Nothing about us? Reflections on classics in southern Africa : Chapter 1

Abstract

This book was born in the aftermath of student protests in South Africa – the Rhodes Must Fall and Fees Must Fall (‘Fallist’) movements of 2015/2016 – in a campus climate urgently seeking transformation and decolonisation of thought and curricula. One of its aims is to ask what shape and value the discipline still has on the continent. In South African universities, and elsewhere, the grip of Western hegemonies has been questioned and past injustices addressed in relation to reparations and even repatriations. What place can classics possibly have in university curricula? What acts of reimagination can offer new perspectives and motivation for studying this ideologically laden discipline? What might decolonisation look like for classics on the continent of Africa?