Russel Botman Bursary Fund

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, violence within the country has intensified, particularly domestic violence towards women and children. Dubbed the Shadow Pandemic, it has grown amidst the pandemic and to put an end to these horrors, we require a global collective effort.

The fight against the abuse of women and children is something that is not new to South Africa and was something Professor Russel Botman was acutely aware of. Thus, his approach to life in all spheres, not only education, included women and he offered equal opportunities to both men and women in his bursaries at Stellenbosch University. By doing so, he was offering individuals not only opportunities, but hope.

However, it seems that still more needs to be done within the state to prioritize the importance and safety of our women and children, as well as to address the response and recovery efforts to the violence that persist against our country’s grandmothers, mothers, daughter, sisters, and future.

Intimate partner violence, sexual violence and harassment, human trafficking, female genital mutilation, and child marriage are all forms of abuse that we collectively need to stand up and fight against.

In contributing to this fight against violence, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women has chosen this year’s theme as ‘Orange the World: Fund, Respond, Prevent, Collect!’ and is calling on everyone to participate in this movement. In keeping with previous years, this years International Dal will mark the launch of 16 Days of Activism and will conclude on International Human Rights Day on 10 December 2021.

Let’s make a difference and stand together by participating either in person, or on social media. Start your own conversation about gender-based violence by using the hashtags #GenerationEquality, #OrangeTheWorld, #16Days, and #SpreadTheWord.

Fight for the future of our country and give voice to the voiceless by participating in this year’s event! We need to bring home to all women and children who are living through these forms of violence and do what we can to provide support and alternatives to those suffering. In our fight to eradicate violence against women and children, we should also strive to keep our students experiencing this lived reality in mind. Thus, we are calling on you to donate towards the Russel Botman Bursary Fund and help those individuals experiencing these types of violence to create abetter present for themselves and their families.

Professor Russel Botman understood the importance of peace in all areas of life, and it was one of the most important aspects that featured in both his personal and professional life. One of the greatest examples of this from his life, would be the Western Province Council of Churches request for him to compile a list of guidelines that local congregations could use. This work was titled Totdat vrede en geretigheid ontmoet, ‘n uitdagings aan kerke en Christene, which was published in the year 1997.

The World Science Day for Peace and Development is celebrated on November 10^th every year, and its aim is to ensure that all citizens across the globe are kept up to date regarding any scientific developments. In addition, this day also underscores the importance and relevance of science in our daily lives and, in some ways, echoes one of Professor Botmans favourite phrases, ‘put science behind society’.

The theme for 2021 is the ‘Future of STI: Impacts on Education, Skills, and Work’ and was chosen as a call to raise public awareness and increase appreciation of the impact science and its methods have on education, skills, and work.

Science plays a very important role in society by emphasizing the importance of scientists in broadening perspectives and understandings around the need to live in a more sustainable way for the sake of our fragile planet, and the ways in which we can continue to do so, and we believe that the university plays a big part in this.  To create a society that supports this vision, Stellenbosch University needs to emphasize the importance of students studying within the Science Faculties and assist them in making a difference to the world by donating towards the completion of their degrees.

Play your part in supporting the sustainable future of our world, and these students, by donating to the Russel Botman Bursary Fund for young students.

On 18 October 2021, Prof Ronelle Carolissen delivered the seventh Russel Botman Memorial Lecture on a Teams Webinar.  She told a few stories about Prof Botman, specifically how he has made a difference or intervened in someone’s life that required change.  His commitment to transforming lives characterises who he was, caring and influential. The stories she imparted reminded us of the importance of education and how caring for one another, acting in love, and supporting each other proved to enhance education.

In an attempt to critique such affections in education, the idea of colonial power and ethos came to mind. The thought struck me as a possible hindrance rather than an improvement of education. The statement made me wonder whether the person who imparted these notions of colonial power and ethos was educated or not and when and why those choices were made. I also asked myself, what are the repercussions of those choices? Is there a possibility for building new, transformed relationships between those who could be labelled “colonial” and those labelled “anti-colonial”? Is the engagement even possible? If so, my next question is: why would we in a country like South Africa allow “colonial” universities to continue unchallenged, especially after Fees Must Fall? Are those universities that the critics are associated with completely divorced from colonial influence?

I will not attempt to answer these questions here as the references to their critique also did not explore the origins and nature of their own work and influence.

Suffice to say, the story or stories of Russel are stories of hope that is bringing the future into the present, hope that is critical, and hope that is transforming. Never uncritical or at least unwilling to be challenged or engaged. Not just working towards a future without referencing that future as more equal, but juster, more open, more loving, and more caring.

Thanks to Prof Carolissen and her respondent, Dr Jane Chiroma, for arguing that hope and pedagogy of hope are viable options for the tranformation of higher education in South Africa.

Prof Russel Botman celebrated his sixtieth birthday surrounded by those challenged by his future-orientated visions of a new world. The speakers at the symposium at the Faculty of Theology at Stellenbosch University came from different voices reflecting on his life, thoughts and perspectives in various fields, one of them being education.

