New thinking in Faculty about SU’s past and future

When a study on “Age- and education-related effects on cognitive functioning in Coloured South African women” was published in 2019, it sparked outrage over how racial bias can persist in academic research decades after apartheid.

For Anell Daries, it was deeply personal. “It affected me profoundly. The community where the research took place – though anonymised – was in no way dissimilar to my own.”

What’s the problem?

Daries’s critique of “The Article”, as the study that would later be retracted became known at Stellenbosch University (SU), is multilayered. 

She questions the study’s framing: “It implies all women of a specific group have lower cognitive functioning because of education, diet and lifestyle choices. That echoes long-standing, damaging stereotypes many of us have worked hard to dismantle.”

She points out: “‘Coloured’ is a contested term. It’s not a category people sit comfortably with. The article treated a group as homogeneous, ignoring its diversity and complexity.”

And she notes: “There was no critical engagement with how apartheid classifications shaped access to resources. There wasn’t enough focus on how systems, not individuals, produce and sustain crises.”

These questions of how ideas, institutions and power shape the pursuit of ‘knowledge’ would soon become the centre of her doctoral research.

Turning shock into scholarship

A child of the Cape Flats, Daries (now 29) was head girl of her school, strong academically and “always a history nerd”. After matriculating, she enrolled at the University of the Western Cape (UWC), an experience she treasures for how it shaped her politically during #FeesMustFall in 2015. 

Her master’s thesis at UWC examined Volkekunde – the ethnological tradition taught predominantly at Afrikaans universities through much of the 20th century – and how dissident scholars helped shift it towards Social Anthropology.

She was finalising this study when the controversy over the article erupted on her Facebook feed. “I thought, ‘What is going on at Stellenbosch? Why are they doing this kind of work?’”

This prompted her to switch to SU for her PhD “to understand,” as she puts it, “the foundations that would allow for the existence of such a study” – an interest that has since defined her work on disciplinary legacies in higher education.

Legacy logic

Supervised by Prof Sandra Swart of the Department of History in SU’s Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Daries’s 2022 doctorate traced the history of Sport Science at SU from its 1937 origins as a Physical Education programme for student teachers. The department would later become home to the authors of the article – demonstrating how disciplinary legacies can echo across generations.

Her research showed how ideology shaped the field from the outset. In the 1930s, when the “poor white question” dominated national politics and several SU academics served on the Carnegie Commission, the discipline became part of broader efforts to “redeem whiteness” by promoting good nutrition, physical activity and hygiene under the maxim, “a healthy body hosts a healthy mind”. 

Over time, the discipline evolved, amongst others to Human Movement Studies in the 1980s and Sport Science in the 1990s. After the uproar over the article, SU moved the discipline from the Faculty of Education to the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences.

Imagining repair

The controversy opened a larger inquiry for Daries on how academic disciplines shape what counts as knowledge. Her PhD gave her new insight into an institution she once watched only from a distance. “I focused on understanding SU. If I just criticised it without understanding it, that would be hollow,” she says.

Today, Daries lectures at SU’s Centre for the Study of the Afterlife of Violence and the Reparative Quest (AVReQ), founded and directed by Prof Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela. Daries, who previously convened AVReQ’s postgraduate programmes and now coordinates its MPhil, lectures on history, memory and repair.

Long walk to change

Drawing on her research, she designed a walking tour of Stellenbosch starting at the Arts and Social Sciences Building – on land once part of Die Vlakte, the site of mass forced removals in 1964. 

On the Rooiplein, she points out how Jan Marais’s statue is now “in conversation” with a photograph of Nelson Mandela taken in the Neelsie in 1991. 

She also stops at the University’s Restitution Statement, in which SU acknowledges “its contribution towards the injustices of the past”, expresses “deep regret”, and apologises “unreservedly”.

For her, these installations not only open conversations about history and repair, they also expose the gap between institutional intent and lived reality.

In the year that Daries earned her PhD, retired Constitutional Court judge Sisi Khampepe was appointed to investigate “allegations of racism” at SU. In her report, she praised SU’s “impressive theoretical strides towards transformation” but found that these “are not translating adequately into the lived experiences of students and staff” – who “still feel unwelcome and excluded”.

Daries can relate. Even after completing her doctorate at SU and joining AVReQ, she remains ambivalent about claiming a ‘Matie’ identity – the term used for Stellenbosch students and alumni. “It carries heavy historical connotations – who got to study here, and who didn’t. That makes it very hard for me to fully embrace it.”

