Research any notable university in the world and one of the most important aspects of that research will be the institution’s alumni – and the achievements of illustrious past students that serve to inspire others wishing to follow in their footsteps.
The alumni provide a powerful snapshot of an institution, its values, impact on society and its ability to create a challenging learning environment for nurturing leaders of tomorrow.
Scrolling through the illustrious alumni of the globally renowned University of Fort Hare stimulates many emotions, including an immense sense of pride.
Throughout its history, the institution has launched thousands of graduates into the world who went on to become trailblazing figures in politics, business, law, education, medicine, science and the humanities. Some have made technological breakthroughs, developed innovative products, or discovered lifesaving treatments, while others have led nations and revolutions, and others still have created timeless artworks or written words that changed the course of history.
Many of the legacies of Fort Hare’s alumni are intertwined with the struggle for freedom and democracy in South Africa in particular and on the African continent in general, and today their stories live on in the hearts and minds of citizens even if the individuals have long passed on.
Given its challenging and turbulent history and the profoundly damaging impact of colonialism and apartheid, the University of Fort Hare’s alumni is in itself remarkable achievement. How many other such institutions can proudly count seven African presidents among its alumni, all having emerged from the institution equipped to take on the mantles of political leadership in their own countries?
Included are South Africa’s inspirational Nelson Mandela; Botswana’s first president Seretse Khama; Tanzania’s president Julius Nyerere; Zambia’s first president Kenneth Kaunda; the interim president of Uganda Yusuf Lule; Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe; and Kaizer Matanzima president of the Bantustan Transkei.
Mandela, who studied Latin and physics at Fort Hare for almost two years in the 1940s, left as a result of a conflict with a college leader, but the institution’s impact was significant during his time there and beyond.
As he later wrote in his autobiography: “For young black South Africans like myself, it was Oxford and Cambridge, Harvard and Yale, all rolled into one.”
Today, his legacy at the university lives on through the Nelson R Mandela School of Law. It is fully committed to fulfilling Fort Hare’s strategic mission to provide a world class legal education.
The university has long been a fertile breeding ground for young leaders, equipping them to shape their destinies and those of their countries over the years to come. Beyond Mandela, several other leading South African opponents of the apartheid regime attended Fort Hare and emerged as leaders. Among them were Oliver Tambo of the ANC; Mangosuthu Buthelezi of the Inkatha Freedom Party; Robert Sobukwe of the Pan Africanist Congress; Desmond Tutu, now Archbishop Emeritus; Chris Hani, leader of the South African Communist Party and chief of staff of Umkhonto we Sizwe, and Govan Mbeki, of the ANC and SACP and father of former president Thabo Mbeki. They remain powerful and inspirational role models for thousands of young students today.
The university is also represented in the current generation leadership across the spheres of politics, government and the corporate sector. Included are Sizwe Nxasana, Lazarus Zim, Khaya Ngqula, Bulelani Ngcuka, Wendy Luhabe, Irvin Khoza, Tim Modise, Don Ncube, former Eastern Cape premier Rev Makhenkesi Stofile, former KwaZulu-Natal premier Dr Frank Mdlalose and the current Free State premier Ace Magashule, to mention a few.
Clearly the University of Fort Hare has leadership running through its veins and it has long held a reputation for nurturing many of Africa’s inspirational leaders. It is thus appropriate for the institution’s Centre for Leadership Ethics in Africa (CLEA) to be building on the achievements of the past and preparing itself to create a new generation of leaders capable of addressing the many new challenges facing the African continent.
The world is looking to a new generation of leaders to convert Africa’s significant natural, cultural and human resources into prosperity through emphasising stability, development and sustainability.
Good leadership is the single most critical factor in harnessing potential into activities that will guarantee survival on the planet, see a reversal of inequality and facilitate social cohesion. CLEA is a cross-disciplinary initiative that conducts research, develops postgraduate curricula and shapes debates about leadership ethics in post-apartheid South Africa and its wider theoretical and global significance. CLEA sees itself contributing to crafting a new generation of enlightened leaders within a space of lively and imaginative intellectual engagement.
The centenary celebrations of 2016 provide the perfect opportunity to reflect on Fort Hare’s past and its achievements and the track record of the many successful students who have added to its reputation and history. They serve as a powerful magnet for the present and past pupils to merge, to share experiences and insights, and to contribute to solving the many challenges in today’s turbulent world.
As the University of Fort Hare celebrates its 100 years of existence and we take time to reflect on the significant impact it has had on the socio-economic and political landscape of South Africa and the African continent, its strong alumni are impossible to overlook.
These men and women are the flag bearers of change, the role models for others and the innovators who have seen challenge as opportunity.
Today’s students should take time to remember that the very same alumni members whose names today are synonymous with strong and inspirational leadership in the darkest of days, sat at the same desks they occupy today.
Their memory is a powerful motivator. Their experiences and example teach the new generation of students that if they wish to achieve success, they must earn it. They have to continually push the boundaries of knowledge, strive for excellence, work hard and leave similarly inspirational footsteps for others to follow.
