Written by: Elizabeth Kunene and Venal Naidu

The Durban University of Technology (DUT) held the second Decolonisation in High Education Debate on Thursday, at Ritson Campus.

Guest speakers interacted with students during the debate. Amongst guest speakers were DUT Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research, Professor Sibusiso Moyo, and #feesmustfall leader Bonginkosi Khanyile.

Khanyile, who was one of the members of the panel discussion, believes that every culture should be who they want to be and connect through humility.

“I for one as an activist don’t believe in integration, I believe in separation because integration has failed over time, it failed in America with Malcolm X and it failed when former President Nelson Mandela attempted the rainbow nation,” said Khanyile.

Khanyile believes that the decrease of the language barrier is the way forward in decolonizing the education system as a whole.

“There ought to be one African language. It doesn’t make sense that in Africa you are taught in and that language is a Eurocentric language, there must be one language that connects us as Africans and that language should be Swahili,” explained Khanyile.

An ambassador from Africology Institute, Vutomi Mboweni Gustavo, who was on the panel of experts in the discussion, was quite annoyed that the same things are being repeated in every meeting but hopes that after today there will be moves in the right direction.

“We’ve been doing the same old thing over and over again and nothing has happened but we hope that now that the deputy vice chancellors and professors are here and now that they know how we feel about decolonisation, I hope they do something about it this time,” said Gustavo.

Dr George Skedinga, a researcher within the institution of DUT who was the facilitator on the day, said that it was great to hear new ideas and come to the table with new faces.

“I think it was quite an interesting one, new ideas popped up year that we didn’t hear last time, it was also great to see more and more students participating in this discussion,” said Skedinga.

*Caption: The panel who were in charge of the Decolonisation in Higher Education introspection. Picture by Mbuso Kunene.