‘No-minced-words’ account of 11 university vice-chancellors on campus riots
There is a reason these institutions are called public universities. They belong to all of us
AS BY FIRE Jonathan Jansen Loot.co.za (R280) Tafelberg
PROFESSOR Jonathan Jansen is a leading South African educationist, commentator and author of several books including the best-selling Letters to My Children. He is the former vice-chancellor of the University of the Free State, where he earned a reputation for transformation and a deep commitment to reconciliation.
In March 2015, a postgraduate student at UCT poured human excrement over the campus statue of Cecil John Rhodes. In the weeks and months that followed, a series of student demonstrations erupted across historically English university campuses and spread to historically Afrikaans universities.
In his new book, As By Fire, Jansen examines the unprecedented disruption of universities that caught South Africa by surprise. He conducts frank interviews with 11 of the vice-chancellors most affected, he strives to make sense of the forces at work and why the protests escalated into chaos. He considers what is driving and exasperating our youth.
“I decided to dispense with unnecessary jargon and to focus on what are sometimes complex ideas in everyday language. The crisis in South African universities is too important a topic to cloud or conceal important issues behind the shroud of academic pretence.”
At the time, reading about the prolonged unrest at our universities, it was not usually clear what was going on and it was difficult to understand all the factors involved.
But Jansen, with this book, has given a “no words minced” account of what happened and an analysis of the forces involved. By so doing he has given us an impressive and important work that is well-considered, well-balanced and necessary to try and understand the ongoing complexities that affect our universities.
The interviews with the vice-chancellors are powerful and revealing in many ways. Not only do they provide insight into the “engine room” of running a South African university, but the extraordinary challenges they faced during the protests. These are no ordinary people.
The subject matter of As By Fire does not make for “light” reading, but it certainly is enlightening.
At the end of the book, Jansen’s conclusion may not be all that optimistic, but he is nothing if not a realist: “More than ever before, our chances of establishing revitalised South African universities that are well resourced and well positioned to prepare the next generation of leaders in the sciences, the humanities, and society at large depend on a calibre of leadership that is both compassionate in speaking to the student heart and competent in leading our universities in a demanding world of teaching, research, and public duty.
“We must repair what was wronged even as we reconcile what remains divided. Any other path will destroy campus and country.
“But there is one remaining glimmer of hope. There is a reason that these institutions are called public universities. They belong to all of us, the ordinary citizens of South Africa. It is possible to salvage our universities if ordinary citizens once again reclaim the public in our public universities. Such broad-based civic action constitutes a realistic project.”
With wise heads like Jansen to guide us…