Racial Identity, the Apartheid State, and the Limits of Political Mobilization and Democratic Reform in South Africa: The Case of the University of the Western

Abstract

In this article I examine how a so-called "bush" college designated under Apartheid for the education of Coloured (mixed-race) students contributed to the radicalization of South Africa's Western Cape region. The creation of the University of the Western Cape (UWC) was part of an Apartheid divide and rule strategy to inhibit the development of political alliances between mixed-race and indigenous African peoples. However, in 1982, UWC rejected the use of Apartheid classifications for selecting entrants, thereby establishing the country's first non-racial, open admissions policy. UWC paid a price for its principled efforts, as the Apartheid regime slashed state subsidies and engaged the institution in a protracted legal and ideological struggle over the right to determine its own educational policies. Viewing UWC's transformation as microcosm of the country's negotiated settlement to end Apartheid, the article concludes with a critical discussion of Coloured identity and the limits of democratic reform in post-Apartheid South Africa.