A mannequin of a black figure hanging by a noose from a tree on the University of the Witwatersrand campus proves the enduring power of the song ‘Strange Fruit” –and shocked observers‚ who took to social media platforms to question its origins‚ especially in the wake of racial tensions at universities.
“Highly problematic. Deeply offensive. Poorly thought about‚” Khadija Patel
?@khadijapatel commented on Twitter.
Originally performed by American musicians Billie Holiday and Nina Simone about the lynching of black men in the South in the early 1900s‚ the protest song was recently re-popularised by Kanye West on his album Yeezus‚ and has now come to life on the Wits campus.
The symbolic hanging is intended to highlight Palestinian human rights as part of a student “Israeli Apartheid Week” programme‚ Wits University said in a statement responding to Twitter user Mantsoe Pout-Nomzamo @MantsoePout‚ who shared a photograph of the mannequin.
The university had initially attempted to shut down the exhibit‚ saying in a previous statement that “the space was booked for the Orienteering Club under false pretences”. It subsequently relented and the exhibit went ahead.
Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande last week warned that “anti-white” sentiments among protesting students could lead to “racial conflict”.
A group of students at the University of the Witwatersrand‚ believed to be part of the #FeesMustFall Movement‚ last month began spraying graffiti on campus walls and wearing T-shirts with the slogan “F*** white people”.
Nzimande told the Sunday Times: “The danger is that you can have racial conflict . It is like that T-shirt which says ‘Kill all the whites ’ — that’s antiwhite chauvinism. It is backward‚ that thing. It is as backward sometimes ... the backwardness of racism. You are not going to fight racism through chauvinism‚” said Nzimande.