ABSTRACT
In 2015, the University of Cape Town’s Academic Freedom Committee invited Jyllands Poston cultural editor, Flemming Rose, “to deliver the annual TB Davie lecture in August 2016.” The vice chancellor, Max Price, subsequently withdrew the invitation. In 2005, Rose commissioned controversial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, which set off polarised debates globally. This chapter argues that the Academic Freedom Committee’s statement about Price’s decision and certain op-eds offer meaningful insights into possessive investments in whiteness (cf. Lipsitz) in post-apartheid South Africa. Contentions that academic freedom is being compromised mask the vested interests that lie behind inviting Rose. Critics of Price’s decision raise concerns about academic freedom and question the University’s fears about violence, which may allegedly come from #RhodesMustFall and #FeesMustFall activists or local Muslims. The issues are ambiguous as old and new forms of racism are articulated along with valid concerns about free speech, which is under threat nationally. Arguments for and against Rose’s invitation thus provide important clues about the extent to which white male privilege at the University of Cape Town is defended and liquid forms of racism and Islamophobia are articulated.
