Black Thought members each shared their understanding |
The emergence of the Rhodes
Must Fall Movement at the University of Cape Town in 2015, seems to have raised
an ancient, convoluted and contentious issue of decolonizing the public spaces,
university systems and the goods- knowledge that the academy disseminates. Since
the students-led protests, ‘decolonizing’ as a concept has once again become
popular in the country as it was in the 1960’s and 1970s. “Various commentators (students, staff as
well as academics from other institutions) have since used a number of
platforms to grapple with questions such as what decolonisation means for a
university in Africa, and where the process must begin” (Monday Monthly, UCT
newspaper, 2015). With the debates now becoming even more heated, SOTL@UJ
hosted the movement, Black Thought UJ
on the 11th February 2016 under the theme ‘An encounter with black thought’ to
have both academic staff and students share their thoughts on the matter.
Black Thought UJ describes itself “as movement geared towards championing the needs of
blacks through the process of decolonizing the academic institution in its many
facets”- ‘to disrupt the space’ as charged by Mr. Tsepo Moloi, the founding
member of the group. The movement is inspired by the activities and the
movements of the late 1960’s to1970’s who initially called for the overall
decolonizing of the education system and public spaces.
In this presentation
different members of Black Thought UJ
shared their own views and understanding of decolonization in the context of
higher education South Africa and specifically for UJ. For Black Thought UJ decolonization entails a full recognition of black
people from the language they speak, the cultures they practice, consideration
of African content in the curriculum and being seen or regarded as equals to
other races.
While the institution was
under heavy scrutiny, black academics
were also not spared. There is a feeling from the group that having to deal
with the institution and its unfavorable policies the other challenge they
facing are black academics who seem to have forgotten about the struggle of a
black child. A black student not from Black Thought that some white academics
are more sympathetic towards black students while the same cannot be said about
‘those who supposed to understand them better’.
Given these institutionalized
inequalities and refusal or failure from the university to lead the agenda of
decolonizing the academy, Black Though UJ
sought to concientize black students to understand themselves as the ‘black
subjects’ by critically engaging with self and celebrate Africanism from
language, culture to black thinkers while also advocating for a non-racial UJ.
While the views posited by
the group were largely welcomed by the students present, few academic staff
felt that the tone was too harsh and dismissive especially to white people as
the impression given was that decolonizing was a fight against white people, to
replace existing western cannons with African cannons without being critical. Some
academics cautioned about the over generalization in the group’s view and
argued that as much as their argument is sound but there is a need to theorise
arguments than speaking from thin air.
Brenda from SOTL @ UJ and Tshepo from Black Thought -who led the session |