‘Youth, Memory and Politics in Post-Apartheid South Africa.’
Résumé
On 9 March 2015, a black student, Chumani Maxwele, threw human feces against a statue of Cecil B. Rhodes located at the University of Cape Town (UCT) as a sign of rebellion against the lingering presence of colonial oppression on campus. This event, which could have remained an isolated incident, a student prank so to speak, soon escalated into a broader movement that came to be known internationally under the hashtag #RhodesMustFall. This movement sought to decolonize higher education physically (through a removal of statues and commemorative plaques) and academically (through for example the introduction of black studies in the curriculum or the recruitment of more black academics). 1 A number of other universities joined in the protest within and without South Africa. In the wake of UCT's #RhodesMustFall movement, a group of students at Rhodes University thus started a protest to change the name of the university, while some staff and students followed their lead at the University of Stellenbosch protesting against the use of Afrikaans as official teaching language. Other smaller movements occurred at the University of Pretoria and at the University of the Free State. The unrest had international ripple effects, the case catching most global media attention being that of Oriel College at Oxford University, where a group of student activists called for the removal of a statue of Cecil B. Rhodes and a better acknowledgment of non-white culture on campus, a direct -though ultimately unsuccessful-echo to the South African #RhodesMustFall movement. 2 Although very much anchored in the daily reality of student life (the issues of debt and unequal access to education due to one's social background and race are enduring), the 2015 South African student protests were interestingly also very much a dialogue with the past, with placards reading: 'We were sold dreams in 1994, we now want the refund' or 'My grandfather was a garden boy, my