameworks of race and class for analysing
intergroup conflict in South Africa. The difficulty with these interpre-
tative frameworks is they are often based on fixed or primordial under-
standings of identity which act to reproduce race-based solutions to the
conflict and reinforce a society that is divided along racial (and racist)
lines. The book argues that worldview has a deeper reach than such
normative interpretations and can provide a more nuanced analysis
that opens the space to understand the values that are being defended
and find new solutions that move beyond the traditional lines of the
conflict. In so doing, more contextually and culturally appropriate
peace-building interventions can be developed. However, by explor-
ing the component of culture and worldview in intergroup conflict
this book could be accused of cultural relativism or of justifying racist
attitudes. However, to do so is to miss the point of applying a world-
view lens to intergroup conflict and peace-building. Indeed, failing to
acknowledge another way of being in the world could be considered
another form of racism as it serves to reinforce the dominant ‘white’ and
Western discourses.
To understand the significance of worldview on intergroup rela-
tions in South Africa one must recognise that for more than 300
years the social, economic and political life of South Africans devel-
oped in a context of escalating levels of segregation, inequality and
racism and around disparate group identities, including the Dutch,
British and indigenous populations, in conflict with one another.
6    
C. Bollaert

This meant that until 1994 most South Africans would have had lit-
tle or no contact and interaction with the ‘other’ except in the con-
text of highly powered relations in which ‘whites’ were regarded as
superior and ‘blacks’ inferior. Accepting that democracy can force one
to encounter the ‘other’ as equals, with the transition to democracy
South Africans were suddenly faced with negotiating new identities
and new ways of relating to each other. Adding to the challenge of
negotiating new identities is the emergence of new migrant com-
munities. As the victims of xenophobic violence (BBC News 2015;
Wicks 2015; News24.com 2015) this has also brought new chal-
lenges and dynamics to intergroup conflict. Nonetheless, with each
group being informed by a different history, environment and set of
experiences groups would have encountered the ‘other’ with differ-
ent ways of perceiving and interpreting the world around them. The
implications of encountering cultural diversity, complicated by the
history of Apartheid, were not fully anticipated by the architects of
the transition (Krog 2008a, b).
The South African case study points to the significance of iden-
tity and worldview in peace-building and transitional justice. To
understand its significance it is important to define what is meant by
peace-building and transitional justice. Broadly speaking, peace-build-
ing aims to prevent the occurrence, protraction or return to violence
(UN 2001). As one of the pillars of peace-building, transitional jus-
tice ‘seeks recognition for victims and promotion of possibilities
for peace, reconciliation and democracy’ (International Center for
Transitional Justice 2009: 1).4 Encompassing structural and rela-
tional approaches, both are concerned with the transformation of
conflicts and reconciliation to ensure a peace that will be both resil-
ient and lasting. However, within this discipline there is growing crit-
icism for the tendency of Western approaches to peace-building and
transitional justice to be reproduced and imposed into non-Western

4Itshould be noted that not all scholars agree to the inclusion of reconciliation into the goals of
transitional justice arguing that it renders it too broad and diminishes its effectiveness (Roht-
Arriaza and Mariezcurrena 2006: 2; Weinstein 2011; Olsen et al. 2010).
1 Introduction: The Significance of Cultural Diversity …    
7

contexts (Huyse and Salter 2008; Palmer et al. 2015; Merry 2006;
Sriram 2007, 2012; Kelsall 2009; Doe 2009). For example, Merry
(2006) explains how concepts such as gender, violence and justice are
deeply embedded in a societies system of beliefs (worldview) which,
to be meaningful, she argues, need to be translated into the vernacular
of the local context. This has led to increasing recognition by schol-
ars that for peace-building initiatives to be sustainable they need to
be tied into local values and take local sociocultural norms and prac-
tices into consideration (McEvoy 2007; McEvoy and McGregor 2008;
Shaw and Waldorf 2010; Lundy and McGovern 2008; Mac Ginty
2014). These scholars are pointing to a lacuna within the field of
peace-building and transitional justice relating to the nexus between
identity, culture and worldview and the impact this has on intergroup
relations and building a lasting peace in culturally diverse and divided
societies (Arthur 2011b; Hamber 2012).
Recognising a myriad of factors, notwithstanding histories of
oppression, power and persisting inequality and poverty, which all
converge in acts of violence, this book is concerned with the cultural
dimension in peace-building and reconciliation. It provides a valua-
ble and needed contribution to how peace-building interventions can
become more sustainable if tied into local values and embedded in a
society’s system of meaning-making. The book engages with questions
relating to the extent to which transitional policies speak to individ-
ualist societies and the implications this might have for how they are
implemented in collective societies with different values and forms
of social organisation. It raises the question of cultural equality and
transformation and whether or not this is something that needs to
be addressed within peace-building theory. It argues that inculcating
worldview into peace-building theory and practice is a vital part of
restoring dignity and promoting healing among victims and formerly
oppressed groups. This book, therefore, makes an important contri-
bution to what is at best a partially researched topic by providing a
deeper understanding of how worldview intersects with peace-building
when seeking to build a sustainable peace in societies emerging from
conflict.
8    
C. Bollaert

1.2 Notes on Methodology


The research underpinning this book is located within a constructivist
methodological paradigm which employed grounded theory as its strat-
egy of inquiry (Charmaz 2008a, b). Using semi-structured interviews
respondents were selected according to the following three key criteria:

1. Leaders (defined as an individual who, within their respective organ-


isation, is managing others) between the ages of 30–45 years. This
age bracket was selected on that the basis that they constitute South
Africa’s so-called transitional generation.5
2. Racial identity (‘black’, ‘white’, ‘Indian’ or ‘coloured’) in conjunc-
tion with one’s ethnic group (Zulu, Xhosa, English-speaking white
or Afrikaans) and/or national identity (migrants from other African
countries).
3. The professional sector of the respondent work namely: business,
political or religious.

