It was time for academics to challenge the ”double-speak and duplicity” in the world, and stand up for fundamental human rights, Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane said on Friday.
Ndungane, who heads the Anglican church in South Africa, was speaking at the University of Cape Town after receiving an honorary doctorate in philosophy.
”Now is no time for silence, but a time that cries out for speech,” he told the audience.
Ndungane was once a student at UCT, but dropped out before becoming involved in the political activities that saw him jailed on Robben Island. He said academia was rather like the church: ”It is both of, and not of, the society in which it lives.”
This gave it the opportunity to step back from passions like patriotism and fundamentalism — which were close relatives, both relying on the idea of one absolute truth — and comment critically on them.
It was also time for academia to speak because the construction placed upon the political arrangements of the world was that of economic and military power, not of considered thought.
”We have yet to fully absorb that we are indeed a global village and we have lost sight of the importance of international instruments of justice. For it is in these that our hope for peace lies.”
Sometimes it was easier to see from afar than right under one’s nose.
”Before we get too smart about the Americans, let us remind ourselves that we too live in a time of one absolute truth….
”One need only think of the sharp rap on the knuckles of those who dare to question the ruling party, or the preference to spend tens of billions of rands on arms rather than education and health…. even our judiciary comes under fire.”
Academia was a place where prevalent and erroneous beliefs could be challenged.
Historically, academic institutions were meant not for creating a wealthy elite but for nurturing wise people who could make the world a better place to live in.
”If you leave this university without a sense of world citizenship and the responsibility it brings, then you fail yourself,” he said. – Sapa