UKZN in partnership with Umtapo Centre – a social justice organisation that promotes sustainable development, peace, and human rights for all – hosted a webinar to commemorate Human Rights Day.
Titled, The Quest for True Humanity in a Polarised Global World, the webinar was facilitated by Ms Kekeletso Khena, Deputy President of the Azanian People’s Organisation (AZAPO) and featured guest speakers Professor Zahra Ali, Rutgers University, US; Professor Saths Cooper, President of the Pan African Psychological Union; and Mr Oupa Ngwenya, freelance writer and columnist.
In her welcome address, Executive Director: Corporate Relations, Ms Normah Zondo said the webinar was a testament to the enduring partnership between Umtapo and the Institution to promote collaboration built on shared values and a commitment to meaningful discourse.
She observed that UKZN is a centre of learning and enlightenment that advocates for rigorous scrutiny of ideas and fosters an environment where intellectual curiosity supersedes hostility. Zondo added that the webinar offered a platform for introspection and dialogue, particularly as South Africa approaches elections.
Ali focused on transnational feminist solidarity in relation to the genocide in Gaza, tying it to knowledge making and the quest for true humanity in a polarised global world. She noted that the Critical Studies of Iraq (an initiative she founded in her home country) aims to bring together the scholarship of social scientists and feminists based in the Global South.
Noting the need to pose fundamental questions about the systems of power that structure the contemporary world and humanity itself, she expressed disquiet at the use of the “all lives matter” narrative in the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
Ali spoke of the othering of Iraq, Gaza and its people and the use of terminology such as “war” to cover up invasion and occupation as well as genocide in Gaza. Noting that victims are only seen through the lens of women and children, she called for the ‘decolonisation of feminism to include Arab, Palestinian, Iraqi, Iranian and Black men at the centre of its political imagination as true feminist subjects.’
Ali described the trans in transnational feminism in a time of genocide as a rebuttal of the assumption of a global sisterhood rooted within White, middle-class, western feminism that has frequently ignored non-western cultures and geopolitics, and the lived experiences of women in the Global South. Reminding her audience of the relationship between racism, imperialism and settler colonialism, she said the trans also challenges borders in relation to nations, genders and sexuality.
Cooper highlighted how differences among people have been used to undermine humanism. He said that Euro-American ontology and its dominance in the media, and the West’s capture of education and socialisation have given birth to perennial conflict, intolerance, and the lack of a shared understanding of humanism.
Reviewing psychological research which shows that the abused can become the abuser, he reflected on the history of South Africa and the Anglo Boer War which resulted in the Boers feeling oppressed by the British and renaming themselves Afrikaners, laying claim to a space of their own.
Cooper added that the death of small children has not sparked the public outcry that erupted when humanitarian aid workers were killed in the Israel-Hamas conflict. He said this is due to othering where people are viewed as objects: ‘The need to work together to restore our common humanity is far from our horizon because we are faced with rampant racism, ethnicity, sexism, violence, poverty, hunger, unemployment and corruption, more redundancy of human life in this technological era than ever before in history, and post-COVID the them and us divide has increased.’
Ngwenya as the respondent commented on the importance of recognising how humanity has been deprived, and noted that this has shone a spotlight on international bodies that manage world peace and stability. He added that the lesson he learnt from Ali is ‘not to look away, turn a deaf ear, or turn our backs on those who are suffering.’ He said that Cooper had reminded the public to reclaim their minds and not surrender to the manipulator; to recognise that humanity is under siege; and to reclaim their voices and visibility ‘because without that the good causes we stand upon will be overshadowed and forgotten.’
In her vote of thanks, Khena acknowledged UKZN for making the webinar possible, the panellists for sharing their insights, and the audience for attending: ‘Aluta continua… it is up to us to realise Steve Biko’s vision to “give the world a more human face”.
The webinar concluded with a Q&A session.
Click here to view the webinar on UKZN’s YouTube channel.
