Muxe Nkondo, The One that Never Ran
In life, one is often honoured to get to know of such a person; and better when you did get to know him in person. Muxe, more known as Gessler during Apartheid's confusing times, but most emphatically as Muxe the most, especially after clarifying our liberation to himself and then to us all. It is not one I can mourn but rather celebrate of his life Before, During and in our Future after his passing away in this Now of our respective lifetimes 18th August 2024.
Sipiwo Mahala of University of Johannesburg wrote generously of him in foreground of the above portrait, University of Venda also placed a deserving commemoration and their portrait of him in convocation attire I place inset background of Sipiwo's live visage.
I checked at my University of Limpopo for anything of note. There is a standard university obituary memo with a paragraph of personal memories of senior members of the university remembering his support of their various student-days challenges vaguely recalled as general Apartheid episodes. But nothing engaging of his character beyond that personal affirmation.
I shall thereby take it upon myself to make known of what I mean, in speaking of his lasting influence by posting his thoughts from almost 30 years ago, what he understood that University of the North meant to us all. That I shall announce in a comment once I have made his words accessible through a link that I shall add here. There is also a literary journal article that runs parallel which I link here for context because his Oral Testimony below is Primary.
4 September 2024
And so it happens that I must post Muxe's Testimony here. I was hoping to post in-premises, but could not find a responsive host. My available web hosting capable machine has developed hardware problems that have caused the services to be paralytic at best, ere I post the first of eight voice interviews with Muxe Nkondo that were arranged by a deputation from University of the North to his then Vice Chancellor's office at University of Venda on 01 July 1998. The text speaks for itself, and I annotate topical themes via a time line of the cassette tapes the recording was captured with. So it is Tape Volume 1A of Professor G Nkondo from the original Side A of C-60 Cassette tape master. [WMA to be linked as MP4 shortly ... but once LinkedIn editor permits half-sized chunks]:
The first quarter hour embedded below:
comprises introductories by a delegation from the University of the North to Prof Nkondo then Vice Chancellor at University of Venda. Prof Nkondo then proceeds with his narrative starting with his early schooling in Vuwani, secondary schooling in Soweto and finally from Mamelodi in Pretoria as reluctant recruit pledges himself to those he bids farewell to, as a living Testament to Apartheid's University of the North. The second quarter-hour continues here.
The contents include The first graduation - three students himself, his elder brother on an Honours in Sociology. The graduand names "Muxe Nkondo (BA History & English), the late Dinani Mabudafase, and his brother Eric Nkondo". The thirty minute cut-off catches Muxe in the throes of pointing out the first manifestation of an existential fault-line between NUSAS and the University of the North student representatives and so I place it here where Muxe explicitly asks the interview to finish his thought on the flip side of the first C60 cassette tape.
11 September 2024
In addition to the lingering thought, the second half hour of cassette one focuses on Muxe's early political influences. His older brother is Curtis who eventually became a school teacher. At the time of this interview he is a member of parliament representing the ANC. He recalls that Curtis taught him Geography* at home. [* Editor's note: Geography was a restricted subject in the Bantu education curriculum, as was History and Science. So although Muxe does not attribute much to Curtis' influences, but he does remember the open Apartheid-free teaching that went on at Curtis' Soweto home where he stayed after fleeing the encroachment of Bantustan boarders into his fathers homestead.]
Muxe attributes his personal defiance disposition from his father. One could also that he shared the same as Curtis. The result was the star Bantustan bush university student declaring that inasmuch as Turfloop is a Tribal college, so was the then University of Witwatersrand - a Tribal University.
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The slow separation. The unpeeling of grand well-laid out plans around the University of the North. The closing hour with Muxe G Nkondo regarding the University character.
Hour Two of the interview proceeds a much better pace as the compilation methode is better mustered. We progress on Muxe's journey from Student Representative to Academic Life. Studying under Afrikanner Calvinist doctrinaires. Slow motion towards agitation of students rally celebrating the liberation of neighbouring countries. resulting with a one-man Snymann commission.
Hour Three: The Living Turfloop Testimony
12 September 2024 [ After the daily video uploads limit was reached and upload sequence possibly shuffled]
Restructuring the University - And the Politics thereof
Institutional Transition with African Renaissance and Education Policy Choices
Everywhere, knowingly with the bG-Hum; Crusties!
2 个月The interview interrupts Muxe's trend of thought regarding Turfloop's early associations with NUSAS the National Union of South African Students dominated by liberal-minded students from from the privileged segment of the Apartness political landscape. I thereby insert it as a stand-alone addendum 'Separate' as it were, from Side B of the recording, if you get my drift. Speaking of #drift; you should compare this to the writings of the same liberal historians in my opening reference on the heroics coming out of the bastion of Liberal non-racialism.
Everywhere, knowingly with the bG-Hum; Crusties!
2 个月Finally got the first half-hour of the man's #Testimony added. There shall have to be a better way. There's seven more. Stay Tuned. And as if to add insult to injury another declaration not a testimony against millennial sustainable poverty, has come up for sharing. When it rains, it Pours.