On Wednesday, Bowdoin Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine (FSJP) hosted a talk in Kresge Auditorium to educate the Bowdoin and Brunswick communities about the College’s history with divestment. The lecture mainly pertained to the history of Bowdon’s divestment from Apartheid South Africa, and speakers highlighted the similarities between the College’s past involvement in divestment from Apartheid and its current conventions on addressing Israeli violence in Gaza.

After opening remarks from Assistant Professor of Middle Eastern and North African Studies Nasser Abourahme, Professor of History David Gordon and Associate Professor of History Salar Mohandesi took the stage to explain Apartheid and how Bowdoin contributed to nationwide divestment efforts in the 1970s and 1980s.

Gordon began his presentation by providing an overview of Apartheid, a period in South African history where the European minority living there segregated and oppressed Black Indigenous South Africans. After many years of struggle, more democratic and equitable policies were implemented in South Africa, which Gordon explained was due in part to the work of global divestment efforts. The goal of divestment, a method encouraged by anti-Apartheid activist Desmond Tutu, was to cause economic isolation of the Apartheid regime in a peaceful manner.

“By the end of the 1980s,… huge swaths of U.S. civil society were divesting [from] and sanctioning South Africa. Divestment played a role in persuading South African capitalists to turn away from the Apartheid project,” Gordon said.

Mohandesi’s section of the talk continued the explanation of Bowdoin’s long history of divesting from Apartheid. Mohandesi detailed student body efforts encouraging the College to sell stock in companies that supported Apartheid South Africa, a movement that began in the late 1970s and lasted until 1987. Mohandesi highlighted the actions the College took over this long period of time, including the creation of multiple committees in response to various student protests and referendums. Until the late 1980s, a decade after many colleges and universities began to divest from Apartheid South Africa, none of these Bowdoin committees acted on divestment.

“[Protesting students and faculty] knew that getting Bowdoin to divest from South Africa would likely not do any significant damage to the regime, but they thought it could have a symbolic impact,” Mohandesi said. “In their view, South Africa’s survival depended on the support of Western states, especially the United States, so they thought that severing the many cultural, financial, academic and political links between the two countries would leave the regime isolated.”

After Gordon’s and Mohandesi’s presentations, the talk opened to audience questions, where many community members asked about applying lessons learned from Apartheid divestment to the present day, especially as a portion of the Bowdoin community is pressuring the College to divest from defense-focused funds.

Mohandesi explained how the long, continuous fight for social justice during Apartheid is a lesson that can be applied to current political efforts at Bowdoin.

“It took centuries of arduous struggle to convince Americans to oppose racism. It took decades of organizing to convince people that Apartheid was reprehensible.… It took a long time to build that kind of consensus, and even when people came around to rhetorically condemning Apartheid, many of those in power remained unwilling to do anything about it,” Mohandesi said.

The speakers emphasized that, although the Apartheid divestment initiative was a long struggle, the consistent efforts of students created a ripple effect and helped make progress possible.

“You need a larger sea of sympathizers to win your struggle, but by fighting, you can also in turn raise consciousness and create the sea of sympathizers that you need to win,” Mohandesi said.

Attendee Maya Khalil ’28 noted how the activism of past Bowdoin students can set an example for the present day.

“[The talk] reiterated that people usually go with the form of activism that’s most comfortable and pushes them out of their comfort zone the least,” Khalil said. “But that’s not always necessarily a bad thing. It can be a good way to build up a broad supporter base.”

Nora Rikansrud ’28, who attended the talk, reflected on the administration’s response to divestment calls, both in the past and the present day.

“What stood out to me the most was Professor Mohandesi’s statement that the administration supports the anti-Apartheid movement now but fought it tooth and nail when it happened,” Rikansrud said. “I think the hypocrisy in that divide is important to keep in mind as we work towards divesting from weapons in Israel.”