humanities and social sciences 8
H U M A N I T I E S A N D S O C I A L S C I E N C E S
what Dubow calls “the international vogue Given South Africa’s social complexity and
for expert knowledge, quantification and the continuous political struggle for the
the pursuit of social efficiency” (Dubow, country, it should be no surprise that the
2006: 7). It is not therefore surprising that social sciences in South Africa reflected
Rhodes University, in the early 1960s, was this dark side. In intellectual circles, mainly
able to claim that the
(but not exclusively) those of the country’s
Afrikaners
3
, the social sciences were often
scientific knowledge of social pheno-
associated with the strengthening of racial
mena is important for an understand-
ideology. One faux-discipline, known as
volkekunde, played a decisive role in what
ing of the contemporary world. The
Robert Gordon has called “the legitimat-
emergence of social, economic, racial
ing and reproduction of the apartheid so-
and psychological problems has brought
cial order on two levels: as an instrument
into being specialised services requiring of control and as a means of rationalising
trained personnel with a sound knowl-
it” (Gordon, 1988: 536). Succinctly put, this
edge of the various social sciences such
approach to anthropology positioned the
as Sociology, Economics, Anthropology
social category of race at the centre of its
epistemology and, with time and the use
and Psychology, and other fields of a
of official resources, this view of the social
cognate nature. (Rhodes University
cosmos rendered all alternative positions to
Calendar, 1961: Chapter XX)
be outside accepted routines of scholarship
sanctioned by people, party and state. Nor
The very idea of a ’science of the social‘ rais-
was this an isolated case of ideology cor-
es questions around the purpose of know-
roding knowledge. Consider the discipline
ing, and while it is not necessary to plumb
of international relations, first taught in a
these deep waters on this occasion, it is
separate academic department at the Uni-
worth noting that many have suggested
versity of the Witwatersrand in 1963.
that the intent is not so much to advance
knowledge (by exploring that which is not
During the apartheid years, positivist ap-
yet known), but rather, to discipline the so-
proaches to thinking about the internation-
cial world. So, the basic task of the social
al became trapped within Cold War logic.
sciences – which, along with those already With time, this “modern counter-enlighten-
mentioned, including political science ment” – to use Nicolas Guilhot’s recent de-
– may well have been to assist authorities scription of early approaches to this disci-
“to get a firmer grip on the existing social pline (Guilhot, 2008:284) – had penetrated
order” (Parenti, 2006:502). the very fabric of national life and extended
3 Afrikaners are South Africa’s largest white minority, who speak Afrikaans, which is a loose derivative of Dutch. Throughout the 20
th
Century
they dominated the country’s constitutional politics and, as such, were the backbone of the support for apartheid.
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