In this article, the representation in 3 prescribed Grade 12 history textbooks of the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale is analysed to determine how these texts shape learners’ perspectives on this important slice of South African history. The selected textbooks are used by schools that follow the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS), i.e. South African public schools. In the study reported on here I focused on the silence in these textbooks on the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale (1987 and 1988), which was part of the South African Border War. The critical discourse analysis (CDA) approach was used to expose the textual silences on and the normalisation of the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale, a battle trivialised and disowned at the time by generals of the South African Defence Force (SADF). In contrast, various historians, political scientists and journalists, in South Africa and abroad, supported in their writings an opposing view, namely that the SADF was defeated by Cuban forces and the People’s Armed Forces for the Liberation of Angola (FAPLA). I propose in this article that silences such as these preclude learners from forming an accurate and complete understanding of South Africa’s complicated history and prevent them from acquiring the critical-thinking skills that are at the very core of the discipline.

https://doi.org/10.15700/saje.v46n2a2633

ORCiD iD of author:
Daniel Ramoroka - https://orcid.org/0009-0005-8032-6282