The contribution of the University of Fort Hare to the struggle of all the oppressed Black South Africans for full political and democratic rights and equality and their indomitable will to build a single nation in this country is at once beyond doubt and invaluable. A substantial number of the founding members and principal leaders of the Unity Movement - as also those of the other political organisations - are in every real sense products of the University of Fort Hare.
At the very outset, there assembled at Fort Hare able, and fortunate, young men and women from the oppressed Black population of this country. Common disabilities, a common oppression and above all, a community of interests were discovered and a search for national identity and unity began. Fort Hare became a forum - more correctly - a cauldron and furnace in which liberation ideas were hammered out. These ideas were put to the test and evolved with the development of the struggle of the oppressed.
The archives of the Unity Movement reflect this process of continued progression and political maturation; of qualitative change in the policies and methods of struggle of the oppressed over the decades, beginning with the second decade of this century. And it was in the decade of the 1930s, with the formation of the All African Convention (AAC) in 1936, that new policies and methods of struggle, that were in tune with the times, were developed. The idea of unity of the oppressed against their common oppression gained definitive ascendancy among the Africanist section of the Black population. With the formation of the Unity Movement in 1943 and onwards the idea became common currency among all the oppressed.
The promotion and nurturing of a symbiotic relationship between the Centre for Cultural Studies of the University of Fort Hare and the oppressed Black population at large will impart a sense of strength and instill confidence into the oppressed and will assist them gain freedom and build a single South African nation. We urge all and sundry to support the Centre for Cultural Studies and thus assist in bringing nearer the day when South Africa will become part of civilised humanity.
Leonard Nikani
National Heritage Cultural
Studies Centre Welcome Page
Last updated 18 September 1998