60th TB Davie Memorial Lecture
Topic:
Spes bona through “the Cape of Storms”
Presented by:
Speaker – Professor Mogobe Ramose
Mogobe Bernard Ramose is a South African-born philosopher widely recognised for his foundational role in the internationalisation of African philosophy. He is a Research Professor in the Department of Clinical Psychology at Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University . He is also a Researcher in the Faculty of Law, Department of Jurisprudence at the University of Pretoria.
Ramose earned his DPhil from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium) in 1983 and holds an MSc in International Relations from the London School of Economics. He spent part of his academic career in exile as a political refugee, holding academic positions at institutions including Tilburg University (Netherlands), Louvain University (Belgium), the University of Zimbabwe, Chishawasha Roman Catholic major seminary and Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia.
His influential works include African Philosophy Through Ubuntu (1999), which has been translated into Dutch, and Van Eeden kiest voor de maan (2020). He is also the editor of Hegel’s Twilight (2013) and has published extensively on justice, sovereignty, reconciliation, and the place of African thought in global philosophy.
He has served on editorial boards, received numerous awards, including the UNISA Chancellor’s Prize for Research, and was honoured with a festschrift in 2019 titled The Tenacity of Truthfulness: Philosophical Essays in Honour of Mogobe Bernard Ramose.
Abstract
The Portuguese navigator, Bartholomew Diaz, was hurled into a jutted headland in the Western Cape. Remembering this experience, he named the land on which he took anchorage, “the Cape of Storms”. Jan Smuts junior commented thus on the naming: “the fate of storms predicted by Diaz has been ever close to us”. This comment was alive when his father, Jan Smuts, was Chancellor of the University of Cape Town during the tenure of Professor Davie. Van Riebeeck renamed the jutted headland “the Cape of Good Hope” and settled there. In memory of this, the motto of the University is: Spes Bona in Latin, inscribed on a white pad. The images of an anchor and the blue ocean are displayed in the motto. For the indigenous peoples conquered in the unjust wars of Western colonisation, the motto is a living reminder of the predator seizing land and capturing its indigenous natives into economic and epistemic enslavement. Sebata Kgomo! Allow Professor Davie to calm the storm.
Spes bona ngokusebenzisa “iKapa leziTshingitshane”
Umatiloshe wamaPhuthukezi, uBartholomew Diaz, waphoswa kumbindi wenqanawa eNtshona Koloni. Ekhumbula la mava, wathiya lo mhlaba awathi wazimilisela kuwo, “iKapa leziTshingitshane”. UJan Smuts junior uhlomle ngolu hlobo ngoku kuthiywa: “ikamva lezitshingitshane elaxelwa kwangaphambili nguDiaz belisoloko likufutshane kuthi”. La magqabaza ayekho ngethuba uyise, uJan Smuts, wayeyiNgqonyela yeYunivesithi yaseKapa ngexesha likaNjingalwazi uDavie. UVan Riebeeck walithiya ngokutsha eli komkhulu lezitshingitshane ngokuthi “liKapa leThemba eliHle” waza wahlala kulo. Ukukhumbula oku, isaci seYunivesithi sithi: Spes Bona ngesiLatini, sibhalwe kwiphedi emhlophe. Imifanekiso yeankile kunye nolwandle olublowu luboniswe kwimotto. Kubantu bomthonyama aboyiswayo kwiimfazwe zokungekho sikweni zokwenziwa kwamathanga aseNtshona, isaci sisisikhumbuzo esiphilayo serhamncwa elahlutha umhlaba laza lathimbela abantu bomthonyama balo ebukhobokeni bezoqoqosho kunye nokuhlupheka. Sebata Kgomo! Vumela uNjingalwazi uDavie azolise izitshingitshane.
#TBDavieMemorial
Please RSVP by Friday, 21 August 2026
For enquiries, please email: cmdevents@uct.ac.za
Please RSVP by Friday, 21 August 2026
For enquiries, please email: cmdevents@uct.ac.za
Date
Wednesday, 26 August 2026
Time
18:00 to 19:30 (SAST) - Lecture (guests to be seated by 17:45)
Venue
New Lecture Theatre (New LT), Upper Campus