8 the state of science in south africa
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
ate education. This approach reflected the Individual academics have published
thinking of planners whose ideal-model thoughts on their own fears for the hu-
is that of the (mostly professional) facul- manities. This work is often a mix of fear for
ties where planned curricula are the norm, the future of the established canon mixed
but the approach also fitted the modu- with the difficult political issues involved in
lar agenda of the National Qualifications political transformation, especially the con-
Framework which was set up by the South sistent pressures to rethink and reconsider
African Qualifications Authority. In prac- the curriculum in the cause of ‘Africanisa-
tice, across the country, the ‘programme tion’ (see Cornwell, 2006). These same issues
approach’ resulted in long-standing (and were dramatically highlighted in a contro-
often very strong) humanities departments versy at the UCT in 1996 between the dis-
being merged, reorganised or simply dis- tinguished Africanist Mahmood Mamdani,
established. Some of the ‘programmes’ who then held the AC Jordan Chair of Afri-
have continued, while others reflected in- can Studies, and the university authorities
strumentalist ‘morphing’ into occupational over the development of a syllabus for a
studies like museum studies, tourism stud- foundation course in African studies. Mam-
ies and the like. The overall consensus was dani’s proposal, which drew strongly on a
that the move was a disastrous step for the Pan-Africanist perspective, was rejected
humanities. A powerful and intellectually by his faculty colleagues; he later resigned
rich department of German studies at UCT, to take up a Chair at Columbia. Undoubt-
for instance, was wrecked by ‘program- edly, this was but the first salvo in deep and
matic rationalisation’ and a department of fierce debates that are certain to follow, and
Afrikaans at the University of the Witwa- indicates why conversations on the episte-
tersrand, which was at the cusp of literary mologies in the humanities and social sci-
studies in the country, was closed. Inter- ences are necessary.
estingly, one dean faced off the rush into
programmes – it never was a directive from There have been interesting moves towards
the government – by suggesting that all he (what is sometimes called) the ‘new disci-
would do was “learn the language”. Like all plines’ in South Africa. Embryonic interest
efforts that hope to rupture the crafted bal- in film studies has, for example, developed
ance upon which the humanities rest, this into a healthy and flourishing programme
approach was corrosive rather than crea- at UCT. The same university has also devel-
tive. Notwithstanding this, the temptation oped a strongly institutionalised gender
to make the humanities ‘useful’ to the mar- programme through the African Gender In-
ket continues. (One institution has recently stitute which publishes the continent’s first
out-imagined even the Hegelian ingenuity regional gender studies journal, Feminist
of Fukuyama by proposing to launch a pro- Africa. A number of other universities, too,
gramme called the Bachelor of Commerce have developed programmes in gender
Honours in Peace, Security and Economic or women’s studies. Other new disciplines
Development.) have been developed around HIV/AIDS – an
issue in which South Africa has an obvious
232
TWAS book_Chap8.indd 232 2009/10/06 12:05:00 PM
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164 |
Page 165 |
Page 166 |
Page 167 |
Page 168 |
Page 169 |
Page 170 |
Page 171 |
Page 172 |
Page 173 |
Page 174 |
Page 175 |
Page 176 |
Page 177 |
Page 178 |
Page 179 |
Page 180 |
Page 181 |
Page 182 |
Page 183 |
Page 184 |
Page 185 |
Page 186 |
Page 187 |
Page 188 |
Page 189 |
Page 190 |
Page 191 |
Page 192 |
Page 193 |
Page 194 |
Page 195 |
Page 196 |
Page 197 |
Page 198 |
Page 199 |
Page 200 |
Page 201 |
Page 202 |
Page 203 |
Page 204 |
Page 205 |
Page 206 |
Page 207 |
Page 208 |
Page 209 |
Page 210 |
Page 211 |
Page 212 |
Page 213 |
Page 214 |
Page 215 |
Page 216 |
Page 217 |
Page 218 |
Page 219 |
Page 220 |
Page 221 |
Page 222 |
Page 223 |
Page 224 |
Page 225 |
Page 226 |
Page 227 |
Page 228 |
Page 229 |
Page 230 |
Page 231 |
Page 232 |
Page 233 |
Page 234 |
Page 235 |
Page 236 |
Page 237 |
Page 238 |
Page 239 |
Page 240 |
Page 241 |
Page 242 |
Page 243 |
Page 244 |
Page 245 |
Page 246 |
Page 247 |
Page 248 |
Page 249 |
Page 250 |
Page 251 |
Page 252 |
Page 253 |
Page 254 |
Page 255 |
Page 256 |
Page 257 |
Page 258 |
Page 259 |
Page 260 |
Page 261 |
Page 262 |
Page 263 |
Page 264 |
Page 265 |
Page 266 |
Page 267 |
Page 268 |
Page 269 |
Page 270 |
Page 271 |
Page 272 |
Page 273 |
Page 274 |
Page 275 |
Page 276 |
Page 277 |
Page 278 |
Page 279 |
Page 280 |
Page 281 |
Page 282 |
Page 283 |
Page 284 |
Page 285 |
Page 286 |
Page 287 |
Page 288 |
Page 289 |
Page 290