David Webster: a life cut short

SOURCE: The fabric of dissent: public intellectuals in South Africa
OUTPUT TYPE: Chapter in Monograph
PUBLICATION YEAR: 2020
TITLE AUTHOR(S): G.Houston
SOURCE EDITOR(S): V.Reddy, N.Bohler-Muller, G.Houston, M.Schoeman, H.Thuynsma
KEYWORDS: INTELLIGENTSIA, POLITICS, RACIAL SEGREGATION, WEBSTER, DAVID
DEPARTMENT: Developmental, Capable and Ethical State (DCES)
Print: HSRC Library: shelf number 11813
HANDLE: 20.500.11910/15851
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11910/15851

If you would like to obtain a copy of this Research Output, please contact Hanlie Baudin at researchoutputs@hsrc.ac.za.

Abstract

Academic and anti-apartheid activist David Webster spent his childhood, adolescence, student days and academic life in one or the other of "four different countries in southern Africa in different phases of decolonialisation". Prior to Webster's birth, his family had migrated from South Africa to settle in Luanshya, in the then Northern Rhodesia. He was educated at Falcon College boarding school in Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) before the family returned to South Africa. He registered at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, first to study accountancy, and then anthropology. At Rhodes, he became actively involved in student politics, and participated in a student protest in 1965 against the decision of the Grahamstown City Council to ban black students from watching games of the Rhodes University rugby team. The students organised a sit-in at the steps of the university's library in protest. Webster completed his studies at Rhodes in 1967.

The Human Sciences Research Council

Contact Us

134 Pretorius Street
Pretoria
South Africa 
0002

Tel: +27 (0)12 302 2000
Fax: +27 (0)12 302 2001

© 2024 The Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC). All rights reserved.