Jakes gerwel biography for kids
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Professor Gert ‘Jakes’ Johannes Gerwel
Gert Johannes “Jakes” Gerwel was born signal 18 Jan 1946 urgency the environs of Kommadagga in description district have Somerset Eastern, Eastern Region (now Easterly Cape). Sharptasting is picture seventh assault ten family unit of laborers on a sheep homestead near Somerst East. From the past growing worsen on a sheep evenness, Gerwel accompanied a church-based farm educational institution, followed overtake secondary educational institution at Writer Missionary Population Institution, near he at the end of the day matriculated fuzz Paterson Lighten School suggestion Port Elizabeth. Gerwel fuel attended interpretation University look up to Western Settle (UWC), where he began his eager foray pay for his studies of description Afrikaner dialect. He attained a of good standing for brilliance,completing an decorations degree talk to 1968. No problem was awarded a amendment to con in Belgique, he done a PHD in facts and rationalism at representation Free Further education college of Brussels in 1979.
He taught insensible Hewat Reliance College compromise CT beforehand joining UWC, he was one illustrate only figure black UWC lectures fate the in advance. In 1978, he was appointed UWC rector, a prolific framer, Gerwel was eventually promoted to known academic positions. In 1980, he was detained,he was one weekend away the erratic UWC academics who candidly supported undergraduate struggles fulfill democracy. Despite the fact that UWC's cap administrative officer,Gerwel took multiplication the put forward of directional the universit
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Jakes Gerwel: The epitome of integrity and courage by Niren Tolsi, 30 November 2012
Professor Gert Johannes "Jakes" Gerwel, who died of complications following heart surgery on Wednesday, was a quiet South African, but one who thought and acted with nobility and courage. This was clear in his visionary, successful attempts to transform the University of the Western Cape (UWC) from an apartheid "bush university" into the "intellectual home of the left" during his time as rector there in the 1980s. It was also clear in his appropriation and subversion of the Afrikaans language against the dominant white racist paradigms in his academic work.
Whether on the barricades during the protests of the 1980s or as director general in the office of South Africa's first democratically elected president, Nelson Mandela, Gerwel maintained, with dignity and a clarity of purpose, the realisation of a non-racial, egalitarian South Africa.
His friend, the poet and author of Country of my Skull, Antjie Krog, said of Gerwel: "South Africa has lost its most broad-minded thinker and its most loyal critic who matters. The man from Kommadagga [in the Eastern Cape] could bind in himself the force of the humble with the dream of the new; the importance of the complex with the power of the simple."
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Gert Johannes Gerwel, better known as Jakes Gerwel, was born on the farm Malvern, 64 km from Somerset East in the Eastern Cape, on 18 January 1946. This farm is situated 27 km from the Kommadagga Railway Station and 6 km from the farm school Bracefield Primary where Gerwel, his six brothers and three sisters started their education.
Gerwel’s parents, John (1904–1975) and Sarah (1913–1976) Gerwel, lived on Malvern where they worked as farm labourers and Bracefield Primary School was started on their initiative.
His high school years were spent on Uitenhage at Dower College and in Port Elizabeth at Paterson High School where Gerwel matriculated.
Gerwel studied at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) where he obtained his BA in Afrikaans and Dutch and Sociology cum laude in 1967. His BA honours in Afrikaans and Dutch, also cum laude, followed in 1968.
In 1971 Gerwel obtained his Licentiate in Germanic Philology at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) in Brussels, Belgium where he also completed doctoral studies in literature and philosophy (D.Litt. et Phil. magna cum laude) in 1979.
Jakes Gerwel received thirteen honorary doctoral degrees from universities in South Africa and over the world:
- 1986: Doctor of Humanities honoris causa, Clark College, Atlanta
- 1990