aspirations of invading conquerors under colonialism and later apartheid, fostering, as a result, the formation of a new social reality where liberty thrives. We draw from scholars as Sriprakash (2022) who argue for considerations of reparative work in education through understanding the past, our present and projected futures in order to promote justice in education. We draw on the method of collective memoir (Givens, 2023, p. 14), which, in the context of “ongoing condemnation of black life”, prioritises first-person accounts of the racially dehumanised in their experiences of education. As bell hooks (2022, p.xiii) writes: “we also must give an honest and thorough account of the constructive interventions that have occurred as a consequence of all our efforts to create justice in education”. UJ Department of Anthropology and Development Studies with South African icon, Professor of Practice, Makhosazana Xaba at a writing workshop in the department on the 14th of April 2025 From Volkekunde to a Liberatory Anthropology: Reflecting on the Evolutionary, Structural and Decolonial Transition Colonialism and later apartheid were, in essence, socio-politico-economic projects. As such, the social sciences necessarily had to play a pivotal role in their inception and preservation. A kind of anthropology that became known as volkekunde emerged from the predominantly Afrikaans-speaking University of Stellenbosch by the 1920s driven primarily by Werner Eiselen (Dubow, 2015). Influenced by German völkerkunde, volkekunde’s ideological framework was based on the ethnos theory, which maintained that humanity consists of different volk (nations and/or ethnic groups) which were distinct by their unique ethnos (cultures) (Gordon, 2009; Bank, 2015). Moreover, it was held by volkekundiges (proponents of volkekunde) that for the proper development and advancement of nations, their cultures were to be preserved through separate development and social segregation (Bank, 2015). Thus, on one hand, volkekunde focusedmuch on studying the Colonialism and later apartheid were, in essence, socio-politicoeconomic projects. As such, the social sciences necessarily had to play a pivotal role in their inception and preservation. 59 A Journey of Innovation
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