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Fannie Lou Hamer Institute @ COFO and Gallery 1 partner together to pay tribute to Nelson Mandela through book reading focused on student’s resistance to apartheid at 6 p.m. Monday, February 13, 2017 John R. Lynch Street, Jackson, MS, 39203.
JSU Reading Faculty Book Talk: In this session of the 2016-2017 academic year, The JSU Faculty Book Talk will discuss the book, Student Resistance to Apartheid at the University of Fort Hare: Freedom Now, a Degree Tomorrow (Lexington Books, 2016) featuring Dr. Rico D. Chapman, associate professor and interim chair in the Department of History and Philosophy and the director of the Fannie Lou Hamer Institute @ COFO: Human and Civil Rights Interdisciplinary Education Center at Jackson State University.
The text explores forms of popular student resistance to apartheid education in South Africa, particularly at the University of Fort Hare (UFH). It traces student activism at UFH from 1970 to 2000, highlighting the factors that influenced student resistance and the root causes that made Fort Hare exceptional against apartheid. As well, it chronicles the educational and social implications that resulted from students’ unparalleled and fearless actions against apartheid.
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 was no doubt that student struggles during this period and thereafter helped dismantle apartheid and usher in a new South African government.
Chapman was an exchange student at the University of Fort Hare in South Africa in the late 1990s, where Mandela was also a student in 1939. He stated that “Students at JSU will be fascinated by the history of the freedom struggle in South Africa as it has many commonalities to the civil rights movement in the United States.”
In addition, there will be and exhibition unveiling of photographs titled “Nelson Mandela: His Life in the Struggle.” The exhibit chronicles the life and times of Nelson Mandela and were purchased by Dr. Chapman from the Robben Island Museum in Cape Town, South Africa.