UNIVERSITY OF DURBAN-WESTVILLE, 1961-2003, undoing apartheid, building a non-racial culture

509pp., illus., paperback, University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, Pietermaritzburg, 2025

ISBN: 9781869145835

A collection of essays on the history of the University of Durban-Westville (UDW) over four decades, from the establishment of the University College for Indians at Salisbury Island in 1961, through the emergence of UDW and its development, until the merger with the University of Natal that ended UDW’s existence and created the University of KwaZulu-Natal in 2003. The history of UDW is discussed within the context of the unfolding of apartheid ideology and resistance to it, with a particular emphasis on the humanities and social sciences.

Contributions incude:

"From University College to the University of Durban-Westville, 1961-1976" and "Towards an 'Open' University 1977-1990" by Saleem Badat and Gollam Vahed

"University of Durban-Westville Governance and Management : From an apartheid institution to the Merger, 1990-2003" by Jairam Reddy

"Merger or Takeover? A UDW perspective on the establishment of UKZN" by Logan Naidoo

"Philosophy in its Apartheid and Anti-Apartheid Settings at UDW" by Mala Singh

"Relations on Engaged Scholarship: Twenty-seven years at UDW" by Shahid Vawda

"Whose History? What is History?" by Uma Dhupelia-Mesthrie

"Creativity within Invisibility: Politics of representation at UDW" by Nalii Moodley

"Hindu Studies and Indian Languages" by Pratap Kumar Penumala.  

Saleem Badat is a Research Professor in the Department of History at the University of the Free State. He is the author of Tennis, Apartheid and Social Justice: The first non-racial international tennis tour.

Goolam Vahed teaches in the Department of History at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. He is the co-author (with Ashwin Desai) of Durban’s Casbah: Bunny Chows, Bolsheviks and Bioscopes.