UNDERSTANDING HOW BELONGING AND ORIGINALITY ARE NEGOTIATED IN THREE SOUTH AFRICAN ANTHROPOLOGY DEPARTMENTS

Abstract

As of recent, debates around the decolonisation and decoloniality of academia have deepened within the context of the Global South, particularly in Africa, where the legacies of colonial knowledge production are still largely embedded. While the discipline of Anthropology often positions itself as reflexive and inclusive, ten young academics and students from three South African Anthropology Departments who participated in this study suggest that the revolutionary promise of Anthropology is blurred by persistent Eurocentric notions and ways of approaching academia. Although this number is not completely representative of the target population, it provides a highly significant insight into the experiences of BIPOC young academics and students. Two of these departments are from universities that are Afrikaans medium, and one is an English medium. Drawing on interviews conducted with BIPOC1 junior/emerging staff members (i.e., support, research and academic), including postgraduate students in the discipline of Anthropology, this paper highlights tensions that speak to what I refer to as academic exclusion2 and the marginalisation of young BIPOC emerging scholars and postgraduate students, and lastly, the connections between the general academy and anthropology’s promises of being inclusive and how the aforementioned “manifest”.