By Khanyisa Khenese
Celebrating 120 years of academic excellence, Rhodes University kicked off its first of six Autumn graduation ceremonies on Wednesday, 3 April. The university celebrated, capped the class of 2023 and awarded honorary doctorates to two women whose actions and advocacy have made a lasting impact.
A total of 2 035 students received their degrees, diplomas, and certificates. Of those, 1 361 are undergraduate bachelor’s degrees, while 719 are postgraduate degrees, postgraduate diplomas, and postgraduate certificates.
Vice-chancellor Professor Sizwe Mabizela, said 65% of graduands are female students, adding, “Malibongwe igama lamakhosikazi”.
Among females that were conferred meritorious, two women, Barbara Masekela and Professor Slyvia Tamale, both received a Doctor of Laws (LLD) (Honoris causa) for their significant contributions to societies, social justice, human rights, activism, and being forerunners in their respective fields.
Mabizela said, “Their personal journey, selfless sacrifices, the courage of their conviction and accomplishments in public life and distinction in some fields set them apart from others, and they serve as an inspiration worthy of emulation by all of us.”
Dr Masekela, the sister of late jazz singer Hugh Masekela, received her honorary degree of Doctor of Law for her exceptional, enduring contributions as a cultural activist and literary scholar and for advocating for social justice, human rights, and dignity.
Dr Masekela taught in the English department of Living Stone College, Rutgers University, from 1972. In 1982, she returned to Zambia to join the African National Congress (ANC) and she was appointed administrative secretary of the Department of Arts and Culture in Lusaka.
After former president Nelson Mandela was released, she was in the team arranging his first visit to the United States and she was appointed head of staff in Mandela’s office. She was also an ambassador of Unesco in France and the United States. In 2022, she was elected as a writing fellow at the Johannesburg Institute of Advanced Studies (JIAS), and she is a founder of the Johannesburg Festival of Women Writers, which is supported by the University of Johannesburg.
Professor Tamale is awarded the doctorate for her dedication to human rights activism, and advocacy for marginalized groups, including women, sex workers, and the LGBTQIA+ community.
Professor Tamale is an academic scholar, lawyer, sociologist, and feminist activist. Also, she was an associate professor and the Dean of Law at Makerere University. She was born and raised in Uganda, and she holds a Bachelor of Law from Makerere University, a Master’s in Law from Havard University, and a PhD in Sociology and Feminist Studies from the University of Minnesota. She served as a visiting professor at the African Gender Institute of the University of Cape Town, University of Zimbabwe, Oxford University and visiting scholar at the University of Wisconsin. In 2022, her book ‘Decolonization and Afro Feminism’ won the feminist Theory and Gender Section Book Prize.
In her acceptance speech, Dr Masekela said: “I am grateful to Rhodes University for this wonderful gift of an honorary doctorate. I wish that my mother and father, my grandmother Johanne Mabena Bower who raised me and my brother, were all alive to see how the tearful, hesitant, sickly girl with a lisp has now become a veritable old matriarch still revelling in the written word, still awed by the mysteries of the creative act, and still learning how to live a useful life.”
She also advised graduands to embrace the new technology, Artificial Intelligence, to deepen their understanding of the barrage of information that they are given. However, she said they should be able to differentiate between what is real and fake. “Just remember to retain an iota of disbelief,” she said.
Dr Tamale thanked the senate and the university council for recognizing her work and honouring her with the prestigious doctorate.
Speaking to the graduands and audience after accepting her doctorate, Dr Tamale shared that education is a powerful tool used by neo-colonialists to continue the condition of coloniality today.
“Colonial education continues to organize our ways of thinking, of being and of doing things in Africa.
“Africa must adopt trust disciplinary learning that is non-colonial and anti-racist, and education system that decentres Eurocentric hegemony and instead, places Africa at the centre of analysis, adopting African perspectives in order to achieve its progressive transformation,” she added.
