Thabo Mbeki (former South African president and Patron of TMALI) delivered the keynote address at the launch of volumes 5 and 6 of The road to democracy in South Africa.
Universities are tasked with the responsibility of ensuring that relevant and accurate research and education reach the masses. On Freedom Day 2013, Unisa further solidified its role in this regard when it hosted the launch of volumes 5 and 6 of The road to democracy in South Africa series.
Former South African president and patron of Unisa’s Thabo Mbeki African Leadership Institute (TMALI), Thabo Mbeki, and the country’s deputy president, Kgalema Motlanthe, were amongst the dignitaries who attended the launch.
Mbeki delivered the keynote address while Motlanthe accepted the last two volumes of the series on behalf of government.
Investigating what shaped the present
The launch was especially significant for Unisa as this year the university celebrates 140 years of shaping futures in Africa. It is therefore conscious of the importance of research that documents the journey the country and continent have travelled to attaining freedom. Now, as the university looks to its future – where it aims to be a leading centre of African knowledge production – it is also mindful of the role it has to play in ensuring its research, teaching and learning and community engagement speak to the very essence of what this book series represents.
The road to democracy in South Africa series, published by Unisa Press, is a chronological analysis of four decades of South African history. It is a project of the South African Democracy Education Trust (SADET). Volume 1 covers the events spanning 1960 to 1970, volume 2 deals with the years between 1970 and 1980, volume 3 focuses on international solidarity, and volume 4 covers the period from 1980 to 1990. Volume 5 focuses on African solidarity, while volume 6 (in two volumes) covers the period between 1990 and 1996.
Giving a true account
Unisa Principal and Vice-Chancellor, Prof Mandla Makhanya, said the university prided itself on being part of this important project since the institution’s forward-looking vision was aimed at becoming the African university in the service of humanity.
He said while the history of the struggle had been told in different ways, at different times and, often, for different motives, the synergy between SADET and Unisa was predicated on the common understanding that without a true and intellectual account of the struggle and its contractions, captured by the people who were prepared to give their life and limb for its ultimate outcome, freedom from oppression and freedom from want and hunger, the story remained patchy and organically incomplete.
 Dr Essop Pahad (Chairman of the South African Democracy Education Trust) with Kgalema Motlanthe. |
 Thabo Mbeki (former SA president and Patron of TMALI) with Kgalema Motlanthe (South African deputy president). |
“History must be recorded – be it orally or in writing – and equally importantly, preserved. And this is where the role of the university is so important. The core function of a university is the generation of new knowledge, but inevitably that process relies on a thorough interrogation and evaluation of existing knowledge, which not only offers context, but also the opportunity to prove or disprove, accept or reject, or compromise. It is a process of accretion that contributes to the richness of the national and global dialogue and canon,” he said.
Naming the new enemy
The VC said that previously South African history was informed and influenced predominantly by a western paradigm that reflected the hegemonic power relations that shaped the country and continent’s past. “We cannot allow them to similarly inform our future, especially since history can become revered and followed dogmatically, irrespective of its genuine merit, and often with serious and far-reaching consequences.”
This is where African and South African universities, and in particular, Unisa, had a fundamental role to play. “History is not simply the plaything of bored academics,” said the VC. ”The consequences of its unquestioned inculcation are in the real world of classrooms and the real lives of teachers and children. We know this all too well. And knowing that, we are obliged to ensure that our history is told first-hand, by those Africans who made and lived it.”
Looking to the future, the VC said with the fundamental objective of political liberation being achieved, the fundamental task ahead was to name the new enemy, and carefully to attune competencies collectively and severally as new challenges were tackled. “As a university, we are at a point where we say that we can no longer afford to be mere interpreters of what others said and did not say about us. It is our time to place on record for all to see what we say about our past and how that past influences what we are doing on our way forward. At this very important juncture in the history of Unisa, we take pleasure in the fact that, perhaps for the first time in 140 years, the futures that we will be shaping will be informed by knowledge that we have generated and recorded – it is a matter of great pride.”
Capturing history accurately
Motlanthe acknowledged the authors of the series, saying it was very difficult to write contemporary history, because the temptation for embellishment was always great. These scholars, he said, were able to structure and craft the stories told by many of those active in the liberation struggle. “To collect those stories and present them in a usable form is of great value. It will be of value to generations to come, to those who will try to understand how we were able to navigate our way, and find a solution to the intractable problem of apartheid and racial discrimination.”
In explaining the importance of The road to democracy in South Africa series, Mbeki spoke of incidents during the liberation struggle that were captured in the various volumes. He said the history presented in these volumes forced people to ask fundamental questions. “We have a chapter that discussed national pride and the changing of minds. We talk about national unity, national cohesion, shared patriotism; are we there? Have the minds changed? I think we must ask these questions. We must ask questions about women’s emancipation. Where are we with regard to this important matter?
“Indeed, how far have we advanced with regards to this struggle reflected in these books? Where are we? I think we need to ask these questions and look at them critically and I think this history that is told here will at least say when everybody engaged in this struggle to bring about change, it has achieved its objectives. Having said that, we must then answer the questions: what progress have we made, what obstacles have we experienced, what do we do?”
Mbeki said it was important to make this history accessible to many people, and a project to produce “more popular” versions of the books to be available in schools will begin soon. He also referred to Oscar-winning movie director Steven Spielberg, who, from what he had read, believed the South African story needed to be recorded and shared. The director has offered South Africa the use of software that collates interactive interviews as used during the making of Schindler’s List, a 1993 motion picture he directed and co-produced, which tells the story of Oskar Schindler, a German businessman who saved the lives of more than a thousand mostly Polish-Jewish refugees during the Holocaust by employing them in his factories.
Programme director, Chairman of the SADET board and former Minister in the Presidency, Dr Essop Pahad, thanked board members and all those who had contributed to the production of The road to democracy in South Africa series. There was also a special tribute to the late Professor Bernard Makhosonke Magubane, who was initially given the task of managing this project and producing the volumes.
Shocked and saddened by Magubane’s untimely passing, the Unisa VC said that his legacy was of incalculable value for those generations who would be building upon the genuinely African knowledge foundations that had been laid in the production of these volumes, and would always be valued.
Unisa hosted the launch together with SADET, Nedbank and MTN. In addition to the launch, as part of the university’s Freedom Day celebrations, the university hosted a public dialogue on the Freedom Charter as a living document on the Friday preceding Freedom Day.
* Article by Rivonia Naidu-Hoffmeester
