SOUTH AFRICA (AP) — Oprah Winfrey accepted an honorary degree from a central South African university infamous for troubled race relations, saying last Friday the institution had turned an ugly experience into a model for confronting the challenges of reconciliation and remorse.
Oprah came to a school where five years ago, four white students made a video humiliating black housekeeping staff — they are shown eating a stew the students had mimed spiking with urine — and expressing opposition to integrating the historically white University of the Free State. Jonathan Jansen, who in 2009 became the university’s first black rector, called for the four to be forgiven and rehabilitated.
After receiving her honorary education doctorate, the TV host called five cleaners to the stage and pronounced them heroes.
“What has happened here at Free State in terms of racial reconciliation, of peace, of harmony, of one heart understanding and opening itself to another heart is nothing short of a miracle,” she said. “It is truly what the new South Africa is all about.”