Adding to the uniqueness of this study is the inclusion of migrant


identities. Historically, South African studies have tended to research
Apartheid related identities and migrant identities within two separate
discourses. It is only more recently that they are being included within
the South African identity discourse (Pattman and Khan 2007; Palmery
et al. 2015). With the recent rise in xenophobic violence, this adds an
additional identity dimension to the conflict and tensions in the coun-
try (Amisi et al. 2011).

5The term ‘transitional generation’ is based on Robert Mattes (2011) delineation of South African

political generations; the premise being that one’s politically formative years begin around the age
of 16 years. From this, it was deduced that at the peak of the political violence when, in 1985,
a state of emergency was declared, everybody within this age bracket would have been younger
than 16 years of age. This means that while those at the upper end of the age spectrum would
have had more awareness and memory of this period compared to those at the lower end, nobody
would have reached their politically formative years. Consequently, persons within this age
group would have experienced Apartheid only as children or young adults. Moreover, compared
to the generation before them, they would have had limited experience of the struggle against
Apartheid.
1 Introduction: The Significance of Cultural Diversity …    
9

The constructivist paradigm underpinning this research recognises


the researcher is a socially constructed being within a broader political
and social context (Guba and Lincoln 1998). Even if unintended, this
risks the researcher imposing their own worldview and beliefs about the
nature of reality onto an inquiry which, in turn, risks compromising the
credibility and trustworthiness of the research. Reflexive engagement
provides a useful technique through which these risks can be mitigated
(Smyth and Robinson 2001; Mruck and Mey 2007; Alvesson and
Sköldberg 2009). Accepting the importance of reflexivity in researching
divided societies, I will now provide a more detailed background into
my own identity construction:
I come from a mixed heritage in which my father is third-genera-
tion South African but has ancestry in England and Belgium, and my
mother is French speaking Swiss but grew up in Angola. After marrying
they decided to settle in South Africa where I was born and completed
my schooling and Bachelor of Science degree. However, despite this
mixed heritage, by virtue of being ‘white’, attending English-speaking
schools (as opposed to Afrikaans medium schools), and attending a
‘white’ Methodist church, socially I was seen as an English-speaking
‘white’ South African. It meant that I grew up in an environment pro-
tected by a sophisticated Apartheid architecture that controlled almost
every aspect of life including the media, education, where we lived, and
the standard of our living. While it meant that I enjoyed a relatively
comfortable and privileged childhood it also meant being strongly influ-
enced by ‘white’ thought. This is not what I chose or with which I nec-
essarily identify but one that I must navigate nonetheless.
Although I grew up in a largely ‘white’ world, my upbringing was
not typical of my ‘white’ peers. Due to my father’s active engagement in
the anti-Apartheid struggle this meant that as a child I had regular con-
tact with ‘black’ South Africans. At the time I had no cognisance of the
impact this would have in shaping my life choices and relations with
the ‘other’. Later, as I became more politically aware and cognisant of
what my ‘white’ identity represented it became something I increasingly
rejected and with which I have continued to grapple. Moreover, I became
extremely disillusioned and critical of the ‘white’ (my) worldview for the
way it taught us to interpret our reality. As an adult I have had multiple
10    
C. Bollaert

opportunities to live abroad in societies such as Northern Ireland, Sri


Lanka, Ghana and England. As well as providing useful experiences
through which to engage with my racial identity they also made me more
aware of my gender identity. In the non-Western countries my gender,
more than my race, seemed to define my professional experience.
Furthermore, with ‘white’ South Africa drawing its culture from
Europe I would have been strongly influenced by a scientific and objec-
tivist view of reality—this would have been entrenched by my scien-
tific background. However, this training and upbringing was useful
for understanding the worldview in which most ‘whites’ were raised.
Together with my cross-cultural experience, which was useful for under-
standing a non-Western worldview, it has provided a strong background
for analysing the findings produced in this book.
Finally, it is significant to note the research underpinning this book
took place during the country’s fifth democratic elections in 2014. There
were a whole array of circumstances that contributed to the signifi-
cance and expectancy surrounding this vote. Firstly, it was the first elec-
tion following Mandela’s death which created a sense of insecurity and
uncertainty about the future of the country, particularly among ‘white’
South Africans. Secondly, it was the first election in which the ‘born free’
generation (people born after the end of Apartheid), as it is referred to
locally, were eligible to vote. This created a high level of expectancy and
hope surrounding the potential of these elections to bring much needed
change to the country seen to be failing under the leadership of the rul-
ing African National Congress (ANC). Unfortunately, the anticipated
buy-in to the elections from the ‘born-frees’ proved disappointing as only
33% registered to vote (Schulz-Herzenburg 2014; Essa 2014). Thirdly,
the announcement of Dr. Mamphele Ramphele being put forward as the
Democratic Alliance’s (DA)6 presidential candidate had sparked a great
sense of hope for the future of the country. The hope lay in the fact that
she was a ‘black’ woman, extremely well educated with a remarkable his-
tory of business and leadership and opposed to the power bloc of the
ANC. Giving her further credibility was her former relationship with

