I was terrified by the bullies and the culture of the school. When I arrived, I was not a sportsman or an academic and had little identity, besides being cute. I didn’t know it then, but my time at HNBHS was the most fruitless and unsatisfying five years of my life.
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Some of you embraced the school’s culture and identity which may or may not have helped you succeed in life. Some of you benefited from an outstanding teacher or excelled on the sports field and were adored, awarded white blazers and given place of honour in the class photo your experience was exceptional, too. Some of you escaped the Nationalist agenda and some even saw through it you were the exception. We should not gather again without addressing the herd of elephants in the room. I know that it was not the school alone that fashioned our identity, behaviour and culture, but it was a powerful institution that bound us together, forever. Our school was not exceptional our experience is shared by tens of thousands of white South African men of our age. Christian National Education normalised militarisation and prepared us for conscription into an army that was defending apartheid. The environment encouraged us to be sexist, homophobic and racist. We matriculated from a government institution designed to mould white boys into pawns of the apartheid government. Our world and our lives, hopefully, and thankfully, have changed since 1981. It’s understandable why some of us are anxious. The occasion invokes nostalgia, introspection and for some it raises the spectres of a time they would rather forget. The reunion is bringing some good friends together and solemnly reminding us of those who have died. Photographs from the old days confirm the comradeship, the fun and the youthful abandon that many of us enjoyed at times. Those who still have hair get applauded while others must humbly tolerate the stinging tropes about how they have aged. The class photo is being reproduced with current headshots and it is irresistible to delight in how we have all changed. The effort elicits a wide range of emotions and responses some are freely expressed on the WhatsApp group, some quietly discussed among allies while some remain private. The old boys are organising a 40th reunion of the Highlands North Boys’ High School matric class of 1981. Join Maverick Insider.Īn open letter to the Highlands North Boys’ High Scho. If you’re rejigging your budgets, and it comes to choosing between frothy milk and Daily Maverick, we hope you might reconsider that cappuccino. Our country is going to be considerably worse off if we don’t have a strong, sustainable news media. We can't survive on hope and our own determination. A little less than a week’s worth of cappuccinos. At R200, you get it back in Uber Eats and ride vouchers every month, but that’s just a suggestion. After all, how much you value our work is subjective (and frankly, every amount helps).
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We don’t dictate how much we’d like our readers to contribute. BUT maybe R200 of that R1,050 could go to the journalism that’s fighting for the country? Don’t get us wrong, we’re almost exclusively fuelled by coffee. Think of us in terms of your daily cappuccino from your favourite coffee shop.
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What it comes down to is whether or not you value Daily Maverick. More specifically, we'd like those who can afford to pay to start paying. We'd like our readers to start paying for Daily Maverick