The book explores forms of popular student resistance to apartheid education in South Africa, particularly at the University of Fort Hare (UFH), by tracing student activism at UFH from 1970 to 2000; highlighting the factors that influenced the development of a culture of student resistance; investigating the root causes that made Fort Hare exceptional in its stand against apartheid; and chronicling the educational and social implications that resulted from students’ unparalleled and fearless actions against the apartheid system. Student resistance at Fort Hare can be traced as far back as the 1940s; however, this book will primarily focus on the critical 1970–2000 period, which was marked by increased student activism in South Africa. The 1980s and 1990s were peak years for student activism in the country. There is no doubt that student struggles during this period and thereafter helped dismantle apartheid and usher in a new South African government.

Combines university records with the recollections of former students to examine the role of the university in the activism of figures like Tambo, Nelson Mandela, Mangosuthu Buthelezi, Robert Mugabe, Govan Mbeki, Wycliffe Tsotsi, Jeff Baqua, and Tehnjiwe Mtintso.

South Africa’s higher education sector is rooted in the country’s divided past. A significant State-driven restructuring from around 1997 to 2005 resulted in what is largely the current configuration of public universities. But just over two decades later, for a variety of reasons, the higher education sector in South Africa appears beset with numerous challenges. Nelson Mandela University is one of the public universities that emerged from the restructuring process. The university is in an ongoing state of evolution, of becoming. It developed out of the amalgamation of the University of Port Elizabeth, Port Elizabeth Technikon and incorporation of the Port Elizabeth campus of Vista University as Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in 2005. In 2017, it was renamed Nelson Mandela University, after the world-renowned statesman, rather than the metropolitan area in which the university is primarily located. The renaming was conceptualised as more than a marketing opportunity to rebrand the university, but as an opportunity to reorientate the university, to reposition Nelson Mandela University as an engaged and socially-embedded university in the service of society, striving to be the academic expression of the values and ethos of its iconic namesake. Endeavouring to be something greater and different from the norm imbues its strategy, public statements and practices. The determination to ‘achieve Mandela University’ serves, or is intended to serve, as both an organising principle and a lodestar. A cross-section of writers from different backgrounds situates Nelson Mandela University within the contemporary historical moment from which it emerged and examines its subsequent evolution. While Nelson Mandela University has performed the usual work expected of any university, it has also sought to turn the university outwards, to achieve a higher purpose, framing itself as a values-based university on a journey to become something else. In Achieving Nelson Mandela University? the university attempts to give an account of itself. The book is an intellectual and scholarly reflection on where the university has come from and where it is seeking to go.

Analyzes twelve strategic planning efforts in higher education in eight countries in Asia and Africa. Drawing on over fifty years of on-the-ground experience, Fred M. Hayward’s Transforming Higher Education in Asia and Africa analyzes change processes in higher education in eight Asian and African countries. The twelve cases range from the push to upgrade and transform higher education in Afghanistan in the midst of a war, to the successful struggle against apartheid in South African institutions, as well as thwarted efforts in Sierra Leone and Madagascar. Providing both practical lessons learned and hope for communities globally, Hayward demonstrates that higher education change and even transformation, which is more fundamental and structural, can occur even in the most difficult environments. Successful transformation requires well-crafted strategic and budget plans with careful implementation, monitoring, and effective leadership at multiple levels. Yet also critical are a commitment to human development, a desire for freedom and belief in democracy, and recognition that high-quality higher education is essential to national development. “This book provides detailed and informative accounts of system transformation, policymaking, leadership, and development in several developing countries. These areas are largely neglected in the literature. It also provides an account of the value of coordination and planning in developing effective higher education systems and institutions. It is clear that the author has long experience and expertise in the topics and regions addressed.” — Brendan Cantwell, Michigan State University

From an array of prominent activists including Nelson Mandela and Steve Biko to renowned performers and oral poets such as Johnny Dyani and Samuel Mqhayi, the Eastern Cape region plays a unique role in the history of South African protest politics and creativity. The Spirit of Resistance in Music and Spoken Word of South Africa's Eastern Cape concentrates on the Eastern Cape's contribution to the larger narrative of the connection between creativity, mass movements, and the forging of a modern African identity and focuses largely on the amaXhosa population. Lindsay Michie explores Eastern Cape performance artists, activists, organizations, and movements that used inventive and historical means to raise awareness of their plight and brought pressure to bear on the authorities and systems that caused it, all the while exhibiting the depth, originality, and inspiration of their culture.

Although there have been significant strides to transform the demographics of archive and museum personnel, develop new museums and heritage institutions and heritage training initiatives in post-apartheid South Africa, the Eurocentric model of the archive, museum and heritage sector has largely remained intact. Despite the euphoria around the transformation of heritage in the beginnings of post-apartheid South Africa, it can be argued that the transformation of heritage institutions has been superficial and cosmetic with the ideological foundation of the colonial archive and museum, as well as Eurocentric modalities of heritage education remaining solid, largely unmoved, and under continuing challenge. This is the thrust of this book which reflects on the transformation of archives, and museum and heritage education in South Africa and argues for meaningful transformation of the sector through a decolonisation from its Eurocentric mooring.