#Afrikaansmustfall, decolonial impulses and the persistence of western ideological power in South African legal education

Abstract

This paper evaluates the outcome of the #Afrikaansmustfall movement at the University of Pretoria, namely, that Afrikaans’s ‘fall resulted in its displacement by ’English as the medium of instruction. This study concerns the institutional use of languages and the various implications of the choices made on the back of #Afrikaansmustfall student protests across South Africa. Beyond language, the student-led movements and academic literacies were implicitly concerned with the issues relating to mastery of a ‘way of being’ required of students as they engage with higher education in historically white institutions. These issues, this paper argues, implicate the influence western ideology as a means of maintaining the dominance of western ways of being in the South African higher education space, with a particular focus on legal education. Arguing that Afrikaans was merely a symptom of a much larger issue, rather, as this paper argues, the relations of power premised on white supremacy, imperialism and later capitalism operate systematically and are sustained through ideology. I utilise the work of various theorists who provide a material analysis of ideology to demonstrate that the ‘fall’ of Afrikaans is not as transformative as might be imagined. Ideology is more than an imaginary, ideology effects material reality. Ideology is not outside the subject but rather it is within the subject, within their everyday consciousness and within their society. This article sets out an argument that ideology does not mirror society rather, it is active in the construction of the material existence of society, including the constitution of racial identities. Ideology has both an external and internal effect. Furthermore, Ideology plays a role in how we view ourselves and how we experience society.