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Published by HSRC PressPrivate Bag X9182, Cape Town 8000, South Africawww.hsrcpress.ac.za

First published 2019

ISBN (soft cover) 978-0-7969-2459-9

© 2019 Human Sciences Research Council

This publication was made possible through a grant received from the National Institutefor the Humanities and Social Sciences.

This collective work has undergone a double-blind independent peer-review process overseen by the HSRC Press Editorial Board. The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Human Sciences Research Council (the Council) or the National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences (the Institute) or indicate that either the Council or the Institute endorses the views of the authors. In quoting from this publication, readers are advised to attribute the source of the information to the individual author concerned and not to either the Council or the Institute.

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Contents

Foreword iv

Acronyms and abbreviations v 1 Black in the academy: Reframing knowledge, the knower, and knowing 1 Grace Khunou, Hugo Canham, Katijah Khoza-Shangase and

Edith Dinong Phaswana

2 Negotiating the academy: Black bodies ‘out of place’ 11 Peace Kiguwa

3 Writing to stay: Running shoes replaced with high heels 25 Grace Khunou

4 Intellectual and emotional toxicity: Where a cure does not appear to be imminent 42

Katijah Khoza-Shangase

5 Thinking while black 65 Grace A Musila

6 Black and foreign: Negotiating being different in South Africa’s academy 81 Kezia Batisai

7 The polemic body 103 Hugo Canham

8 Belonging: Whose word is it anyway? 118 René Koraan

9 Valuing/belonging and devaluing/unbelonging in the academy: An intersectional perspective 134

Pragna Rugunanan

10 Don’t teach me nonsense 147 Colin Tinei Chasi

11 The limits of being and knowledge in the academy 157 Edith Dinong Phaswana

12 Sitting on one bum: The struggle of survival and belonging for a black African woman in the academy 178

Motlalepule Nathane

13 Belonging to oneself 195 Allison Geduld

About the authors 214Index 218

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iv

Foreword

Black Academics: The South African Experience is a bold announcement that black academics, particularly black women, will no longer endure their suffering in silence. Rather, they will speak and document their experiences to provide not only a record of what they have endured and continue to endure but also inspiration to those who will someday follow in their footsteps. People of African descent have often been denied legitimacy as historical subjects. The academy has positioned us as ‘people without history.’ One of the enduring legacies of this book, therefore, will be that it places the particular indignities that black academics have faced on the historical record. No longer will it be possible to say, ‘That never happened.’ Nor will it be possible in the future to dismiss acts of discrimination as rooted in the peculiarities of individuals. This volume definitively shows that what are so often dismissed as individual acts of discrimination are rooted in structural forces and can only be remedied, therefore, by revamping and reimagining what the university is and does.

Make no mistake, however, this book is no ‘pity-party’ or celebration of victimhood. These chapters are about resilience, struggle, self-actualisation and survival. These are stories about how to endure the unimaginable indignity of having one’s intelligence, integrity and selfhood questioned at every turn. The voices documented here also provide strategies. They explain how to fight back – and, sometimes, win. They explain how to collaborate and make alliances. They explore what it means to make new definitions of community. And they resolutely announce that we black academics are here to stay. We are not going anywhere. We are determined to occupy these spaces and make them better for everyone – black, white, LGBTQ, rich, poor, male and female. The academy was not made for us, but we are remaking it to be better than it has ever been.

Professor Zine Magubane

Sociology Department and African and African Diaspora Studies Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts

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v

Acronyms and abbreviations

AA affirmative action APK Auckland Park Campus of University of JohannesburgCIOMS Council for International Organizations of Medical SciencesCV curriculum vitaeDFC Doornfontein Campus of University of JohannesburgDHET Department of Higher Education and TrainingEE Act Employment Equity Act (No. 55 of 1998)HBU historically black universityHEI higher education institutionHESA Higher Education South AfricaHIV and AIDS Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Acquired Immune

Deficiency SyndromeHoD Head of DepartmentHoS Head of SchoolHPCSA Health Professions Council of South AfricaHSRC Human Sciences Research CouncilHWI historically white institutionHWU historically white universityLGBTIQ lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queerMerSETA Manufacturing, Engineering and Related Services Sector

Education and Training AuthorityMA Master’s degreeMRC Medical Research CouncilNGO non-governmental organisationNCHE National Commission on Higher Education NWU North-West UniversityRAU Rand Afrikaans UniversitySADC Southern African Development CommunitySASCO South African Students Congress SRC Student Representative CouncilSWC Soweto Campus of University of JohannesburgTB tuberculosisUCT University of Cape TownUFS University of the Free StateUJ University of JohannesburgUK United Kingdom

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vi

Unisa University of South AfricaUS United StatesWits University of the Witwatersrand

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