Luthando Bara is a former student of Fort Hare who later worked as its director of communications. He is currently a businessman. Centenary celebrations take place on February 6 – 8 in East London. For more information visit www.ufh.ac.za
An alumni which does Africa immensely proud
The alumni provide a powerful snapshot of an institution, its values, impact on society and its ability to create a challenging learning environment for nurturing leaders of tomorrow.
Scrolling through the illustrious alumni of the globally renowned University of Fort Hare stimulates many emotions, including an immense sense of pride.
Throughout its history, the institution has launched thousands of graduates into the world who went on to become trailblazing figures in politics, business, law, education, medicine, science and the humanities. Some have made technological breakthroughs, developed innovative products, or discovered lifesaving treatments, while others have led nations and revolutions, and others still have created timeless artworks or written words that changed the course of history.
Many of the legacies of Fort Hare’s alumni are intertwined with the struggle for freedom and democracy in South Africa in particular and on the African continent in general, and today their stories live on in the hearts and minds of citizens even if the individuals have long passed on.
Given its challenging and turbulent history and the profoundly damaging impact of colonialism and apartheid, the University of Fort Hare’s alumni is in itself remarkable achievement. How many other such institutions can proudly count seven African presidents among its alumni, all having emerged from the institution equipped to take on the mantles of political leadership in their own countries?
Included are South Africa’s inspirational Nelson Mandela; Botswana’s first president Seretse Khama; Tanzania’s president Julius Nyerere; Zambia’s first president Kenneth Kaunda; the interim president of Uganda Yusuf Lule; Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe; and Kaizer Matanzima president of the Bantustan Transkei.
Mandela, who studied Latin and physics at Fort Hare for almost two years in the 1940s, left as a result of a conflict with a college leader, but the institution’s impact was significant during his time there and beyond.
As he later wrote in his autobiography: “For young black South Africans like myself, it was Oxford and Cambridge, Harvard and Yale, all rolled into one.”
Today, his legacy at the university lives on through the Nelson R Mandela School of Law. It is fully committed to fulfilling Fort Hare’s strategic mission to provide a world class legal education.
The university has long been a fertile breeding ground for young leaders, equipping them to shape their destinies and those of their countries over the years to come. Beyond Mandela, several other leading South African opponents of the apartheid regime attended Fort Hare and emerged as leaders. Among them were Oliver Tambo of the ANC; Mangosuthu Buthelezi of the Inkatha Freedom Party; Robert Sobukwe of the Pan Africanist Congress; Desmond Tutu, now Archbishop Emeritus; Chris Hani, leader of the South African Communist Party and chief of staff of Umkhonto we Sizwe, and Govan Mbeki, of the ANC and SACP and father of former president Thabo Mbeki. They remain powerful and inspirational role models for thousands of young students today.
The university is also represented in the current generation leadership across the spheres of politics, government and the corporate sector. Included are Sizwe Nxasana, Lazarus Zim, Khaya Ngqula, Bulelani Ngcuka, Wendy Luhabe, Irvin Khoza, Tim Modise, Don Ncube, former Eastern Cape premier Rev Makhenkesi Stofile, former KwaZulu-Natal premier Dr Frank Mdlalose and the current Free State premier Ace Magashule, to mention a few.
Clearly the University of Fort Hare has leadership running through its veins and it has long held a reputation for nurturing many of Africa’s inspirational leaders. It is thus appropriate for the institution’s Centre for Leadership Ethics in Africa (CLEA) to be building on the achievements of the past and preparing itself to create a new generation of leaders capable of addressing the many new challenges facing the African continent.
The world is looking to a new generation of leaders to convert Africa’s significant natural, cultural and human resources into prosperity through emphasising stability, development and sustainability.
Good leadership is the single most critical factor in harnessing potential into activities that will guarantee survival on the planet, see a reversal of inequality and facilitate social cohesion. CLEA is a cross-disciplinary initiative that conducts research, develops postgraduate curricula and shapes debates about leadership ethics in post-apartheid South Africa and its wider theoretical and global significance. CLEA sees itself contributing to crafting a new generation of enlightened leaders within a space of lively and imaginative intellectual engagement.
The centenary celebrations of 2016 provide the perfect opportunity to reflect on Fort Hare’s past and its achievements and the track record of the many successful students who have added to its reputation and history. They serve as a powerful magnet for the present and past pupils to merge, to share experiences and insights, and to contribute to solving the many challenges in today’s turbulent world.
As the University of Fort Hare celebrates its 100 years of existence and we take time to reflect on the significant impact it has had on the socio-economic and political landscape of South Africa and the African continent, its strong alumni are impossible to overlook.
These men and women are the flag bearers of change, the role models for others and the innovators who have seen challenge as opportunity.
Today’s students should take time to remember that the very same alumni members whose names today are synonymous with strong and inspirational leadership in the darkest of days, sat at the same desks they occupy today.
Their memory is a powerful motivator. Their experiences and example teach the new generation of students that if they wish to achieve success, they must earn it. They have to continually push the boundaries of knowledge, strive for excellence, work hard and leave similarly inspirational footsteps for others to follow.
Luthando Bara is a former student of Fort Hare who later worked as its director of communications. He is currently a businessman. Centenary celebrations take place on February 6 – 8 in East London. For more information visit www.ufh.ac.za
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