Poetic Licence: AfriForum Is Not Our Blueprint

Jacinta Ngobese's apology for her controversial comment that South Africa could have universities for specific language groups should not be dismissed as mere poor wording. Her apology came after she explained her intention to use AfriForum's example, where they built institutions around Afrikaans-speaking identity. This led to a broader conversation about whether African communities should have the same right to build their own institutions centered around their languages.

It's crucial to understand that a university is not the same as a tribe. There's no issue with striving for African languages to play a significant role in higher education and research. However, using language as a marker of belonging can lead us down a dangerous path. South Africa has fought against a system that separated people based on race and ethnicity.

Our democratic project was supposed to allow for coexistence of differences without creating new barriers. We can't simply reverse that by saying, "if AfriForum can build for Afrikaners, we should have a Zulu version, Xhosa version, etc." We must consider what kind of country we aspire to build. Should our institutions deepen our identities while also allowing us to interact across those identities, or should they present a stark division between "ours" and "theirs," never allowing the two to meet?

The distinction between an African university teaching in isiZulu without being exclusive to Zulu people and a university requiring students to prove their ethnicity is significant. We can build African institutions that honor African culture without turning culture into a membership card. Language can act as a bridge, not a border, in our pursuit of African intellectual power.

The key concern should not be whether African people should build, but rather how we go about it. We should build African institutions, promote African intellectual prowess, and create universities where African languages are valued and used to generate knowledge. However, we must be cautious about erecting walls and referring to them as universities.

South Africa's diversity should be a source of strength, not another justification to retreat into separate corners. We've already experienced a South Africa where identity dictated where one could live, learn, and belong. We should not romanticize the concept of separation merely because the walls have different names now. A university is where minds intersect; a tribe is a place where belonging is inherited. South Africa cannot afford to blur the lines between these two concepts.