Omdat demokrasie as instelling in Suid-Afrika nou fel onder die soeklig geplaas word aan die hand van ontstellende gebeure en onverantwoordelike uitsprake plaaslik, is The poverty of ideas ’n besonder welkome en tydige publikasie. Dit is ’n publikasie wat diepe analitiese introspeksie tot gevolg gaan hê.
Het daar al inderdaad, soos so dikwels beweer word, ’n demokratiese bestel in die ware sin van die woord in Suid-Afrika sedert 1994 ontwikkel? Tot vervelens toe word van “ons jong demokrasie” gepraat sonder dat die substansie daarvan tot sy volle konsekwensie deurgetrek word. Kan van demokratiese verkiesings in Suid-Afrika gepraat word as blatant onder meer gedreig word met “We will kill for Zuma” en ook as ’n sekere deel van die kiesers gedreig word met die verbeuring van voorregte as hulle nie vir die ANC stem nie?
The Poverty of Ideas: South African Democracy and the Retreat of Intellectuals deur William Gumede, Leslie Dikeni EAN: 9781770097759 Find this book with BOOK Finder!
Hierdie boek, nagevors oor ’n tydperk van bykans 20 jaar, is die lewenswerk van Andrew Nash, dosent in politieke denke aan die Universiteit van Kaapstad.
Dit bied ’n omvangryke, dog ook indringende ontleding van die “dialektiese tradisie” in Suid-Afrika. Die begrip “dialektiek” beteken “ontwikkeling deur teenstelling”. Dit verwys na ’n denk proses of -metode wat in die geskiedenis van die filosofie sedert die optrede van Sokrates voor kom, en wat na waarheid en wysheid soek in die ontginning van teenoorstaande moontlik hede.
Vir Nash verwys dit ook na ’n soort denke wat sigself nie slegs besig hou met intellektuele konstruksies en insigte nie, maar wat op die een of ander manier vir die menslike lewenspraktyk ter sake is. Dit is die soort denke wat nie slegs daarin kan berus om die wêreld te probeer verstaan nie, maar wat altyd ook daartoe wil deurdruk om die wêreld te probeer verander.
SUID-AFRIKA beskik oor ’n groot aantal besonderse museums. Ongelukkig is daar nie veel van ’n museumkultuur onder die breë Suid-Afrikaanse bevolking nie en word die land se museums nie altyd na waarde geskat nie. Politici is ook geneig om museums (soos kultuur in die algemeen) vir eie gewin te misbruik. Dit is beslis ook nie toevallig dat dit ’n buitelander is wat die Suid-Afrikaanse museumbedryf op oorkoepelende wyse krities ontleed nie; die skrywer is die Amerikaner Steven C. Dubin.
Mounting Queen Victoria is oorspronklik in 2006 as Transforming museums: mounting Queen Victoria in a democratic South Africa gepubliseer. Die boek handel onder meer oor die wyse waarop die maatskaplike gebeure van ’n land of samelewing byvoorbeeld deur museum uitstallings uitgebeeld word. In die loop van sy analise werp Dubin lig op die teenstrydighede in die apartheidsamelewing van vroeër, op die rasse- en klasse-kompleksiteite van ons land se kulturele instellings en dus ook op die uitdagings waarvoor ons land se museums te staan kom – gesien in die lig van dié kulturele instellings se geskiedenis van flaters, suksesse en paradoksale handelinge. Hy dui ook aan dat geheue/herinnering (memory) ’n wapen kan word in die hande van ideoloë, politici en ander.
THIS book presents a fascinating array of personal stories which add to our understanding of diversity and gender. It is particularly timely after the Caster Semenya debacle in that it illuminates our understanding of the varieties of ways in which sexuality and gender are manifested.
TRANS: Transgender Life Stories from South Africa edited by Ruth Morgan, Charl Marais, Joy Rosemary Wellbeloved EAN: 9781920196226 Find this book with BOOK Finder!
According to the author, ‘the central hypothesis underlying this study is the importance of Somaliland’s example as a case study in the efficacy of the internally-driven, “bottom-up” approach to post-conflict nation-building and regional stability and the implications this approach holds for prioritizing domestic reconciliation between indigenous culture and traditions, and modernity in achieving relative stability and international recognition in the nation-building project’ (p. 19). Given my familiarity with Somali studies literature, as well as my participant observation of Somali affairs, I find this study to be highly original, relevant, valid and timely. The originality is partly because both the Somaliland domestic and international experiences are unique. As the author states, this is a mid-level theory intended to qualitatively illuminate a case study that could be used in future as a building bloc towards a grand theory.
