The Phenomenology of Rhodes Must Fall: Student Activism and the Experience of Alienation at the University of Cape Town

Nyamnjoh, Anye-Nkwenti

doi:10.35293/srsa.v39i1.330

Cited by 14 publications

(10 citation statements)

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“…The literature has argued that while agitating against feelings of Black pain and alienation (Ndelu, 2017), the #MustFall movement was homogenised by some student populations, became oppressive, and also caused alienation against some groups of students (Ndelu, 2017;Nyamnjoh, 2017). Thus, specific excesses of the protests, such as the radical demand for free decolonised education and court cases emanating from it, were labelled as opportunistic feelings in the findings.…”

Section: Broad and Deep Transformationmentioning

confidence: 99%

South African Higher Education: Transformation or/and Decolonisation?

Muraina,

Toshe-Mlambo,

Cingo

2024

Sotls

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Transformation is the christened name of institutional activities seeking to change South Africa ‘into the opposite of apartheid’, including in higher education (HE). However, transformation failures meant that students at universities in South Africa, through several #MustFall movements, protested around their misgivings about ‘transformation’ and advocated for a decolonial turn. Decolonisation, therefore, has become the preferred name for change to some sections of HE, thereby creating a conflict with ‘transformation’. Our study collected responses on the meaning of transformation and decolonisation and their capability to change the hegemonic structure and Western institutional culture in universities. The qualitative study was anchored in Fomunyam’s social transformation theory and used semi-structured interviews to collect data from 11 participants from a South African university. They were analysed thematically (reflexively). Findings depicted opinions favouring both transformation and decolonisation to achieve changes required in HE. The liberal and linguistic nature of transformation means it can be manipulated for different agendas and research purposes. Meanwhile, decolonisation, anchored in histories of Africa’s oppression, is specific about recentring Africa in the universities. In conclusion, it is vital to exercise caution to avoid ‘decolonial fatigue’ which would make decolonisation a rhetoric just like transformation.

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Section: Broad and Deep Transformationmentioning

confidence: 99%

South African Higher Education: Transformation or/and Decolonisation?

Muraina,

Toshe-Mlambo,

Cingo

2024

Sotls

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“…However, said politics does not remain secluded to the past. Calls to decolonise the curriculum (from the University of Capetown and beyond) remind of the persisting colonial legacies in academic knowledge production and the university (Nyamnjoh, 2017(Nyamnjoh, , 2022Platzky Miller, 2020). This article's contexts in the politics of knowledge production thus bears real-world consequences.…”

Section: Analytical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding resilience in sustainable development: Rallying call or siren song?

Park

2023

Sustainable Development

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This article asks how the concept of resilience has been used in development studies. Set amidst the rise of resilience in sustainable development, it offers insights for scholars and policymakers, alike. Sampling 419 journal articles from 2017 to 2022, it uses Kuhnian paradigms to analyse development knowledge production on resilience. This produces three key findings. First is the absence of a coherent resilience paradigm (with shared definitions, problems and methods) in development studies. Second is its use, instead, by incumbent development paradigms in piecemeal fashion to extend and/or repackage pre‐existing arguments. Third are ensuing possibilities for resilience as both a rallying call and siren song in sustainable development. Ultimately, resilience‐based research and policy discourses open vital space for collective action across interdisciplinary and international divides. However, a lack of critical awareness of its non‐uniform use can produce more harm than help. If the language of resilience is to advance collective prospects for development cooperation and climate action, then it will help to know precisely what we each are talking about.

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“…This campaign amounted to more than the decolonisation of the public space of Cape Town. It reached much deeper, by referring to decolonisation of the university as a whole, while touching upon the issues of racial inequality at the university as well as throughout the South African society, extensively described in literature (Chaudhuri 2016;Murris 2016;Newsinger 2016;Nyamnjoh 2017;Kwoba et al 2018). Following protests sparked by the #RhodesMustFall movements, the monuments to Queen Victoria in Port Elizabeth and to Paul Kruger in Pretoria were devastated, among others.…”

Section: Falling Monuments In Postcolonial Africamentioning

confidence: 99%

Dismantling colonial monuments in African cities - the example of Bissau. Is an empty plinth still a monument?

Górny¹,

Górna²

2022

PiSG

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This article examines the fate of colonial monuments in Africa during the post-colonial period, especially the monuments that the Portuguese erected in Bissau in West Africa. The discussion is preceded by a detailed analysis of the sources that describe the iconoclasm of colonial monuments in selected African cities and a thorough description of the field studies conducted by the authors in Guinea-Bissau in 2020. As new African states replaced former colonies, the removal of European monuments in their capitals became a widely discussed topic. Some expressly political colonial monuments were removed at the time of formal decolonization, others have fallen down over the years, and yet others still stand. What distinguishes Bissau from every other postcolonial capital in Africa is that, while all its colonial monuments were dismantled after 1973, most of the plinths on which they stood have remained. These empty plinths are a symbol of decolonization – sui generis monuments of dismantled monuments. They speak volumes about the nature of the transformations that have taken place in recent decades. The new way of commemorating people and events in the symbolic and political landscape of Bissau, viz. murals created on the grassroots initiatives of young Bissau-Guineans, is also examined.

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The Phenomenology of Rhodes Must Fall: Student Activism and the Experience of Alienation at the University of Cape Town

Cited by 14 publications

References 0 publications

South African Higher Education: Transformation or/and Decolonisation?

South African Higher Education: Transformation or/and Decolonisation?

Understanding resilience in sustainable development: Rallying call or siren song?

Dismantling colonial monuments in African cities - the example of Bissau. Is an empty plinth still a monument?

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