NWU visiting professor to present public lecture to commemorate Black History Month

NWU academic and a lecturer in English literature Dr Philden Ndlela will be presenting a public lecture in commemoration of Black History Month, at the Claflin University, in South Carolina, in the US, on 28 February 2017. February is used to celebrate black history in the United States, and in line with the spirit of celebrating black excellence.

Dr Ndlela is an Andrew Mellon Visiting Professor of Humanities at Claflin University (for the Spring semester). He is currently teaching African and African-American Heritage and Post-Colonial Theory and Cultural Studies at Claflin University.

His lecture topic is: "He brightened the corner: Decolonial AC Jordan and the quest for an equitable education system in apartheid South Africa".

Jordan became the first black academic to teach at what was an exclusively white University of Cape Town. He was an activist intellectual who was vociferous in the struggle against apartheid and SA's controversial Bantu Education policy. He died at the University of Wisconsin, in the US, in 1968 while in exile.

"This public lecture will also be attended by sister universities around here and local communities," commented Dr Ndlela.

Dr Ndlela joined NWU 2014 as a Senior Lecturer in the Department of English. He teaches African American literature and South African literature. His focus is on black writers.

He has previously worked at the University of Fort Hare, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, and the University of Zululand.

In 1992, while teaching in a high school in Ndantsane, in the Eastern Cape, he was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship towards a master's degree in English literature in New York.

He has presented his research work internationally and has done a lot of post-graduate supervision.