PAN AFRICANIST STUDENT MOVEMENT OF AZANIA

Revolutionary greetings Sons and Daughters of Azania, whose history is written in blood!
This paper provides a position statement in relation to the Cecil John Rhodes- Rhodes Must
Fall conundrum at the University of Cape Town and transformation of this institution thereof.
It is critical that we give an ideological basis of the Pan Africanist Student Movement of Azania
(PASMA).
PASMA takes the stance that African Students are subjected to a brain damaging education
system imposed upon us (servility and colonial enchainment). Realizing that our suffering is
not accidental but a designed machinery to produce a capitalist labour force and having realized
that the students struggle is an integral part of our national liberation struggle. Our cause and
movement is founded on Pan Africanism, which (in summary) is about the unity of African
states; we are thus pro-African: that is, we breathe and live Africa. Pan Africanism is a way of
life! Therefore, Pan Africanism must be understood as a rallying and uniting force guided by
Dialectical Materialism, African Nationalism, Socialism and Continental Unity.
We are guided by the spirit that African students must be organized and mobilized under the
banner of Pan Africanism and for the advancement of Socialist struggle and the establishment
of an Africanist Socialist Democratic and Socialist Education which will symbolize the
destruction of White Supremacy, Neo-Colonialism, Capitalism and Imperialism.
We understand and are continuously experiencing the constant structural, systemic and
symbolic racism manifested through discourse, culture, knowledge production, teaching and
learning, and values of the university. These promote whiteness, protect white privilege and
nest white supremacy and white arrogance, and romanticism of white fragility. These are
experienced as micro-aggression in the conversations within the institution, manifested in the
dynamics of classrooms, values embedded in socialising activities, management and our lived
experiences within this institution.

With this background, the statue of Cecil John Rhodes- based on who he was and the indecent,
oppressive ways in which he made upon black people of this country, we indeed support the
quest to demolish and remove the statue of this colonialist. We question the purpose that it
serves in this institution, and would suggest it as a symbol to perpetuate whiteness and racism
amongst all. We refuse notions of memory of history and the notion that the statue tells a story
at UCT that needs not to be forgotten. This leads us to question whose story deserves to be
told, and whose story matters. For this reason, we suggest that a story of Cecil John Rhodes
(acknowledging that he stole this land through blood conquest to donate it to white folk for this
establishment) be told alongside a story of Archie Mafeje and AC Jordan and many African
heroes for Africas total liberation.
We are a revolutionary movement, and engage ourselves with the movement Rhodes Must
Fall. We are particular concerned with the African/Black child. We take the notion that this
conundrum is not an individual story but a collective story with a face. That face is a black face
painted with black pain.
We call upon all students to fight against institutional racism of any form, let us rally under the
banner of Pan Africanism.
Mobilize, Educate and Strive for Socialist Education.
Izwe lethu!
PASMA UCT