DID BLACK LITERACY RISE AFTER SOWETO - PUBLIC PROBLEMS AND ETHNIC ARCHIPELAGOS IN SOUTH-AFRICA

How political theorists think about State ''strength'' and central pol icy making is hampered in two ways. Analytic work in the West highligh ts how actors in or outside Government attempt to shape policy action, rather than assessing its local effects. And policy effects at the gr assroots often are assumed to be uniform, rather than variable across distinct ethnic or gender groups. Within caste-like societies, such as South Africa, local ethnic and gender affiliations have historically shaped access to and quality of local institutions, particularly towns hip schools. This paper examines the cross-generational effects of Pre toria's post-Soweto attempt to expand educational opportunities, aimed at boosting enrollment rates for young blacks and raising their liter acy (1976-1993). We find that the central State was highly successful in encouraging more young Africans to attend school, but literacy rate s increased just slightly, presumably due to low quality and high leve ls of political contention within schools. Importantly, literacy rose more for members of certain black ethnic groups and this effect intera cted with gender. While illiteracy remains a deep public problem in So uth Africa, the constraints and social resources for addressing the pr oblem appear to vary across ethnic groups and between young women and men.