Academic boycott of South Africa

Last updated

The academic boycott of South Africa comprised a series of boycotts of South African academic institutions and scholars initiated in the 1960s, at the request of the African National Congress, with the goal of using such international pressure to force the end to South Africa's system of apartheid. The boycotts were part of a larger international campaign of "isolation" that eventually included political, economic, cultural and sports boycotts. The academic boycotts ended in 1990, when its stated goal of ending apartheid was achieved. [1]

Contents

An academic boycott isolates scholars by depriving them of the formal and informal resources they need to carry on their scholarship. An academic boycott can include:

  1. Scholars refusing to collaborate with South African scholars on research,
  2. Publishers, journals, and other scholarly resources refusing to publish scholarship or experiments by South African scholars, or refusing to provide access to scholars in South Africa,
  3. International conferences refusing to locate in South Africa or include South African scholars,
  4. Scholars refusing to travel to South Africa or participate in activities such as serving on thesis committees for South African students,
  5. Universities and other institutions worldwide refusing to grant access to their resources to South African scholars, or to invite South African scholars to their own institutions.

Both during and after the apartheid era, there was debate whether academic boycotts were an effective or appropriate form of sanctions. Even within anti-apartheid circles there was debate over whether the boycotts were ethically justified, and whether they hurt liberal scholars more than conservative ones. [1] Campus libertarians criticized the ban because they believed it interfered with academic freedom, and conservative groups worldwide criticized the boycotts simply because they "disliked such anti-apartheid initiatives". [2]

Subsequent research in the post-apartheid area has claimed that the boycotts were more a "symbolic gesture of support" for anti-apartheid efforts rather than a direct influencer of the situation. [1] Additionally, the academic boycott was perceived by the targets of the boycott, South Africa scholars, as unjust and discriminatory. [1]

Motivation

The African National Congress first called for an academic boycott to protest South African apartheid in 1958 in Ghana. The call was repeated the following year in London. [3]

Formal declarations

British Academics

In 1965, 496 university professors and lecturers from 34 British universities signed the following declaration in protest against apartheid and violations of academic freedom. They referred to the bans against Jack Simons and Eddie Roux, two well-known progressive academics who had been banned from teaching and writing in South Africa because of their political beliefs. [4]

ACADEMIC BOYCOTT OF SOUTH AFRICA: DECLARATION BY BRITISH ACADEMICS, 1965 [4]

We, the (undersigned) professors and lecturers in British universities in consultation with the Anti-Apartheid Movement:

  1. Protest against the bans imposed on Professors Simons and Roux;
  2. Protest against the practice of racial discrimination and its extension to higher education;
  3. Pledge that we shall not apply for or accept academic posts in South African universities which practise racial discrimination.

United Nations

In December 1980, the United Nations passed a resolution "Cultural, Academic and other boycotts of South Africa": [5]

The General Assembly, .. Noting that the racist regime of South Africa is using cultural, academic, sports and other contacts to promote its propaganda for the inhumane policies of apartheid and "bantustanation",
1. Requests all States to take steps to prevent all cultural, academic, sports, and other exchanges with the racist regime of South Africa;
 : :
2. Also requests States that have not yet done so:
 : :
2 (b) To cease any cultural and academic collaboration with South Africa, including the exchange of scientists, students and academic personalities, as well as cooperation on research programmes.
 : :
4. Urges all academic and cultural institutions to terminate all links with South Africa
5. Encourages anti-apartheid and solidarity movements in their campaigns for cultural, academic and sports boycotts of South Africa

Apartheid-era debate

"The ethical and other issues surrounding the academic boycott deeply divided the academic community, both within and outside South Africa." [1]

Proponents

"Boycott proponents argued that academics should not be treated as an elite detached from the political and social environment in which it functions, especially since some of the South African universities seemed to be tools of the Nationalist government." [1]

Desmond Tutu

Desmond Tutu, a prominent leader within the anti-apartheid, described his clear support for the academic boycott of South Africa. He wrote that it needed to be maintained for institutions which had a bad record in opposing apartheid, but could be lifted for others as the political situation eased. The boycott had "certainly made a number of people sit up and take notice, especially the so-called liberal universities."

They thought that just as a matter of right they would find acceptance because they were allowing blacks into their establishments. I mustn't belittle them too much, I think that they did stand up for academic freedom and so forth, but I don't think myself actually that they were sufficiently vigorous and the boycott helped to knock sense into their heads, to realise that they did have a role in seeking to undermine that vicious system [of apartheid].

I would, I think, now still say that we maintain [the academic boycott] insofar as, if for instance academics from here want to go to South Africa then you want to look at who is inviting them. Under whose auspices are they going? Are they going to institutions that have a good track record in their opposition to apartheid? But I would say that as things begin to ease up, this ought perhaps to be one of the first of the constraints that goes to give some of these people the reward.

