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| Mabogo More |
The Rhodes Must Fall campaign has shaken both the University
of Cape Town and Rhodes University to the core. It has quickly become about a
lot more than just a statute and name. Students are demanding the
deracialisation and decolonisation of both institutions. As more and more
stories are being told about the racism faced by workers, students and
academics in these institutions, and its hold over curricula, the idea of the
liberal university as a space of universal enlightenment and reason is being
subjected to sustained and cogent critique. Much of this critique is, rightly,
orientated towards the present and the prospect of a better future. But there
is a long history of the systematic marginalisation of black South African
academics, whether working at home or in exile, in both the liberal and radical
wings of the South African academy. In 2015 students at a university like
Rhodes are quite likely to graduate with a degree in the social sciences
without ever having been asked to read people like Archie Mafeje or Sam
Nolutshungu.
