The University of Johannesburg’s Ali Mazrui Centre for Higher Education Studies (AMCHES) invites members of the media to join the inaugural Ali Mazrui Black Archive Annual Lecture virtually on Friday, 31 July 2026.

The lecture, named after the renowned scholar and the centre in the Faculty of Education at UJ, will explore the relationship between knowledge, power and academic freedom in Africa, drawing inspiration from the intellectual legacy of Professor Mazrui.

It will critically examine how knowledge is authorised, whose intellectual traditions are recognised within higher education, and what an African-centred future for universities might look like in societies shaped by colonial histories and ongoing struggles for equality and recognition.

The inaugural lecture will be delivered by Advocate Muzi Sikhakhane SC (LLD Honoris Causa), a Senior Counsel, author and public intellectual whose work spans constitutionalism, decoloniality, liberation politics and legal transformation in South Africa.

A former anti-apartheid activist and educator, Advocate Sikhakhane has appeared in numerous landmark constitutional cases and is widely recognised for his contributions to justice, democratic transformation and African intellectual thought.

The lecture will be followed by a response from Professor Siseko H. Kumalo, Associate Professor at  UJ and lead of the NRF-funded Black Archive Project. Professor Kumalo’s work focuses on African political theory, higher education, decolonial thought and epistemic justice.