Adekeye Adebajo argues that the formation of the Mandela Rhodes Foundation is a dubious attempt to rehabilitate the legacy of Rhodes and bemoans Mandela’s association with this attempt. However, his article suggests that he understands very little about what the foundation stands for or seeks to promote. He bases his criticism on the juxtaposition contained in the foundation’s name and yet it is precisely this uncomfortable combination of names that represents the foundation’s challenge to society.

The purpose of the foundation, and the juxtaposition of names, is not to encourage people to forgive and forget the oppressive history of our country and continent. Instead it encourages us to acknowledge and remember our past in order to create the kind of society we outlined in the South African Constitution. The flagship programme of the foundation is the Mandela Rhodes scholarships, which seek to build exceptional leadership capacity in Africa.

Adebajo asks whether Mandela has "perhaps not taken reconciliation too far in rehabilitating a figure that Africans should have condemned to the pit-latrine of history?" It is indeed an interesting question; can we take reconciliation too far? Surely not: true reconciliation is not about forgiving and forgetting (or "rehabilitating") but acknowledging a common past in order to move into the future together.

Although undoubtedly negative, Rhodes’s legacy in South Africa and Africa is still very much alive and we therefore need to engage with it. We cannot simply condemn it and "move on" because to do so is to belittle the continuing legacy of colonialism and apartheid in our everyday lives. It also seems unlikely that simply by positioning Rhodes’ name next to Mandela’s his legacy will be "rehabilitated". Rather it encourages Africans to engage with the debate about our past, an all-important step in the journey of reconciliation.

There is currently a national debate about naming and renaming our institutions, cities and provinces. While these debates and acts of renaming are important for restoring and remembering a past that has long been marginalised, we must remember that these are symbolic acts. The next step in the process of restoring our dignity is to effect real change in the current and future lived experience of our people. The Mandela Rhodes Foundation is contributing to this process.

To ignore or run away from the contradiction and tension represented by the Mandela Rhodes name is to ignore one of the fundamental problems that faces our society. Post-apartheid South Africa is a Mandela-Rhodes society, touched equally by both. In order to continue the building of our new South Africa, we need to continue to engage our difficult past.

Tristan Görgens, a Mandela Rhodes scholar at the University of Cape Town, writes in his personal capacity