Robert Mshengu Kavanagh

Jan's Book Robert Mshengu Kavanagh

Jan Symons, Head Girl at an exclusive private school in South Africa, meets three young men, Bruce Ferguson, James Donahue and Morris Galliers, at the School Dance, who become important in her life. Ferguson is killed while still at school but continues to impact on her life. As a loved but rather scandalous teacher she becomes best friends with Francis, another teacher, who is shocked by the stories Jan tells her about what goes on at exclusive boarding schools, including the death of Ferguson. She persuades her to write it up as a thesis. Jan's thesis, which she converts into a book, explores the nature of elite white private education and the institution of boarding schools in apartheid South Africa and the potential impact the system might have in the 'New' South Africa and spells out the effects on boys and girls, men and women who go to such schools - as well as to their parents, mothers in particular. In the process the events taking place in the country, beginning with the 1976 Soweto Uprising, and her encounters with the Black Consciousness Movement and the mass democratic movement induce in her a political awakening. Jan's life, her loves and friendships and in particular her struggle to write and eventually publish her book in the teeth of opposition from the academic and social establishment become for her a journey through the life, feelings and experiences of little boys in preparatory boarding schools, bigger boys in prestigious colleges, young men in university residences and then the effects these experiences have on them and their families in their adult lives.