The History of UCT Libraries

Foundation Khoekhoegowab Language Course Graduation Ceremony

On the 23rd of March 2022, the first cohort of students graduated from the Khoekhoegowab Language Course in a ceremony held in Sarah Baartman Hall on Upper Campus. The ceremony was officiated by Tauriq Jenkins, member of the A/Xarra Restorative Justice Forum and South African Human Rights Commissioner. Bradley van Sitters called out the names of the graduates while Mr Jenkins and Dr. June Bam-Hutchison handed out the graduation certificates to the graduates who ranged in age, nationality and gender with the youngest student aged fourteen- years- old and the eldest eighty- years- old. Dr. Shose Kessi, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities, was present to give an opening speech before the ceremony commenced and took photographs with the graduates on stage. The handing out of certificates to participants of the course was followed by two intermittent Riel Dance performances from the Net vir Pret dance group from the Barrydale region and a student dialogue performance of the Khoekhoegowab language by two graduates of the course, Taslyn Maasdorp and Emanuel Springbok. Dr. Yvette Abrahams, an iconic indigenous scholar, closed off the event by emphasising the importance of the historic graduation ceremony as the Khoekhoegowab language was reclaimed by the graduates with the land on which the university was built acknowledged.