On August 17, AfriForum Youth wrote a letter to the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) requesting an investigation into University of Free State (UFS) lecturer and columnist for this publication, Dr Pedro Mzileni, who is accused of racism. Dr Mzileni has dismissed as false a claim that he referred to white people as “land thieves” during his guest lecture on July 25.
Dr Mzileni, a lecturer of sociology, was apparently reported to AfriForum Youth by a student studying in his class. Dr Mzileni is a lecturer whose responsibility is to teach and develop a generation of socially conscious young people who will, in the future, contribute to the rebuilding of a country that is torn asunder by structural constructs that are directly linked to its colonial and apartheid past.
To understand such constructs demands an understanding and appreciation of historical truths – truths that have resulted in Dr Mzileni being subjected to investigations not only by the SAHRC but by an independent law firm.
It’s likely that UFS, a university with a documented history of racism, will succumb to the pressure of instituting an “immediate investigation” with the aim of invoking “disciplinary actions” as per the request of AfriForum lawyers in their letter to the vice-chancellor, professor Francis William Petersen.
It would not be the first and certainly not the last time, that a university sacrifices a capable black academic at the request of a white community that is resistant to change. It has been happening not only in SA but across the world.
There is a growing global right-wing move aimed at silencing teaching and critical discourse on racism in our society and in institutions of higher learning that are a microcosm of that society. In the US, several school boards and state legislatures have banned teachings about racism in classrooms. In institutions of higher learning, scholars of critical race theory are enduring unimaginable victimisation, accused of being “racist”.
The framework of critical race theory, which explains the structural and institutionalised nature of racism, is under threat because many white people, in the US and in SA, are unable to separate their individual identity from the social institutions that govern society. Thus, when critical race scholars speak of institutionalised racism, these people see themselves as the system, interpreting criticism of racialised institutions as criticisms of their individual persons.
This is why an organisation like AfriForum, with a history and practice of racism, regards as “racism” the historical fact that land in SA was stolen by white settlers. And we must be clear – the violent dispossession of land from indigenous people of our country was facilitated by white settlers whose descendants continue to benefit from the legacy of this theft.
Black people didn’t just wake up to find themselves landless and pariah in their own land. It was architected by white settlers. It was violent, dehumanising and de-civilising. The condition of black people today, who are battling urban and rural hunger, generational poverty, landlessness and exclusion from the economy, is a condition of de-civilisation born of our colonial and apartheid past. That we have undergone a (flawed) transitional justice process doesn’t negate these historical facts.
There’s a petition doing the rounds, asking signatories from academic staff in South African universities and research institutions, as well as independent persons, to support Dr Mzileni. I want to appeal to readers of this column to sign it. Rather than confront the historical truths and facts that Dr Mzileni is teaching students to reflect on, AfriForum wants to throw around the word “racism” to silence Dr Mzileni and to intimidate other black academics.
The word “racism” has been appropriated by the real racists and is being used against black people who dare to speak the truth. It the new boogeyman for white people who are unwilling to acknowledge our country’s racist history and how it affects the present. We must not remain silent when such injustices occur. On this, silence is complicity.
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