Abstract

CONRADIE, Ernst M.. Reconstructing the history of doing theology at UWC - Some fragmentary decolonial perspectives. STJ [online]. 2021, vol.7, n.1, pp.1-26. ISSN 2413-9467.  http://dx.doi.org/10.17570/stj.2021.v7n1.t8.

The history of the University of the Western Cape is a history born amidst colonisation but also one of decolonisation and the emergence of decolonial thinking. This contribution sketches these movements from a point of departure in a private letter from the then Prime Minister H. F. Verwoerd to Prof Kalie Heese (Psychology) on the future of the then University College of the Western Cape (dated 2 October 1962). This will, in rather graphic terms, illustrate the challenges posed to tertiary education under conditions of colonial rule. Against that background, subsequent sections explore the history of UWC and of doing theology at UWC from one possible, fragmentary decolonial perspective. In a subsequent article, the significance of these developments for reconstructing the history of systematic theology in particular will be explored.

Keywords : Belhar Confession; decoloniality; K. W. Heese; Systematic Theology; theological education; H. F. Verwoerd; University of the Western Cape.

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