humanities and social sciences 8
H U M A N I T I E S A N D S O C I A L S C I E N C E S
interest given that it has the highest infec- the public; the courage to explore difficult
tion rate in the world. Here, the perennial and controversial themes; freeing good re-
interface between – in this case, medical searchers from teaching; and foreign fund-
sciences and the humanities – has generat- ing. In other places – the Centre for the Hu-
ed many tensions, although an annual HIV/ manities at UWC and the Centre for Critical
AIDS conference has witnessed interesting Racism at the University of KwaZulu-Natal
areas of co-operation. In this area, the HSRC are examples – newer efforts at developing
has developed an international reputation and strengthening the humanities in the
in second-generation surveillance of the country are underway.
pandemic.
Some individual disciplines, like African
Studies into water have also seen innovative languages, have effectively had to reinvent
work done at the interface between the nat- themselves. To briefly explain: early settlers
ural and the social sciences; some universi- were involved in the codification of these
ties, like the University of the Western Cape languages and, during the apartheid years,
(UWC), have developed cross-disciplinary the teaching and associated research related
postgraduate degrees in the field which to African languages, especially in Afrikaans
are run through the recently established universities, was mainly aimed at language
Institute for Water Studies. Equally success- fluency; in the English universities, a move
ful, and at the same institution, has been towards linguistics took these languages
the development of work dedicated to the away from their moorings in the commu-
sensitive issue of land, its redistribution and nity. After 1994, most African language
agricultural policy. This, the Programme for departments in the country experienced
Land, Agricultural and Agrarian Studies (the a drop-off in students, including mother
acronym ‘PLAAS’ is the Afrikaans word for tongue speakers. This fall-off was part of
‘farm’), is focused on one of the most chal- a multifaceted process: the shift towards
lenging issues facing a country in which ac- English as the language of globalisation;
cess to the land was rigidly policed during the attitude of students towards studying
the centuries of colonialism and decades their mother tongue; and the trivialisation
of apartheid alike. Following Thabo Mbeki’s of the teaching of African languages within
championing of the notion, a Centre for Af- the schooling system. As a result, the Afri-
rican Renaissance Studies was established can languages have developed new cours-
at UNISA in June 2003. A very interesting es for both mother tongue and non-mother
and innovative intellectual development tongue students. At Rhodes University this
was the establishment of a dedicated in- process has involved, ironically, access to
stitute, called the Wits Institute for Social foreign funding through the South Afri-
and Economic Research (WISER), at this ca–Norway Tertiary Education programme
university in 2001. Five things stand out in (SANTED). This programme has involved
the successes which WISER has undoubt- the development of non-mother tongue
edly enjoyed: an unhesitating willingness vocational language courses in isiXhosa
to be reflective; a desire to speak directly to and the design of mother tongue courses in
233
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