It is easy to recognise overt racism when practiced by a white person as in Penny Sparrow’s now infamous “monkeys” incident over New Year. But when a black university student wears a “Fuck white people” T-shirt there will still be many people, predominantly but not exclusively black, who will say that that is not a […]
transformation
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
The ductile edges of racism
By Thabo Seseane There is a tide, to borrow a phrase, in the decibel level of recriminations about racism in this country. And it is usually triggered by unexpected provocative utterances or deeds by private white people. For a time this jars us all into the reality of this land and its society namely, that […]
Posted inEquality, General, News/Politics
Devil’s advocacy for decolonised curricula
Shouting fire in a crowded theatre may not always be accurate, but it will typically get one attention. Such is the analogue regarding those who bemoan the “whiteness” of university curricula. The terms used to diagnose the problem are frequently emotively charged and difficult to understand. If “the curricula” shall be Africanised then, one may […]
Posted inEquality
Theory vs praxis in decolonisation
Two recent articles by Shaun Stanley have caught my attention. The first argued that not all pale-skinned people are “white” and the second took issue with the vagueness of words like “transformation” and “decolonisation”. Stanley’s primary interest in these two articles seems to be the proper definition of concepts, ie a focus on the need […]
Posted inEquality, Gender violence, News/Politics
On violence: Whose bodies matter?
By Barbara Boswell Violence is never acceptable. In a democracy, where legal instruments exist as a remedy to injustice, the use of brute force to seek and maintain power or settle scores is abhorrent and unacceptable. Yet we live in a country saturated with violence. Violence is in sharp focus as it spills over into […]
Posted inEquality, General, Sport
How to transform the Boks…
The first time I heard of the Springboks was in 1993. My earliest recollection of this national brand was the lost (0-1) home series against the French. The only thing I recall from this was the heavy scar on the face of the Les Blues’ captain, Jean-Francois Tordo, giving the thumbs up as he left […]
Posted inEquality, Gender violence
Transforming higher education: UCT students’ visions for the future
By Josie Cornell Vicky* had not thought much about her blackness, or what it meant. This changed rapidly upon her arrival at the University of Cape Town (UCT) as a first-year student where, for the first time, Vicky felt black. This “feeling of blackness” for Vicky and for other black students like her, particularly those […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics, Sport
Die Bokke must get humiliated, for the good of this country
By Nduh Msibi South Africa, so divided, yet so united. Thank you Springboks. Never has the country been so divided and all the while united over what it wants for its rugby team than at the present moment. The problem with the current team is twofold, the lack of transformation and the approach of our […]
Posted inEquality, General
Language, belonging and the decolonial moment at South African universities
In recent months the spotlight has, yet again, been shone on universities in South Africa. This time, the focus was on the fact that leading institutions (all of whom were previously designated as for “whites only”) remains largely untransformed. This time around, though, the focus was not only on numbers (even though that remains an […]
Posted inGeneral, Lifestyle
‘Art is for everyone, because art is in everyone’
One of the beautiful things about a big city is its simple ability to give audience to the things that are happening in the wider world of the rest of the country. And so it was that I attended a book launch about an art gallery in the Northern Cape that was doing unusual and […]
Posted inEquality, General
Universities need vibrant student affairs officers to drive transformation
Did South African higher education have a hand in our resurgent student voice? Absolutely, student activists would argue, but for its lack of transformation serving as an obstacle rather than an ally in the project of change. Campus debates on change relate not only to transformation but also to how prominent and capable student voices […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
Let’s talk about ‘black tax’
The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife — this longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self. In this merging he wishes neither of the older selves to be lost … he simply wishes to make it possible for a man to […]