Back from Cape Town 2007

2007 TCDS Democracy & Diversity Institute
Cape Town, South Africa

Pictures from Democracy & Diversity Insitute Cape Town, South Africa

In January, TCDS hosted our eighth annual Democracy & Diversity Summer Institute in Cape Town, South Africa. It has been extremely gratifying to observe that after eight years of TCDS programs in South Africa, our African colleagues have become as committed to us as we are to them, since they have come to realize that we do not, like too many international programs in their experience, just move in and move out, but offer them an on-going association with an expanding international network of dedicated scholars and civil society activists.

This year’s Democracy & Diversity Institute brought together a diverse group of New School students, representing four of the university’s divisions—The New School for Social Research, Eugene Lang College, the Graduate Program in International Affairs, and the Milano School for Management and Urban Policy—with a group of young scholars and civil society activists from twelve different universities and organizations in sub-Saharan Africa, for an intensive program of study and debate on theoretical problems of democracy and practical issues of democratization in Africa and beyond. As underscored during the opening festivities, our 42 participants hailed from 17 different countries of sub-Saharan Africa, North America, Western Europe, Central and Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia, the Caribbean, and Australia.

Each student attending the program took two of four seminar courses offered, which are generally co-taught by New School and African professors. Students chose from Economic Development and Global Governance, taught by Professors Stephen Gelb (The EDGE Institute & University of Witwatersrand, SA) and William Milberg (NSSR); Gender, Identity, and Agency in a Globalizing World, taught by Professors Shireen Hassim (University of Witwatersrand) and Elzbieta Matynia (NSSR); The Public Sphere: Problems of Democratic Culture, Social Change and Media taught by Professors William Gumede (London School of Economics & University of Witwatersrand) and Karol Jakubowicz (National Broadcasting Council of Poland); and Democracies & Boundaries: Conflicts about Membership, Borders, and Diversity taught by Professor David Plotke (NSSR).

In addition to the seminars, a series of Master Classes offered in-depth examinations of important issues facing the region today, including the democratic transition and its legacy, the question of democratic vs. anti-democratic politics, the politics behind the HIV/AIDS crisis in South Africa, and the recent impact of the country’s political culture on the status of women. A series of evening lectures and events further amplified this exploration of present-day South Africa, with talks by Edgar Pieterse, special advisor to the premier of the Western Cape, on post-apartheid development challenges in Cape Town; the legendary AIDS activist Zackie Achmat, on the work of the Treatment Action Campaign, which he founded; ANC Member of Parliament and former Cabinet Minister Kadar Asmal, on transitional justice and the TRC; and a panel on the role of media in post-apartheid South Africa, featuring Terry Bell, a veteran South Africa journalist and commentator, Amina Frense, chairperson of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), and Henry Jeffries, editor of Die Burger, an Afrikaans daily newspaper.

Lectures and classroom discussion were further enriched by a visit to the vivid and movingly interactive District Six Museum, evoking life in a once-thriving neighborhood that was razed under apartheid in a particularly notorious instance of the racist policy of forced removals; visits with residents of Langa and Khayalitsha townships, two of Cape Town’s largest and oldest; and a meeting with the inspiring women of the Victoria Mxenge house-building initiative. Participants were also able to take a political history tour conducted by former inmates on Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for over 17 years. And of course, there was a scenic tour of the Cape Peninsula, including the Cape of Good Hope, with baboons and penguins en route, as well as a traditional South African braai (barbecue) and our closing festivities that celebrated the many personal and professional bonds forged during a truly outstanding session.