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
strongly influenced by Nicos Poulantzas, social sciences … [and the humanities] …
whose impact was evident in the work of a in this country” (Van Onselen, 2004).
second generation of South African writers.
But the deep epistemic break – as Foucault
A few further comments on this ‘Marxist called the moment when the unthinkable
Moment’ are required to round the point becomes thinkable – lay in the much-re-
out. Generally speaking, South African searched, but poorly understood, issue of
Marxists were known for their parochialism race. The question, put in crude terms, was
and for treating racial domination in South this: Who were South Africans? Were they,
African society as exceptional. But it was Be- as the country’s English-speakers claimed,
linda Bozzoli who raised the most difficult bearers of the liberal heritage of imperial
(if not embarrassing) concerns about South power? Were they, as Afrikaners hoped, an
African Marxism by claiming that “[w]hat anointed European volk in Africa? Were
South African reality could demonstrate to they, as more crude Marxists often declared,
the intellectual world has increasingly been an exploited proletariat on the periphery
pushed aside in favour of what that world of a capitalist world? Or were they, as Pan-
can tell us about South African reality” (Boz- Africanists might have argued, colonised
zoli, 1981:54 ). This critique is a timely re- minds waiting emancipation in order to
minder of the hold of metropolitan thought contribute to the rise of a new Africa?
over the development of the humanities in
the country. Evidence of this was to emerge Of course, South Africans were all of these,
elsewhere too. Tracing a century of devel- and none of them. The country was a com-
opment of the social sciences at UCT, Ken munity-in-the-making – to use Benedict
Jubber suggested that, in terms of what Anderson’s iconic idea of the nation as an
was taught, the institution was like a ‘dis- ‘imagined community’ – and its making was
placed British university’ (Jubber, 1983:58). contingent on the assumptions upon which
But, whatever its lack of local authenticity, thinking was provided by the humanities.
the Marxist Moment did raise questions far But accepting the inherent instability of this
beyond mundane disciplinary debates, as idea was not possible within the dominant
the following example indicates: “What is scientistic formulations that promised per-
this new South Africa we are working for?” a manence and predictability. Drawing upon
former Professor of Afrikaans literature and the writing of the Martinique intellectual
a Vice-Chancellor asked in the 1980s. “We Frantz Fanon, Steve Biko broke the impasse
are trying to find out. The … liberals … are by famously declaring: “Black man, you’re
geared for capitalism. We research alterna- on your own” (Biko, 1978:97). This, the idea
tives” (Crary, 1988). Undoubtedly, then, the of Black Consciousness, was a fresh framing
Marxist Moment sparked intense debates of South Africa’s deepest social issue and, as
within and without the academy. Looking importantly, its framing was not wholly an-
back on those times, the acclaimed South chored in metropolitan ideas. The body of
African historian Charles van Onselen called this approach to social relations was force-
them “the most exciting two decades in the fully drawn into an analysis of racism by
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