6Historically, the DA was a party for ‘white’ voters. Today it is the official opposition party.
Despite its large ‘black’ voter base is still perceived to be the party for ‘whites’.
1 Introduction: The Significance of Cultural Diversity …    
11

Steve Biko and the Black Conscious Movement. Consequently, her can-
didacy was a symbol of transformation ‘whites’ could support and, based
on anecdotal evidence, would support. However, within a week of the
appointment she relinquished her position (Underhill 2014) which for
many appeared to lead to a greater sense of hopelessness.
This sense of hopelessness and exasperation with the ANC was not
limited to ‘white’ quarters as many ‘black’ South Africans were faced
with the dilemma of whether they should continue voting for the party
who had brought them liberation or if they should now place their
vote elsewhere (McKaiser 2014). Elucidating on this McKaiser explains
these dilemmas included, on the one hand, the growth of corruption
under the ANC, the failure of the ANC to deliver services, the con-
tinued marginalisation of a large majority of the population, and the
leadership crisis the ANC was facing. On the other hand, although
the DA seemed effective in their running of municipalities, crucially,
they did not appear to have a deep understanding of the past and the
impact Apartheid had (and continues to have) on people. Furthermore,
in the years preceding the elections fracture lines within the ANC were
increasingly visible. In conjunction with the multiple corruption scan-
dals surrounding the then president, Jacob Zuma and the ANC, and the
rise of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) lead by Julius Malema,
there was a growing speculation surrounding the life expectancy of the
ANC and the need for political change (Mashele and Qobo 2014).
Together this indicates that South Africa’s political landscape continues
to be in a state of transition in which the dynamics of shifting identities
need to be understood.

