DR KUMALO SPEAKS TO THE GRADUATES OF 2010.
EDUCATION IS LIBERATION
Programme Director, Professor Gunter Wittenberg and Monica, Our Guest Speaker Dr Munyaradzi Murove, Our, Staff, Graduands and Students.
Thank you so much for honouring the School of Religion and Theology with your attendance. In the Zulu culture we normally say that “umsebenzi wumsebenzi ngabantu” which means that a celebration is only possible when there are people! On behalf of the academic and administrative staff and the wider student community of the School of Religion and Theology School we are grateful that you have taken the time to be here for this special celebration. This event is very special because it constitutes our annual coming together as the family to celebrate the founding of our School. When we reflect on our achievements we realise that there is so much for which we need to celebrate and appropriate in order to build a stronger school.
Today I have decided to speak briefly about the importance of education for the new struggles that we, as Africans, are facing in the world. By Africans I do not just mean black people by ethic identity. Rather I am referring to every person who is resident of this continent and has the interest of this continent at heart. I refer to all of us, whether we are black, white, Indian or coloured. Together we are bound by a common vision of a continent that is life giving, life affirming and therefore free from all forces of oppression and marginalization that deny people fullness of life,
As a people we are facing internal and external struggles. Although we have been freed from a certain form of direct political colonization for nearly six decades, this continent remains economically poor. We still have more ethnic wars than any other continent and more of our people are increasingly living below the poverty line in spite of the vast mineral and other untapped resources that the nations of the continent possess. The ongoing uprisings in North Africa, Ivory Coast and the Middle East have confirmed that people throughout the continent have lost their fear of dictators and are willing up to them. This constitutes a glimmer of hope that our people have reached a point of no return in fighting oppression especially that which is created within the continent by our own people, some of whom were once heroes that led our liberation from colonization but have betrayed their people. Progress for genuine democratization and good governance has been slow in growing deep roots within the context. Africans all over the continent are asking why the experience of oppression has persisted for so many years. This question once confronted the founders of our nations. John Langalibalele Dube the founder of the ANC wrote in 1909 that:
“Our salvation, as a people, is in education and in that alone. And by education I mean not only teaching of the mind and a transforming of the heart, but also a training of the hand; for to instruct how to do is no less education than it is to teach what to know. .. By education alone will all that come about? By it alone can we be transformed into civilized beings? By it alone can we be made worthy to take our places, a lowly place, as useful citizens of our land? By it alone can we hope to attain some small degree of prosperity? “
Our gathering marks a milestone as we celebrate the achievement of 72 of our students who have successfully met the required high standards of our university. We do that with a sense of hope that their achievement will make a fundamental difference to the wellbeing of our people in the continent. One of our PhD graduands, Steve Muoki represents the character of many students who have academically journeyed with our School. He came from some rural community in Kenya and joined the SORAT community in 2006. He saw the School’s advert for the Masters in Theology and HIV sponsored by the Church of Sweden. He applied and was accepted. Steve completed his Masters degree within the year and enlisted for the PhD programme in the following year. Three years of hard work has resulted in his successful completion and award of the PhD. One of the most prestigious public universities in Kenya recognised his academic credentials and recruited him as a Senior Lecturer whilst he was still completing the corrections on his thesis. He teaches courses in History and Comparative Religions. Another student of worth is Dr Jeff Moore from the US. He spent over four years with the School, whilst doing his research and completed his PhD with us end of last year. At the end of last year he went back home where he is working as a respected pastor and academic at Eden Theological Seminary, Missouri. Finally, I wish to mention Lydia Mwaniki who was one of the School’s 10 PhD graduates for the class of 2010. Dr Mwaniki is from Kenya and for her graduation she sacrificed and paid over R40 000 to fly to South Africa a few members of her family, including her elderly father, so that they could see her receive her doctorate.
She shared with me a deeper reason for inviting her father. She stated that when her father was selling his cows to educate her, neighbours were laughing at him for spending his cows on the education of a girl child. When it was time to complete her metric he had no more cows to sell so he then sold the only bicycle that he possessed in order to pay for her fees. Lydia is already employed as a Senior Lecturer by St. Paul’s University in Kenya which is one of the most prestigious private universities in that country. She teaches Biblical Studies and other courses and is a distinguished graduate of UKZN.
Colleagues I am telling these stories because they matter for me. They provide the reasons why we are here, and why we continue to toil and labour in the midst of the many challenges that we face in offering high quality theological education in a rapidly secularizing society. That is why we continue to teach in the midst of a fast changing university that is undergoing a restructuring process which sometimes disrupts the sense of stability and security among its staff. We continue thriving for excellence in all that we do because it matters; our hope and the hope of the continent depends on us doing what we are doing.
