“For some people it's a project and for others, it's a movement, or a tick box activity”: The #RhodesMustFall and Institutional Changes at the University of Cape Town

The #RhodesMustFall is a significant driver of the current wave of decolonial turn in Africa and globally. It influenced other #MustFall and decolonization movements in South Africa and was motivated by students at the University of Cape Town (UCT). The activism resulting from feelings of ‘Black pain’ have instigated several studies, movements, and advocacies on decolonial theory and praxis. Similarly, the UCT has been critiqued to take care of its white and colonial history amidst deep transformation and decolonization. The study collected primary qualitative and secondary (official documents from the university) data to investigate the institutional change (university-wide, attitudes, and languages) engagement in UCT concerning decolonization and teaching and curriculum learning. Eleven staff in UCT were interviewed, including decolonization researchers, administrators, and academic staff. The primary data were analysed thematically, and four themes were presented and interpreted, amidst the social cartography responses to modernity’s violence framework. The findings showed that the university community is more receptive to a term like decolonization. However, little successes have been recorded on decolonizing the curriculum at a structural level in the university, amidst interruptions caused by Covid-19. In terms of multilingualism, findings showed that African indigenous languages usually appear in the identities of the university but are yet to permeate institutional cultures, teaching, and learning spaces. The social cartography also depicted UCT’s specialty in challenging some modernity’s epistemological violence: racism and patriarchy. The study concluded that UCT must transit and claim ownership of a university for ‘Afrika’.