There are other ways to conduct meetings and present lectures. Could adopting, adapting or even just understanding more about these help universities to release colonialism’s grip on their practices?
Thabo Mbeki during his inauguration as Chancellor at UNISA.
Deaan Vivier/Netwerk24
There’s no doubt South African universities need to undergo a real shift. But are the country’s current intellectual and academic forces up to the task?
A tourist market in Ivory Coast. Africa needs to harness its rich cultural and linguistic diversity to drive its development.
EPA/Legnan Koula
It’s important that South African teachers, lecturers and professors develop curricula that build on the best knowledge skills, values, beliefs and habits from around the world.
US President Donald Trump stamped his inaugural speech with the promise of ‘America First’ – a slogan with an ominous past.
Reuters/Kevin Lamarque
Rhodesia’s white supremacists appealed to the white electorate by taking a stand against African liberation. Similarly, Donald Trump appealed to white Americans who feel overwhelmed by globalisation.
Students want things to change at South Africa’s universities.
Nic Bothma/EPA
2017 promises to be another tough year as South African universities head into the uncertain terrain of further addressing and healing the divisions that have been exposed.
Police guard a building at the University of Cape Town – from whom, since knowledge is not really owned by anyone.
Reuters/Mike Hutchings
More than two decades after apartheid ended, South African universities still tend to offer a view of the country and continent that is rooted in colonial and apartheid thinking.
Bob Marley is still reggae’s most iconic figure, 35 years after his death at the age of 36.
Flickr
More than three decades after his death reggae icon Bob Marley’s music remains meaningful. It still has the potential to catalyse conversation not often had in the postcolonial world.
When scientists engage local communities in dialogue about their research, both sides benefit.
Simon Elwin/Namibian Dolphin Project Education Day 2015
University authorities in South Africa have agreed to most fees protesters’ demands. Yet, the protesters keep moving the goalposts. Do they want more than fees to fall?
Some have suggested that deracialising the academy requires all researchers, teachers and students to link knowledge and identity. What might this mean for mathematics?
Critical dialogue could help South African universities get back on their feet.
Ian Barbour/Flickr
When students are genuinely listened to and understood, and their proposed solutions to problems are taken seriously, real change can happen in university faculties.
The idea that there’s a moral imperative for humans to expand beyond Earth is echoed by influential proponents of space exploration.
Tamara Craiu/Flickr
Technology had enabled humans to explore the deep sea, the Earth’s poles, and outer space. But we shouldn’t forget historical lessons about frontiers in the process of traversing them.
Psychology as an academic discipline needs to take a long, hard look at itself.
Shutterstock
Knowledge is power. If you own it, you can control those without it. Since so much knowledge about Africa doesn’t sit on the continent, it’s apparent that Africa lacks power in this regard.
Decolonising the curriculum is far more nuanced than replacing theorists and authors. Universities first need to define how they approach the development and dissemination of curricula.
The decolonisation of South Africa’s university curriculum seems to have fallen off the agenda, overtaken by the push for free higher education.
Shutterstock
In South Africa there’s a value judgment attached to students who take part in universities’ English for Academic Purposes programmes. This shouldn’t be the case.
Research Fellow at the University of the Free State, South Africa and Assistant Professor in the History of International Relations, Utrecht University