ABSTRACT

The call for decolonisation by university students kick-started a movement that is pegged back to the single symbolic act by Chumani Maxwele of throwing human waste on the statue of the uber-symbol of colonialism, Cecil John Rhodes. The key point is that the decolonisation call by students is battle based immediately at the university and for the university. It is important to note that 'all' institutions of learning fall under this category irrespective of whether they are public or private. This observation presents an immediate tactical and strategic dilemma for the student movement which has been arguing for access as one of the key demands of 'decolonisation'. Black academics gave Max Price the gift of legitimation and they delegitimised the students' militant struggles. Academics associated with 'decolonisation' such as Prof Mbembe have been carefully crafting a perspective of San Fanon as pacifist humanist by selectively reading his last chapter in Black Skins White Masks, or in Wretched of the Earth.