But I would myself say it is important for academics outside of South Africa also to say they want to reward places like UWC which stuck their necks out and then let these others get the crumbs that remain from the table.

Opponents

"Opposition to this boycott persisted throughout the 80s: conservatives around the world disliked such anti-apartheid initiatives; campus libertarians perceived a loss of academic freedom; and some liberal South Africans argued that their universities, as centres of resistance to apartheid, made precisely the wrong targets." [2]

From within anti-Apartheid circles

Opponents from within anti-Apartheid circles "argued that ideas and knowledge should be treated differently than tangible commodities, that obstacles to information access could actually hurt the victims of apartheid (for example, retard medical research and, ultimately, reduce the quality of health care), and that an academic boycott (in contrast to economic, trade, or political boycott) would not even be noticed by the South African government. Change is much more likely to occur by providing information than by withholding it." [1]

Such a boycott would cut a university off from its life blood, the nurturing flow of ideas.... The campaign plays directly into the hands of the destructive right-wing in this country which would also dearly love to cut us off from the world and its influences. [6]

Solomon Benatar, a critic, wrote that

Academic boycott has been justified as an appropriate political strategy in the struggle against the oppression of apartheid. Moral outrage against racist policies has led to the claim that academic boycott is a morally imperative component of a broader sanctions policy. This claim has neither been substantiated by a reasoned ethical argument nor weighted against an ethically justifiable approach that is consistent with universal humanitarian aspirations and which allows rejection of apartheid to be coupled to constructive endeavours. [7]

"Selective" Alternatives

Solomon Benatar, [8] a professor at University of Cape Town, and others advocated an alternative proposal: a "selective boycott"/"selective support" effort which would boycott South African organizations only if they were practitioners of apartheid and would extend support to organizations that did not practice apartheid. This alternative proposal was criticized because of both "the practical problems of implementation" and that "it implicitly endorsed the idea that political views are valid determinants of who should attend scholarly meetings, whose work should be published, and so on." [1]

Post-Apartheid analysis

"That most of the scholars in our study judged the boycott to be an irritant or inconvenience, rather than a significant barrier to scholarly progress, suggests that it proved more a symbolic gesture than an effective agent of change." [1]

Easily circumvented

"The academic boycott was more of an irritation than a true obstacle to scholarly progress." [1]

"In most cases, scholars and libraries were able to circumvent the boycott one way or another—for example, by using 'third parties' in less antagonistic countries although with delays and at greater expense." [1]

Perceived as unjust discrimination

"Many [South African] scholars felt left out, isolated, unjustly discriminated against." [1]

"Suspicions were created" ... "that a submission was really rejected for political reasons, not the reasons claimed", "that the high incidence of inactive research materials, such as biological agents and antibodies, received by South African institutions was not a mere coincidence" [1]

Comparisons to academic boycotts of Israel

The academic boycott of South Africa is frequently invoked as a model for more recent efforts to organize academic boycotts of Israel. [2]

Some[ who? ] invoke the comparison to claim that an academic boycott of Israel should not be controversial based on the misconception[ according to whom? ] that the academic boycott of South Africa was uncontroversial and straightforward. [9] The reality, at the time, was very different.[ according to whom? ] The effort was the subject of significant criticism and contentious debate from diverse segments. [1] [10] [11] Andrew Beckett writes, in the Guardian, on what he believes to be a mistaken comparison:

In truth, boycotts are blunt weapons. Even the most apparently straightforward and justified ones, on closer inspection, have their controversies and injustices. [2]

Other, such as Hillary and Stephen Rose in Nature, make the comparison and argue for an academic boycott of Israel based on a belief that the academic boycott of South Africa was effective in ending apartheid. George Fink responds to this claim in a letter to Nature:

The assertion [...] that the boycott of South Africa by the world's academic communities 'was instrumental in ending apartheid in South Africa' is a deception.

The African National Congress, which was the leading anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, has published extensive documentation [12] to support their assertion that the boycott campaign, but not the academic boycott specifically, was, indeed, instrumental in ending apartheid.

See also

Related Research Articles

The World Conference Against Racism (WCAR) is a series of international events organized by UNESCO to promote struggle against racism ideologies and behaviours. Five conferences have been held so far, in 1978, 1983, 2001, 2009 and 2021. Founded after World War II and the Holocaust as a dependent body of the United Nations, UNESCO started as soon as it was created to promote scientific studies concerning ethnic groups and their diffusion in public opinion to dispel pseudo-scientific rationalizations of racism. One of its first published works was The Race Question in 1950, signed by various internationally renowned scholars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anti-Apartheid Movement</span> 1959–1994 British anti-apartheid organisation

The Anti-Apartheid Movement (AAM) was a British organisation that was at the centre of the international movement opposing the South African apartheid system and supporting South Africa's non-white population who were oppressed by the policies of apartheid. The AAM changed its name to ACTSA: Action for Southern Africa in 1994, when South Africa achieved majority rule through free and fair elections, in which all races could vote.

