Epistemic Ruptures in South African Standpoint Knowledge-Making: Academic Feminism and the #FeesMustFall Movement
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25159/2412-8457/2920Keywords:
#FeesMustFall, student politics, standpoint theory, feminist knowledge production, higher educationAbstract
Alongside the many structural and political processes generated by the #FeesMustFall student protests between 2015 and 2016 were narratives and discourses about revitalising the transformation of universities throughout South Africa. It was the very notion of “transformation,†diluted by neo-liberal macro-economic restructuring from the late 1990s, that students jettisoned as they increasingly embraced the importance of “decolonisation.†By exploring some of the key debates and interventions driven by the #FeesMustFall movement, we consider how earlier trajectories of feminist knowledge-making resonate with these. The article also reflects on how aspects of intellectual activism within the student protests can deepen and push back the frontiers of contemporary South African academic feminism. In so doing, it explores how radical knowledge-making at, and about, universities, has contributed to radical political thought in South Africa.
References
Biko, S. 1987. I Write What I Like. Johannesburg: Heinemann.
Bond, P. 2016. “To Win Free Education, Fossilised Neoliberalism Must Fall.†In Fees Must Fall: Student Revolt, Decolonisation and Governance in South Africa, edited by S. Booysen, 192–213. Johannesburg, Wits University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.18772/22016109858.14
Booysen, S, 2016. “Two weeks in October: Changing governance in South Africa.†In Fees Must Fall: Student Revolt, Decolonisation and Governance in South Africa, ed S. Booysen, 22–52. Johannesburg: Wits University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.18772/22016109858.6
Christian, B. 1988. “The Race for Theory.†Feminist Studies 14 (1): 67–79. https://doi.org/10.2307/3177999 DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/3177999
De La Rey, C. 1997. “South African Feminism, Race and Racism.†Agenda, 32, 6–10. https://doi.org/10.2307/4066146 DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/4066146
Dzodan, F. 2011. “My Feminism Will Be Intersectional or It Will Be Bullshit.†Tiger Beatdown, October 10. Accessed June 19, 2017. http://tigerbeatdown.com/2011/10/10/my-feminism-will-be-intersectional-or-it-will-be-bullshit/
Essed, P. 2004. “Cloning Amongst Professors: Normativities and Imagined Homogeneities.†NORA: Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research 12 (2): 113–122. https://doi.org/10.1080/08038740410004588 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/08038740410004588
Fanon, F. 1952 (1986). Black Skin, White Masks. Translated by C. Lam Markmann. London: Pluto Press.
Fanon, F. 1963 (2005). The Wretched of the Earth. Translated by R. Philcox. New York: Grove Press.
Godsell, G., and R. Chikane. 2016. “The Roots of the Revolution.†In Fees Must Fall: Student Revolt, Decolonisation and Governance in South Africa, edited by S. Booysen, 54–73. Johannesburg, Wits University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.18772/22016109858.7
Godsell, G., R. Lepere, S. Mafoko, and A. Nase. 2016. “Documenting the Revolution.†In Fees Must Fall: Student Revolt, Decolonisation and Governance in South Africa, edited by S. Booysen, 101–124. Johannesburg, Wits University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.18772/22016109858.10
Grabham, E., D. Cooper, J. Krishnadas, and D. Herman, eds. 2009. Intersectionality and Beyond: Law, Power and the Politics of Location. Abingdon: Routledge-Cavendish. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203890882
Gouws, A. 2017. “Feminist Intersectionality and the Matrix of Domination in South Africa†in Agenda 33 (1): 19–27. https://doi.org/10.1080/10130950.2017.1338871 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/10130950.2017.1338871
Gqola, P. D. 2001. “Ufanele uqavile: Blackwomen, Feminisms and Postcoloniality in Africa.†Agenda, 50, 11–22.
Harding, S. 1991. Whose Science? Whose Knowledge? Thinking from Women’s Lives. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Harding, S. 1998. Is Science Multi-Cultural? Post-Colonialism, Feminism and Epistemologies. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Harding, S. ed. 2004. The Feminist Standpoint Theory Reader: Intellectual and Political Controversies. New York: Routledge.
Hartsock, N. C. M. 1998. The Feminist Standpoint Revisited and Other Essays. Boulder: Westview Press.
Hendricks, C., and D. Lewis. 1994. “Voices from the Margins.†Agenda, no. 20, 61–75. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/4065873
Hill Collins, P. 2000. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness and the Politics of Empowerment. Abingdon: Psychology Press.
hooks, b. 1981. Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism. Boston: South End Press
hooks, b. 1984. Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center. Boston: South End Press.
Hussen, T. S. forthcoming. “Understanding #RapeMustFall and #NakedProtest in South Africa.â€
Langa, M, ed. 2016. #Hashtag: An Analysis of the #FeesMustFall Movement at South African Universities. Johannesburg: Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation. https://www.csvr.org.za/pdf/An-analysis-of-the-FeesMustFall-Movement-at-South-African-universities.pdf
Lewis, D. 2007. “Feminism and the Radical Imagination.†Agenda, no. 72, 18–31.
Lewis, D. 2016. “Academy-Based Feminists and the Nexus of State, Globalisation and Civil Society†in The Role of Intellectuals in the State-Society Nexus, edited by the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection (MISTRA), 110–125. Johannesburg: Real African Publishers. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv13qfwkk.22
Mbembe, A. 2015. “Decolonization of Knowledge and the Question of the Archive.†WISER. Accessed October 24, 2017. http://wiser.wits.ac.za/system/files/Achille%20Mbembe%20-%20Decolonizing%20Knowledge%20and%20the%20Question%20of%20the%20Archive.pdf
Miller, D. 2016. “Excavating the Vernacular: ‘Ugly Feminists,’ Generational Blues and Matriarchal Leadership.†In Fees Must Fall: Student Revolt, Decolonisation and Governance in South Africa, edited by S. Booysen, 270–291. Johannesburg, Wits University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.18772/22016109858.18
Naidoo, L-A. 2016. “Leigh-Ann Naidoo: The Anti-Apartheid Generation Has Become Afraid of the Future.†Mail&Gaurdian, August 17. Accessed October 24, 2017. https://mg.co.za/article/2016-08-17-leigh-ann-naidoo-delivers-compelling-speech-at-ruth-first-memorial-lecture
Ndlovu-Gatsheni, S. 2013. “Why Decoloniality in the 21st Century?†The Thinker, no. 48, 10–15.
South African History Online. 2016. “Student Protests in a Democratic South Africa†Last modified October 31, 2016. https://sahistory.org.za/article/student-protests-democratic-south-africa
South African History Online. 2017 “SPEAK Magazine (1982–1994).†Last modifed February 21, 2017.http://www.sahistory.org.za/article/speak-magazine-1982-1994
Stoetzler, M., and N. Yuval Davis. 2002. “Standpoint Theory, Situated Knowledge and the Situated Imagination.†Feminist Theory 3 (3): 315–333. https://doi.org/10.1177/146470002762492024 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/146470002762492024
Tamale, S. 2016. “Nudity, Protest and the Law in Uganda†Inaugural Professorial Lecture, Makerere University. October 28. Accessed October 24, 2017. http://www.searcwl.ac.zw/downloads/Tamale_Inaugural_Lecture.pdf
Yuval Davis, N. 2006. “Intersectionality and Feminist Politics.†European Journal of Women’s Studies 13 (3): 193–209. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350506806065752 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1350506806065752
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
Accepted 2017-10-11
Published 2017-11-30
