Fort Hare marks 90 years milestone

By Zine George

PROFESSOR Derrick Swartz yesterday called on Fort Hare academics, alumni and students to work together in redefining the future role of the institution in society.

He was addressing staff and students at a low-key celebration of the university’s 90th anniversary.

Swartz said Fort Hare had a rich history, but “we don’t want to immortalise the past”.

“If we want to take Fort Hare forward, we need to ask ourselves what is good about us presently, and how we want to be in 10, 20 and 30 years’ time.”

Swartz said that from now until 2016, the Fort Hare community should focus on renewing its curriculum and on the intellectual development of its students. “We have to inculcate new ideas and develop skills. A qualification is only one step; what is important, is the knowledge and skills that go with it.

“If we do not produce better-quality graduates, we will have failed. We must rediscover the meaning of UFH to rewrite the books and the old ways of doing things.”

The university – the oldest historically black university in southern Africa – was founded in 1916, with Professor Alexander Kerr as its first vice-chancellor.

The late Kimberley-born Professor Zechariah Keodireng Matthews became its first African graduate in 1923, while the institution was still registered as a college.

Matthews went on to become the first African lecturer, and later the head of the department of African studies, and vice-principal.

Fort Hare made history through its contribution to the struggle for liberation and the development and affirmation of black intelligentsia.

Its illustrious products include former South African president Nelson Mandela, PAC founder-president Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe, PAC co-founder Dennis Siwisa, Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe, ANC stalwarts Govan Mbeki and Oliver Tambo, Sir Seretse Khama of Botswana, former president of Uganda Yusuf Lule, poet and activist Dennis Brutus, Communications Minister Dr Ivy Matseppe-Cassiburi, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimango, and former cricket administrator and PE school principal Raymond Uren.

UFH spokesman Thami Mgwigwi said the milestone 90th anniversary followed just a year after the university was awarded one of the highest orders to be bestowed in South Africa – the Supreme Order of Baobab (Gold) – by President Thabo Mbeki.

The award was in recognition of Fort Hare’s role in the academic and leadership development of men and women on the continent and beyond.

The official celebrations will be held on April 28.

Additional reporting by Jimmy Matyu