The 2001 World Conference against Racism (WCAR), also known as Durban I, was held at the Durban International Convention Centre in Durban, South Africa, under UN auspices, from 31 August to 8 September 2001.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Farid Esack</span> South African Muslim scholar, writer, and political activist (born 1955)

Farid Esack is a South African Muslim scholar, writer, and political activist known for his opposition to apartheid, his appointment by Nelson Mandela as a gender equity commissioner, and his work for inter-religious dialogue.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Association for Asian American Studies</span> Research organization

The Association for Asian American Studies (AAAS) is a professional organization promoting teaching and research in Asian American studies. Its other goals including advocacy and representation on behalf of Asian-Americans and educating American society about the history of Asian American communities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Israeli Apartheid Week</span> Annual series of university activities

Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) is an annual series of university lectures and rallies held in February or March. According to the organization, "the aim of IAW is to educate people about the nature of Israel as an apartheid system and to build Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaigns as part of a growing global BDS movement." Since IAW began in Toronto in 2005, it has spread to at least 55 cities, including locations in Australia, Austria, Brazil, Botswana, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Jordan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Norway, Palestine, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Disinvestment from Israel is a campaign that aims to use disinvestment to pressure the government of Israel to put "an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories captured during the 1967 military campaign." The disinvestment campaign is related to other economic and political boycotts of Israel.

The Ontario division of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) has supported the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel since 2006. Their stance has encountered opposition from the Canadian Jewish Congress and parts of the press but also widespread support from university professors, Independent Jewish Voices, Palestine House, Canadian Arab Federation and labour unions. In 2009 the CUPE Ontario university workers' committee proposed to extend the campaign to boycott any joint work with Israeli institutions that carry out military research. That resolution became the focus of extensive controversy and was modified in response to pressure from the CUPE national president; the amended version was brought before the CUPE Ontario conference in May 2009 and passed with a 2/3 majority.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Criticism of Israel</span> Disapproval towards the Israeli government

Criticism of Israel is a subject of journalistic and scholarly commentary and research within the scope of international relations theory, expressed in terms of political science. Israel has faced international criticism since its establishment in 1948 relating to a variety of issues, many of which are centered around human rights violations in its occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions</span> Palestinian-led movement demanding international sanctions against Israel

Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) is a nonviolent Palestinian-led movement promoting boycotts, divestments, and economic sanctions against Israel. Its objective is to pressure Israel to meet what the BDS movement describes as Israel's obligations under international law, defined as withdrawal from the occupied territories, removal of the separation barrier in the West Bank, full equality for Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel, and "respecting, protecting, and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties". The movement is organized and coordinated by the Palestinian BDS National Committee.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Omar Barghouti</span> Qatari-Palestinian activist (born 1964)

Omar Barghouti is a founding committee member of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) and a co-founder of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. He received the Gandhi Peace Award in 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mona Baker</span> Egyptian professor of translation studies

Mona Baker is a professor of translation studies and Director of the Centre for Translation and Intercultural Studies at the University of Manchester in England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boycotts of Israel</span> Aspect of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict

Boycotts of Israel are the refusal and calls to refusal of having commercial or social dealings with Israel in order to influence Israel's practices and policies by means of using economic pressure. The specific objective of Israel boycotts varies; the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement calls for boycotts of Israel "until it meets its obligations under international law", and the purpose of the Arab League's boycott of Israel was to prevent Arab states and others to contribute to Israel's economy. Israeli officials have characterized the BDS movement as antisemitic.

The current campaign for an academic boycott of Israel was launched in April 2004 by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) as part of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign. The campaign calls for BDS activities against Israel to put international pressure on Israel, in this case against Israeli academic institutions, all of which are said by PACBI to be implicated in the perpetuation of Israeli occupation, in order to achieve BDS goals. Since then, proposals for academic boycotts of particular Israeli universities and academics have been made by academics and organisations in Palestine, the United States, the United Kingdom, and other countries. The goal of the proposed academic boycotts is to isolate Israel in order to force a change in Israel's policies towards the Palestinians, which proponents argue are discriminatory and oppressive, including oppressing the academic freedom of Palestinians.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cultural racism</span> Alleged type of racism that discriminates people for being culturally different

Cultural racism, sometimes called neo-racism, new racism, postmodern racism, or differentialist racism, is a concept that has been applied to prejudices and discrimination based on cultural differences between ethnic or racial groups. This includes the idea that some cultures are superior to others or in more extreme cases that various cultures are fundamentally incompatible and should not co-exist in the same society or state. In this it differs from biological or scientific racism, which refers to prejudices and discrimination rooted in perceived biological differences between ethnic or racial groups.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reactions to Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions</span>

