Oprah receives South African honorary doctorate
BLOEMFONTEIN, South Africa (AP) -June 24, 2011
Winfrey came to a school where five years ago, four white
students made a video humiliating black housekeeping staff - they
are shown eating a stew the students had mimed spiking with urine -
and expressing opposition to integrating the historically white
University of the Free State. Jonathan Jansen, who in 2009 became
the university's first black rector, called for the four to be
forgiven and rehabilitated.
Jansen withstood accusations he was conceding too much to
racists as he led the university, the students and the cleaners in
a closely watched discussion of the role forgiveness could play in
post-apartheid South Africa. In a campus ceremony earlier this
year, the students' public apology was accepted by the cleaners.
After receiving her honorary education doctorate Friday, Winfrey
called five cleaners to the stage and pronounced them heroes.
"What has happened here at Free State in terms of racial
reconciliation, of peace, of harmony, of one heart understanding
and opening itself to another heart is nothing short of a
miracle," she said. "It is truly what the new South Africa is all
about."
Winfrey said she had approached Jansen after reading about his
work, and accepted an invitation to come to speak to students.
University officials decided to make it a grand event.
A roar from hundreds of people gathered outside first alerted
those inside the university auditorium that Winfrey was about to
enter for a ceremony for one that offered as much pomp,
circumstance, song and dance as a full class's graduation. She
threw her arms out with joy when told she was now a member of the
university family - a "Kovsie." Other moments moved her to tears.
She kneeled on a padded stool to have her degree bestowed,
flashing red stiletto heels to the cheering audience of all races.
The event brought international media to normally quiet
Bloemfontein, the farming center where the century-old,
31,000-student university is based.
Susan Mshumpela, a 37-year-old Bloemfontein native, came to the
ceremony proudly dressed in the black robes she wore when she
accepted her MBA from Free State last year. Mshumpela, operations
manager for an agency that helps small businesses, said she hoped
Winfrey's visit would give her alma mater a chance to tell the
world about its strengths.
"The eyes of the world are here," she said. "I don't think a
person of her stature could just accept an honorary degree from
just any university. She would want to be associated with a
university of stature."
Nadipha Jacobs, a black student, says the university is growing
more tolerant.
"In many ways, I feel the university and its people have
grown," said Jacobs, who started as an undergraduate in 1996 and
now is a graduate student specializing in development studies.
Chantell De Reuck, a white graduate student strolling across
campus Friday with her friend Jacobs, said the divides that are
healing weren't just along racial lines. When she arrived as an
undergraduate in 1999, she was among only six English-speaking
students in a dorm dominated by Afrikaners, descendants of early
Dutch settlers who speak Afrikaans. The English students stuck
together then. Not now, De Reuck said.
De Reuck said black and white students at the university can
connect to Winfrey's personal story of early years of struggle and
abuse, and find inspiration in her current success.
A 4,500-seat auditorium was full for Winfrey's ceremony. Tickets
were sold for 10 rand (about $1), most of that covering computer
sales processing fees. Local reporters said hawkers selling fake
tickets on Bloemfontein streets didn't increase the price.
University officials warned those with fake tickets would not be
admitted.
Winfrey is a frequent visitor to South Africa, where she opened
a school in 2007 dedicated to giving bright young women of all
races opportunities in a society where they are handicapped by
conservative traditions as well as the poor schools that are a
legacy of apartheid.
Her school's first class just graduated, overcoming early
setbacks that included a scandal over a dormitory supervisor
accused of trying to kiss and fondle students. The supervisor was
acquitted of sexual assault charges last year.
In a passage that drew cheers from the audience Friday, the
citation accompanying Winfrey's honorary doctorate, the 152nd
awarded by the university, said Winfrey "has truly become a South
African.
"She did so because she believed that there was important work
to be done here, and she wanted to be part of what Nelson Mandela
and others had begun."
Previous recipients of Free State honorary degrees include
anti-apartheid icons Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
Winfrey's visit overlapped with that of another famous Chicagoan
- Michelle Obama, wife of the U.S. president. The two had dinner
together on Tuesday in Johannesburg.