The Department of Jurisprudence Held the First Research Seminar of the Year

Posted on March 09, 2023

The Department of Jurisprudence in the Faculty of Law (UP Law) held its first research seminar of the year on the 27th of February 2023. The research seminars are an essential platform for schorlarly interaction that allows for presentation, discussion and constructive critique to advance intellectual engagement. The two-hour long seminar facilitated by Ms Lizelle le Roux featured research papers by, Odwa Mashwabane and Thabang Manamela both postgraduate students in the Department of Jurisprudence.

The first of the thought-provoking presentations was by Odwa Mashwabane titled Aliens That Belong: The False Hope of a Claim to Belonging, here he discussed South Africa’s position as a migrant receiving country and the reality of non-acceptance of migrants mostly along racial lines. The presentation highlighted the position of the African migrant in ‘post-apartheid’ South Africa, while considering the promise of the Constitution and the historical position of the African migrant in South Africa. The concept of ‘Rainbowism’ which refers to the disregarding of race-related issues using the idea of the Rainbow Nation was introduced as a way South Africa has tried to foster a sense of belonging and inclusion. The paper argued that “Transformative Constitutionalism, has failed to incorporate the African migrant into the fabric of South Africa’s public conscious, therefore making it difficult for African migrants to assert a sense of belonging in the ‘new dispensation’”.

Entitled #Black Lives (could) Matter: Azania as Remedy for the State of (Dis)ease. Thabang Manamela’s paper argued against the widely accepted notion that ‘South Africa’ has successfully parted ways with its history of colonial conquest, settler colonialism as well as colonial-apartheid. The study deployed the Azanian philosophical tradition as an index of Black Political Thought, in order to probe the claim that the 1994 general elections, and the 1996 constitution are anticolonial victories in favour of the indigenous people conquered in unjust wars of colonization. The presentation revealed that the indigenous people remain on the fringes in a country that characterizes itself as post-apartheid.  At the heart of his discussion was the reiteration of a lack of legitimate liberation. To illustrate he referred to the “miseducation” of children born after 1994, the so called born-frees particularly in the various ways they are taught history as school subject.  

The first research seminar of the year invigorated vibrant academic engagement  where the crux of the intellectually engaging research papers was further probed and insights, questions and valuable feedback on the presenter’s research papers were shared and possibly paved the way for future academic collaboration.

- Author Palesa Mbonde

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