I am Dorothy Mmakgwale Farisani, an Associate Professor in the Department of Mercantile Law and the Head of Academic Quality Assurance and Enhancement in the College of Law at the University of South Africa. My PhD thesis was on Corporate Criminal Liability and my research interests include corporate homicide, which occurs too often in our country and needs to be prosecuted effectively. I am involved in various Committees at College and Institutional level and I work closely with the Teaching and Learning Portfolio at both levels. 

I believe it is crucial to decolonise the curriculum and for that to be done effectively, contextualisation should be the focus. As we come from diverse backgrounds, we are rainbow peppers and we bring our diversity with us. The curriculum needs to take that into account, so that at the end of the day universities produce professionals who are able to go back and apply their acquired knowledge in their own contexts and also in other contexts. 

The project is two-thronged and addresses the social injustice of providing students in African universities with curricula that do not take into account the context in which they are expected to practice in after completing their studies. This is particularly the case when in teaching Law to students, we do not provide curricula that have infused African legal philosophies and concepts. 

Firstly, the project is aimed at updating of the study material of a module in such a way that it becomes a module with a transformed curriculum. This module is an LLB module called Individual Labour Law. This is a work-in-progress which is being undertaken together with two colleagues in the Department of Mercantile Law at the University of South Africa.

Secondly, it is aimed at the transformation of teaching & learning through conscientising colleagues about the importance of contextualising our curriculum and ensuring that by the time our students complete their studies they are prepared to offer legal services that are relevant to their context. Transformation through contextualisation is therefore emphasised. As part of conscientizing colleagues, workshops have been held during which I have addressed them together with other colleagues on the importance of taking into account the context in which the university is and in which the students will practice. For our curricula to be relevant the African legal concepts etc., need to form part and parcel of what we teach and what we assess students on. As custodians of curricula, academics at universities need to be transformed so that they can provide transformed curricula which is relevant to the context in which our students will practice when they have completed their studies.