DATE: 24 April 2025
VENUE: The Science Centre Dome, Ocean Sciences Campus, Nelson Mandela University, Gqeberha
A Conversation between Azwinndini Muronga, Derrick Swartz and Zikhona Tywabi-Ngeva.
Facilitated by Nomalanga Mkhize.
It is self-evident that the name ‘Mandela’ and the person Nelson Mandela have multiple meanings and significations for the Nelson Mandela University and its communities and constituencies. What is perhaps less clear is the significance of Mandela for the natural and other sciences. Does the name signify in particular ways for those in scientific disciplines? Can there be, for instance, a Mandela-inflected approach to engage oceanography, physics, engineering, botany, zoology, medicine, etc?
Madiba himself had a deep respect for science in all its forms and manifestations. He went out of his way to meet the world’s top scientists – from Stephen Hawking to Phillip Tobias – and turned to science in moments of personal and social crisis. His activism on HIV/AIDS is well-known – during a 2003 international conference on the pandemic, Madiba said: “The role of scientific knowledge is to ensure that decisions are made based on fact and knowledge rather than belief, myth and superstition.” In family interactions, science was a frequent reference point – in 1978 he advised his daughter Zindzi: “You will be safe if you always try to seek a scientific explanation for all that happens, even if you come to a wrong conclusion”; in 1988 he advised his granddaughter Nandi on the education of her son: “he must be taught in the computer field because that is the future and that is going to change our lives.”
Of course, Madiba’s more or less positivist (or modernist) view of science needs to be problematized. The extent to which narrative shapes both the design and the interpretation of empirical research must be reckoned with; creating spaces for engagement with indigenous knowledge systems is vital; and finding a values-based anchoring to scientific endeavor remains a challenge of critical importance.
Throughout his life Madiba carried strong imprints from his traditional upbringing in Thembuland as well as his schooling in British mission institutions. He found, for himself, an epistemic fusion which worked for him in the contexts of struggle and democratization. Does critical analysis of the juxtaposition ‘Mandela-Science’ offer the University valuable lines of reflection as it strives for epistemic justice in the contexts of a continuing struggle with coloniality? What does an anchoring in values and ethics look like for the sciences at a university carrying the name Mandela? How should a Mandela university respond to the National System of Science of Innovation (NSI) as a framework for analysing how science, technology, and innovation (STI) can address socio-economic challenges?
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