1.3 Terminology Employed


There are several points of clarification surrounding various terms that
have been used in this book.
Firstly, this study has deliberately chosen to use the terms that were
used to class ify each ‘race’ group during the Apartheid regime namely:
‘black’, ‘white’, ‘Indian’ and ‘coloured’. Significantly, these are the terms
that continue to be used officially in South Africa and which continue
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same year Peter Maurice sounded the alarm against ‘Popery in
Oxford.’ A series of ‘Tracts for the Times’ was projected at a
conference, also held during Newman’s absence, by a small body of
his friends, but the plan was matured at subsequent conferences in
Oriel, where Newman was present, and Keble warmly supported it in
letters of advice to which the utmost deference was paid. The
proposed aim of these Tracts was expository rather than
controversial; they purported to enlighten the prevailing ignorance on
Church principles and Church history. They were to appear
anonymously, and each writer was to be responsible only for his own
production. The difficulty of maintaining this principle of limited
liability was foreseen from the first, and prudent friends of the
Movement were in favour of a judicious censorship, but Newman
was inflexible, and his will prevailed.
The immediate outcome of these Oriel
Association conferences was the formation of an association
formed designed to rally all friends of the Church against
the common enemy. This was the signal for which
zealous Churchmen had been waiting, and it met with an
enthusiastic response in all parts of the country. An address to the
Archbishop of Canterbury was drawn up and signed by eight
thousand of the clergy, insisting upon the necessity of restoring
Church discipline, maintaining Church principles, and resisting the
growth of latitudinarianism. A large section of the laity ranged
themselves on the side of the revival. Meetings were held throughout
England, and the King himself volunteered a declaration of his strong
affection for the National Church, now roused from its apathy, and
prepared to defend itself vigorously, not merely as a true branch of
the Catholic Church, but as a co-ordinate power with the State.
Newman had returned from Italy deeply imbued
Newman with the conviction that he had a definite mission to
assumes the fulfil. He was no less firmly assured of the need for
lead individual action at this juncture than impelled to it
by his own self-reliant nature. While others,
therefore, were urging combinations and committees as the best
methods of working, Newman’s strong individuality revolted from
joint control, especially in the form of a ‘Committee of Revision,’ and
pressed him forward to strike the first blow for himself. He took
counsel with Froude alone, when, in the autumn of 1833, he
suddenly brought out the first of that series of Tracts from which his
party derived its familiar name of Tractarians. In so doing he took his
own colleagues by surprise, and precipitated the crisis destined to
result from the publication of the Tracts. From that day forth he was
the recognised leader of the Tractarians. No one among them was
equally fitted for that position. Keble was too modest and studious by
disposition, Pusey was not an original pioneer of the movement,
Froude was disqualified by delicate health. Newman stepped
naturally into the place. The influence which he gained in his own
college as a tutor, and in the University as a preacher from the pulpit
of St. Mary’s, had drawn round him a band of followers; his
sympathetic character won the confidence of young minds; his
confessions of speculative doubt added weight to his acceptance of
dogmatic authority. Yet the secret of his personal ascendency was
never fully revealed to himself, nor did he ever fully realise the
impression produced by his sermons. To him the Tractarian
Movement was ‘no movement, but the spirit of the times.’ He felt
himself, not the leader of a new party, but a loyal son of the old
Church; now awakened from her lethargy. He claimed no allegiance
and issued no commands. It was through friends and disciples, as
we learn from himself, that his principles were spread, and, as in the
case of Socrates, their reports of his conversations were perhaps the
main source of the spell which he exercised over the University and
the Church.
The adhesion of Pusey in 1835 was a great
Spread and accession of strength to the Tractarians. He had
objects of the contributed a Tract to the series in December
movement. 1833, but he did not formally join the Movement
Publication of
until a year and a half later. His learning, social
Tract XC.
connections, and official position gave it a certain
dignity and solidity in which it had been lacking. Recruits now offered
themselves in abundance, and gifted young men spent their days
and nights in poring over materials for the Library of the Fathers
originated by Pusey, or in journeying from place to place, in the spirit
of the Methodist Revivalists, though in the pursuit of a very different
ideal. But the influence of Tractarianism over Oxford thought must
not be exaggerated. While it fascinated many subtle and imaginative
minds of a high order, and gathered into itself much of the spiritual
and even of the intellectual life of the University, there were many
robust intellects and earnest hearts which it not only failed to reach
but stirred into hostility. If it would be easy to draw up an imposing
list of eminent Oxford men who became Tractarians, it would not be
less easy to enumerate an equal number of equally eminent men
who consistently opposed Tractarianism, and predicted that it must
lead to Romanism. Nothing was further from the original intentions
and expectations of Newman himself. His object was to revive the
usages and doctrines of the primitive Church; to co-operate, indeed,
with the Church of Rome, so far as possible, but to keep aloof from
its pernicious corruptions; to establish the catholicity of the Anglican
Church, but, above all, to hold the via media laid down by its
founders. His faith in Anglicanism was first disturbed in the Long
Vacation of 1839 by his supposed discovery of a decisive analogy
between the position of the Monophysite heretics and that of the
Anglican communion. Still, though he was gradually assimilating the
doctrines, he rebelled against the abuses and excesses, of the
Roman Church. Anglicanism as a distinctive creed had become
untenable to him, but he clung to a hope that its title might be lineally
deduced from the primitive Church, instead of being founded on a
secession from the Church of Rome. It was in this frame of mind that
he published Tract XC. in the year 1841, for the purpose of showing
that the Articles of the English Church were directed, not against the
doctrines of the Church of Rome as interpreted by the Council of
Trent, but against earlier heresies disavowed by that Council.
This Tract brought the Movement to a climax. It
Collapse of was received with a storm of indignation
Tractarianism, throughout the country. The bishops delivered
and secession charges against it, the great mass of Churchmen
of Newman
regarded it as an attack on the Protestant
Establishment, and a direct invitation to Romanism. The Bishop of
Oxford intervened, and the farther issue of Tracts was stopped.
Henceforth the real tendency of Tractarianism was disclosed, and its
promoters were hopelessly discredited. Newman found, to his own
great surprise, that his power was shattered. He retired, during Lent
1840, to his parish at Littlemore, entrusting St. Mary’s to a curate, in
view of his possible resignation. His loyalty to the English Church
wavered more and more as he renewed his study of the Arian
controversy, and his misgivings were intensified by the hostile
attitude of the bishops, as well as by an incident which to a secular
mind would have appeared trivial—the institution of the Jerusalem
bishopric on a semi-Anglican and semi-Lutheran basis. His
resignation of St. Mary’s in the autumn of 1843, two years after the
publication of Tract XC., was due to an impulse of despondency on
failing to dissuade a young friend from conversion to Romanism.
