Rhodes is to honour three South African women activists at a student hall and residence naming ceremony to be held on 16 March 2010.
The ceremony, which will honour Lillian Ngoyi, after whom the Hall is named, and Victoria Mxenge, Ruth First and Joe Slovo after whom three residences will be named. Each of these people played a critical role in the struggles against apartheid.
The Rhodes University Naming Task Team recommends that "All new names be in fundamental accord with the 'Vision and Mission Statement' of the University." This applies particularly with reference to the university's commitment: "to develop shared values that embrace basic human and civil rights; and to acknowledge and be sensitive to the problems created by the legacy of apartheid, to reject all forms of unfair discrimination and to ensure that appropriate corrective measures are employed to redress past imbalances.
The Human Rights week (15 to 19 March 2010), which is celebrated annually by University staff and students, will itself be marked by a number of festivities starting with an address on the first day by Pregs Govender, a human rights activist whose struggle against injustice is told her autobiography “Love and Courage – A story of insubordination”,
The students living in the Hall and residences put forward the request for the Hall and residences to be named after “struggle heroes" as it commemorated their bravery, courage and sacrifice.
The ceremony will focus on important values, the impact of the struggle on family life and family members in ways that most of the students using the hall and the residences will be able to relate to.
According to Larissa Klazinga, former Lillian Ngoyi Hall warden, and current warden of Ruth First residence, the story of “women in struggle” is about multi-faceted women who were activists, mothers and career women, who many a time where putting love for their country and families above everything else.
“The naming and launch of new residences after women struggle heroes offers the opportunity to focus and reflect on the totality and complexity of the lives of women engaged in liberation struggles, thus ensuring that their names and the legacies of these extraordinary people do not fade over time.”