Mafeje affair: Difference between revisions

== Background ==

[[Archie Mafeje]] (born 30 March 1936) enrolled at the [[University of Cape Town]] (UCT) in 1957, joining the minority for non-white student numbering less than twenty out of five thousand students. At UCT, he initially enrolled for a [[Bachelor of Science]] (BSc) in biology, but failed to pass the required courses.<ref name=":242">{{Cite thesis |title=Archie Mafeje : an intellectual biography |url=https://uir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/23899 |date=June 2017 |degree=Thesis |language=en |first=Bongani |last=Nyoka}}</ref><ref name=":252">{{Cite book |last=Mafeje |first=Archie |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/870104768 |title=Africanity : a commentary by way of conclusion |oclc=870104768}}</ref> He then switched to studying [[social anthropology]] in 1959. In 1960, he completed a [[Bachelor of Arts]] in [[Urban sociology|Urban Sociology]] with honours, followed by a [[Master of Arts]] (MA) with a distinction in [[Political Anthropology]], before leaving the university in 1963.<ref name=":722">{{Cite web |last=Becker |first=Heike |title=South African student protests, 1968 to 2016 {{!}} International Socialist Review |url=https://isreview.org/issue/111/south-african-student-protests-1968-2016/index.html |access-date=2022-12-29 |website=isreview.org |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=«Global 1968» on the African continent - Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung |url=https://www.rosalux.de/en/publication/id/38964/global-1968-on-the-african-continent |access-date=2022-12-29 |website=www.rosalux.de |language=en-US}}</ref>

 

Mafeje sought to return to [[University of Cape Town]] (UCT) and applied for a senior lecturer post that UCT widely advertised in August 1967.<ref name=":12">{{Cite journal |last=Hendricks |first=Fred |date=2008-12-03 |title=The Mafeje Affair: The University of Cape Town and Apartheid |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/00020180802505061 |journal=African Studies |volume=67 |issue=3 |pages=423–451 |doi=10.1080/00020180802505061 |issn=0002-0184 |s2cid=145251370}}</ref> He was unanimously<ref name=":11">{{Cite web |title=White Cape Town University Students Sit-in for Reappointment of Black Professor, 1968 {{!}} Global Nonviolent Action Database |url=https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/content/white-cape-town-university-students-sit-reappointment-black-professor-1968 |access-date=2022-12-29 |website=nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu}}</ref><ref name=":12" /> offered a post as Senior lecturer of social anthropology by the UCT Council.<ref name=":5">{{Cite journal |last=Plaut |first=Martin |date=2010 |title=South African Student Protest, 1968: Remembering the Mafeje Sit-in |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/239860497 |journal=History Workshop Journal |volume=69 |issue=69 |pages=199–205 |doi=10.1093/hwj/dbp035}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=2018-08-15 |title=The 1968 "Mafeje Affair" sit-in, 50 years on {{!}} Libraries Special Collections |url=http://www.specialcollections.uct.ac.za/news/1968-mafeje-affair-sit-50-years |url-status=live |archive-url= |archive-date= |access-date=2020-11-09 |website=University of Cape Town Special Collections |language=en}}</ref> By law, the UCT could only admit white students unless suitable courses were not available at black universities. Still, the law did not explicitly bar UCT from hiring non-white faculty.<ref name=":11" /><ref name=":12" />