Dossier 16 - Visit of Hendrik Verwoerd to Katima Mulilo

Photographs showing the visit of Dr. Hendrik Verwoerd (1901-1966), Minister of Bantu Affairs in the South African government (he was later Prime Minister), to the Holy Family Mission at Katima Mulilo in the Caprivi Strip (situated in present-day Namibia but then under South African control). A typescript note is extant in the file. It reads: ‘The purpose of his visit to the Mission was to assess the possible implications of implanting the infamous Bantu Education Act into the Caprivi where, at the time, all the schools were administered by the Capuchins with the aid of a very meagre subsidy from the S.A. government. Dr. Verwoerd (the “architect of apartheid”, was assassinated during his reign as Prime Minister) enforced the Bantu Education Act, in the late 1950s, as a means of preventing black South Africans from receiving an education anywhere near the standard enjoyed by other ethnic groups, e.g. whites and coloureds’. One of the photographs shows Verwoerd (identified with an 'X') with various religious including Bishop Timothy Phelim O’Shea OFM Cap. and Fr. Bartholomew Prendiville OFM Cap., superior of the Katima Mulilo Mission. See also CA AMI/2/10/3/110.