Surendra Bhana, professor emeritus of history at the University of Kansas, will deliver the annual Robert B. Walz Lecture at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 19, in Foundation Hall of the Donald W. Reynolds Campus and Community Center on the campus of Southern Arkansas University, Magnolia. Bhana’s address will be “Gandhi and Mandela in South Africa History.”
The Walz Lecture is free and open to the public. A reception for Bhana will follow the lecture in Salon B of the Grand Hall of the Reynolds Center.
Bhana has conducted extensive research into 19th and 20th century South Africa and into the lives of that country’s Asian population. He lived under the system of apartheid in South Africa for more than 40 years. He has also explored Mahatma Gandhi’s influence on Martin Luther King Jr.
He recently co-authored, with Goolam Vahen, “The Making of a Political Reformer: Gandhi in South Africa, 1893-1914.” This volume reveals the cultural and religious influences that shaped Gandhi during his time in South Africa and that prepared him to lead the independence struggle in his native India.
Bhana has noted that his teaching and research have been shaped by his own coming of age in South Africa.
“It has been an interesting journey in which I have witnessed white supremacy and black consciousness merge into a multi-racial and democratic South Africa in 1994,” he said.
He has also written “Gandhi’s Legacy: The Natal Indian Congress, 1894-1994,” “Indentured Indian Emigrants to Natal, 1860-1902,” and with J.B. Brain, “Setting Down Roots: Indian Migrants in South Africa, 1869-1911.”
Reviewers have praised Bhana’s works for their thoroughness, balance, and discovery of significant findings on the conditions faced by the Asian population in South Africa.
Dr. Robert Walz taught history at SAU from 1958 to 1987 and was recognized as a leading historian of Arkansas. The Walz Lectureship was established in 1995 with a bequest from the estate of Mrs. Curtistine A. Walz, in honor of her husband’s long service to the University.
For more information call 870-235-4227.
