'A World Class African University'

Archie Mafeje Hall at The University of Cape Town pays tribute to the late great African Anthropology scholar. The Hall is where, in 1968, 600 students sat for 9 days in protest of the University's decision to revoke Mafeje's appointment as a senior social antrohopology lecturer. At that time UCT folded under the pressure of the racist apartheid government, which is why, according to his wife, Mafeje understood this decision to be political, not personal. So why then did Mafeje not acknowledge UCT's 2003 public admission of guilt and apology in what has become known as the 1968 "Mafeje affair"? The answer to that question is not a simple one, but to answer it, one must also ask why Mafeje was turned down for appointments at UCT when the University was not under the pressure of a national racist regime.

In 1990, Mafeje was ready to come out of exile home to South Africa. After he inquired about employment at UCT, the university offered him a one-year contract as a visiting senior research fellow. This was a slap in Mafeje's face.

It seemed ridiculous that after working as a leading African scholar and professor internationally, Mafeje was essentially offered the same job UCT pulled from him 22 years previous, and for a max of one year, no less. In letters of correspondence with Mafeje, the university says they were encountering financial restraints and could not bring him on board for a higher position.

Three years later, when the AC Jordan Chair in African Studies position at UCT became vacant, Mafeje reluctantly applied. The selection committee short-listed him as an "A" candidate. After much discussion, the committee decided to interview Mafeje, as they were uneasy about his "personality." However, the unnamed chairperson of the committee claimed "a change of address" as the reason Mafeje was not contacted for this interview. In a letter he later wrote to the chairperson, Mafeje says that the committee's decision to exclude him is one that "only the politically naïve or the unimaginative can face, without some uneasy doubts."

It is clear that by the early-to-mid 90s, Mafeje's attitude toward UCT had rightly soured. It was only made worse when in 2003, under the black leadership of Vice Chancellor Njabulo Ndebele, UCT offered Mafeje an honorary doctorate and an official letter of apology… for the 1968 saga only. Mafeje was unresponsive. Unfortunately, Ndebele only learned for the first time of Mafeje's attempts to return to UCT in the 1990's toward the end of his time as Vice Chancellor. Before Ndebele left his post in 2008, he made a commitment to dig into the matter and repair the rift between UCT and Mafeje, who had passed away in 2007.

Under the new Vice Chancellor, Dr. Max Price, UCT extended a second apology to Mafeje, which his family then accepted. UCT also posthumously awarded Mafeje with an honorary doctorate. The apology was concluded with the steps that UCT would take to honor Mafeje's life work. Arguably the most important vow UCT made is "to permit access to scholars wishing to research the events surrounding Archie Mafeje at UCT to all relevant archival material without waiting the normal proscribed period, and to allow publication of any research resulting from this."

However, this effort at transparency comes with a contradictory footnote. The footnote states that scholars wishing to research the matter must obtain permission from the Vice-Chancellor to access the archive. Furthermore, any of their findings must also be cleared by the Vice-Chancellor who will then decide when and how they may be published. This alarming detail is yet another questionable aspect of UCT's torrid relationship with Mafeje.–Allison Swank