Finalist | John Luke Hawkins

MEET JOHN LUKE

"The Activist"
IES Abroad Program: Cape Town - University of Cape Town, Fall 2016
College/University: Hope College, Class of 2017
Major: Communication
Hometown: Tipton, Indiana

HIS STORY

"Cape Town, South Africa, is a place full of beauty and brokenness, of wealth and poverty, of injustice and the fight towards justice. It is the place that gave me a life altering experience. My name is John Luke Hawkins and my time studying abroad was not that of the typical abroad experience. I had the expectations that I would have a full semester of classes, immerse myself in culture, make South African friends, grow and learn, and have the adventure of a lifetime. In the end, all of that did happen to different extents, but what couldn’t have been predicated, what couldn’t have been foreseen, was a month long shutdown of classes due to protests happening across universities in South Africa. This was a movement of activism that I became swept into as an ally: a person whom knew my place as an American abroad student yet supported the fight for justice that was happening in my context.

This journey began at the start of the semester as I instantaneously saw the lingering effects of colonization and apartheid in South Africa through the wealth verses poverty in Cape Town, the racial segregation and oppression that still existed, and the culture of progression towards equality. Another jumpstart in my journey was taking a sociology class offered at the University of Cape Town called Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality as it completely made me think in a new perspective. This class as well as all the injustice that was happening around me made me for the first time think of my own privilege as a white male. Previously, my worlds, which I realized are predominately white, middle class, heterosexual, and Christian didn’t make me think about what my privilege meant because truthfully, it didn’t affect me as a white male in the context of my worlds. But being in South Africa and taking this sociology class made me ask myself “Who am I and what does my privilege mean?” I started to understand that due to my race, my class, my biological sex, my faith, and my nationality as an American – I held extreme privilege in society. I reflected on what that meant and if I was potentially abusing my privileged place of power.

Just as I was deep into having a new revelation daily about my privilege and the privilege of those around me, protests began. At the University of Cape Town, there were many demands, but the overarching theme was for a fight for a free decolonized education. With this history of colonization and apartheid in South Africa, poverty is highly correlated with race. Since education is key in finding a job and acquiring a comfortable life, the raising fees at the South African universities negatively affect the people from the black communities. Thus the fight for a free education is to remove some obstacles for people of color. In terms of the demand of a decolonized education, it was a movement to return the countries to its roots, to change the euro-centered education to an Afro-centered education. When the Dutch came in and colonized South Africa, white supremacy became very much a part of South African history and education. Thus the demand was to take back some culture that had been overridden through colonization.

For me, personally, I supported the movement in terms of a fight for justice and equality. Yet at first, I did struggle to know if supported the concept of a free education, and even if that concept was possible. In the spirit of immersing myself fully in the culture, I got involved. I read some information on the possibility of free education. I talked to numerous students and citizens about the concept. I eventually came to fully back the fight for a free decolonized education. Throughout the process, I made myself an ally; I knew this fight wasn’t really my personal fight, as I was an American abroad student that would be leaving South Africa in a short couple of months. In understanding the importance of being safe and recognizing that as an white American male, it would be an abuse of my privilege to put myself out there too much, I became an ally. I stayed educated and up to date with what was going on in the protests by going to the public meetings and daily checking twitter and other news sources to understand what was happening from all sides of the aisles. I continuously had conversations about these movements and activism with people, and depending on the person, it was either an opportunity for me to learn more or teach someone what I had been learning. I helped provide food for some of the protesters in order to sustain them during that tiring time. I marched a few times with the protesters to show my support by providing a body, or a number, in the movement. I now proudly say “fees must fall,” not because it gave me a month off of school, but because it is a movement for justice, and I, I stand for justice.

This activism in South Africa wasn’t just a one and done type of situation; when I say my abroad experience was life altering, it was just that. This mentality of activism towards justice, of equality no matter your race, class, gender, sexuality, ability, faith and so forth is something that I am continuing to carry through. Each day, I wake up and look at the world through this new social justice lens and try to make sure I am not abusing my privilege as well as being a healthy and constructive voice in these social movements. On my college campus, I am currently the “Hope College Interfaith Ambassador” which deals with striving to make Hope College, a Christian liberal arts school, a safe place and a place of inclusion for people of all faith/philosophical backgrounds. These new cultural and worldly perspectives gathered from my abroad experience will forever go forth with me in life.

Truthfully, would my involvement made much of a difference in terms of success or failure for the protests? No. But I did have a choice, a choice whether I wanted spend the shutdown like it was a vacation or to immerse myself in what was happening around me. I choose the later. And by doing this, I grew to become more culturally competent and have a bigger heart for justice that will and already has carried through into my return to the United States. My role with activism may have been small in terms of the effect for South Africa, but for me, it released a longing for justice inside like a planted and growing seed, that through my actions, can be planted in others and have those seeds grow as well, so that we, as a society, as people, can yield a beautiful crop of justice and equality."

Feeling inspired? Meet our next Finalist, Reed, The Anthropologist, and Sydni, our Global Citizen of the Year.