After preaching his last sermon there he retired into lay-communion,
giving up all idea of acting upon others, and turning all his thoughts
inwards. Two years later, on October 8, 1845, his remaining
difficulties being removed, he was himself received into the Church
of Rome, and finally left Oxford early in the following year. Though
his defection had long been foreseen, it caused a profound shock
throughout the English Church. The first panic was succeeded by a
reaction; some devoted adherents followed him to Rome; others
relapsed into lifeless conformity; and the University soon resumed its
wonted tranquillity.
The ‘Hampden Controversy,’ in 1836, may be
The ‘Hampden regarded as an episode of the Tractarian revival,
Controversy’ already in full course of development. This
controversy arose out of Dr. Hampden’s Bampton
Lectures on Scholastic Philosophy, delivered in 1882, which,
however, had attracted little attention until he was appointed Regius
Professor of Divinity four years later. No sooner was this
appointment known, than an anti-Hampden Committee was formed,
of which Pusey and Newman were members. The Crown was
actually petitioned to recall its nomination, but this petition was coldly
rejected by Lord Melbourne, and a vote of censure on Dr. Hampden,
proposed by the Hebdomadal Board, was defeated in Convocation
by the Proctors’ joint-veto—a very unusual, but perfectly
constitutional, exercise of the Proctorial authority. A war of
pamphlets ensued, and the vote of censure being reintroduced, after
a change of Proctors, was carried by an overwhelming majority.
According to the opinion of eminent counsel, the proceeding was
illegal, as transgressing the jurisdiction of the University under the
Charter of 1636, but the sentence was never reversed, and Dr.
Hampden remained under the ban of the University, excluded from
various privileges of his office, until his elevation to the See of
Hereford in 1847. The opposition to him then broke out afresh, and
the Dean of Hereford, in a letter to Lord John Russell, held out a
threat of resistance to the Royal congé d’élire. The answer of Lord
John Russell was such as might be expected, but thirteen bishops
supported the Dean’s protest by a remonstrance, which Lord John
Russell met by a peremptory refusal to make the prerogative of the
Crown dependent on the caprice of a chance majority at one
University, largely composed of persons who had since joined the
Church of Rome. Nevertheless, a final attempt was made to negative
the ‘confirmation’ of Dr. Hampden’s appointment at Bow Church. An
argument on this point in the Court of Queen’s Bench ended in a
dismissal of the case, owing to differences of opinion among the
judges, and on March 25, 1848, Dr. Hampden was duly consecrated
Bishop.
On the other hand, while Newman was in
Proceedings retirement at Littlemore, Pusey was suspended
against Pusey from preaching in the University pulpit for two
and Ward years, on a report from a board appointed to
examine a sermon delivered by him at Christ
Church, in which he was alleged to have affirmed the Real Presence
in a sense inconsistent with the doctrines of the Church. Soon
afterwards, Dr. Hampden, as Regius Professor of Divinity, inhibited
from his B.D. degree a candidate who had declined to be examined
by him on Tradition and Transubstantiation. The right of examination
was challenged by the candidate, but upheld by the Delegates of
Appeals, to whom the question was referred. On November 20,
1844, Mr. Ward, a fellow of Balliol, was summoned before the Vice-
Chancellor, and questioned respecting the authorship of a book
entitled ‘The Ideal of a Christian Church.’ A war of pamphlets
ensued, but in the end, on February 13, 1845, a proposition was
submitted to Convocation, densely crowded with non-residents,
condemning Ward’s doctrines as inconsistent with the Articles, with
his subscription thereto, and with his own good faith in subscribing.
This resolution was carried by a large majority, and a further
resolution, for the degradation of Ward, was carried by a smaller
majority. A third resolution, condemning Tract XC., had been
appended, but was negatived by the joint veto of the Proctors. It had
actually been intended to subjoin to the first resolution a declaration
annexing a new sense to subscription, and thus creating a new test,
but this addition was ultimately withdrawn in deference to a legal
opinion, which also denied the validity of Ward’s deprivation.
With these proceedings the academical history
Effect of the of the Tractarian Movement may properly be
‘Oxford closed, though many distinguished members of the
Movement’ University joined the Church of Rome at a later
period, especially after the celebrated judgment in
the ‘Gorham Case,’ establishing liberty of opinion on Baptismal
Regeneration. For several years after Newman’s conversion, the
progress of the Neo-Catholic Revival was arrested, and when it took
a new departure under the name of Ritualism, it ceased to draw its
inspiration from the University of Oxford. Nevertheless, the work of
Newman and his fellows left its mark on the University as well as on
the English Church. The effect of his speculative teaching was
infinitely weakened by his own conversion to Rome, but the effect of
his practical teaching could not be dissipated. In the widespread
restoration of churches, in the improvement of church-services, and
in the greater energy of religious life within the Anglican communion,
we may still recognise the influence for good which emanated from
the Oriel common-room.
Thirty years after his own suspension, Dr. Pusey,
Controversy on now regarded as a champion of orthodoxy, came
the Endowment forward with certain other Doctors of Divinity, to
of the Greek bring a charge of heresy against Mr. Jowett, of
Professorship.
Balliol, the Regius Professor of Greek, who had
Defeat of Mr.
Gladstone in contributed to the volume called ‘Essays and
1865 Reviews.’ A suit was instituted in the Chancellor’s
Court, and on February 6, 1863, a judgment was
delivered by Mr. Mountague Bernard, as assessor. This judgment
disallowed the defendant’s protest against the jurisdiction of the
Court in spiritual matters, or over a Regius Professor; but, in effect,
arrested the proceedings without deciding the case on its merits. A
somewhat undignified controversy followed, and greatly disturbed
the peace of the University, on the question of increasing the very
meagre endowment of the Greek Professorship—a measure which
Dr. Pusey opposed on the sole ground that it would strengthen the
position of the existing Professor. The partisanship engendered by
the long struggle on this question divided the senior members of the
University into hostile camps, and often determined their votes on
matters which had no connection with the subject. At last, on
February 18, 1865, a compromise was effected, by accepting the
offer of Christchurch to endow the Professorship. The University, in
truth, was heartily sick of the controversy, and even the High Church
residents were unwilling to please the non-resident clergy by
perpetuating an apparent injustice which damaged their own credit
with the abler students. In the following summer, Mr. Gladstone, who
had been elected Member of Parliament for the University in 1847,
and whose seat had been contested at every subsequent election,
was defeated by Mr. Gathorne Hardy. This event established the
supremacy of the Conservative party in the constituency, and,
though a contest took place in 1878, the result was never doubtful,
and the fierce passions incident to constant trials of political strength
have sensibly died away. Thus, two fruitful sources of academical
discord were removed within a few months of each other. The last
twenty-one years have witnessed many warm discussions and close
divisions in the University legislature, but they have been mainly on
academical issues, and have seldom been embittered by the odium
theologicum. Since 1865, a tacit concordat has prevailed between
the two great schools of thought in Oxford, and a philosophical
toleration of opinion has superseded the intolerant dogmatism, not
confined to one party in the Church, which had its origin in the Neo-
Catholic Revival.
CHAPTER XIX.
THE UNIVERSITY IN 1886

