Glossy university newsletters do not conventionally stimulate deep reflection, far less memories of Stalin. So it’s perhaps a world first for UKZNdaba, the monthly publication for staff and students at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN).
To the unsuspecting eye, the latest edition of UKZNdaba looks as anodyne as any of its genre. But look again: it has pulled off the unlikely trick of making one of UKZN’s more noticeable academics disappear entirely.
Colleagues of sociology lecturer Fazel Khan have been hastening to assure themselves of his continuing existence after reading an article entitled ”Local film” in this publication. The article is about a documentary movie entitled Breyani and the Councillor, which was shown at what the newsletter describes simply as a ”Turkish Film Festival”.
The article informs us that Sally Giles, a graphic artist at UKZN’s Audio Visual Centre, directed, filmed and edited the movie, while the centre’s Selvan Pillay handled the sound; it makes no mention of Khan, who co-directed the movie, which was shown at the Durban International Film Festival, among several other screenings in this country.
The lecturer disappears … The Commissar Vanishes? David King’s 1997 book documents the various trickeries Stalin employed to make his opponents disappear from official records — including having photos doctored so that awkward foes such as Trotsky were visually erased.
So is that what happened with Khan? Certainly, his political activism at UKZN might well make his bosses dream of tinkering with airbrushes. He is a prominent executive member of the militant Combined Staff Association, and was stingingly effective during the strike of university staff in February. He has also been actively involved in the struggles of the Abahlali baseMjondolo — the Durban shack-dwellers’ movement — in their ongoing battles with the city council over evictions and forced relocations.
But it’s not only Khan who has disappeared from the UKZNdaba piece; so too has politics. Breyani and the Councillor is precisely about the Abahlali, though you would struggle to guess that from the article. And the Turkish festival at which it was screened was actually called the International Labour Film and Video Festival, with the theme ”Against Neo-Liberalism”.
Khan was in fine fettle this week when the Mail & Guardian checked up on his existential status. He said, ”There was a clear decision that I shouldn’t be in UKZNdaba and this is a dirty revenge for my actions during the strike.”
However, the editor of UKZNdaba, Deanne Collins, said Giles had supplied the photo, caption and information for the article; and ”by her own admission had airbrushed Fazel Khan from the photograph. She claims that she did this in order to highlight the contribution of the two technical members of staff.” At first barred from speaking to the M&G, Giles later confirmed this version of events.
And there has been no editorial decision to exclude Khan from UKZNdaba, Collins said.