Nadira Omarjee

In the past decade, universities the world over have been the site of occupations and encampments. The backdrop of global conflicts and mass oppression due to systemic failure to address the growing inequality gap mobilized the student movements, #RhodesMustFall and the University of Colour from mid-2010 onwards.

Narcissism is an age-old tale. In scripture, the devil is a fallen angel attempting to corrupt Adam and Eve into eating the apple. Notwithstanding, the genesis of human life is the problematic of sin; ensuring the banishment of Adam and Eve from heaven (the garden). What we should be questioning is why is eating the apple the original sin when apples are made for eating? This line of questioning exposes the illogicality in the punishment. The punishment does not match the crime.

Philosopher and academic Edward Said said that Orientalism allows the West to free it’s imagination from the forbidden and, therefore enter the world of magical thinking. The way in which the West has constructed the Orient makes it the holding space for the secret life of the id (the unconscious realm) — one of two unbridled basic drives: to connect with the other.