TY - JOUR

T1 - In the absence of Rhodes

T2 - decolonizing South African universities

AU - Nielsen, Vibe

PY - 2021/1/11

Y1 - 2021/1/11

N2 - This paper examines the ways in which the decolonization of South African universities was imagined and performed by members of the Rhodes Must Fall movement during the removal of the statue of Rhodes on the University of Cape Town in 2015. Showing how their demands can be seen as a move away from the reconciliation and non-racialist approach of the Rainbow Nation towards a re-racialized debate, in which victimhood is reconfigured, I argue that, although the movement ended up divided, the reclamation of one of South Africa’s most prominent public spaces provided an opportunity to write or paint something new. The South African visual artist Sethembile Msezane took this opportunity upon her, when she embodied the Zimbabwe Bird Chapungu and provided an image of what South Africa can also look like: a country whose public spaces also include those of black women and of stories linked to the African continent.

AB - This paper examines the ways in which the decolonization of South African universities was imagined and performed by members of the Rhodes Must Fall movement during the removal of the statue of Rhodes on the University of Cape Town in 2015. Showing how their demands can be seen as a move away from the reconciliation and non-racialist approach of the Rainbow Nation towards a re-racialized debate, in which victimhood is reconfigured, I argue that, although the movement ended up divided, the reclamation of one of South Africa’s most prominent public spaces provided an opportunity to write or paint something new. The South African visual artist Sethembile Msezane took this opportunity upon her, when she embodied the Zimbabwe Bird Chapungu and provided an image of what South Africa can also look like: a country whose public spaces also include those of black women and of stories linked to the African continent.

KW - Faculty of Social Sciences

KW - South Africa

KW - decolonization

KW - re-racialization

KW - Rhodes Must Fall

KW - University of Cape Town

KW - Sethembile Msezane

U2 - 10.1080/01419870.2021.1851380

DO - 10.1080/01419870.2021.1851380

M3 - Journal article

VL - 44

SP - 396

EP - 414

JO - Ethnic and Racial Studies

JF - Ethnic and Racial Studies

SN - 0141-9870

IS - 3

ER -