Why are there no Apartheid Studies in South Africa, or in any other country across the globe? In 1994 Nelson Mandela said "Never, never and never again" to apartheid. But how do you say "Never again" to something that you do not study? There has been no interest in provisioning for the formal study of apartheid. There is no degree programme, or even an apology of a course or module, even at 1st year level only, called Apartheid Studies. There is not a single Centre for Apartheid Studies, or Institute of Apartheid Studies, or Research Chair in Apartheid Studies, at any of the 25 South African universities - or anywhere around the globe. The universal absence and neglect of Apartheid Studies is a blot on the world's conscience.

Nelson Mandela’s cry of “Never, never, and never again” is pointless if we have no formal tools, frameworks and means with which to definitively recognise apartheid when we see it. In fact, we might be in the middle of a metamorphosed apartheid right now and we would not know it. It will be impossible, for instance, to fully understand the current problems being experienced by South Africa – inequality, poverty, crime, violence, xenophobia, racism, femicide, corruption, service delivery protests, and so on – unless and until we turn back and systematically revisit and untangle the historic puzzle and archive of apartheid. I propose the setting up of a new field of studies, Apartheid Studies, which brings together cutting edge research and theory from the global south, headquartered in South Africa, in the area of the formal and forensic study of apartheid. We in the global south have a lot to teach the world about justice, truth, human dignity, racism, memory and power. A lot of the social and economic problems we are seeing today look like the metamorphosis of apartheid, mutated, scaled up and globally distributed. If there is Holocaust Studies, and Cultural Studies, and Queer Studies, why is there no Apartheid Studies? This needs to change.