Oprah Winfrey Receives South African Honorary Doctorate

Oprah Winfrey on Friday accepted an honorary degree from a central South African university that had turned itself around after race relations fell apart at the university in the past. According to Oprah the university had turned an ugly experience into a model in “confronting the challenges of reconciliation and remorse.”

Five years ago four white students at the university had made a humiliating video about black housekeeping staff where they were highlighted eating a stew the students had mimed they were peeing in.

In 2009 Jonathan Jansen became the university’s first black rector and asked that the four white students involved in the video be forgiven and rehabilitated.