The fish still does not know the water.
For Prof Mogomme Masoga, that metaphor is more than just a provocative title. It is an invitation to question what has become invisible through familiarity.
On 23 July 2026, the Equitas Auditorium hosted the valedictory lecture of Prof Mogomme Masoga, outgoing Dean of the Faculty of The Humanities at the University of the Free State. Titled The Fish Still Does Not Know the Water: Thirty Years of the Post-Apartheid University and the Unfinished Business of Being African, the lecture reflected on a career dedicated to rethinking knowledge, identity, and the role of the university.
Knowledge as partnership
For more than 25 years, Prof Masoga's work in African indigenous knowledge and decoloniality has centred on a simple but challenging proposition: communities are not sources of data. They are living libraries of knowledge; more importantly, they are knowledge partners.
His scholarship advances what he calls the need to ‘negotiate space’ with communities, challenging extractive research approaches and advocating for reciprocity, accountability, and shared knowledge production.
Leading The Humanities with purpose
As Dean, Prof Mogomme Masoga strengthened the faculty's academic profile while advancing African-centred and interdisciplinary scholarship. Under his leadership, the faculty expanded international partnerships and created space for critical engagement on democracy, identity, culture, and social justice.
This was accompanied by measurable academic progress. Between 2023 and 2025, the faculty maintained a module success rate above 82%, while its overall graduation rate improved from 22,1% to 31,1%. The honours graduation rate reached 80,3% in 2025, and the faculty's postgraduate profile grew steadily, with postgraduate enrolments increasing from 9,1% to 12,5% of the total student body.
The faculty also strengthened its academic capacity during this period. The proportion of permanent academic staff holding doctoral qualifications increased from 66,5% in 2023 to 70,1% in 2025, with 2026 figures confirming a continuing upward trajectory. Growth in the professoriate further deepened the faculty's research and supervisory capacity.
In her farewell remarks, Prof Hester C. Klopper, Vice-Chancellor and Principal, described him as a leader with "intellectual conviction and a deep appreciation for the role that The Humanities play in helping society understand itself".
She added that disciplines such as history, languages, philosophy, religion, literature, and the social sciences remain indispensable in helping society understand both the world and what it means to be human.
The unfinished business of being African
At the heart of the lecture was a question about what South African universities still struggle to see.
Like fish unaware of the water that surrounds them, institutions can become blind to the assumptions that shape their cultures, curricula, and knowledge systems. Thirty years into democracy, Prof Masoga argued, the project of becoming truly African universities remains unfinished.
Transformation, he suggested, is not simply a policy objective. It requires continued reflection on whose knowledge counts, whose voices are heard, and how universities engage with the societies they serve.
For him, universities must reimagine and redefine themselves. They must reflect Africa’s intellectual traditions, social realities, and future aspirations. They must also be rooted in relevance, responsive to the contextual needs of their societies, while remaining committed to inclusivity, epistemic justice, and the recovery of knowledge systems that were historically marginalised.
He added that its success lies in universities' willingness to rethink not only what is taught, but also how and why, highlighting that transformation begins in the classroom – where curriculum, pedagogy, and scholarly orientation shape how students see themselves and the world.
A lasting legacy
More than a farewell, the lecture reaffirmed ideas that have guided Prof Masoga’s career: humility in scholarship, respect for community knowledge, and the importance of meaningful engagement.
As he prepares for the next chapter of his academic journey as Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Teaching and Learning at the Central University of Technology, his challenge remains with those who stay behind.
To negotiate space. To listen before speaking. To recognise knowledge wherever it resides. And, above all, to become conscious of the water in which we swim.