The world doesn’t expect much from you as a child growing up in the townships of South Africa today. The private sector is looking to you to become their waiters, cashiers and shop assistants. The government is looking at you to clean the streets, lay bricks on construction sites and if you are vocal enough, […]
transformation
Posted inNews/Politics
How do we restore our common humanity, our human dignity?
I don’t know how to introduce myself anymore. I don’t know which hat to wear in public, or in identifying myself. Last week Friday, April 17, I wrote that “I’m not even sad or disappointed. I am pissed off and angry that there are South Africans who are attacking our brothers and sisters — fellow […]
Posted inEquality
The academic transformation we seek is not obvious
By Unathi Beku I have been silently observing the debate surrounding the transformation that students in public higher education seek in South Africa. At the forefront of this debate has been the removal of colonial (European) edifices that serve as metaphors for institutional racism and Western knowledge production patterns. Students are calling for more representative […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
This article is for whites only
By Simeon Gready I would like to propose a challenge. This challenge is for the white people of South Africa, and it takes the form of a list. This list is a list of truths regarding the status of white in South Africa. I challenge the white person in South Africa to engage with this […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Rhodes Fell
Rhodes tripped on the steps and fell Rhodes skid on a piece of soap in the shower and fell Rhodes slipped from the window of the tenth floor of Caledon Square and fell Rhodes accidentally broke his ribs and cracked his skull in his prison cell and fell Rhodes drowned in the shower and fell […]
Posted inNews/Politics
50 shades of brown: Lessons on racism at UCT
By Dr Shikoh Gitau “Aunty don’t you mean beige?” the small voice interrupted. Her 12-year-old sister added: “You know if they were really white, they would be like this,” pointing at a blank sheet of paper. “And if we were black, we will be like that,” she said, pointing to the well-polished black ceramic glass […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The problem with #RhodesMustFall
South Africa has been consumed with statues in recent weeks. Statues have become a symbol of all the racial conflict bubbling beneath the surface of the “rainbow nation”. All at once, we agree that we need to talk about race and the colonial and apartheid history but at the same time we are afraid that […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
Rhodes: Views from a black associate professor at UCT
By Caroline Ncube Amid the calls for radical transformation at the University of Cape Town (UCT), there are many voices seeking to be heard. That must be heard. I am compelled to speak too. I am a black African, non-South African, female associate professor at UCT. As a foreign national I make no bones about […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
Give Rhodes to the artists
By Jordan Griffiths When I first heard of the #RhodesMustFall movement my response was simple, the statue must come down. For me it wasn’t even a question. I was privileged enough to have spent two years on the student council at the University of Pretoria (UP). I saw how aggressively transformation was fought at the […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
Breaking out into the African institution: Rhodes University
By Nedine Moonsamy As a young postgraduate student I opted to study in India despite Darwinian warnings about the culture and academic institutions. Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised by the depth and rigour of Indian intellectual pursuits and soon became enamoured by the idiosyncrasies of their postcolonial academic culture. Unlike South Africa, Indian […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
I too, am Africa
To debate colonial statues or white privilege in South Africa will not help us to transform society, unless it helps us build the much needed coalitions to do so. Frequent racist incidents and the racial rhetoric in public debates show that our coalitions of trust are floundering. It is not the raw frankness of our […]
Posted inEquality, General, Media, News/Politics
Removing Rhodes’ statue would not ‘erase the past’
“Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it,” writes George Santayana. In the midst of the argument that the #RhodesMustFall campaign is fuelled by a misguided desire to “erase the past”, it seems to me that it is ironically, but precisely, this argument that is hampered by a deeply short-sighted approach […]