The
University of Cape Town: Racist/Sexist/Colonialist institution? 1918-1948 – Yes
.
Biz News
http://www.biznews.com/thought-leaders/2016/12/06/top-scientist-uct-institutionally-racist-sexist-colonialist/
How much work is needed to
transform the
University of Cape Town (UCT) into an institution of higher
education that serves all the citizens of South Africa? Emeritus
Professor Timothy Crowe goes back in time to trace
the university’s roots with a view to assessing the current characteristics of
the higher education institution that is an inextricable part of his life.
Although Crowe has been a fierce critic of Vice-chancellor
Dr Max Price and the #fallists who would
like
to see the decolonialisation of the country’s university
system, Crowe is not blind to the historical legacy created by the university’s
founders. This piece, part of a series, highlights that it is only really in
contemporary times that anyone other than white males has been given the
opportunity to develop their intellectual capabilities through university
education. This, of course, isn’t only a South African issue. Even in Scotland,
from where many of the professors hailed in the early days of South African
university education, women were only slowly allowed to access the system.
University education has historically been provided for a male elite. It is
only natural for broader society to keep pushing for access to a system that
seems to provide the pathway to higher standards of living and prosperity. –
Jackie Cameron
Emeritus Prof. Tim Crowe
There is no
single tome that attempts to cover the full history of the University of Cape
Town (UCT). This piece (the first of
three) attempts to provide a snapshot addressing the issues of racism, sexism
and neo-colonialism at UCT during the period 1918-1948. It is an unauthorized ‘distillation’ of the
482-page “The University of Cape Town: 1918-1948 – the formative years” by
Howard Phillips, published in 1993 by UCT Press. The other two pieces will cover the period
1948 to the present.
Before the beginning
UCT
chauvinists like to claim that it’s nearing its 190th birthday by
linking it to the establishment of the South African College (SAC). In fact, in 2018, it will hit its century as
a ‘kosher’ university. Like it or not, UCT
is a realization of an vision of the much-maligned Cecil John Rhodes who
bequeathed his estate, Groote Schuur, to South Africa to create a national
teaching university (as well as its political leader’s residence and
world-famous Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens). His purpose for the university was to effect
a reconciliation between male English and Afrikaner settlers. This purpose became a reality through a
massive financial bequest from two of Rhodes’ business associates Sir Otto Beit
and Sir Julius Wernher.
Thus, even from
before day one, UCT was institutionally colonialist, sexist and racist.
In the beginning
Since all of
its initial 659 students were ‘whites’ (mainly males selected to achieve ‘English-Afrikaner
reconciliation’ through the cultural assimilation of the latter) and all of its
professors were men, Once it became a reality it was also racist and sexist. ‘Natives/Bantus’ were described by its first
Vice-Chancellor, J.C. ‘Sir Jock’ Beattie, as South Africa’s “millions of
uncivilised people”. So, this highly
intelligent, kindly man was a racist as well.
The UCT Council’s policy was: “it would not be in the best interests of
the university to admit native or coloured students in any number, if at all”.
So, it, as a body, was racist. By the early
1920s, women students nearly reached demographic parity with males, but were
mainly confined to music and the arts and in non-degree programmes: another
‘tick’ indicating sexism. Indeed, the
all-male professorial demographics were strongly biased further in favour of uitlanders, especially Scots led by ‘Sir Jock’: another ‘tick’
for colonialism. Women academics were
expected to resign if they married and were required to retire at 55 (five
years earlier than for men). So, in the
category sexism, for the nascent UCT, ‘three strikes and you’re out’.
By the end
of the 1920s, there were only five ‘non-white’ (all ‘coloured’) graduates,
almost all with Art or Teaching degrees.
Noteworthy further is a quote from Sir Jock’s ‘centennial’ (of SAC)
message in 1929: “The University must, like the old South African College, be a
place where all South Africans irrespective of creed or race can meet and get
to know each other.” So, ‘non-whites’
and women in general could visit UCT, but not study meaningfully or work
professionally there.
Administration
UCT was run
by vice chancellors who were benevolent despots, often allowing students some leeway,
but drawing a firm line at what they regarded as less than “decent
behaviour”. Departments were ‘fiefdoms”
run by effectively a single, dictatorial professor, some of whom ‘ruled’ for
several decades. Departmental academic
themes generally changed only with professors.
UCT’s administrative department (according to the first registrar,
Wilfred Murray) was decidedly supportive and decentralized:
“The
administrative staff must justify its existence by setting standards and
methods of procedure of high order. As a
department it has no claim to existence in a university unless it can relieve
the teaching departments of the responsibility for those duties which can be
carried out more efficiently through a central office”.
Teaching
Teaching at
UCT was described accurately by medical Prof. Charles Saint as an “essentially
ego-centrifugal” process. There was
virtually no contact between lecturers and students outside the formal,
scheduled teaching environment. There
was also a remarkable paucity of organized discussion/debate of/on political
issues, even within the male-dominated Students Representative Council and National
Union of South African Students (NUSAS).
The major exceptions to this were requests for UCT’s Senate to actively
consult with students in its deliberations.
These requests were deflected or denied.
Much of the SRC’s efforts focused on increasing sporting/social
activities. Because of this, in general,
there was a lack of esprit de corps
amongst the students.
A move to a new campus
By the early
1930s, the move of the campus from town to Groote Schuur had been completed and
the ‘decapitated’ Jameson Hall (its construction was financed by his friends to
memorialize him and should have been surmounted by a dome) housed its first
graduation ceremony. In 1931, its newly
established Bantu Studies Department hosted a speech by Sol Plattje. On the flipside, the right-wing, racist,
anti-Semitic nationalist Afrikaner Nasionale Studentebond was founded in 1934, breaking
away from NUSAS. Since its unacceptable activities departed from ”decent
behaviour”, it was forced to have its meetings off-campus. These events mark the end of any overt attempt
by UCT to reconcile with, yet alone assimilate Afrikaners.
Nevertheless,
the racist admission policies continued to prevail and still less than 1% of
UCT’s students were ‘non-white’. These
admitted were strongly discouraged from mingling with their ‘white’ colleagues,
with the exception of some Jewish students.
There were no ‘Bantus’. When a
rugby team comprising some ‘coloured’ players applied for formal recognition by
UCT, Sir Jock persuaded them to withdraw.
A vote on an SRC motion to support the admission of ‘non-Europeans’ to
UCT was defeated 30 to 20 with 40 abstentions.
In effect,
UCT remained a second-tier, male-dominated, ‘whites’-only “athletic institution
where intellectual advancement [was] not altogether discouraged”.
The 1940s
Things
changed a little during the 1940s. In
1942, Sarleh Dollie was the first ‘coloured’ allowed (he was appointed by the
Cape Town City Council) to serve on UCT’s Council. By 1945, the ‘non-white’
student population ‘skyrocketed’ to 76 ‘coloureds’, 26 Indians and 5 ‘Bantus’
(about 3%). In 1944, the first
‘non-white’ (an Indian) was elected to the SRC.
His membership was viciously challenged repeatedly, and he was branded
as a nonconstructive, “irresponsible communist agitator”. In the Medical School, the few Indian and
‘coloured’ students admitted were not allowed to operate on ’white’ patients.
Things at
UCT changed profoundly after World War II.
On this, more later.
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