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April 2012
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A long love storyBy Professor Rhoda Reddock This is the text of Professor Rhoda Reddock’s address to the graduating class of 2012 at the University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa on March 15. The UWI St. Augustine Campus Deputy Principal was conferred with an honorary doctorate on that occasion.
That library card allowed me to enter a new world of reading, and to further my interest in this country and to learn more about its story. With that card I was introduced to Peter Abrahams and his South Africa through his books: Tell Freedom, A Wreath for Udomo, Mine Boy and others. I know that most of you are quite young and may not have heard of the South African author Peter Abrahams. I think that he is still alive in Jamaica. Through his books, I learnt about the Great Trek, the loss of lands by African and coloured people and about work in the mines. From his writing I could also get his take on the different standpoints of all the various protagonists in the South Africa scenario—white, black and coloured. This was the beginning of my deep interest in this great country. This interest continued as I—like millions of young people the world over—walked in marches, boycotted events, wore buttons and stickers and attended talks and lectures. At graduate school in The Hague and Amsterdam in the Netherlands, I was able to further my interest and solidarity with the many people of South Africa in exile there. There as well I was able to join in actions, in solidarity with Southern Africa more generally, as the struggle in Zimbabwe was also taking place at that time. On my return home to Trinidad and Tobago, I recall my women’s organisation carrying out a series of anti-apartheid activities focussing in particular on the Role of Women in the anti-Apartheid Struggle. Many exiled South Africans resident in Trinidad and Tobago were often called upon to speak. These actions gave South Africa a special place in my heart and mind and I am sure that this was true for many others as well—the world over. Chancellor, I was privileged to spend my sabbatical in South African in 2005-2006 and that was a dream come true. …I recall the visit I made to this campus—the University of the Western Cape—at the invitation of the Women and Gender Studies programme and Gender Equity Unit and how intrigued I was at the famous sculpture at the front of the Administration Building. The sculpture of the domestic worker complete with mop, celebrating the graduation of her son. Many of you may have begun to take that sculpture for granted—seeing it every day as you go about your everyday lives, but that sculpture is a wonderful memorial to the women (and men) who struggled and continue to struggle under difficult working conditions for the success of their children and most importantly for the greater success of South Africa. The domestic worker and her son danced in that sculpture in a fashion that has become symbolic of the struggles of the South African people to make a better life for themselves and for generations to come. For you the graduating class of 2010—take the memory of that sculpture with you as you leave this place to remind you from whence we all have come and of those who made it possible for you to be here today. The question I want you to ask yourself today is—what is my role now as UWC graduate in making the change that I would like to see in South Africa, in Africa and indeed, the world. Chancellor, my visit to South Africa in 2005-2006 brought home many things to me. First I was reminded of the ties that bind our two regions: the Caribbean or the West Indies and Southern Africa. First, there is our common history of slavery, migration and forced labour systems. Second, I was reminded when I was here that 1834 marked the end of slavery not only in the West Indies but also in the wider British Empire including South Africa. I was reminded that The Great Trek occurred because of the Emancipation declaration. While here I also learnt more about the Trans-Indian Ocean Slave Trade something of which we know little on our side of the hemisphere. We focus on the Transatlantic Slave Trade but there is still much historical work to be done on the relationships between these two. In South Africa I also leant about the small numbers of West Indians who settled here over the last century. At the District Six Museum I couldn’t miss the small photo of the well-dressed West Indian musicians who had lived in District Six before its destruction. Based on my own research during my time here, I also realised that Trinidadian lawyer, Henry-Sylvestre Williams, the person who first coined the term Pan-Africanism, spent two years in Cape Town… and was apparently one of if not the first Black man to be called to the bar in South Africa. Chancellor, I see this event as yet another opportunity to strengthen the ties between the post-colonial Caribbean and Southern Africa through greater university to university collaboration. I look forward to the establishment of closer working relationships between our two institutions, for example collaborative research and exchange visits among our students and faculty. I want to say a few words to my fellow graduates. First, it is always important to say thanks, and we thank our families, spouses and partners, children, teachers and staff and administrators at this great institution for bringing us to this day, especially some of us who at times felt we wouldn’t make it. Second I hope that what you received here was education and learning and not just certification. Certification will take you so far but true education and learning is what marks us as special and a credit to our institution. If not, then there is still time to make up for this—learning is life-long, this is just the beginning, there is still a great deal for you to learn when you leave this place. Chancellor as a daughter whose ancestors were torn from this continent so many centuries ago, it is great to be welcomed back home. (Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu has now retired and is no longer the Chancellor of UWC. He has been succeeded by Archbishop Thabo Makgoba.) |
This honour has particular significance to me because of my long love story with South Africa, its people and its struggle. I was just eleven years old when my mother did me the signal honour of allowing me to use her library card to borrow books in the Adult section of the Central Library in Port of Spain, the capital of my country Trinidad and Tobago.