The #FeesMustFall movement was characterised by spectacular mobilisation, profound transformation demands and waves of collective action across South African university campuses in 2015 and 2016. Led by people of the ‘Born Free’ generation, this movement also inspired and connected with students globally. In response to this unprecedented mobilisation, the South African government froze tuition fee increases for a time and changed funding to universities. Individual universities such as Wits also set out a wide-ranging programme of transformation in response to student demands. Yet, what has happened since the protests? To what extent were demands achieved, and how? What has been the wider effect of this movement, what historical conditions made it possible and what are its longer-term implications for South African society?

Speakers:
– Fasiha Hassan
Fasiha Hassan was the Secretary-General of the Student Representative Council at the University of the Witswatersrand in Johannesburg from 2016-17 and emerged as one of the spokespeople of the #FeesMustFall movement. She received this year’s Student Peace Prize, awarded last month in Trondheim, Norway, and works in Communications for the African National Congress (ANC). She is a graduate in Law from Wits.

– Mpumi Tshabalala
Mpumi Tshabalala is a lawyer and activist from Johannesburg, and current postgraduate student in the MSc African Politics at SOAS. She has experience practising law in South Africa, both in the commercial environment and at the South African Constitutional Court.

– Dr Wayne Dooling
Wayne Dooling is Senior Lecturer in the History of Southern Africa in the SOAS History Department. His research particularly focuses on the social history of the Western Cape and Cape Town in the colonial era, particularly the role of slavery and more recently on questions of poverty, social mobility and segregation. At SOAS he teaches on modules including Colonial Conquest and Social Change in Southern Africa, and Race, Class and Culture in the History of Southern Africa. He received his Bachelors and Masters degrees from the University of Cape Town and his doctorate from the University of Cambridge.

Chair: Dr Awino Okech
Dr Okech’s teaching and research interests lies in the nexus between gender, sexuality and nation/state making projects as they occur in conflict and post-conflict societies. In addition, Dr Okech sees the processes through which knowledge production occurs as critical to transforming and re-thinking academic practice today. Therefore the politics of knowledge production, research and research(ing) form a central part for her teaching and researching focus. She received her Bachelors degree in Kenya and her Masters and doctoral degrees from the University of Cape Town.

This event is organised and supported by the Decolonising SOAS Working Group.

All welcome.