THREE-SIXT-E | ALUMNI E-NEWSLETTER | ISSUE 11/DECEMBER 2014
KLET O O B ’ TOE ‘HEK
UWC Chancellor Archbishop Desmond Tutu. (Benny Gool)
exhibition, alumni recount the impact of politics and campus conditions on their studies and youthful interests, and the high price some willingly paid in pursuit of liberation.
Africa’s first liberated spaces, famously dubbed by Gerwel as the ‘intellectual home of the left’ in 1987.
The booklet also briefly discusses the contrasting leadership styles and contributions of the two rectors of the time, Prof ‘Dicky’ van der Ross and Prof Jakes Gerwel, who oversaw UWC’s transformation from bush college to one of South
The struggles for women’s rights and the singular contributions of leaders such as Rhoda Kadalie and Jean Benjamin are fittingly acknowledged, and, lest the impression be created that politics consumed campus life, a chapter discusses student social life, organisations and the diverse cultural activities on campus.
Below left: Prof Jakes Gerwel. (Benny Gool) Below right: Prof van der Ross. (Independent News Media Group) Bottom: from left to right, Frank van der Horst, Lionel Louw, Allan Boesak, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Jakes Gerwel and Mary Burton at a ‘Defend Democracy’ campaign. (Benny Gool)
Below left: Rhoda Kadalie Below right: Jean Benjamin Bottom left: Kasie Olifant reading his poetry. Bottom right: A cultural event in the Main Hall in 1986.
Alumni Booklet Complementing the exhibition, each alumnus received a copy of a booklet entitled Hek Toe! UWC in the 1980s. Dedicated to the alumni of the 1980s, the booklet was researched and written by UWC 1980s alumnus and struggle veteran Nazeem Lowe. The booklet recalls how UWC students confronted the might of the apartheid regime in the 1980s amid the unrelenting wider political struggle that proved to be the turning point in the fight against apartheid. Echoing the images in the PAGE SEVENTEEN