Litnet

"One way to decolonise objects in a meaningful way is to let go of the Ozymandian idea that art has to last in one form, for all time, in order to have meaning or force. After fire, new things grow."

"I am totally opposed to the kind of direct action that was taken in Cape Town and now in other places. It precludes discussion and I think a democracy is based on the idea that when you have differences you can talk about it … it’s fundamental …"

"On a more constructive note, colonial artworks can be curated in such a way that they reveal and expose the inner workings of colonialism. They can be set in dialogue with contemporary works that bring out fresh valences in their content or they can be used as conceptual raw material for the creation of radical new artworks."

"Let the art prevail, colonial or not colonial. This is an expression of how certain artists interpreted what they saw at certain times in history."

"I ask that you accept that whatever I have done, I have done in accordance with the dictates of my conscience ..."

"Student grievances have been the subject of some of the best post-apartheid novels. These are not books that appeared briefly in print, sold a few hundred copies and disappeared without trace. They have been prescribed for school and university, reprinted many times, and translated into different languages."

"So, did Hendrickse, who was chairperson of the Ministers’ Council in the House of Representatives at the time, and also a member of the Botha cabinet, really apologise to Botha for the swim, as is widely believed?"

"Why is there such lethargy and dithering on the commitment to the effective recognition and implementation of multilingual policy, especially with regard to the indigenous languages of South Africa? Why do these languages not play a central role in society in general and education in particular?"

"Ladies and gentlemen, something is brewing in South Africa. I do not know the name of that something, but I know that it is irreversible and will continue to brew and boil over, whether we give it permission to do so or not."

"Where was the evidence which suggested Van Rooyen's incompetence?"

"The students ... It’s a generation of people who are more and more convinced that they have been sold a lie ... And they are determined to put on the table some of the questions we have put under the carpet for a long time. All those difficult issues we have not tackled enough. And that shift, that cultural shift it seems to me is much more important than anything else, and it signals a new form of politics, at least on campuses."

"And I ask: How would you feel, today, if your dad weren’t once allowed into Claremont at night? If you knew that your family had been systematically and purposely undermined for hundreds of years?"

"We tend to say so easily, forget about the past and go on to the future; it just does not work. The real challenge is to remember, perpetrators as well as victims, to remember what needs to be worked through and what needs to be forgiven. And then try and work against the natural tendency of continuing the pattern of oppression, with only a reversal of the roles from time to time."

"Resisting the popular media projection that education is in crisis, I ask instead what kind of research is able to bring the complexity of our current educational experiences into fuller view."

"Afrikaans does not pose a problem that can be resolved simply by replacing it with English."

"Let me declare that the reading culture among the black South African youth is changing very fast."

"'Colonialism,' Achille Mbembe wrote, 'rhymes with monolingualism.'"

Karina Magdalena Szczurek on André Brink and Ingrid Jonker: "No other woman in André’s life had left as indelible a mark on him as Ingrid. No other haunted me as much in the beginning of our relationship." 

"He turned to walk away and then turned back and stared at my legs. For what felt like a long time. He then looked up, licked his lips in a suggestive manner and walked away."

"One can only wonder what Hector Pieterson may have made of this 'new dawn'."