Post-apartheid South Africa was one of the first countries in Africa to integrate comprehensive sexuality education into its school curriculum. However, a very different policy landscape existed prior to democratic transition in 1994. The apartheid regime imposed a stringent racial hierarchy that extended to educational institutions, influencing the dissemination of sex education. Access to school-based sex education was severely limited and often skewed by race, with significant disparities in educational content and quality. Nevertheless, sexual knowledge and learning persisted in alternative forms and contexts. Importantly, both adults and children encountered sexual information and messaging through religious organisations, welfare initiatives, family planning campaigns, and popular media. Family and community networks, including networks of peers, also played a crucial role in shaping sexual knowledge.

This thesis provides the first detailed historical account of sex education in apartheid South Africa. Drawing on a range of official and popular sources, including government, church, and welfare records, ethnographic material, advice literature, as well as magazines and agony aunt columns, it focuses on several broadly chronological ‘moments’ or themes in the provision of sex education under apartheid. These include the rise of family life education for white and African communities, the development of state-run family planning initiatives and propaganda, debates over the inclusion of sexuality education in schools, and the growth of sexually candid commercial and resistance media. Together, these themes show how debates around sex education evolved within the context of a national struggle for racial and gender liberation. They also illuminate how sex education formed part of everyday life, with local communities retaining some degree of autonomy over the production and regulation of sexual knowledge.