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University Daily Kansan
Campus
Wednesday, August 20 1986
Prof to lend heritage to S. African history class
By Dana Spool Staff writer
Staff writer
South Africa. Those two words tend to command attention.
Those two words are what Surendra Bhana is all about.
Bhana will be the Langston Hughes Professorship in history this fall. He will be teaching two courses in South African history.
Bhana is a professor and head of the history department at the University of Durban-Westville, in Durban, South Africa. He talked about the differences between the two universities.
"The big difference is that we appear to be a lot more rigid in our approach. Authority doesn't allow for a free discussion, development of individual thinking." he said.
However, Bhana does not think he is like the average professor in South Africa.
"I have a very informal approach to elicit free discussion," he said. Bhana searches for creativity in his students and praises them for being different.
Different is perhaps the best way to completely describe Bhana's life. He was born in India and moved to South Africa after his eighth birthday.
"It was not my decision. My grandfather went there in the early 1900s. I went to South Africa in 1948 for the first time as a little boy," he said. "I just happened to find myself in that part of the country.
"My wife was born in South Africa and is of Indian descent. Families went there without thinking too much about it."
His family spent the first part of this year in New Haven, Conn., with Bhana. However, his family returned to South Africa in July; he remained in the United States.
The tension in South Africa bothers him constantly.
The news coming out of South Africa does not help ease his mind.
"The suppression is there. Yes, it bothers me a great deal," he said.
"In these troubled times one can anticipate the rate of crime. It does bother me that my family is there."
"News is controlled to such an extent that things would appear to be normal," he said. "There is a great deal of silence in the black township. There are scares about bombs going off. This is what really comes to mind."
"The number of people who have
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"I had no problem," Bhana said about traveling to the United States from South Africa. "If active in politics, then someone may have troubles. Those kind of controls are there."
"It has been going on for a long, long time. Three to four decades. Unequal society. White minority at the expense of the blacks. Unequal for the whole society."
died has mounted. It has actually devastated the blacks."
Bhana's life is easier then many people in South Africa because he is not heavily involved in politics.
The only comfort Bhana knows is that his wife and three children live in a secluded area and are surrounded by family and friends.
The secluded area includes families of Indian descent. There are few, if any, blacks and no whites. Bhana knows segregation first hand, especially in the home life.
"Simply with the blacks: Don't have TV in their homes and not even electricity," Bhana said. "The average white in South Africa watches TV."
Television as Americans know it is unheard of in Bhana's township.
"TV is state-owned. Not much of choices. It is extremely dreary and boring." Bhana said.
Whites in South Africa stay home and watch "important things" such as "Dallas" every night, Bhana said, although Dallas is certainly not the most important thing going on in his hometown today.
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"People live in different areas. Very little contact with anyone different," he said. "Maybe a little at the work place. The ignorance of each other is great."
ed bv everyone.
Bhana's family is better off than a lot of the Indians in South Africa. Blacks are the majority in South Africa, and whites are the minority, but Indian descendants are oppress-
Bhana's three children are enrolled in a private school in Durban. The school only allows a very small percentage of blacks and even fewer Indians.
"It took them a little time getting used to the way the courses were taught. My son kept saying everyong asking 'Are you who?' They kept mistaking him for Spanish," he said.
The school couldn't prepare the children for life in the United States, but that didn't keep them from enjoying themselves, he said.
The school year in Durban is arranged on a calendar year. It begins in mid-February and breaks for three to four weeks in July. The students return to school and break for the year in November. The school system is not divided into semesters, and students graduate after reaching 10 matriculation, which is equivalent to the senior year in high school.
Bhana teaches at a segregated university that includes blacks and Indian descendants. Yet, the academic world is one of constant turmoil for Bhana.
His university has been closed since winter break. Because the university is controlled by the state, Bhana is still paid, but that does not help the toll it takes on him.
"Every university in is in trouble," he said. "The question is whether they will reopen. It is very hard to be in a university where it can be boycotted or shut down."
"The work place is affected. Society is affected," he said.
Lawrence seems to be a second home to Bhana. He received his master's and Ph.D. at the University of Kansas. He majored in U.S. history with an emphasis on recent America. He was a teaching assistant from 1967 to 1969.
The credentials Bhana submitted when he was being considered for the
professorship are endless. He has written books and articles; he has taught at various schools; he is working on a project on Indentured Indians; and he just finished a research program in New Haven, Conn.
The benefits KU will receive from the man who wrote this list are also good, said Bill Tuttle, professor of history.
The food in the United States did not upset the children, he said. But it is different from the food in South Africa.
South Africa is presently in the news almost every day and just the chance to learn something about South Africa from someone who lives there is important and valuable, Tutte said.
"We are very lucky that he is in the country," he said.
Tuttle has benefited from his friendship with Bhana as well as his educational relationship.
"He is very spiritual," Tuttle said.
"It means that in terms of a deep
the lifestyle." Bhana said of his children while they were in New Haven. "The 16-year-old really thrived. She is an honor student."
friendship, he tries to make it very close."
Their friendship has lasted over the miles for 15 years. It's a friendship that started when Bhana was a teaching assistant under the direction of Tuttle. The correspondence between them fills a two-inch thick file on Tuttle's desk. And that is only part of it, he said.
"I call him a couple of times a year," Tuttle said. "We have done this since he left."
The other relationships in his life are also deep. He met his wife at KU, where she was studying psychology. She is the only woman psychologist who has been in "Who's Who in South Africa."
His son is fascinated with becoming a pilot and is certain that only the United States trains pilots.
"They are very much in love with
"Great deal of emphasis on eating out here and fast food. We have an occasional trip to the fast-food place," he said.
Fast food is not attractive to Bhana because he is a vegetarian
"I eat a lot of eggs, fish and things like that," he said. His oldest daughter is also a vegetarian. Bhana's decision to become a vegetarian was one of mind over body.
"I couldn't put flesh in my mouth. I kept thinking that this was living flesh at one time," he said.
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