As someone always striving to do and be better, it is impossible to categorise Prof Botman. He was continually reimagining, reinventing, and rethinking ways in which he – and the rest of us – could make this world better, particularly with regards to education. He established the Russel Botman Bursary Fund from his dream for a better future on his sixtieth birthday.

This year’s annual Russel Botman Memorial Lecture will be delivered by a professor in Community Psychology at the Department of Educational Psychology, Ronelle Carolissen. As a dear colleague of Prof Botman’s, she will continue this challenging legacy by doing the same through her lecture, “Revisiting Critical Hope in Uncertain Times”. Like Prof Botman’s, we imagine that her challenge will be to reconstruct a different and better world imaginatively and materially, with a sharper focus on the topic that the guest speaker, Dr Jane Adhiambo Chiroma, from the Pan African Christian University will be sharing. She will be joining us from Nairobi, Kenya, and responding to Prof Carolissen’s lecture.

We’re also incredibly excited to have this year’s recipients of the Bursary Fund joining us. They are an essential part of the Russel Botman Bursary Fund. Through their education, we can witness the future that Prof Botman envisioned and reimagine, reinvent, and rethink how we can continue this legacy and build from it to create an even better world. It is also important to remember that a big part of the Fund’s ability to change the future is due to the material and financial support. Without this, we are unable to provide hope for the education of these and future students. In keeping with Prof Botman’s tradition, we ask that donations be made to the fund to keep Prof Botman’s dream of a better world alive.

We wish Prof Carolissen, our very own Fullbright Scholar of 2021, well for the upcoming event, and we thank you for your thoughts and insights.

A part of celebrating our heritage is remembering the leaders who acknowledged the past while building a better future. One such leader who left a lasting legacy was our very own Professor Russel Botman. By dedicating his life to serving others, Prof Botman became a historical figure and contributed to our country’s heritage. In an exquisitely crafted painting by artist Fiona Metcalfe, the Rector and Vice-Chancellor of Stellenbosch University is depicted in Victoria Street on a beautiful winter’s day, without ever having met him. She attributed her work to the various photographs and descriptions. She used these to illustrate what she imagined the Professor to be like, having captured him most accurately. This representation is now housed within the SU Museum in Reyneveld Street. It honours the inspiring figure of the University and surrounding Town’s heritage, of which he played a considerable part.

In addition to the Museum in Reyneveld Street, Prof Botman is also uniquely depicted in the virtual Camissa Museum on the Wall of Recognition. This representation showcases him as one of many great achievers and contributors among Africans, especially those classified under the term ‘coloured’ by the colonialist rulers during Apartheid. His most significant efforts were focused on the youth, for which he established the Russel Botman Bursary Fund. He understood that this could only benefit South Africa and the greater African society comprised of complex pasts and diverse futures (borrowed from the theme of World Heritage Day celebrated on 18 April this year).

Reflecting on the African Heritage Day that took place on 5 May 2021 and its theme, “Arts, Culture and Heritage: Levers for building the Africa we want”, we are proud to be able to associate one of Africa’s sons, Russel Botman, as one of the country’s prominent figures of the South African Heritage.

We thank you for your continued support toward a future that provides accessible higher education, and we ask that you continue to donate to this notable cause. In so doing, you both recognize and celebrate the inspirational figure that is Prof Russel Botman.

On 19 September 2021, the world celebrates 100 years since the birth of Paulo Freire, a leading advocate for critical pedagogy. The Brazilian educator and philosopher changed how education was viewed, understood, and experienced. As a scholar of his work, Prof Russel Botman found a friend and colleague in their shared views on life, higher education, and theology. In celebration of this, Russel Botman titled his April 2007 inaugural speech as Rector and Vice-Chancellor of Stellenbosch University, ‘A multicultural university with a pedagogy of hope for Africa’.

In his seminal work, Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1968), Freire places the persecuted at the centre of society, arguing that oppressed people can regain their humanity by leading the struggle against inequality, injustice, and discrimination faced within their communities. What captured Prof Botman’s attention the most was the foreword written in celebration of the tenth anniversary of Friere’s work, which subsequently led to a whole new pedagogy of hope. Thus, the Stellenbosch University’s HOPE Project was born, with a vision for higher education and sustainable development and the creation of ‘a university of meaning and significance for South Africa and Africa’ at its core. Through this project, Botman identified dilemmas such as credibility, relevance, student success, human management, and Afro-centricity that needed to be addressed.

In a space influenced by Freire, we at the Russel Botman Fund celebrate the hope that education provides and other scholars across the world. While hope may spur us into the future, we must not only envision one but act on this hope to begin creating a path that others will follow into eternity.

Partner with us to create a pathway that ensures a better future, built on the past pillars and opportunities within the present. Donate towards this inspirational fund today and change the life of someone’s tomorrow.

