Dan Ncayiyana
Right to Reply
I feel constrained to respond to the letter by my friend and colleague, Professor Cecil Abrahams (May 8 to 14), in which he purports to write “in my capacity as an acknowledged scholar of African studies”.
Whatever that distinction may mean (I am not aware of an academic discipline called African studies), none of that scholarship comes through in his letter. Instead we are treated to yet another one of Abraham’s tirades against historically white universities in general, and the University of Cape Town (UCT) in particular.
Rather than make a substantive contribution to the debate Professor Mahmood Mamdani has initiated, Abrahams has sought to trivialise it for what I can only regard as a personal populist cause; and he joins the ranks of some latter-day Mamdani name- droppers with otherwise not a clue as to what the debate is all about.
Many historically white universities were established in order to “train the leaders who drove apartheid”. Few would disagree that the white liberalism of UCT and Wits also represented a form of racism.
But to paint each “historically white university” with the Broederbond brush is bizarre, and many UCT students, staff and graduates who suffered incarceration, exile, family breakups, career loss and even loss of life in fighting apartheid the best way they knew how, in the enabling environment offered by UCT, will be astounded and saddened by Abraham’s j’accuse, and may rightly demand to know what more than they Abrahams was able to accomplish against apartheid, ensconced in the shelter of the maritime provinces of Canada.
Many historically black universities were established precisely to produce leaders to drive apartheid, and did produce such leaders, but these institutions cannot be forever held in condemnation any more than historically white universities. The litmus test should be whether these institutions are willing to transform.
When apartheid was still very much alive, the University of the Western Cape (UWC) pioneered the way to university transformation when the then vice-chancellor, Jakes Gerwel, declared UWC the “home of the left”. UWC permitted English as a medium of instruction and opened the gates to black African students.
Many have observed a loss of momentum and direction in UWC’s historic leadership role in transformation in recent years, and I know of many who would rather see Abrahams write about his vision for UWC, how much of that vision he has been able to accomplish, and what value his leadership has added to transformation at UWC and in South Africa.
Mamdani has challenged the way Africa and African history is taught at UCT, a challenge most other South African universities would be well advised to face because the subject is still taught the old-fashioned way at most South African institutions. Inter alia, Mamdani believes that the syllabuses on African history should draw heavily from the perspectives of African scholars, and many of us at UCT agree.
Those “historically black universities” established for coloured and Indian South Africans are still wrestling with the problems of achieving diversity within their staff and there remains a resentment of the recruitment and appointment of staff from elsewhere in Africa. Never mind accepting Mamdani’s thesis of the oneness of African history and destiny – first we must learn to accept the oneness of Africa!