A History Lesson (October 3rd)

2016

Fabricated readymade with correction fluid

Edition of 3

On Monday, 3 October 2016, the University of Cape Town reopened. It had been shut down for two weeks due to ongoing student protests. United under the banner of Fees Must Fall, the students protested for free tertiary education, a decolonised curriculum, and the return of students excluded during the previous year’s protests. They protested against the outsourcing of workers, against police brutality, and against institutional racism. 

In a statement released late on Sunday, 2 October, the Vice-Chancellor wrote that the mediation process held with the university executives and student leaders concluded without resolution. The university would reopen despite promised protest action and continued disruptions. State police and private security were brought on campus, armed with rubber bullets and riot gear. By Wednesday, the university had shut down again, the protests further fuelled by a growing sense of betrayal and outrage against university management.

A History Lesson (October 3rd) is an understated document. It notates the uncertain status of students of colour in an institution failing to distance itself from its colonial legacy. Edited with correction fluid, the word “student” has been obscured by whiteness, and no longer appears in this revised edition of the UCT General Rules and Policies Handbook. The book itself is a fabricated readymade, an exact replica of the original handbook. As such, A History Lesson considers the contextual asymmetry of the university as a Western institution in the post-colony, an institution in which the position of black students remains unclear.