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UNIZULU hosts an African Webinar Series honouring Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe

“The wheel of progress revolves relentlessly and all the nations of the world take their turn at the field-glass of human destiny. Africa will not retreat! Africa will not compromise! Africa will not relent! Africa will not equivocate! And she will be heard! Remember Africa!” – Robert Sobukwe.

The University of Zululand hosted one of the series of thought leadership conversations which has been envisaged by the Vice-Chancellor Professor Xoliswa Mtose. This webinar was titled: The Regenerative Nationalism of Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe, its implication for higher education. This is part of the Vice Chancellor’s agenda of ensuring that the university of Zululand becomes a center of academic and intellectual deliberations.

In her welcome address and opening remarks, Prof Mtose pointed out that the present challenge is to create a university that will be able to prepare the youth and be able to strive for the advancement of African people as it was the vision of Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe, Nelson Mandela, Steve Biko, and others. “We could do no better in this regard than to start with the lecture that celebrates one of Africa’s creative minds Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe. To the extent that we are here, it is because of the history of our struggle, ours is a new struggle to finish what Mandela and company started. These preliminary remarks are deliberate, they are about re-centering, reimagining the University of Zululand. They are about reclaiming our humanity as Africans.”Said Prof Mtose

Emeritus Professor of Sociology who is a founder and a former Director of the Centre for Advanced Studies of African Society (CASAS) Professor Kwesi Kwaa Prah, an esteemed and renowned scholar was the speaker for the day in his presentation said “Sobukwe’s legacy represents an undying beacon of hope”. Prof Prah’s discussion of regenerative nationalism exposes Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe as one of the outstanding Africanist intellectuals the beaconing regalia for the bright future ahead. “Pan-Africanism is an affirmation and assertion of African humanity; a spirit of indomitability; a vindication of African resistance to imperialism, colonial and neo-colonial; an attestation of the right and willingness of Africans to unite and seize their equality amongst humankind. It is not a dogma cast in stone by a political pedigree, which requires uncontested doctrinal fidelity every time it is called into analytical or practical service. It is conceptually a dynamic frame of reference which respond to changes in focus and relevance according to ceaselessly changing historical realities.” Said Prof Prah.

This conference was an excellent opportunity for regenerative nationalisation. A number of students as well as academics attended this webinar virtually.

The deputy dean of teaching and learning Dr. MZ Shamase, who was a respondent highlighted “We learn that the relatively gentle and intellectual Sobukwe acquired prophetic status as a leader of Pan-Africanism as he languished in jail from 1960. This was not just a political leader, but also an intellectual whose ideological relevance lives with us to the present. Prof Prah aptly refers to him as a leader whose Africanist views are regenerative, self-perpetuating at the core. However, whilst the Africanist elites articulated a broad vision for the movement, they assigned the political implementation in the streets and the countryside to firebrand charismatic local leaders who could stir emotions and mobilize people through vernacular language and the imagery of black pain, white trickery, and immorality. The idea was that these local populist leaders could, through their Africanist rhetoric, turn the sense of pain among local people and their discontent at being exploited by whites into political capital to drive a revolution”.

In his closing address, Prof Sipho Seepe highlighted how Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe paved the way for future generations in the knowledgeable and intellectual space and that he was an outstanding Africanist intellectual and the beaconing regalia for the bright future ahead.  He also thanked the Vice-Chancellor; Prof Xoliswa Mtose, Prof Prah, and Dr. Shamase for the impactful lecture about Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe: The Regenerative Nationalism of Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe, its implication for higher education.

  • Precious Shamase

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