Interview with Prof. Jonathan Jansen of the University of The Free State



Jonathan Jansen


A couple of years ago while I was studying in the U.S.A, I got news of an incident that occured at the university in my hometown. The short of it; four white students had videotaped themselves practicing degrading and humiliating initiation rites on some black university staff. Given South Africa's racial history, the video caused an international uproar.
The incident brought to light greater issues of diversity, intergration and racism on the university campus to the fore. Those of us living in Bloemfontein, where the University of The Free State is located, had often heard horror stories of racist incidents between the black and white student population. But it seems that it took a videotape going viral to make the relevant people sit-up and do something.
Enter Jonathan Jansen, who is now the Rector of the university.
Read our interview with Prof. Jansen below to learn more about the racial history of the university, and how he is working towards healing the racial wounds of the student population and creating a united and integrated university.

Can you explain the concept of ‘servant leadership’?

For me it means putting your body on the line for your followers. It means something counter-cultural, going against the strong-man theory of leadership based on constructs like dominance and control. Your entry into leadership is one of servant not master, in other words. You lead from a position of brokenness as opposed to a position of all-knowing, perfect and ‘arrived leadership.’

For our international audience who are not familiar with South Africa and its’ current racial dynamics, can you please explain some of your biggest challenges when arriving at The University of the Free State.

There were two challenges---convincing people that separate living, separate learning and separate loving was not normative but unnatural; and convincing people that within them lay the potential for overcoming historical burdens and social bitterness on a segregated campus and in a divided country.

In light of these challenges, what was your first step when arriving at the university?

To understand what sustained the bad behaviour and then, having grasped the social, emotional, organizational, psychological and spiritual bases for such racially abhorrent behaviour, to change it.

Unfortunately the Reitz Four incident has cast a shadow over the university. What good has come out of it and how do you go about repairing the image of the university?

We were blessed with a terrible crisis. We acknowledged the hurt and the pain. We named the bad behaviour. And then we sought to change it, but not through the politics of accusation but through the power of accommodation.

In 2009 you published a book entitled, ‘Knowledge in the Blood: How White Students Remember and Enact the Past.’ Can you tell us what the book is about and your thoughts on why some young, white South Africans who have only known a post-Apartheid South Africa still have racist beliefs belonging to the Apartheid Era?

The book reveals the intergenerational transmission of bitter, racist knowledge across successive generations of white South Africans. It explains how and why such knowledge travels, and with what effects in the current crop of campus students. And it shows how to interrupt such knowledge in ways that do not further alienate white young people.

You are using Facebook to interact with your students. How have they responded to you there?

The response is overwhelming, having reached the 5000 ‘friends’ ceiling and now opening a Fan Page since there are hundreds of friends waiting to be accepted. One student put it well: the FB interactions build trust that can defuse difficult situations when they arrive on campus.

Can you tell us about yourself as a person?

An ordinary bloke from the Cape Flats who is enormously blessed to be able to rise above circumstances and teach and lead in complex, difficult situations.

Growing up, who were you inspired by?

My parents, Abraham and Sarah...they dropped straight out of the Bible with those names, and sheltered us from the storms of violence in the township and apartheid in the country.

What are your dreams for the university 5 years from now?

To be a place that leads on the continent with respect to academic excellence and human togetherness.