NRF 25 years: Dr Nevashnee Perumal

This year, the NRF is celebrating a major milestone in our history as we commemorate 25 years of Research, Innovation, Impact and Partnerships. It gives us great joy to share the accomplishments and impact of the many students and researchers that we have supported during various stages of their careers. We thank all participants for submitting their stories and we hope that you enjoy reading about their journey with the NRF.

Dr Nevashnee Perumal is a Senior Lecturer in Social Development Professions (Social Work) at Nelson Mandela University. She received funding under the NRF’s Competitive Support for Unrated Researchers (CSUR) programme.

How did your journey start?

Growing up, I never envisioned being a lecturer at a university. Actually, I did not think I would be able to access higher education to study, let alone work here one day.

In my matric year, I did not apply for university admission and when I passed with a matric exemption, my father took me to the University of Durban Westville to appeal for a place to study Psychology. All the programs were full and the SRC advised that I should try social work since it would have Psychology courses and was a program that enabled admission based on an interview. My father filled in some forms; I was called for an interview, and was successful. That is how I studied towards my first degree and, as such, I believe that social work chose me.

How has your affiliation with the NRF impacted your studies/career?

I am a recipient of the NRF’s Competitive Support for Unrated Researchers (CSUR) funding. Below, I elaborate more about the impact of the NRF’s support on the African Knowledge Production Incubators project.

What is your research focus on/what is your area of expertise?

I am researching in the area of indigenising and decolonising social work education. The project I led from 2021 to 2023 is called the African Knowledge Production Incubators. This project is built on togetherness, spirituality, common purpose and a need to reclaim African narratives using Participatory Action Learning Action Research.

For this project, we began with six academics from five South African public universities, all teaching in social work and all acknowledging that we are Black academics who have a responsibility through our own circumstances and current power of knowledge to embark on transformative work on the Eurocentric social work that universities have been teaching.

We retreated for a few days at a time during the three years, we called this incubation. We used a space where we could unpack the curriculum, identify the areas that sat uncomfortably with us as Africans and delved deep into what this meant for us and those who come after us in social work. We expanded on this by attempting to begin home incubators in our individual departments. Simultaneously, each of us brought at least one postgraduate into the space, aligning their research to the decolonial and indigenous work.

I believe that I am not an expert but together with like-minded colleagues, I am able to bring about a strong and deep conscientisation of injustices within our profession and the training that is provided in higher education with the intention of deep transformation, beginning with the mind.

Why is your work/studies important?

Everything begins with the self and those who came before us. Much of who we are gets shaped in the formal education system, a system not designed by OUR people. We assimilate these educational constructs and pass it on as values to the next generations, and in so doing, we begin to resemble the employers and oppressors of our parents and grandparents.

I am a fourth-generation South African of South Indian indenture origin. My profession is social work and my current occupation is an academic. Our project, the African Knowledge Production Incubators, was catalysed by my sense of restlessness during the “fees must fall” movements because I work in a “thinking space” (a university) where thoughts should be actioned to result in change for common public good.

The Incubators are a safe academic space for like-minded, like-hearted and spirited academics and postgraduate students who possess a deep desire to decolonise and indigenise the social work curriculum, beginning with the stories we tell through the pain we have endured as marginalised people in South Africa during apartheid and post-democracy.

Now here’s a story about telling stories. When we tell stories, it enables reflection for the storyteller and catharsis for the listener; it invokes imagination coupled with a curiosity and desire to understand the story. Once our group shared our stories, we collectively attached meaning to the points that resonated with the group and then we documented common themes that would form the basis of the indigenous knowledge we wish to produce and the colonised knowledge we wish to untangle in the process called decolonisation.

What sparked our project?

Since my upbringing was sheltered and restricted by the Group Areas Act, my acute sensitivity was raised during “fees must fall” to the grave institutionalised injustices levelled against students who were calling for free decolonised education. Prior to this, I did not think that the same had been happening to me during my own studies, mainly because there was one rule in our lower middle-class home: your father is taking loans to pay for your studies, pass your studies, work, pay your loan.

Students were being violated in the curriculum for decades – they were learning about OTHER people’s problems and solutions from countries that we only see on a map. These countries, even on a map, are so far away from South Africa, so how can their knowledge solve our problems? Actually, their knowledge and their countries are the causes of our problems. And now, when unarmed students begin to speak up about their constitutional rights to free, decolonised education, they are intimidated, violently attacked and criminalised.

I felt I owed some responsibility to try and make some changes – at least in the social work curriculum.

So, I wrote a research proposal that focused on decolonising social work theory, skills and practice. My proposal was not approved at institutional level. I have blocked out those reasons now but not how that rejection made me feel… I felt weak, despondent and defeated. I dropped the idea but the strong threads of social justice kept jerking my soul.

A year or so later when I saw the NRFs funding call, which appeared to be developmental, I cautiously embarked on the opportunity to rework that rejected proposal, but this time to draw on the strength of meaningful collegial relationships, strategically positioned in different universities (UFH, UKZN, SU, WITS) on the continuum of privilege, and I proposed a layered project to the NRF.  The layers consisted of the core project team: Thanduxolo Nomngcoyiya, Veonna Goliath, Priscalia Khosa, Sipho Sithole and Motlalepule Nathane. Each brought on board at least one postgraduate student. Laterally, we expanded and began incubators in our home departments to bring our departmental colleagues on board.

I figured if the NRF approved this project, then my institution would have to grant ethical clearance.

The project was approved, the institution provided ethical clearance and this history of the African Knowledge Production Incubators will forever be remembered as our “once upon a time”. 

What are some of your proudest academic achievements?

For this project, all the colleagues authored one chapter in the book entitled: Critical Social Work Studies in South Africa – Prospects and Challenges. The chapter entitled: “Laying the West to Rest”, authored by myself, proposes a way to engage with students on how to co-create knowledge from the ground up.

Another significant achievement is the production of two photobooks; one that documents our project’s visit to three universities in India; and the second that tells each of our stories of being raised as African children in South Africa. Here, we also document our statement of intent as the African Knowledge Production Incubators extended team with our postgraduate students. We have plans to narrate these stories in our vernacular languages.

I have recorded a podcast on our project that is located on Social Work Khuluma. Here, I outline the pros and cons of PALAR methodology and what it means for a project with many researcher-participants.

Another highlight for us was being invited as keynote speakers to the UJ Seminar Series where we interrogated: Can social work be decolonised given the loud silence to ongoing colonial-capitalist systemic realities and epistemic injustices?

Our main highlight was the international imbizos we held in Gauteng and Gqebehra in December 2023 where we had scholars from India, Ecuador, WITS Origins Centre and the Khoisan chief Stuurman deliberate with us about origins, education, language, spirit and social work.

We have recently published an article in the Journal of Progressive Human Services (Taylor and Francis online) entitled: African knowledge production incubators: Approaching indigenous and decolonised social work from the ground up through stories of our lived experiences.

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