Reactions to Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) refer to the views of international actors on the BDS movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Music in the movement against apartheid</span> One of the methods of opposition used against the apartheid regime

The apartheid regime in South Africa began in 1948 and lasted until 1994. It involved a system of institutionalized racial segregation and white supremacy, and placed all political power in the hands of a white minority. Opposition to apartheid manifested in a variety of ways, including boycotts, non-violent protests, and armed resistance. Music played a large role in the movement against apartheid within South Africa, as well as in international opposition to apartheid. The impacts of songs opposing apartheid included raising awareness, generating support for the movement against apartheid, building unity within this movement, and "presenting an alternative vision of culture in a future democratic South Africa."

<i>Cultural Critique</i> Academic journal

Cultural Critique is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal published across the fields of cultural studies, literary theory, political science, philosophy, and sociology. It was founded in 1985 and is published by the University of Minnesota Press. The journal is currently edited by John Mowitt, Cesare Casarino, Simona Sawhney, Maggie Hennefeld and Frieda Ekotto.

The American Studies Association (ASA) began an ongoing boycott of Israeli educational institutions in December 2013. The ASA's decision to boycott was controversial because it was the first major American scholarly organization to do so. In April 2016, four ASA members aided by the pro-Israeli Brandeis Center sued the ASA, but the lawsuit was dismissed in 2019 when the judge ruled that plaintiffs lacked standing.

<i>Academic Freedom and Apartheid</i>

Academic Freedom and Apartheid: The Story of the World Archaeological Congress by Peter Ucko is a personal account of the 1986 World Archaeological Congress (WAC), originally intended to be the eleventh congress of the International Union for Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sciences (IUPPS). Ucko, who organised the Congress, presents a linear account of how the Congress came to ban participation by South Africans and Namibians as part of the Academic boycott of South Africa, and how this led to it splitting from the IUPPS. It quotes extensively from sources such as correspondence, minutes, newspapers, WAC publicity, and others' accounts of the WAC.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 F. W. Lancaster & Lorraine Haricombe, "The Academic Boycott of South Africa: Symbolic Gesture or Effective Agent of Change?" Archived 26 June 2006 at the Wayback Machine , Perspectives on the Professions, Vol. 15, No. 1, Fall 1995, retrieved 16 September 2006
  2. 1 2 3 4 Andy Beckett, "It's water on stone - in the end the stone wears out", The Guardian, 12 December 2002, retrieved 16 September 2006
  3. ↑ Hilary Rose, "Building the Academic Boycott in Britain" Archived 1 October 2006 at the Wayback Machine , Resisting Israeli Apartheid: Strategies and Principles, An International Conference on Palestine, London, 5 December 2004
  4. 1 2 "Spotlight on South Africa", Dar es Salaam, 26 November 1965, reprinted by on the ANC Website for Historical Documents "Academic Boycott of South Africa: Declaration by British Academics". Spotlight on South Africa. Dar es Salaam. 26 November 1965. Archived from the original on 7 January 2014. Retrieved 7 January 2014– via African National Congress.
  5. ↑ "UN General Assembly Resolution A/RES/35/206E: 98th plenary meeting: Cultural, Academic and other boycotts of South Africa" (PDF). 16 December 1980. Retrieved 6 January 2023.
  6. ↑ Editorial in Cape Times (1986), quoted in Book Review of Out in the Cold: Academic Boycotts and the Isolation of South Africa, Ralph Crawshaw, BMJ 1995; 311: 136 (8 July)
  7. ↑ Solomon Benatar, "Academic boycott: political strategy or moral imperative? Selective support as a justifiable alternative", South African Medical Journal 80(4):206–7, 17 August 1991, retrieved 6 July 2006
  8. ↑ Solomon R. Benatar, "An alternative to academic boycott", Nature 343, 505–506, 8 February 1990, retrieved 16 September 2006.
  9. ↑ Salaita, Steven (2017). Inter/nationalism: Decolonizing Native America and Palestine. University of Minneapolis Press. p. 43. ISBN   9781452955292.
  10. ↑ Coovadia, Hoosem Mahomed (1999). "Sanctions and the Struggle for Health in South Africa". American Journal of Public Health. 89 (10): 1506–8. doi:10.2105/AJPH.89.10.1505. PMC   1508795 . PMID   10511831.
  11. ↑ Jobbins, David (2002). "South Africa's Universities: Force for the Future or a Signal of Failure?". The Round Table. 91 (363): 54. doi:10.1080/00358530220118543. S2CID   144281278 – via Taylor and Francis.
  12. ↑ "Boycotts". African National Congress. 1 December 2010. Archived from the original on 15 January 2014.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.