The last chapter of University history covers a


Reign of Queen period within living memory, and practically
Victoria coextensive with the reign of Queen Victoria. Its
main interest consists in the rapid succession of
theological controversies which have agitated the academical mind,
and in the series of internal reforms dating from 1850. Both of these
subjects have been separately considered, but it still remains to
review briefly the strange transformation wrought in the various
aspects of University life within the lifetime of the present generation,
not so much by external interference as by the natural growth of new
social conditions.
On the accession of Queen Victoria the college-
State of the system was already established on its present
University on basis, and effective University examinations had
the Queen’s put an end to the licensed idleness of the
accession
eighteenth century. But the University and the
colleges were still governed respectively by antiquated codes of
statutes, which it would have been no less disastrous than
impossible to enforce strictly, but from which, as we have seen, it
required the intervention of the Legislature to release them. Though
a considerable number of able students destined for the Bar were
attracted by scholarships and the prospect of fellowships, Oxford
was still mainly a clerical and aristocratic seminary, exercising a very
slight influence on the scientific or commercial world, and little
affected by their fashions. Until it was connected with the metropolis
by railway, it retained the distinctive character of a provincial town,
and many eccentric recluses of a type now obsolete were still to be
found in college rooms, who had never entered a London club or
drawing-room. The whole authority of the University was, in fact,
exerted to keep the railway at a distance, and the Oxford branch was
not opened before June 12, 1844. Though Oxford was much
frequented by visitors in the summer term, not without injury to
continuity of study, its atmosphere was still essentially academical, if
not scholastic, and the conversation as well as the social tone of its
residents, both graduates and undergraduates, differed sensibly
from those of their contemporaries in the metropolis and elsewhere.
Oxford Dons had not altogether lost the traditional characteristics of
their class; the model Oxford first-class man, assuming to have
mastered classical literature, Greek philosophy, and ancient history,
which he regarded as the staple of human knowledge, was accused
of exhibiting the pride of intellect in its purest form; young priests of
the new ‘Oxford School’ assuredly carried sacerdotal presumption to
its logical extreme; and the chartered libertinism of ‘fast men’ in one
or two Oxford colleges sometimes brought scandal on the whole
University. No doubt the habits of Oxford ‘collegians’ fifty years ago
would have compared favourably with those of their grandfathers,
still more with those of the squalid but industrious students who
begged their way to the University in the Middle Ages. Nevertheless,
hard drinking and its concomitant vices were by no means obsolete,
even in common-rooms, and though undergraduates cultivated the
manners of young gentlemen, their ordinary moral code was
probably but little above that which then prevailed in the army and
the navy. Side by side, however, with the self-indulgent circles of
undergraduate society, there was a limited set deeply impressed by
the ascetic teaching of the Neo-Catholic school, whose practical
influence on its disciples resembled in many respects that of the
Evangelical school at Cambridge, however different in its theological
basis. The prevailing narrowness and intensity of theological opinion
was perhaps favoured by the narrowness of the University
curriculum. Classics and mathematics retained a monopoly of
studies; few wasted time on modern languages, history, or natural
science; while music and art in all its aspects were regarded by most
as feminine accomplishments. Since professors were very scarce,
and tutors (being fellows) were unable to marry, family life and social
intercourse with ladies had no place in an University career. The
members of each college associated comparatively little with ‘out-
college men,’ in the absence of clubs, debating societies, and other
bonds of non-collegiate union. Rowing and cricket were vigorously
cultivated by young men from the great public schools, and hunting
was carried on, especially by noblemen and gentlemen-commoners,
with a lordly disregard of economy; but for the mass of students
there was no great choice of games and recreations, at least in the
winter. Those who did not aspire to Honours, being the great
majority, had no occasion to read hard, and often lived for
amusement only, since there was an interval of full two years
between Responsions and ‘the Schools,’ unbroken by any
examination. Those who read for Honours generally read with a
steadiness and singleness of purpose incompatible with much
attention to any other pursuit. Various as these elements were, they
were readily assimilated by the University, which seldom failed to
leave a distinctive stamp upon one who had passed through it, and
Oxford culture retained a peculiar flavour of its own.
In the course of the last fifty years, a profound
Influence of though almost unseen change has gradually
recent changes passed over the face of the old University. The
introduction of representative government into the
academical constitution has not only cleared away many abuses, but
has at once popularised and centralised University administration.
The recognition of Unattached Students has broken down the
monopoly of colleges; the abolition of close fellowships has infused
new blood and new ideas into the more backward collegiate bodies;
the spontaneous development of numerous clubs and associations
—athletic, literary, or political—has created many new ties among
undergraduates, and weakened the old exclusive spirit of college
partisanship. The ‘Combined Lecture System,’ under which the
inmates of one college may receive instruction in another, has also
favoured a division of labour among tutors which is directly
conducive to specialism in teaching. The great extension of the
professoriate, including the new order of University Readers, and still
more the liberal encouragement of new studies, has infinitely
expanded the intellectual interests both of teachers and of students;
the admission of Nonconformists and the progress of free thought
have powerfully modified theological bigotry; the multiplication of
feminine influences has undermined the ideal of semi-monastic
seclusion, and greatly increased the innocent æsthetic distractions
which are the most formidable rivals of the austerer Muses. The gulf
between Oxford society and the great world outside, never very
impassable, has been effectually bridged over in every direction. A
very large proportion of professors and college tutors have travelled
widely; many are well known in London as contributors to scientific
and literary periodicals or otherwise; while Oxford itself is constantly
thronged with visitors from the metropolis. In ceasing to be clerical
and aristocratic, the University has become far more cosmopolitan;
all religions are there mingled harmoniously, nor is it uncommon to
meet in the streets young men of Oriental race and complexion
wearing academical costume.
In the meantime, a marked and widespread
Present reformation has been wrought in the morals of the
character of the University, and notwithstanding the influx of a large
University plebeian element, the manners of undergraduates
have become gentler as their tastes have become
more refined. The ostentation of wealth has been visibly diminished,
and, notwithstanding the increase of amusements, there is probably
more of plain living and high thinking in modern Oxford than in the
Oxford of Charles II. or Elizabeth. The University, it is true, has yet to
harmonise many conflicting elements, which mar the symmetry of its
constitution; but it is becoming more and more identified with the
highest intellectual aspirations of the nation as a whole. In ceasing to
be the intellectual stronghold of the mediæval Church, or the
instrument of Tudor statecraft, or the chosen training-school for the
Anglican clergy, it may have lost something of its ancient supremacy,
but it has asserted its national character; and it has perhaps never
exercised a more widespread control over the national mind than it
possesses in these latter years of the nineteenth century.
INDEX.

