Visiting the future with passion, pride and purpose
This week is not strictly about conservation. I know that, but in considering the message it conveys it is about a critically important part of the conversation message – the sustainability of our society.
So much has been written and spoken during the past few weeks in and about our country and the seemingly intractable racial divisions that continue to afflict us, I thought it would be worthwhile to give an alternative view of South Africa for a change. I was privileged to attend the annual reunion and Founders’ weekend of my old school, Queen’s College, in Queenstown. I left school 40 years ago.
Apartheid was in full swing and it hardly needs saying, but it is important to point out, that in the mid-sixties Queen’s College, being a state school, was 100 percent white and very much English. It was only the occasional Afrikaans-speaking boy that came and was allowed in.
We lived, in those far-off days, in an extremely compartmentalised society. We still suffer the effects of those bizarre and abhorrent policies, it is true, but we have also made incredible progress.
It is this progress that I wish to address in these few lines. I have been asked many times during the course of the past week what is the same now as it was then and what is different between the mid-60s and now. The differences are visible and easily discernible. The school is now about 85 percent black. That is the main difference. There were others: The school premises and fields look much better maintained and much neater.
There are more facilities, academic, cultural and sporting and they are more modern.
The singing is much better (remember no harmonising during the singing of the school anthem) at least not at the level and as beautifully as is the case now. The boys’ choir is big, there are a number of First XV rugby players that sing in it. There was no formal choir in my day and if there had been it is very doubtful that there would have been any rugby players in it. There is still much to be done and plenty of scope for improvement and there is an army of Queen’s College Alumni beavering away to make this happen.
The similarities are more difficult to identify. I guess this is for two reasons: Firstly it is difficult to be aware of things that are supposed to be there, and are what one expects simply be-cause they don’t stand out as much; secondly the similarities are mostly of a more esoteric nature but no less important because of that.
The passion and pride from the little Grade 1s to the towering matrics is there, but seemingly more visible; the neatness of presentation and politeness of the boys is still there but even more pronounced; the cohesion and commitment to the values of the college is still there but more nuanced and more deeply entrenched; the sense of the impossible being merely the next big challenge is still there but more wide-spread; the strong and pervasive feeling of family is still there but more inclusive.
For me the weekend was something of a watershed at many levels. However, the important elements for us that care deeply about our country and what it should become were plainly visible for all to see and absorb. I never felt at any time any special sense of exclusion, or inclusion, because of race.
In fact this weekend was one that distinguished itself because of the complete absence of any ethnic or cultural arrogance or identity.
We were all just a family of people from all generations bound together by a common love of our school. It gave me a glimpse of the future of our country and I loved it! It showed that transformation is not something to be feared but rather embraced; for all South Africans; it is not something that will steal our future from us but rather something that will give it back to us in a much more wholesome, inclusive and exciting form.
If this is the future, bring it on!
Written by Tony Frost You are reading Visiting the future with passion, pride and purpose articles
