Student activism in a time of crisis in South Africa: The quest for ‘black power’

Sonwabo Stuurman

doi:10.15700/saje.v38n4a1704

Abstract

Higher Education in South Africa has been in crisis over recent years. University systems in many parts of South Africa have witnessed student protest, as well as ongoing violence, resulting in many campuses turning into spaces of violent confrontation between students and police. This paper examines student social activism in the higher education sector in South Africa, especially the Nelson Mandela University, as well as the patterns that exist and frame student social activism in pursuit of ‘black power.’ Furthermore, the paper notes the strong sense of solidarity and unity amongst students, despite these existent challenges. The paper will also present a historical analysis of student activism in South Africa with the aim of demonstrating the longstanding and persistent student politics as well as the student dissatisfaction with, the way in which the higher education has been governed in South Africa. Keywords: black power; higher education; representation; student activism

Highlights

Introduction “Student participation, a key element of university citizenship, includes transformational and activist dimensions” (Keet, Nel & Sattarzadeh, 2017:80)
The aim is to contribute to the ongoing discussions and conversations nationally about the recent student protest and student activism, and to locate such narrative in the context of black students, who are calling for a ‘black power.’
During the period of the rise in student protests against apartheid and its separate and unequal education system, student activism in South Africa was linked to other societal struggles, for black people

Summary

Introduction

Introduction “Student participation, a key element of university citizenship, includes transformational and activist dimensions” (Keet, Nel & Sattarzadeh, 2017:80). In 1976 during the Soweto uprising by mainly school learners – which has been distinguished from all other political uprisings within the same period as having the highest number of casualties resulting from a single instance of political protest – the police killed 195 persons, injuring a further 410 (Franklin, 2003:210) This societal struggle infiltrated predominantly black university campuses. In 2016, students of the Nelson Mandela University demonstrated a similar commitment to student social activism, which resulted in the university being shut down for approximately six weeks (Spies, 2016) During this period, campuses were turned into battlefields marked by the presence of heavily armed police. Among the many understandings of the phenomenon of student activism, Ozymy (2012) who most notably states that participation in student activism is premised by a Stuurman certain self-interest, which may arise in order to stress such determinants as student living conditions, economic imbalances, and high tuition fees, to mention a few (Osipian, 2016)

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