The first weeks of the protests consisted of students receiving messages from the organizers of the protests with songs and dancing zebras telling students not to come to class. At the campuses, there were a couple of students protesting. However, in October, the protests changed drastically. The messages were no longer dancing zebras with music. The messages were threats telling students not to come or else they would be killed. On campus, there were police and tanks. Students threw rocks, police fired shots in the air. Police also chased students with tanks, and threw paint on the clothes of the protesters so that they would be identified later. Protesters set fire to buildings on campus. South Africa issued a court order banning protests and that universities met resume academic activities, but the protesters disagreed. The international office sent a message to all the international students telling them to only come to campus once they sent a message stating that it was safe. As long as we stayed away from south campus, everything was fine. Many students were required to do schoolwork online for the professors sent the slides and assignments through email. The syllabus was changed quite a bit in many classes, and sometimes classes were held at the soccer stadium that was build for the world cup. A bus would come pick students up near another of the campuses, then drive the 30 minutes to the stadium for classes. Some exams and locations for students to hand in assignments were coffeehouses and restaurants. Some professors even held lectures in their houses.
It was quite interesting to experience university in this way, and while at moments the protests complicated the academic semester, witnessing first hand what was happening with other students in other countries and universities was very interesting. The other international students and I were not particularly frightened for most of the action was happening on campus. As long as we stayed away from campus, life functioned normally.
0 Comments
|
|