Politics, (Re)Possession and Resurgence of Student Protests in South African Universities

ABSTRACT

In post-apartheid South Africa, one of the central analytical questions is to do with the continuity of protests, in particular student movement protests that are highly driven by social, economic and political conditions in the present. In a social and political context of student protests, student movement is considered a threat to the state and a target for state violence. In this paper, we assert that student movement in contemporary South Africa is a social and political space in which we can begin to engage with and understand issues of dispossession and repossession as re-emerging struggles in South Africa. We also assert that student protests should be understood as real or perceived emancipatory terrain of transformation within and beyond the university campus, but also as the engine that engages with the unfinished struggle for decolonisation and transformation in post-apartheid South Africa. We draw on and engage with decolonial thought as our analytical lens through which to unpack and understand student protests in South Africa.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 A 19th-century leading British imperialist in Africa.

2 Steve Biko was one of the leading activists against apartheid in South Africa.

3 https://www.youtube.com/results?sp=SBTqAwA%253D&q=%23Fees+Must+Fall