To the Graduands
To you our graduands, some of you know where you are going because you have already been recruited or appointed or assigned jobs. Some of you are still searching for jobs. However there is an important question that all of you must answer: Where are you going after your time spent at SORAT/UKZN? Today I have decided to donate a book entitled Mission is Crossing Frontiers to each of the 72 graduating students and I have a reason for so. There is a chapter on “Education is Liberation” by Bongani Mazibuko. Bongani’s story reminds us that education is indeed a source of liberation especially for the previously disadvantaged people. You have received university standard of education and with that investment comes responsibility to facilitate process of liberation to overcome forces that seek to deny fullness of life. I urge you to make use of that education to free yourself from the chains of ignorance, poverty, indignity and marginalization. Use your education to rise up your head so that the world may recognise the qualitative difference that you are contributing. Never forget that you have something to contribute in order to make this world a better place for you and for others. Africa needs that! Education is liberation!
Use this education to liberate those you will be working with in the church and local communities, NGO and even in government. Our graduates work as transformational leaders in diverse institutions such as: hospitals, schools, churches, mosques, NGO’s and FBOS. They also serve as directors and fieldworkers linked to different institutions. Some even serve in the political governance of nations as even politicians and civil servants. Your future and ours as a people of this great continent depend on all of us working for liberation from all life denying forces. Education is Liberation.
To our staff
I would like to say a few words to our members the academic, administration and those serving the different centres. Our job is often thankless because we invest in equipping people to change society. Those who invest in building cars can count the number of units they have built every year; those who concentrate on authoring books can count the number of volumes they have published. But those who teach people to transform their minds, souls and give them skills have very little for which to boast. It is for that reason that being a teacher/lecturer is a noble profession. However, the impact of our work goes beyond us and what we can see. Steve Mouki and others like him, continue to teach in Kenya. Their footprints have left indelible positive marks in the minds of those persons they are educating. The credibility of SORAT and UKZN will soar whenever and where our graduates excel and contribute to the liberation of people throughout this continent.
The administrative staffs of our school has served us and the graduands well over the past year without their hard work in receiving, processing and serving the needs of our students at every stage of their time spent studying then we would not be celebrating with the graduands. They excel because our administrative staff excel!
Without the exciting and pedagogically sound curriculum put together by our academics it would not be possible to engage in effective teaching of these graduands.
Without the hard work of academics in accessing financial resources for the sponsoring of scholarships and bursaries for needy students then many would not have made it through the years and graduate. In addition to providing for tuition, these staff finds additional funds for students to buy food, pay rent, sponsorship to attend to academic conferences, and to purchase books for their courses. Without these acts of generosity, our time of celebration would be somewhat muted.
Our School is grateful for the generosity of our partners, be they from the local cluster institutions or global ecumenical agencies that recognised the very important work that we are doing. They have shared their financial resources with us and have seconded scholars, some of whom have left their countries to teach in our school. It is for this reason we are also celebrating with these students.
It is these noble acts of generosity and the vision for a better world for all that is held by some of the people who are connected to this school that make our celebration with the graduands so important. It is true that there were times when you were discouraged and troubled by the amount of work during your sojourn. There were other times when colleagues had to survive on minimal remuneration. The current reconfiguration of schools has created much anxiety for some. I am therefore aware that this is not an easy time for you. Some of you are quietly wondering about what the future holds in store because you are unsure of what is coming and where we are going. In spite of the assurances that some of us have given to you, that change will be managed for the good of all, I understand your anxiety about future. I invite you to look at the 72 graduands whose achievement we are celebrating and locate in their success your sacrifice. From that joy and fulfilment may you derive your own satisfaction and fulfilment for the future? May their liberation through education ensure your own liberation from fear and anxiety?
Education is Liberation
I close again by quoting that great arsenal of the liberation of our people and the wider continent of Africa, John Langalibalele Dube. In an article that he wrote in 1900 titled “Native Political and Industrial Organization in South Africa: He said that:
“In all these directions what the African person needs is a sound
Education and training, not only by the literary meaning, but of the mind, heart and spirit, by a real education through the hand, the eye and the brain. It is my conviction that success in politics, industry and all forms of progress lies in education; it is a real development of all the human facilities. That is the reason I have devoted all my life to this work (1900:59).”
Indeed that is why most of us serve in the School. We are here so that you the African child can be educated and indeed be liberated. We are here because “Education is liberation”. God Bless you and may God bless the School of Religion and Theology.