Day 1 Session 2 | From Dalibhunga to Rolihlahla: Making Trouble with ‘Mandela’

Day 1 Session 2 | From Dalibhunga to Rolihlahla: Making Trouble with ‘Mandela’

A collaboration between the Transdisciplinary Institute for Mandela Studies (TIMS) and the Chair for Critical Studies in Higher Education Transformation (CriSHET)

DATE: 14-15 August 2025
VENUE: Ocean Sciences Conference Centre & Zoom


Please visit https://criticalmandela.mandela.ac.za/ for more on the intellectual and programmatic work Mandela University has been pursuing around the social figure of Mandela.

In 2017, the Nelson Mandela University re-imagined itself with an official name-change. In this moment, then-Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa emphasised the “great responsibility” the University was taking on with the change. In response to this new responsibility, the University engaged with the name in a plethora of ways, from rethinking its brand, posture and identity to creating artworks on campus that represent Mandela; from running focus groups on the ‘meanings of Mandela’ to initiating projects and programmes aligned with social justice.

The Dalibhunga: This Time? That Mandela? colloquium held in 2019 was driven by the imperative to formulate a scholarly response to the name-change and to develop an academic expression of the name. As the only institution for higher education in South Africa carrying the name, the University was aware that it needed to engage with (as the concept note for the colloquium put it) Mandela “the social figure: a figure of justice”. The Colloquium was interested in the myriad meanings and figurations of Mandela – Mandela in the plural – and argued that “the labour of praxis calls upon us to disclose the interpretive schemes and associated social practices that we can distil from Mandela to cultivate humanity in the interests of socio-economic equality.”

Six years on from that colloquium, and longer since the name-change, we would like to extend an invitation to the University community to join us in grappling with the figure of Mandela once again – this time through the intellectual, engagement and transformation work that has been ongoing throughout the University that speaks, in one way or another, to Mandela. The platform for this is an Indaba that will take the form of a University ‘get-together’, with different modes being encouraged and several voices from outside the University being invited to offer provocations. A fulcrum session will grapple with a draft Embedding Mandela resource document, which TIMS will make available to participants before the Indaba.

From Dalibhunga to Rolihlahla offers space for reflection on the University’s journey with its name since 2017, for exploration of the social figuring of Mandela for the University in the contexts of a rapidly changing world, and for a contribution to the many initiatives designed to clarify the University’s task in these contexts. Pursuing these lines of enquiry can be troubling. On the other hand, making trouble is something that Nelson Mandela didn’t shy away from. In some ways his life journey exemplified the ‘troublemaker’ meanings of his birthname Rolihlahla. For the University, ‘making trouble’ is unavoidable if it is to use the social figure Mandela as its compass in navigating the rapidly changing world it finds itself in.

Find the:
i) Concept note here: https://tinyurl.com/IndabaConceptNote
ii) Programme here: https://tinyurl.com/IndabaProgramme
iii) Event booklet here: https://tinyurl.com/IndabaBooklet
iv) Draft Institutional Resource Document here: https://tinyurl.com/EmbeddingMandela
v) Artist Statement here: https://tinyurl.com/IndabaArtistState...

Video Timestamp:
00:00 - Title and Concept Note
00:31 - Welcome back
00:44 - Carrying the Name 'Mandela' (Panel)
39:00 - Discussion and Questions