Niehaus slams Afrikaans varsity as Afrikaans fortress built on privilege
· Citizen
EFF’s Carl Niehaus has slammed Akademia University, saying Afrikaans must never again be used as a tool of exclusion, racial separation or the preservation of privilege.
“I reject it utterly. I am an Afrikaans speaker. The language of my childhood and my deepest thoughts is Afrikaans. Yet I refuse to call myself an Afrikaner.
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Niehaus rejects Akademia project as a toxic parallel world
“That identity has been poisoned by those who turn it into a racial fortress. AfriForum and Solidarity’s Akademia project is the clearest current expression of that toxicity,” he added.
Niehaus said an exclusive Afrikaans-medium university was being built with private wealth rooted in historical racist divisions and advantage. In practice, it will be closed to the overwhelming majority of South Africans – who were black.
“The language barrier is real. This is not mother-tongue education. It is the construction of a parallel world that apartheid once enforced by law, now pursued with private capital.
“A university that isolates its students from the majority of their fellow citizens does not educate them for democratic life.
“It prepares them for separateness. It keeps alive the bitterness and superiority that Prof Jonathan Jansen rightly called knowledge in the blood,” he added.
Exclusive Afrikaans university prepares students for separateness
Niehaus said he joined the struggle against apartheid because he refused to allow his language to serve white supremacy.
“I will not watch a new generation educated into isolation.
“Transformation demands inclusive campuses where South Africans of every background learn together.
“An exclusive Afrikaans university moves in the opposite direction,” said Niehaus.
AfriForum’s CEO Kallie Kriel said they didn’t pay any attention to Niehaus’ remarks.
Kriel dismissed Niehaus as desperate for attention
“It was clear to everyone Niehaus’ reaction was that of someone with little support, who finds himself in a shrinking party and is desperate for attention and relevance,” he added.
But political analyst Piet Croucamp said: “If you look from the perspective of Niehaus, I think he is right in some way, it is a political project.
“Akademia is not an academic project primarily, it’s a political project driven by an academic narrative or academic institution.
“I understand Niehaus’ argument and the consequences of an academic institution being representative of a political culture.
“Language is being used to restrict the philosophy or underlying philosophy, language, culture and religion being used to restrict the educational philosophy to a very specific narrative.”