This year’s guest speaker at SPU’s annual Africa Day Public Lecture was Kehinde Andrews, a professor of Black Studies at Birmingham City University in Birmingham, England.
Andrews’ lecture, which was held at the Sol Plaatje University on 24 May 2019, was titled “The Black Revolution in Azania”.
In his talk, he argued that South Africa’s total freedom was tied to the rest of the continent and that since the decolonisation that saw African countries gain independence, lives of many Africans had not changed for the better because independence had not brought economic emancipation.
“Africa continues to be plundered by the West,” he argued.
“Minerals leave Africa only for the Africans to buy many products made of their minerals from the West. These include oil, gold, diamonds, platinum and more.”
He argued that Africa was the only continent that had all it needed and explained why it was colonised in the first place and why the West was still a major extractor of African minerals.
On a localised level, Andrews lamented the economic divide in post-apartheid South Africa.
“Connected to black poverty and white privilege is the issue of land and access to the means of production.”
Andrews is the author of an acclaimed book Back to Black: Retelling Black Radicalism for the 21st Century, which was on sale during the lecture.
The annual Africa Day Public Lecture is a joint programme of the Sol Plaatje University and the Northern Cape Department of Sport, Arts and Culture.
During his visit to South Africa, Andrews visited the University of Johannesburg, University of the Free State and a poetry festival in Jankempdorp, about 100km from Kimberley.
He was invited as a guest speaker at these locations and was interviewed by the local media such as the Northern Cape News Network, Solomon Star newspaper and Radio Teemaneng. He also paid a visit to Orania.
He was also invited to give a lecture to the Sociology Honours students at SPU.
