With emotions running high at Stellenbosch University (SU), it is important that we come together and learn from one another, writes Prof Julie Claassens of the Department of Old and New Testament in SU's Faculty of Theology in an opinion article published in Cape Times on Friday (4 September 2015).
- Read the complete article below or click here to read the article as published.
It was a tumultuous week at Stellenbosch University leaving students, lecturers and staff trying to make sense of events. Social media is buzzing; the Luister Video as well as footage of Elsenburg students being whipped by another student who earlier featured in the Luister video have been watched by thousands. The pressure cooker events of this past week with emotions reaching a boiling point beg interpretation as we are contemplating a way forward.
When white people see students carrying signs reading One Settler, One Bullet, or hear that the protest songs speak of violence and guns, they inadvertently get afraid. And fear leads to boundary creating actions, for individuals retreating into gated communities or the proverbial Afrikaner Laagers, resorting to physical or virtual emigration. And God forbid, also to violence.
So how do we overcome fear, and disrupt the disgust that is often rooted in stereotypical constructions of the Other that are creating further divisions and boundaries between white, black and coloured members of this country? In her book, The New Religious Intolerance: Overcoming the Politics of Fear in an Anxious Age, Martha Nussbaum offers three principles that may be helpful to us as we are contemplating a way forward:
First, Nussbaum argues that in order to overcome intolerance is the basic assumption that all human beings are equal bearers of human dignity that cannot be lost or forfeited. The Luister video spoke of persons on our campus who feel that their dignity has been assaulted, something to which the management team of the university rightly has responded by saying that they will not defend the indefensible. All human beings, no matter what colour, gender, class, sexual orientation, or physical and mental capability, deserve to be treated with respect and appreciation. In all instances. Always. In light of this, I cannot help but being concerned also about the numerous instances of aggression that have accompanied some of the recent protests on our campus, treating those whom the protesters are resisting with disrespect, contempt and even violence. I deeply hope that as we move forward we can all hold fast to this principle of human dignity according to which everyone is respected and valued.
Second, Nussbaum highlights the importance of critical thinking in overcoming fear. She argues that people often tend to make decisions in an uncritical way without much self-reflection. What is needed is what she calls, "the examined life," in showing the inconsistencies in people's reasoning, the blind spots in one's own thinking and actions. For instance, we at Stellenbosch University should critically reflect on the myriad ways in which we are casting as Other everyone that does not fit into the white, male, heteronormative, abled-bodied mould. As woman, I can speak a little bit from experience that even when Others are allowed into this white male heteronormative world, we still are having to play the game with rules made by the dominant paradigm. I believe that what is asked from us is that we together in humbleness come up with new rules of engagement and perhaps even with a new game to play together?
But also with regard to those struggle songs which as my black colleagues have told me are so deeply rooted in violence: Is it responsible in this day and age to talk about bringing my machete or my machine gun and reserving one bullet for one settler? I was glad to hear that Open Stellenbosch condemned the use of the "One Settler" posters. But it is vital that we realize the ways in which such speech may foster a culture of violence. Metaphors can hurt, metaphors can kill. If not by the protestors singing the songs, by some mad man who takes a gun and literalizes the metaphor to terrifying effect. Individuals do have the power to start a race war. It is up to us to stop it.
This is where Martha Nussbaum's third point is so important, that is to cultivate an empathetic or participatory imagination, in which one is able to consider how the world looks from the point of view of a person of a different religious or cultural tradition. In what she calls, "cultivat[ing] the inner eyes," Nussbaum talks about the importance of a "curious, questioning, and receptive demeanour that says, in effect, 'Here is another human being. I wonder what he (or she) is seeing and feeling right now'" (pp140-143). This happens through encounter, through dialogue, through really seeing the vulnerable face of the other. For white students and staff this means to truly listen to the Luister video. To feel the pain of the students and to say as the Rector of Stellenbosch University has said that it is not acceptable for any of our students to have this type of experience. But for Open Stellenbosch students it would also mean to understand that people are scared and confused, and that we ought to rather take one another's hands as we walk together on the way forward. As the Acting Vice-Rector Social Impact and Transformation (formerly Dean of the Faculty of Theology where I teach) is so fond of ending his emails: "In Verbondenheid." In Togetherness. In holding on to one another and never letting go.
As a White Afrikaner female lecture at Stellenbosch University who is committed to all forms of justice and who actively seeks for ways of collaboration and solidarity across our various struggles for justice, I believe that the way forward is to vulnerably, humbly walk together. So this last paragraph is directed to the students in my classes – the black, coloured and white students who I love teaching. My hope is that my classroom will be a space where we can come together, cross boundaries, learn from one another and also challenge one another. But most importantly, my hope is that you will achieve that for which you came to Stellenbosch University in the first place: to grow in knowledge, to get better at reading, writing and presenting, and to become the critical thinkers, well-rounded individuals, engaged citizens and dynamic professionals that we hope all our Stellenbosch University Graduates will be.
