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Mafeje affair
The Mafeje affair refers to anti-government protests by South African students in 1968 in response to a decision of the council of the University of Cape Town (UCT) to rescind anthropologist Archie Mafeje's job offer for a senior lecturer position due to pressure from the South African apartheid government. The protests were followed by a nine-day sit-in at the university's administration building.
Protesters faced intimidation from the government, anti-protesters and fellow Afrikaans students from other universities. The police swiftly squashed support for the sit-in. Students at other universities, including the University of Natal and the University of Witwatersrand, voted in support of the UCT action. However, the government successfully intervened against a sympathy march at Witwatersrand.
Mafeje was never hired, and he left the country afterwards and did not return until 2000. After his death, UCT apologised to him and his family, and renamed the main room where the sit-in was held in his honour.
Archie Mafeje (1936–2007) enrolled at the University of Cape Town (UCT) in 1957, joining a minority of less than twenty non-white students on a campus of five thousand. At UCT, he initially enrolled for a Bachelor of Science (BSc) in biology, but failed to pass the required courses. He then switched to social anthropology in 1959. In 1960, he completed a Bachelor of Arts in urban sociology with honours, followed by a Master of Arts (MA) with distinction in political anthropology, before leaving the university in 1963.
Mafeje then moved to the UK initially as a research assistant at the University of Cambridge after being recommended by Monica Wilson (his MA supervisor), but then completed a Doctor of Philosophy under Audrey Richards at King's College, University of Cambridge, in the late 1960s.
Mafeje sought to return to UCT and applied for a senior lecturer post that UCT widely advertised in August 1967. He was unanimously offered a post as senior lecturer of social anthropology by the UCT Council. By law, the UCT could only admit white students unless suitable courses were not available at black universities, but the law did not explicitly bar UCT from hiring non-white faculty.
Mafeje was scheduled to start on 1 July 1968, but the UCT Council decided to withdraw Mafeje's employment offer because the Government threatened to cut funding and impose sanctions on UCT should it appoint him. The Minister of National Education, Senator Jan de Klerk, told UCT Council about the
government's intense displeasure at the decision to appoint an African, which is tantamount to flouting the accepted traditional outlook of South Africa. Should your Council disregard my appeal and give effect to this decision, the government will not hesitate in taking such action as it may deem fit to ensure that the tradition referred to above is observed.
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Mafeje affair
The Mafeje affair refers to anti-government protests by South African students in 1968 in response to a decision of the council of the University of Cape Town (UCT) to rescind anthropologist Archie Mafeje's job offer for a senior lecturer position due to pressure from the South African apartheid government. The protests were followed by a nine-day sit-in at the university's administration building.
Protesters faced intimidation from the government, anti-protesters and fellow Afrikaans students from other universities. The police swiftly squashed support for the sit-in. Students at other universities, including the University of Natal and the University of Witwatersrand, voted in support of the UCT action. However, the government successfully intervened against a sympathy march at Witwatersrand.
Mafeje was never hired, and he left the country afterwards and did not return until 2000. After his death, UCT apologised to him and his family, and renamed the main room where the sit-in was held in his honour.
Archie Mafeje (1936–2007) enrolled at the University of Cape Town (UCT) in 1957, joining a minority of less than twenty non-white students on a campus of five thousand. At UCT, he initially enrolled for a Bachelor of Science (BSc) in biology, but failed to pass the required courses. He then switched to social anthropology in 1959. In 1960, he completed a Bachelor of Arts in urban sociology with honours, followed by a Master of Arts (MA) with distinction in political anthropology, before leaving the university in 1963.
Mafeje then moved to the UK initially as a research assistant at the University of Cambridge after being recommended by Monica Wilson (his MA supervisor), but then completed a Doctor of Philosophy under Audrey Richards at King's College, University of Cambridge, in the late 1960s.
Mafeje sought to return to UCT and applied for a senior lecturer post that UCT widely advertised in August 1967. He was unanimously offered a post as senior lecturer of social anthropology by the UCT Council. By law, the UCT could only admit white students unless suitable courses were not available at black universities, but the law did not explicitly bar UCT from hiring non-white faculty.
Mafeje was scheduled to start on 1 July 1968, but the UCT Council decided to withdraw Mafeje's employment offer because the Government threatened to cut funding and impose sanctions on UCT should it appoint him. The Minister of National Education, Senator Jan de Klerk, told UCT Council about the
government's intense displeasure at the decision to appoint an African, which is tantamount to flouting the accepted traditional outlook of South Africa. Should your Council disregard my appeal and give effect to this decision, the government will not hesitate in taking such action as it may deem fit to ensure that the tradition referred to above is observed.