Yet, recognising the “tensions of transformation,” she also sees a “campaign for change” unfolding over decades at SU. “There’s been an ongoing push to transform the University’s ethos. And it has changed – it’s no longer the Stellenbosch of the 1930s or 1960s.

“There’s still a lot of work to do, but I consider myself part of a larger collective who want to see Stellenbosch in a new light – people at this University writing about this University. Holding our institution accountable means we also must hold ourselves accountable – to be the change we want to see.”

One of those accepting this responsibility is Daries’s student, Jesse le Roux (24).

A different kind of belonging

Le Roux grew up in Johannesburg and George in a comparatively privileged family, but his identity and outlook placed him outside the typical image of a Stellenbosch student. Identifying as queer, he enrolled at the University in 2020, despite being told he might not find ‘his people’ here.

While still in matric, he spent a week visiting a friend at SU – an experience that left a lasting impression. “I loved the classes, the atmosphere, the Rooiplein,” he says. So he came – despite his misgivings.

His start at SU was difficult. As a first-year in Pieke – then an all-male community for students not in residence – he often felt alienated. “At the welcoming events the talk was all about how to ‘win the girls over’.”

In his second year, he started mentoring others who gravitated towards him. “I would be wearing a colourful outfit or makeup. Newcomers would ask: ‘What’s it like being gay here?’ To them, I was the person I needed when I first arrived,” he says.

There were costs, however. Walking in town with a friend one night, they were called “moffies” and had a rock hurled in their direction. But the experience sharpened his commitment to social justice. 

“People tone themselves down just to fit in, but we need spaces where people can just be, without shrinking themselves to belong,” he says.

He joined QueerUS and became fascinated by the organisation’s history – a story he would later make the focus of his research.

Queering the university

Le Roux’s master’s thesis traces the evolution of queer mobilisation at SU. 

Institutional histories, he argues, are often written at milestone moments, such as SU’s centenary in 2018. But “histories from below” are equally vital – they “add texture and contribute to the bigger tapestry.”

His study begins in 1987, when a group of students tried to launch ‘Gays of the University of Stellenbosch (GUS)’  – an initiative that fizzled out at a time when the struggle against apartheid took precedence.

South Africa held its first democratic elections in 1994 and adopted a new constitution in 1996, becoming the first country in the world to explicitly protect sexual orientation. Yet, at SU, there was still no society for queer students. 

That changed in 1999 when BA student Jeanine Cameron started Les-Be-Gay (or Lesbigay) at SU. Two decades later, members changed the society’s name to QueerUS to reflect how the word ‘queer’ was reclaimed as an inclusive term for diverse sexual and gender identities. 

Le Roux draws on feminist scholar Eve Sedgwick’s definition of ‘queer’ as an “open mesh of possibilities”. But he also uses the word as a verb – to queer the University by transforming it from within. 

“It’s tempting to paint Stellenbosch as just ‘conservative.’ But who is Stellenbosch? It’s not one thing,” he says. 

Repairing the university

Daries sees in students like Le Roux the continuation of a project that began long before either of them arrived at SU – one that progressively creates more room for reflection and belonging. 

Their everyday work reflects that ethos. Daries mentors postgraduates with an emphasis on wellbeing – “you can only do your best work if you look after yourself”. Le Roux, now finalising his thesis, welcomes new cohorts of AVReQ master’s fellows and guides them through the challenges of postgraduate research.

Never-ending story

SU is currently taking a fresh look at itself, now that it has a new Rector, Prof Deresh Ramjugernath, and a new Chancellor, Reserve Bank Governor Lesetja Kganyago. It also held its annual Transformation Indaba recently. 

At a time like this, the University’s past still matters – but perhaps even more so, its future. For Daries and Le Roux, the answer lies in looking beyond labels and stereotypes.

“Institutional cultures aren’t created in a purely top-down way. We can get directives about SU’s Vision 2040, but how do we live it? That’s where we all contribute,” says Daries.

“As much as we all need to get along, nobody should have to pigeonhole themselves,” says Le Roux.

Together, they remind us that university transformation is never a finished chapter. It is the work of generations – those who built the institution, those who challenged it, and those who continue to imagine what it could yet be.

AVReQ is launching a new interdisciplinary MPhil in Violent Histories and Repair in January 2026.

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Anell Daries. Picture: Stefan Els

Jesse le Roux. Picture: Ignus Dreyer

* Desmond Thompson is a freelance journalist.