Abbeys in the neighbourhood of Oxford, 3, 50


Abbot, George, archbp. of Canterbury, 104, 108
Abelard, 4, 7
Abendon, Henry de, warden of Merton, 58
Abingdon abbey, 3;
outrage on the monks in 1327, 37
Academical life, see Oxford University
Act of Uniformity passed in 1662, its application to College
fellowships, 152
Addison, Joseph, 179
Aldrich, H., dean of Christchurch, 164
Alfred the Great, alleged foundation of the University by, 1;
Asser’s biography of, 1;
foundation of University College attributed to, 4
All Souls college, see under Oxford
Allied Sovereigns, reception of in 1814, 190
Anne, queen, visits Oxford 26 Aug. 1702, 164
Anselm, 4
Aristotelian philosophy, teachers of the mendicant Orders the
leading exponents of, 50
Aristotle, his Natural Philosophy, 4;
recognised as the supreme authority on rhetoric, logic, and all
three philosophies, 65
Arran, Earl of, becomes Chancellor, 167
Articles, Thirty-nine, subscription to, 92, 104, 173, 180;
the Three, 125;
the Six, 80
Arundel marbles presented in 1677, 155
Ashmolean Museum opened in 1683, 155
Asser, his contemporary biography of King Alfred, 1
Association formed in support of the Church, 208
Atterbury, F., dean of Christ Church, 165
Augustines, see Monks and Friars
Austins’, or disputations, 49
Averroes, 4
Avicenna, 4
Avignon, 34

Bacon, Roger, 8;
liberal spirit of his teaching, 52
Bainbridge, John, 119
Balliol college, 15, 17
Basle, 57, 58
Beaumont palace at Oxford, 5, 6
Benedictines, 7, 49
Bentham, Jeremy, 179;
his objection to signing the 39 Articles, 180
Berkeley, bp., 183
Bernard, 4
Bible, authorized version of, Oxford scholars engaged in it, 103
‘Black Congregation,’ 66
Black Death, ravages of the, 37
Blackstone, sir Will., his professorial lectures, 180
Boarding schools, 3
Boccaccio, 28
Bodleian Library, 59-61;
see also Humphry, Duke
Bodley, sir Thomas, refounded the University Library in 1602, 95,
96
Bologna, 7, 16;
school of law in the University of, 4
Botanic Gardens, 116
Boyle, Robert, 154
Brasenose college, 74
Brent, sir Nathaniel, warden of Merton, 119;
chairman of the Parliamentary Visitors, 140
Buckingham, duke of, 107
Burke, Edmund, declines an honorary D.C.L. degree, 185
Burnet, Bp., 162;
his complaints of Oxford Toryism, 164
Button, Ralph, of Merton coll., 142

Cambridge, early secession of students to, 38;


the University less Jacobite than Oxford, 164
Canterbury college, 32
‘Cardinal College,’ see under Oxford, Ch. Ch.
Carleton, George, bp. of Chichester, selected to represent
England at the Synod of Dort, 103
Carmelites, 50
Castle, Oxford, 2
Catholic emancipation, petition against, in 1810, 189
‘Chamber-dekyns,’ or unattached students, 22, 23;
their disorderly conduct in early times, 22;
abolished by the statute of 1432, 22
Champeaux, William of, tutor of Abelard, 7
Charles I. visits Oxford in August 1636, 116;
marches into Oxford 1642, after the battle of Edgehill, 128;
is lodged at Christ Church, 128;
summons his so-called Parliament (at Oxford), in June 1644,
133;
orders special forms of prayer to be used in college chapels for
the success of his cause, 134
Charles II., his first visit to Oxford (1665), 156;
his second visit (1681), 157
Charlett, Dr., Master of University College, 182
Chaucer, Geoffrey, 28
Chesterfield, Lord, 176
Cheynell, F., 138
Chillingworth, William, 116
Christ Church, 75, 78, 128
Church, the, the foster-mother of the University, 3;
association formed in support of, 208, 209;
effect of the Oxford Movement on, 215
Cimabue, 28
Civil War, first events of, as affecting the University, 127;
last two years of, 132-134
Clarendon building and Press, 186-7
Clarendon, earl of, his evidence on the results of the
Parliamentary Visitation, 150
Classical lectureships founded, 78
Classics, become the staple of University studies after the
Restoration, 155
Cleveland, Barbara Villiers, Lady Castlemaine, afterw. Duchess of,
156
Coffee-houses, 150, 156
Coke, Edward, 106
Colet, John, 71
College disputations, 25;
gardens, 156;
leases regulated by Acts of 13 and 18 Eliz., 89, 90;
Ordinances framed under the University Reform Act of 1854,
196, 197;
their beneficial effects, 197, 198;
plate, 128, 132
Colleges, rise of, 15;
early Oxford Colleges not confined to one Faculty, 16;
a safe and well-regulated home to younger students, 24;
their superiority to lodging-houses or halls, 25;
Colleges and Chantries Act, 80;
leniency towards, 81-83;
regarded with favour as seminaries of classical learning, 82;
invested by Leicester with increased control of University
government, 90;
see also Oxford Colleges and Halls
Collegiate system, perhaps borrowed from Paris, 16
Commission, Royal, issued 1850, 194, 195;
of inquiry, 1872, 200;
of 1877, statutes made by, 201;
the University as regulated by it, 203
Common-rooms at Oxford, the earliest at Merton coll. in 1661, 156
Commons, House of, assumes authority over the University in
1629, 109;
issues an order for the University (1641), 125, 126;
abolishes subscription to ‘the Three Articles,’ 125
Comprehension Scheme, 164
Conant, Dr., rector of Exeter, appointed vice-chancellor of the
University, 148
Constance, Council of, 58
‘Constitution Club,’ the, attacked by a Tory mob, 166;
the scene of a less serious political commotion in 1716, 168;
died out before the end of George I.’s reign, 169
Convocation of the clergy in 1382, 36
Convocation House, 116
Copleston, Bp., his defence of university studies, 188
Copredy Bridge, many Oxford scholars engaged at, 133
Corbet, E., 138
Cordova, 4
Corpus Christi college, 72, 73
Councils, 57
Cranmer, archbp., 80;
tried at Oxford, 84;
his recantation and martyrdom, 84, 85
Crimes of violence committed by scholars, 23
Cromwell, Oliver, visits Oxford in state, May 17, 1649, 144;
becomes chancellor in Jan. 1650, 145;
his liberal treatment of the University, 145;
resigns the chancellorship on July 3, 1657, 147;
his scheme for a new university at Durham, 148
Cromwell, Richard, elected Chancellor of the University, 1657,
148;
resigns the Chancellorship in 1660, 151

