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ABSTRACT
This article is an overview of African Studies at the University of Cape Town (UCT). Its main conclusion is that the University has so far failed to put the issue of African Studies high on its agenda. This is by no means a detailed account of the evolution of the concept of African Studies at UCT, but rather an overview that is meant to stimulate debate and discussion as UCT commemorates a centenary of African Studies. The article shows how UCT dealt with the notion of African Studies. In the period leading to the introduction of apartheid in South Africa UCT saw its role as providing resources to those tasked with the formulation and implementation of a “Native policy”. With the advent of apartheid, African Studies focused internally on the study of Africa and its people. This provides the backdrop to the debates of the late 1990s involving Mahmood Mamdani, which centred on the teaching of Africa in an African university. I wrap up this article by sounding a clarion call for UCT to put African Studies high on its agenda if it is serious in fulfilling its mission of making UCT a truly African university.
Acknowledgments
I am grateful to the late Emeritus Professor Ronald Davies for sharing his “timeline” on the Centre for African Studies, which I am using as a guide in my research project on African Studies at UCT.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1. See Ntsebeza (Citation2008), republished with slight amendments in 2014.
2. A.C. Jordan was a renowned author, literary critic, poet and an engaged scholar who lectured in the then Department of Bantu Languages at the University of Cape Town. He was the first black African to acquire a PhD at UCT.
3. It is interesting that as early as that time, Swahili was touted and links were made with African colonial servicemen in East Africa. I’m grateful to Christopher Ouma for this insight.
4. Please note that the name of this journal was changed in 1942 to African Studies.
5. The school lost its government research and publications grants in 1931, during the depression.
6. Email correspondence with the author, April 16 2012. A.C. Jordan, alongside Archie Mafeje and Mahmood Mamdani, will be the subject of detailed research in my longer-term, in-depth study of African Studies at UCT.
7. For an account of the School of African Studies at UCT in the period 1948–1968 see Phillips (Citation2019, 214–235).
8. Email correspondence with the author, April 16 2012.
9. For a detailed account of this episode see Hendricks (Citation2008).
10. For example, when I was approached to facilitate discussions which led to the establishment of the School of African and Gender Studies, Anthropology and Linguistics, I was surprised to find that colleagues who initially pretended that they were supportive of the initiative turned against it at the critical stage of voting for or against the establishment of this new school. This is a matter I will deal with as I proceed with my research into African Studies at UCT.
11. These academics included Nick van der Merwe (the then recently appointed professor in the Department of Archaeology), Mary Simons from the Department of Comparative African Government and Law, Martin West from the Department of Social Anthropology, Martin Hall from the Department of Archaeology and Ron Davies, professor of Geography in the Department of Environmental and Geographical Science. Amongst the students involved, Mugsy Spiegel and Patrick Harries can be mentioned.
12. I have not come across evidence that shows how membership of CAS for those outside the academic departments that were connected to it was gained. An example of such evidence would be a membership list.
13. Note the striking similarities with the form taken by CAS when it was resuscitated in 2012.
14. The proceedings of the meeting are recorded in File 300, Box 44.1.3 (2), Administrative Archives, UCT. The rest of this paragraph includes quotations from this source.
15. Bantu Education was introduced in South Africa by the apartheid regime in 1953, as a form of gutter education for black Africans in schools, who were not meant to be educated to the same level as white South Africans. This kind of education was extended to universities through the (misnamed) Extension of Universities Act No. 45 of 1959.
16. See https://theconversation.com/a-tribute-to-poet-and-professor-harry-garuba-we-continue-to-learn-with-you-134065. Accessed July 27 2020. See also Garuba’s talk on YouTube TEDxStellenbosch: “No Easy Walk to Education” presented at the University of Stellenbosch on May 13 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9U5oCP9q5gY. Accessed July 27 2020.
17. https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20100409204659204. Accessed May 5 2020.
18. The main reason given for the disestablishment of CAS was that it was a small department. The dean at the time described a small department as comprising fewer than six permanent staff members. CAS at that time had 1.5 members of staff. The Institute of Gender Studies was in the same position as CAS, and the Department of Social Anthropology was a borderline case.
19. The Linguistics Unit was housed in the Department of English before its members joined the discussions about establishing the school.
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Lungisile Ntsebeza
Lungisile Ntsebeza is Emeritus Professor of African Studies and Sociology at the University of Cape Town. He holds two Research Chairs: the NRF Research Chair in Land Reform and Democracy in South Africa and the A.C. Jordan Chair in African Studies.