Generations of women have contributed and are still contributing to making all lives righteous and equal. Therefore, on this Women’s Day, observed 9 August 2021, a generation of women will be speaking to us as part of a global campaign covering the theme, Generation Equality: Realising Women’s Rights for an Equal Future. 

As we take up the challenge and opportunities to further our journey towards equality, let us remember Charlotte Maxeke’s accomplishments. This year we are celebrating Maxeke’s 150 years since birth and the 120 years since she became the first black South African woman to obtain a higher education qualification. Her accomplishments were groundbreaking, considering that she was not allowed to obtain a qualification in her home country. She was also the first black South African female to acquire a bursary opportunity from Wilberforce University, Ohio USA to obtain her BSc degree. She was a remarkable woman, a woman of many firsts, not only on home ground but also abroad. Read more about her in Zubeida Jaffer’s, The life and times of Charlotte Mannya Maxeke (2016). 

Because of her achievements, later generations of black women were able to study and obtain bursary opportunities, which was first limited according to apartheid designated institutions. Now we have access to all higher education institutions to follow any course of study, especially at Stellenbosch University. We celebrate strides made by our ancestral role models, realising that the young women of South Africa still need support to reach their potential. The Russel Botman Bursary Fund grants such young women these opportunities. Be part of that global campaign and donate to the fund to sustain such support.

Prof Russel Botman had a clear sense of what the world, and Stellenbosch University (SU) in particular, needed to create opportunities and a future for the next generation. His vision is why we need to commemorate International Youth Day.

This year’s International Youth Day, observed on 12 August 2021, will celebrate all that is under the theme, Transforming Food Systems: Youth Innovation for Human and Planetary Health. This theme touches on three of the five Millennium Goals Russel Botman focused on in his tenure at SU, which endorses the mission of creating a better world.

Prof Botman has inspired the youth with these three goals, which reiterates the theme of this International Youth Day:

1. eradicating poverty and related conditions;
2. promoting human dignity and health; and
3. promoting a sustainable environment and a competitive industry.

Furthermore, the global youth were asked to reflect on the following question: What gives you hope in 2021? Prof Botman had a profound sense that hope is the future. By posing this question to the youth we are consequently responsible to support them. Our support can be shown by providing them with a conducive environment, which is engaging and helpful towards the change in food systems. His legacy demands us to continue to answer this question until there is hope.

In saying this, one of the ways Prof Botman set out to provide hope to our youth was by establishing the Russel Botman Bursary Fund so that students would be able to afford further or higher education and the opportunity to study at SU. These bursary opportunities provide the youth with study opportunities that could promote human and planetary health for all. Without your generous donations, this is not possible. Please donate to the Russel Botman Bursary Fund.

Along with the many protocols and health concerns that the COVID-19 pandemic presents, the recipients of the Russel Botman Bursary Fund and other students face study challenges.

During a support meeting with recipients, they expressed the impact that the changes in learning have on their well-being and studies. They had to adapt from contact learning at school to virtual learning for practically the entire 2020 academic year. Despite these challenges, their resilience saw them through the year successfully. This year they had to revert to contact learning and the adaptation from the first year of university learning is also challenging. The latest changes in the restrictions of adapted Level 4 require a switch in orientation yet again.

These different ways of learning also have social implications and influence how students grow friendships and academic ties. They also must deal with being at home or alone all the time with only virtual social contact during harder lockdown regulations.

We encourage them to make use of the guidance and support shared by Stellenbosch University and to prioritise their well-being. If this support is not offered directly to each student, they should seek it out. We are proud of the resilience they continue to show and hope that all students manage to cope with the recent changes made to COVID-19 guidelines.

They also expressed that the alleviation of financial burden has helped a lot in reducing the stress they experience. This is exactly why we should together secure that their bursary opportunities are sustained. For all our sakes, let us continue to donate generously as an expression of our commitment to the call from former president Nelson Mandela to let our youth learn. Our future is in their hands.

When choosing five of the United Nations millennium development goals, Prof Russel Botman saw the past, reflected on the present, and envisioned the future. Botman not only framed his vision for Stellenbosch University but to the broader society.

Yes, the five areas of development still need attention and hard work. These goals are:

• eradicating poverty and related conditions;
• promoting human dignity and health;
• promoting democracy and human rights;
• promoting peace and security;
• and promoting a sustainable environment and a competitive industry.

These goals formed the basis for the Hope Project that Botman grounded in the education philosophy of Paulo Freire. Botman envisaged a better future when drafting these goals and education philosophy. When reflecting on his approach to framing transformation, it speaks directly to the very issues we are currently still grappling with, not only in South Africa but worldwide. The COVID-19 pandemic emphasises the interrelatedness of our global challenges concerning poverty, human dignity, human rights, industry, and the environment.

Botman’s hope that Stellenbosch University prepares future generations to be educated and overcome the potential challenges that hinder this goal. For this hope to stay alive and valid, the Russel Botman Bursary Fund strives to build a better future and believes in creating opportunities. In the hands of future generations, a new future is dawning. Keep hope alive.

By: Dr Beryl Botman