Youth activists throughout history have shaken up the status quo. Wandile Kasibe and his fellow students are no different.
Kasibe is one of the student leaders who dramatically interrupted the debate on the legacy of Cecil John Rhodes, hosted by the Centre for Conflict Resolution recently. They walked in holding a banner that read – Rhodes Must Fall.
Today on Meqoqo Kasibe takes Host Linda Fekisi behind the scenes of the protests and the headlines. He articulates the significance of the Rhodes Must Fall protest for him and fellow students.
Our main goal, says Wandile Kasibe, is that we can ensure that institutional racism is erased.
“We must be able to say that in our lifetime this is our legacy….” he says.
Kasibe holds a B-Tech Degree in Fine Art, a post graduate Diploma in Fine Art, an MFA from the University of Cape Town and a Masters Degree in World Heritage from the International Training Centre of the International Labour Organisation. He recently graduated with a Masters Degree in Museum Studies at Leicester University and is currently a registered PhD Candidate in the UCT Sociology Department and will be starting in May 2015.
We asked him how he became involved in the Rhodes Must Fall Movement. Here is his response…
“Before Chumani Maxwele threw human excrement on the statue of Cecil John Rhodes, we had had numerous and long discussions about how to approach the subject in a way that would sharply challenge society, the comfort of whiteness and its continuing privileges in the post-colonial context. Our resolve was to first fight and win the battle of transformation and decolonisation at a psychological level, thus we had hoped that his intervention would among other things create a locus for real dialogue about transformation at UCT. And it excites us to realise that it’s doing that. We then concluded that throwing human excrement, as an expression of the filth and disdain with which Rhodes treated our forebears would capture with precision the urgency and agency of our cause.”
Meqoqo means ‘in conversation’.
Meqoqo, A Nation In Conversation
This interview was shot on location at Sabria’s Restaurant at Cosy Corner in Wynberg.
