The Rite of Passage turned into Fees Must Fall. Noble in itself as these things usually are, if not examined too closely. This swiftly moved into a Rite of Burning and Destruction including books and artworks, to the extent that many alumni withdrew funding.
Very recently there was a devastating fire on the Table Mountain range around UCT and what was amazing was that of the few buildings affected, one library was not on the edges, but in the heart of the campus. Many priceless and irreplaceable books (not digitised), were destroyed. Questions have been asked against a backdrop of the Western woke pushback (often burning and looting) against all things colonial.
Lesley are you seriously suggesting that “questions have been asked” about the library burning as in, it was foul play?! I certainly haven’t heard any capetonians seriously asking that question so it sounds scurrilous to me.
“…of the few buildings affected, one library was not on the edges, but in the heart of the campus.” In less close-minded circles than yours, that’s what’s known as proposing a hypothesis based on suggestive fact. What you’ve heard from your friends is neither here nor there. The question is whether you can tell us more about how it happened than he does. Incredulity is not an argument.
I drive past the university most days, seeing how the fire has burnt the mountain right down across multiple areas and vegetation zones, including all kinds of areas of the upper campus (where the library is) down to the highway and even below it, so the idea that the library is somehow in a protected zone and it was unlikely to have burnt without foul play is what I was expressing incredulity about. I hope that clarifies things. I may be wrong but it certainly isn’t a suggestion I’ve heard anyone making in seriousness.
At the time of the fire there was considerable speculation in the local and international printed, broadcast and digital media that the fire may have been deliberately initiated.
Lesser reported was the earlier bonfire in c.2016 of all the fine art works from Smuts and Fuller Halls. ‘Progressive’ students piled these original artworks in a heap on the Smuts Hall car park, smashed them with rocks then poured petrol on them and set them alight.
Henneli Greyling
2 years ago
UCT. In my day, late 60s, early seventies, it was known as Moscow on the Hill.
Simric Yarrow
2 years ago
Not really sure why the photo is from the B&W days of an all white UCT under apartheid, which isn’t what he’s talking about at all. I went the other way – Oxford, London, then to UCT in the late 90s. Very grateful for the move and still here… And my early experiences were similar to some of what the author relates.
Ferrusian Gambit
2 years ago
Ha, I guess usefulness is strongly context dependent. My wife and her family are all Spanish speakers so it is a subject that has turned out to probably be of more use to me on a quotidian level than any other.
r.odonovan
2 years ago
Just a niggling, pedantic architectural correction: those columns in the portico of the UCT are clearly Ionic, not Doric.
The Rite of Passage turned into Fees Must Fall. Noble in itself as these things usually are, if not examined too closely. This swiftly moved into a Rite of Burning and Destruction including books and artworks, to the extent that many alumni withdrew funding.
Very recently there was a devastating fire on the Table Mountain range around UCT and what was amazing was that of the few buildings affected, one library was not on the edges, but in the heart of the campus. Many priceless and irreplaceable books (not digitised), were destroyed. Questions have been asked against a backdrop of the Western woke pushback (often burning and looting) against all things colonial.
Lesley are you seriously suggesting that “questions have been asked” about the library burning as in, it was foul play?! I certainly haven’t heard any capetonians seriously asking that question so it sounds scurrilous to me.
“…of the few buildings affected, one library was not on the edges, but in the heart of the campus.”
In less close-minded circles than yours, that’s what’s known as proposing a hypothesis based on suggestive fact. What you’ve heard from your friends is neither here nor there. The question is whether you can tell us more about how it happened than he does. Incredulity is not an argument.
I drive past the university most days, seeing how the fire has burnt the mountain right down across multiple areas and vegetation zones, including all kinds of areas of the upper campus (where the library is) down to the highway and even below it, so the idea that the library is somehow in a protected zone and it was unlikely to have burnt without foul play is what I was expressing incredulity about. I hope that clarifies things. I may be wrong but it certainly isn’t a suggestion I’ve heard anyone making in seriousness.
At the time of the fire there was considerable speculation in the local and international printed, broadcast and digital media that the fire may have been deliberately initiated.
Lesser reported was the earlier bonfire in c.2016 of all the fine art works from Smuts and Fuller Halls. ‘Progressive’ students piled these original artworks in a heap on the Smuts Hall car park, smashed them with rocks then poured petrol on them and set them alight.
UCT. In my day, late 60s, early seventies, it was known as Moscow on the Hill.
Not really sure why the photo is from the B&W days of an all white UCT under apartheid, which isn’t what he’s talking about at all. I went the other way – Oxford, London, then to UCT in the late 90s. Very grateful for the move and still here… And my early experiences were similar to some of what the author relates.
Ha, I guess usefulness is strongly context dependent. My wife and her family are all Spanish speakers so it is a subject that has turned out to probably be of more use to me on a quotidian level than any other.
Just a niggling, pedantic architectural correction: those columns in the portico of the UCT are clearly Ionic, not Doric.