Decolonise if you must... But beware.

I am angry with myself and fellow South Africans that we have allowed things to come to this. Most of our campuses are in a state of siege, irreversible damage is being caused to the reputation of our universities, and most damaging on a broad front, we are at risk of losing an academic year. A minority of students have grasped the opportunity to intimidate and force their will, to the extent that the rights of all have been denied, with far reaching consequences. Some students may never complete their studies, as a result of this unrest.Two themes have emerged from the unrest, and they sit very differently with me. On the one hand, the matter of fees and affordability to all, no matter your economic means. This issue is not simple, and vulnerable to the principle of unintended consequences, but I believe many people would empathise with it. Education is probably the single most powerful means of human development and economic progress, and South Africa would be a vastly improved country if there was a mechanism whereby anyone with the threshold ability for tertiary education could be given the necessary financial support. Nobody should be denied an education, on the basis of affordability. But, as with all things in life, nothing is free (ok, fresh air and gravity, but that is about it). Somebody always pays for the things that are apparently free. So when something is free, as in “provided by the State”, you can be sure that the quality will be indifferent at best, and that it could be abused by unprincipled despots. Before long, the curriculum is peppered with propaganda, and dogma replaces free thought. Remember the old maxim about the excessive cost of a cheap education? So, instead of being free, education should be high-value, provided by largely autonomous universities, only partly subsidised by the State, and made affordable by means of a widely accessible financing scheme. Many such models exist in other countries, and it simply means that the short-term funding needs of the student is being offset by a commitment to repay the loan over the long term, usually on soft terms, through an extra margin on tax. Prof Lester from Rhodes University made some innovative suggestions in recent weeks, whereby the State could fund 100% of first year tuition, allowing everyone an opportunity to demonstrate their commitment and prospects. With a good first year result achieved, further funding faces a much lower bar. So, in a nutshell, the funding of tertiary education can and should be solved, to allow anyone with the drive and the intellectual means to have access to further study. The long-term health of our economy and constitutional democracy depend on that being achieved. A key question though: Does Minister Blade and his team have the means, the objectivity and the political will to even grasp the problem, and come up with workable solutions? Given that he faced the same anger in 2015, and in the interim period has failed to produce anything remotely innovative to defuse the situation, leaves me with very little hope.But now, the second theme that has emerged from the student unrest. “Decolonise” – Quite an elegant, snappy word, actually, were it not for its devastating and misguided impact. What I am hearing is a clamouring, largely by partially educated black students, for the knowledge, discoveries and insights of “dead white men” on which the philosophy, technology and science of today is largely based, to be removed from the curriculum. That the Eurocentric curriculum should be replaced by an Afrocentric curriculum. Ok…I believe all people should have a choice in what they are taught, especially at tertiary level. Hence, alongside the usual, existing courses, there should be the Afrocentric courses. Students should have the choice between the engineering degree based on Eurocentric science and technology, and the one based on the technology and science that existed in Africa prior to colonisation. Provided, of course, that the two streams culminate in different qualifications, and are funded in a ring-fenced manner. Personally, I wish the students of the new curriculum every success in the job market, and in gaining the economic means with which to service their student debt. But I also know that I shall not be hiring a single one of them. In fact, I cannot think of anyone I know, black, white or anywhere in between, who would. But hey, who am I to judge their choice of study?Besides the matter of having Afrocentric engineering and other disciplines, there is also the narrative of broad-based decolonising. What is truly frightening, is how little thinking, of any substance, has gone into this idea. First of all, let’s take a step back, to around 364 years ago. At that time, the early European settlers encountered a southern African continent with indigenous peoples, with a gap in technology and science spanning probably 2000 years (no wheel invented, and no written text). In the larger scheme of things, that is not a big deal; human endeavour has always moved with fits and starts, and compared to the Eurasian and American continents, the African continent has not been well-endowed for progress, with its relative isolation, lack of domesticable animals and a dearth of tropical diseases. Since that early start of colonisation, the people living on this land has shared hardship and fortune, albeit not equitably, through a shared destiny. We fought each other, then we fought in each other’s wars. We adopted cultural knick-knacks from each other, and we even started families and businesses together. Never was it easy, though.But, in retrospect, colonisation appears not so much as theft, as it was a transaction. For all the unsavoury abuse and theft of land and resources, the colonialists also left the country with a lasting gift of infrastructure, technology, a legal system, a financial system, and so forth. Today, all South Africans, irrespective of their heritage, embrace these gifts in their modern form. How does one put a value on the two sides of the transaction, over the course of 364 years? What would be the value of all the land and resources stolen during the colonial and apartheid eras? On flipside, what would be the value of the intellectual property granted, and financial investment made by the colonial powers, and the contributions made by the colonisers who stayed? Those who have been here for generations, and yearn for no other home.To put some value to the two sides of the colonial transaction would be difficult, painful and ultimately nonsensical, except for all of us to realise that colonisation cannot be undone, in the same way that an egg cannot be unscrambled. The reality of today is that we have grown to 53 million people, of whom a quarter are unemployed, and we compete on a global stage for investment and talent. To survive and prosper in this world, and to relieve the agony of the unemployed quarter, we need to be the best South Africa we can be. We need to train and educate all our people, no matter where they come from, or what they can afford. We need to teach them science and philosophy, and how to stand on the shoulders of giants, even if those giants are “dead white men”. We need to teach them that the idea is more important than the colour or gender of the person who came up with it. We also need to teach the young generation not to judge our forebears too harshly, as hindsight is an unfair advantage, and may one day be inflicted on themselves.As a parting shot to those students still running in the streets: You have made your point, now go make something of the tremendous privilege of receiving a tertiary education, a gift denied most young South Africans. If you choose to continue rioting and intimidating, and denying others the right to an education, then realise that as young adults, you need to live with the consequences of your actions – as we all do. If that means you have the misfortune of stopping a rubber bullet, then that would be an educational experience of your own making.