by Zimasa Mpemnyama | Mar 21, 2015 | News
RETHINKING BLACKNESS: Black Thought Symposium members meet
weekly to discuss issues that affect black students at Wits. Photo: Mzoxolo Vimba
The first meeting of the Black Thought Symposium for 2015 was held in the basement of the popular bar/hotel The Bannister. A strange combination. Upstairs, young people were dancing to popular, hip sounds, while downstairs, this group was debating what black consciousness and blackness mean in contemporary South Africa.
These group of students meet every Friday to discuss and engage on issues affecting Black students at Wits, and larger society.
Black Thought was started last year as “a platform for black students to interface and discuss issues that speak of the black condition”, says Mbe Mbhele, 4th year LLB and co-founder of Black Thought. “We felt like we were not well represented at Wits and we did not have any platforms to ask certain questions about the culture and nature of Wits.”
“As black students we felt that we are not there yet. There are certain issues we have not yet resolved, and there are certain discourses we still need to have, in order for us to even begin speaking about a ‘rainbow nation’.” he says.
“The hour of Biko has arrived!”
The accessibility of historically white universities to black students and questions of black identity have been raised by students in other institutions as well.
Students at the University of Cape Town have been calling for the removal of the Cecil John Rhodes statue in the institution’s Upper Campus. The students have been voicing their concerns at the ways in which universities side-line black students by using hashtags like #RhodesMustFall and #TransformUCT on social media. They have been recently joined by Rhodes University students, who have also started a social media campaign on the same issue.
Mbhele says the issues these universities are facing are all connected, saying the problems of black alienation that universities face are as a result of the history of colonialism and apartheid.
“These are some of the concerns we highlight in Black Thought,” he says.
In between the discussions and debates, a platform is offered to musicians, poets, writers and visual artists to showcase their talents. This then also allows for discussions on the role that art plays in encouraging young people to think critically about society.
“What is the roles of an artist? What does an artist do in the process of liberating black people? How is [art] detrimental? How is it progressive for the struggle?” says 2nd year BA student and member of Black Thought, Koketso Poho.
Mbhele and Poho believe that Black Thought is growing. They say, in unison: “The hour of Biko has arrived!”
by Zimasa Mpemnyama | Mar 13, 2015 | News
21 years after democracy do black academics still find themselves at the periphery of the countries academic institutions?
BLACK SCHOLARSHIP: The history of black academics in South Africa dates back to the 19th century. Photo: Wits Communications
The recent appointment of Rhodes University’s first black Vice-Chancellor has brought the debate about transformation in institutions of higher learning back to the lime-light. Rhodes is regarded as the least transformed university in the country. The University has 57 full-time professors but only four of those are black. The university has no black deans.
This follows the controversy sparked last year when the University of Cape Town’s Associate Professor Xolela Mangcu penned an article about the lack of black professors at the University. The article, and subsequent responses by the university’s Vice-Chancellor Dr Max Price, rekindled a decade’s long debate on the place of black intellectuals and academics in South African universities.
This timeline takes a look at the seminal events, achievements, scandals and progress made by black academics within the South African academic space:
1877 – Tiyo Soga:
Umfundisi: A biography of Tiyo Soga, 1829-1871 by Donovan Williams, was the first biography ever written about a black South African intellectual. Soga translated the first Xhosa bible and composed many well-known hymns, including Lizalis’idinga lakho (Fulfil your promise). He is considered to be one of the first modern African intellectuals. Soga’s burial site in the Eastern Cape was declared a National Heritage site.
1905 – Charlotte Makgomo Maxeke:
Charlotte Makgomo Maxeke became South Africa’s first black woman graduate. She obtained a B.Sc. degree from Wilberforce University, Ohio. Maxeke wrote extensively about women’s rights and later co-founded the Bantu Woman’s League (the first women’s organisation in South Africa) in 1918.
1935 – Benedict Wallet Vilakazi:
He was the first black academic in South Africa to receive a PhD. He wrote and published many Zulu poems and books, and he helped compile the first Zulu-English dictionary. Vilakazi Street in Soweto is named after him.
1968 – Archie Mafeje:
THE MAFEJE AFFAIR: Archie Mafeje caused a stormed at UCT
The “Mafeje Affair” is one of the most well-known disputes at the University of Cape Town. Mafeje was appointed as Social Anthropology senior lecturer at UCT. However, the university reversed the appointment, because of strict apartheid laws. Almost 600 students and some academic staff occupied Bremner Building in protest. Mafeje left UCT and went on to obtain a PhD in Anthropology from Cambridge University.
1975 – Sam Nolutshungu:
Nolutshungu’s PhD thesis, which was turned into a book, is considered to be one of the first major study on South African politics by a black South African. He later published four more books. In 1996 Nolutshungu was selected to be the first black Vice-Chancellor at Wits University. He declined the post due to health reasons.
1995 – Malegapuru William Makgoba:
The University of the Witwatersrand was polarised by the “Makgoba Affair” in 1995. Thirteen senior academics signed a 297-page dossier alleging William Makgoba, the then Deputy-Vice Chancellor, misrepresented his qualifications in his CV, made statements that put the university into disrepute and general mismanagement. Makgoba denied the accusations and then revealed the personal files of the 13 accusers, accusing them of tax evasion, nepotism and lack of qualifications, amongst other things. Makgoba was later suspended.
1996 – Mamphela Ramphele:
A HISTORY OF FIRSTS: Mamphela Ramphela made it into the history books
Mamphela Ramphele becomes the first black person to be the Vice-Chancellor of a university in South Africa, after been awarded the post at the University of Cape Town. She is a qualified doctor who helped establish the Zanempilo Community Health Centre near King William’s Town, Eastern Cape. She holds a PhD in Social Anthropology from UCT.
1997 – Mahmood Mamdani:
Ugandan academic Mahmood Mamdani was the former director of UCT’s Centre for African Studies. He drafted a new syllabus for a compulsory humanities course called “Problematizing Africa”. The Universities majority white faculty rejected the proposal and Mamdani was later suspended from teaching. He left the UCT shortly after the saga and has gone on to be a world renowned academic
2009 – Jonathan Jansen:
Professor is no stranger to the academy. He was the first black dean of education at the University of Pretoria. After being at Wits for some time, he was appointed as the first black rector and Vice-Chancellor at the University of the Free State.
2015 – Sizwe Mabizela:
Dr Sizwe Mabizela’s is inaugurated as the first black vice-chancellor at Rhodes university.
