Sowetan train commuters are receiving free lectures from South Africa's leading university professors who are part of the Sermon on the Train initiative.

The initiative challenges the concept of a 'public lecture', using the long-standing South African practice of preaching in trains.

Final year fine arts students Molemo Moiloa and Nare Mokgotho from the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in central Johannesburg started the project and continue to lead it with the help of the university's professors.

"We began Sermon on the Train as a once off art project as part of our degree in April. Since then the project has taken on a life of its own," said Moiloa.

"Though we are still graded on the project, it has a greater public significance that has become separate to our degrees," she said.

Moiloa said they wanted to make the experience accessible to a wider audience by encouraging well-known academics to present a public lecture on a train.

The sermons take place in the late afternoon targeting workers returning home from work. They begin at Johannesburg Park Station located in the city centre where commuters board the train. They start as the train leaves and end at the point of arrival.

Audiences are encouraged to ask questions and engage in discussion with the lecturer on the topic they present. Sermons take the form of an interactive conversation, opening a platform for dialogue and knowledge exchange.

Professor Anitra Nettleton was approached by the students to give the first sermon in March 2009. She spoke on the topic 'Meditations on the African Avant Garde', on the train trip to Dube in Soweto — southwest of Johannesburg.

"The sermons serve as a critique of public access to information and the isolation and elitism often endemic in tertiary institution — particularly in relation to ordinary members of the public," said Moiloa.

All on board

The first sermon was well received by the audience much to the relief of the organisers and the lecturer. The initiative soon gained momentum as other lecturers approached the two students offering to do sermons.

The second sermon dubbed the Second Testament was delivered by Wits architecture lecturer Professor Kirsten Doermann, her topic was architecture and globalisation. The sermon started at Park Station and ended off at Orlando Station, in Soweto.

This topic got everyone talking; critical discussion took place between the students, lecturers and members of the public. This was particularly exciting for Moiloa and Mokgotho, as it made evident the dialogue that such an initiative can encourage.

Award-winning writer and researcher Professor Isabel Hofmeyer presented the third sermon named, 'Sermon on the Train: Revelations on the train route to Phomolong, Soweto'.

Her sermon on the Indian Ocean had resonances for everyone. Through African and Indian literature she spoke of a new world power order coming about, with the Indian Ocean as the central point of orientation.

She handed out copies of the sermon publication to all commuters — many paid great interest reading them from top to bottom.

Bridging social gaps

Mokgotho said their art had been about "re-observation and the defamiliarisation" of the everyday — questioning the way people saw the world and finding the aesthetic in the simple.

Although universities do open their doors hosting lectures that people who are not registered learners at these institutions can attend free of charge, these students felt the lectures were not public enough.

"Ordinary members of the public do not form part of the group of individuals that attend university public lectures. Hence, the sermon seeks to bring an exchange between the creative community and greater society," said Mokgotho.

According to the two students, Sermon on the Train was there to raise questions about access, social divisions and the stereotypes that get entrenched by keeping people separate. Furthermore, the work starts to chip away at the hierarchy that separates students from lectures by encouraging lecturer-student collaborations.

Making strides

The university has been behind these students, providing them with resources to allow their project to grow further. "We have received major support. The university has sponsored the last two sermons because they feel it makes strides in some of the objectives of the university itself. This has resulted in a workshop and tutorial information packs we give out on the trains," said Moiloa.

Some have argued that having a public lecture in a public space is imposing on that public. However these students believe it is no different than acts such as public preaching, and they are set to continue on their journey.

This article is from Media Club South Africa

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