There are multiple ways to get an issue across to authorities. Some take the ‘correct’ route and lay a formal complaint. If it’s a group, there are protests. But with the rise of this thing we call technology, the best way to voice a problem is to create a mini documentary and spread it around the interwebs.

That’s just what Contraband Cape Town has done and its main focus this time is on the various cultural aspects of Stellenbosch University. Interviewing at least 30 students, some light was shed on the negative experiences some students went through because Afrikaans is a teaching language and carries with it a strong culture.

‘Luister’ is a documentary about the lives of students of colour who attend Stellenbosch University, a South African institution of higher learning. In a series of interviews, students recount instances of racial prejudice that they continue to experience in the town of Stellenbosch, and the enormous challenges that they face due to the use of Afrikaans as a language of teaching at the university. ‘Luister’ is a film about Afrikaans as a language and a culture. It is a film about the continuing racism that exists within a divided society. It is a film about a group of students whose stories have been ignored. Luister is the Afrikaans word for Listen.

The university, of course, replied, stating that although issues raised in the video were acknowledged, the documentary put the university in a light that deemed it disrespectful to those who were attending the university.

Management is deeply aware of the fact that the institutional culture is experienced by some students as unwelcoming. In addition, the University again confirms that the violation of human rights and victimisation will not be tolerated – regardless of who is involved.

There were more than a few issues with the video, from unfair comments to linking it with the agriculture department owned Elsenburg Agriculture Training Institute. Comments included:

The colour of my skin in Stellenbosch is like a social burden. Just walking into spaces, there is that ‘stop, pause and stare’ where people cannot believe that you would dare enter the space.

Being black within the Stellenbosch community, you know you are not accepted and you kind of ask yourself: ‘What’s wrong with me and what did I do wrong?

Stellenbosch also stated that it did not take disciplinary action against protestors – only when there was disruption, infringement on others’ rights and in ‘risky’ situations.

There has been an issue with these social dilemmas at universities around South Africa – University of the Free State, University of Cape Town, Rhodes – and I suppose it’s just Stellies’ time to be in the spot light.

[source: news24]