Think Piece: Trust as a condition for “radical entanglement”

Abstract

When I was teaching first year students the introduction to international relations in July 2023, the coup in Niger took place. Seven coups have happened since August 2020 in west and central Africa. I tell the first years that it is not farfetched to imagine that one day they might come out of class to broadcasts by figures in the South African National Defence Force that they have taken over the country.

I deliberately call the course the “personal is the international” to make clear that, for better or worse, the students’ dreams and gifts are defined by “the international”. Making this point is easier standing in front of a group of students whose lives have been radically redefined by a global pandemic that began in another continent.

As I write this think piece about trust, 6000 bombs have been dropped in the homes, schools, hospitals and universities in Gaza. As of 13 November 2023, about 1063 academics, including the Rhodes University Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sizwe Mabizela, have signed an open letter to Universities South Africa (USAF) and the Academy of Science of South Africa that calls on USAF to “issue a statement that unambiguously expresses solidarity with the universities in Gaza and the occupied territories and mourns the deaths of academics and students who have been killed during the Israeli onslaught”. Among other important demands made by these academics, includes the call for an academic and cultural boycott and the severing of ties with Israeli institutions.

What does it mean to think about higher education and trust at a moment of deepening political, social, economic and psychological crisis in South Africa and the world?