By Eric King-
Oxford University has called for all institutions of higher education to decolonise their institutions.
The challenging statement was made as the University put up an advertisement for a postgraduate to investigate its role in the British Empire.
“This project will explore connections between the college and colonialism, uncovering benefactions to St John’s and the alumni who served in the empire. It will also investigate the monuments, objects, pictures, buildings that evoke the colonial past.”The top British University is offering R 1.2m for a postgraduate to spend two years digging into its own role in colonialism – at a salary of some R1.2 million.
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The research is inspired by the Rhodes Must Fall movement, the college says in its job ad. It went on to add:”Oxford in general helped to educate and train colonial administrators; missionaries; apologists for, and critics, of empire; and significant leaders and creators of newly independent states,” the college says about the position.
There are “compelling intellectual and ethical reasons for institutions of higher education to face up to the role they played in the British empire” it said
DECOLONISATION
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The college said that the drive to decolonise universities has not spread around the the scholarly world. The initial push to decolonise universities spread from the Rhodes Must Fall movement at the University of Cape Town.St John’s believes that Oxford University did not own slaves, but “undoubtedly benefited from the largesse of those who did”.
It also points to looted objects at university museums as an area that requires investigation.”The researcher will also undertake work on the material remains — what French historians have called the lieux de me´moire — of empire: the monuments, objects, pictures, and buildings that evoke the colonial past,” the extended job description reads.
Despite dealing with British colonies, the job can only go to someone who already has the right to work in the United Kingdom, the college said; getting the job would not qualify an academic for the necessary visa to get into the country.
“Oxford in general helped to educate and train colonial administrators; missionaries; apologists for, and critics, of empire; and significant leaders and creators of newly independent states,” the college says about the position.There are “compelling intellectual and ethical reasons for institutions of higher education to face up to the role they played
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