Dante, 28
Degrees, 65-67, et passim
‘Determination,’ 63
Disputations, 49, 181;
superseded by a system of public examinations, which soon
become ineffective, 115-117
Dissenters’ Toleration Bill, 1779, 173
Divinity School, 60
Divorce question, the (16th cent.), 75
Domesday book, silence of respecting the University, 2
Dominicans, 49
Dorchester Abbey, 50
Dort, Synod of, 103
Douay, Catholic seminary of, 94
Duppa, Brian, 119
Durham, University of, 148
Durham, William of, the institution founded by, not a college, but
an exhibition-fund to be administered by the University, 17

Earle, John, bp. of Salisbury, 119


Educational movement, the, sprung from the Reformation, popular
rather than academical, 69;
Reasons of this, 69
Edward III., King, charter granted to the University by, 47
‘Edwardine’ code, 81;
iconoclastic in its spirit, 81;
liberal in its dealings with Colleges, 81
Edwardine Visitors, see Visitors
Eighteenth century, decay of University education in, 174, 175;
the dark age of academical history, 174;
contemporary evidence, 175, 176
Eldon, Lord, 176, 189
Elizabeth, Queen, accession of, in Nov. 1558, 87;
see Visitation, Elizabethan;
literature of her reign not academical, 94;
actively patronised Oxford culture in the later part of her reign,
95;
her visits to Oxford in 1566 and 1592, 97, 98
‘Engagement,’ the, 144
‘English nation,’ at Paris, 8
Episcopacy, 123
Erasmus, his testimony to Oxford scholarship in 1497, 70, 71
Eton School, 70
Evelyn, John, 154, 155, 163;
visits Oxford in 1654, 149
Examination instituted for the B.A. and M.A. degrees in 1638, 177;
of Public Schools, Joint-Board for, 199
Examinations, Local (1857), 199;
under the Laudian Statutes, 114
Exeter college, 31
Eynsham, abbey of, 3, 50;
undertakes in 1219 to provide for poor scholars, 12

Fairfax, Lord, his conciliatory proposals to the University (1646),


135;
Fairfax and Cromwell visit Oxford together in state on May 17,
1649, 144
Fell, John, dean of Christ Church, 141
Fell, Mrs., 142
Fell, Samuel, 119
Flemmyng, Richard, bp. of Lincoln, his main object in founding
Lincoln College, to extirpate the Wycliffite heresy, 58
Fourteenth century, the most progressive in the history of the
Middle Ages, 27
Fox, Richard, bp. of Winchester, 72;
regarded as the founder of the professorial system, 73
Franciscans, 49, 51
Friars, see Monks and Friars
Frideswide chest, the, for the relief of poor scholars, the earliest
form of corporate property held by the University, 12
Frideswide, St., see St. Frideswide
Froude, Richard Hurrell, 207

Gentilis, Albericus, 97
George I., his accession received at Oxford with sullen
disappointment, 166;
sends a troop of horse to overawe the University, 167;
never deigned to visit Oxford, 170
George II., fulsome address presented to him by the Oxford
Convocation, 172
George III., with his accession Jacobitism disappears or fades into
Toryism of the modern type, 172;
his visits to Oxford, 172, 174;
his reply to the first loyal address from the University, 172
Gibbon, E., 176;
his estimate of the University, 177
Giraldus Cambrensis, 8;
publicly reads at Oxford his work on the topography of Ireland, 6
Gladstone, William Ewart, defeated in 1865 by Mr. Gathorne
Hardy, 216
Gloucester, duke of, see Humphry, the ‘good’ duke

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