Ricardo Dunn finds something fishy with the premise of Gumede and Dikeni’s The Poverty of Ideas – that intellectuals who shape society for the better are a dying breed. It’s a tired claim that we’ve heard before, he says.
Incidentally, Dunn mentions his “Zulu grandmother” in his review. Could he be a descendant of the storied “white Zulu” John Dunn? Just asking!
The disappearance of the public intellectual is by now a tired, if not irritating, refrain. Americans have for at least 50 years warned that their true thinkers are an endangered species, that the ones hanging around today are poor substitutes, easily seduced by cushy academic appointments or even worse, celebrity — in other words, certainly not the real deal.
Not coincidentally, just across the pond, the French and the Brits are of the same opinion, more or less, although the former have published a dictionary of Gallic intellectuals, which runs for a modest 1 300 pages. Pity the self-deprecating British then, who recoil at the very idea, preferring instead to claim that there are no intellectuals in Britain and there never have been. Try telling that to the millions of colonial subjects reared on Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and company.
The Poverty of Ideas: South African Democracy and the Retreat of Intellectuals by William Gumede, Leslie Dikeni EAN: 9781770097759 Find this book with BOOK Finder!
Jonathan Jansen is a prominent personality in the South African education landscape. Challenging, controversial and sometimes cynical, he has not been afraid to engage with the issues of the day. Knowledge in the Blood reflects on his experience as the first black dean of education at the University of Pretoria and asks why it was that young Afrikaners, born at the time of Nelson Mandela’s release from prison, held such rigid ideas about black people?
The book and its lines of inquiry become even more urgent in light of Jansen’s recent inaugural lecture as rector and vice-chancellor of the University of the Free State and the institution’s intention to withdraw charges against four white Afrikaans students accused of demeaning black cleaning staff there.
Knowledge in the Blood is a reflection on the tremendous social change that was taking place after the demise of apartheid. Jansen originally set out to convey a story of how white students were changing, but he soon realised that these students changed him. Jansen was a witness both to the apartheid past and to the dramatic transition after apartheid and he provides an account of his appointment at the university in the first chapter. He tells of his interactions with colleagues, administration and students: “At UP I have had some of the most profound and life-changing experiences that any human being could expect to face in one career.”
Zakes Mda is one of a handful of South African dramatists to have sustained an international reputation. On top of this, his six novels have reaped plaudits for their narrative audacity and rich poetic resonance.
The central character of his Ways of Dying – Toloki, the professional mourner – has taken on the status of a folk hero, and reappears, in the latest novel, Cion.
Ways of Writing is by far the most substantial book yet to appear on Mda’s work.
The editors’ introduction begins enigmatically by classifying Mda as “an important African writer and significant South African writer”. The bulk of the 18 essays in the collection are on the novels: there are five on The Heart of Redness alone.
Steven C. Dubin het ‘n goed-nagevorsde boek, oor veranderinge in museums en kunsgalerye ná 1994, die lig laat sien.
Mounting Queen Victoria ondersoek die erfenissektor se invloed op mense se “begrip en geheue”.
Adrienne van Eeden-Wharton skryf in ‘n resensie in Die Burger Dubin het meer as ‘n honderd onderhoude gevoer en die boek se geselstoon is ‘n “wel kome afwisseling tot swaar akademiese skrywes”. Dubin se gebrek aan persoonlike ervaring in die sektor pla Eeden-Wharton, maar sy sê tog die boek slaag daarin om “die belangrike (en belaaide) taak van dié sektor” uit te lig.
Die boek ontleen sy titel aan ’n gevallestudie in die Tatham-kunsgalery in Pietermaritzburg waar ’n reuseportret van koningin Victoria na bykans ’n eeu ’n paar gevorm het met ’n portret van koning Cetshwayo kaMpande.
In Mounting Queen Victoria ondersoek Dubin ’n groot reeks museums en kunsgalerye met die klem op die mate waartoe trans formasie ná 1994 in hierdie sektor plaasgevind het, al dan nie.
Author of Scorched: South Africa’s Changing C limate and Boiling Point: People in a Changing Climate, science writer Leonie Joubert has produced another highly readable and accessible book, this time an account of invasive aliens — the plants and animals that have come to South Africa largely as a result of human migration — creatures removed from their original habitats that in many cases have set about trashing their new home.
Uitspraak: wortel
Verdict: stick
