Welcome to Sakhisizwe Information & Research Centre
The idea of establishing an information and research centre in Cala is the brainchild of Professor Lungisile Ntsebeza, an Emeritus Professor of African Studies and Sociology in the Centre for African Studies at the University of Cape Town. Professor Ntsebeza grew up in Cala. As early as 2015, he started thinking about what he would do when he formally retired from the University of Cape Town (UCT) at the end of 2022. He was clear then that retirement from the intellectual and research sphere was out of the question. The issue was how he would continue with his intellectual and research activities.
In the first instance, Ntsebeza is in the process of donating his library and archives to SIRC. Over more than four decades of his intellectual life, he accumulated a significant collection of educational materials, including hundreds of books, journals and newsletters. In addition, he has a large personal archive in the form of letters, email correspondence, unpublished papers, draft papers and notes on the various research areas and topics that have interested him.
The main reason for relocating his library and archives to Cala is that Ntsebeza feels that he owes the people residing in the former bantustans, and specifically those of the Sakhisizwe municipal area, as well as those living on commercial farms, an incalculable debt. He did most of his empirical research from the late 1990s in this municipal area. In the process, he learnt a lot from the people he interacted with about life in areas under chiefs and headmen and on commercial farms. According to him, they deserve to be co-authors of his numerous publications.
Furthermore, doing empirical research in the former bantustans also exposed Ntsebeza to the dire conditions under which the majority in these areas lived, as well as the deterioration of the educational system.
It is these two factors that persuaded Ntsebeza to donate his intellectual resources and acquisitions to Cala, thereby making a humble contribution to the educational development not only of Cala and its hinterland, but also of similar areas. Cala will be a case study that illustrates the complexities bedevilling the education sphere, especially in the former bantustans of South Africa. From it, lessons can and will be learned.