1 Pamela Johnson DISSIDENTS AND DISSENTERS: Senior Lecturer, Department of Political STUDENT RESPONSES TO Science and International APARTHEID AT THE UNIVERSITY Relations, University of Fort Hare. OF FORT HARE Email:
[email protected] DOI: https://dx.doi. Abstract org/10.18820/24150509/ As the only university for black students in Southern Africa JCH44.v1.1 in the first half of the twentieth century, the University of ISSN 0258-2422 (Print) Fort Hare is the alma mater of prominent African leaders ISSN 2415-0509 (Online) and intellectuals. It is also known for the role played by students in the struggle against the apartheid state that Journal for Contemporary seized control over the university in 1960. However, the History common representation of students as unified in resistance 2019 44(1):1-25 belies the fact that the student body was divided, with © Creative Commons With many reluctant to participate in protests during the Attribution (CC-BY) apartheid era. These students were named ‘dissenters’ by the activists – termed ‘dissidents’ by the author – as they were considered as obstructing the struggle for freedom. Utilising the Gramscian approach to the exercise of hegemony in the form of the reasons for conformity proposed by Joseph Femia, this paper examines the actions and behaviour of both the dissidents and dissenters, based on documents that comprised the personal files of the apartheid era rectors (1960 to 1990). These files contained letters, memoranda and minutes of meetings, notes and telegrams, as well as confiscated student posters and letters from students directed to the rectors. The findings propose that the behaviour of dissenters was based on either the fear of possible repercussions of opposing the apartheid system or the desire not to sacrifice small gains that had been made.