The Southern African Bursary: 50 years on

Statements like these could be, and often are, made by any member of Churchill’s alumni community. Professor Ndebele’s words give a deeper insight into what studying here meant to him in the 1970s and why the creation of this bursary was so important at that time especially.

“It enabled me at the time, to escape from the severe, daily restrictions apartheid South Africa imposed on the thinking, feeling, imagining, and movement of black South Africans. Away from such a dispiriting environment, I got to experience, far more than I could imagine at the time, a lot more freedom in the United Kingdom, particularly in the welcoming atmosphere at Churchill College.”

Professor Njabulo Ndebele (U73)

For students, by students

The majority of the £1million of financial support the College awards to its students each year is funded by donations from the alumni community, but it is the generosity of current students and Fellows that has funded The Southern African Bursary since the early 1970s. The Southern African Bursary began as an idea from the JCR (the undergraduate representative body) for a student-funded bursary intended to enable more students from Southern Africa to study at Cambridge. Fifty years on, around 80% of today’s current students and Fellows at Churchill College opt to contribute £6 each term to the Southern African Studentship. Both the fund’s creation and the unique manner of its funding have resonated deeply with the recipients.

Professor Ndebele, the bursary’s first recipient in 1973, said “I admired and respected how the bursary was a concrete manifestation of the collective commitment of the College’s students and Fellows to what I experienced as humane internationalism.” The reason behind the award was also particularly meaningful for Dr Van Heerden (G06), who had been a student and youth activist in the 1980s and early 1990s. Given his own contribution in the Anti-Apartheid struggle, which included being arrested and detained without trial, he “was immensely proud to be associated with an initiative which came about precisely to fight against such an evil system and assist students from Southern Africa in some small measure.”

Whilst Mpilenhle (Pearl) enjoyed the window seat in room 2G, Njabulo and Oscar lived in the Wolfson Flats accommodation, 33 years apart. Njabulo lived there with his wife and son and described it as a place where “married graduate students from around the world interacted in a rich international environment far away from racist dogma and parochialism of white-ruled South Africa”. Oscar’s wife, Dr Nicky Roberts (G08), also completed a Master’s degree as a Churchillian, and their twin children who are now 20 years old still recount fond memories of growing up in Churchill College.