tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3268763091226029271.post8414364852286175721..comments2023-05-23T10:59:24.522-04:00Comments on Bokamoso Leadership Forum: Building the new cadre 50 years after Fanon’s death: the place of intelligentsia in recreating societies in AfricaBokamoso Leadership Forumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07145703919474386347noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3268763091226029271.post-51429577275826257602011-04-01T02:36:01.546-04:002011-04-01T02:36:01.546-04:00I think you've hit it on the head dear friends...I think you've hit it on the head dear friends. The biggest challenge to Africa's intellectual project is two fold:<br /><br />Firstly, Africa's intelligenstia is, as observed, fragmented, scatterred, and still obliged to bow down before the institutionalised intellectual architecture of the Bretton Woods Institutions. As we know it: he who controls the purse strings, controls that that is produced. They set the agenda and ommit views deemed inconvenient to the popular project of accumulation. Spaces of intellectual rigour and freedom exist only in as far as they appease popular interests. We no longer pursue the mastery of imperfect knowledge for its own sake cause the budget agenda determines that that is pursued and no longer the love of knowledge for its own sake for popular change.<br /><br />It is in this regards that I reckon that scholar activists should recapture the opportunity to mobilise and build networks of scholars ensued by the thrill of ideaological contestation and the thrill of contesting established truths. Alternative views have been in the margins for too long. However, increasingly, established orthodoxy will seize to be relevant if it is unable to capture the pulse and imagination of the day as lived vy ordinary people. It will have to evolve for relevance's sake. And here lies the opportunity for new networks to occupy spaces.<br /><br />Secondly, there's a bigger challenge concerning the need to develop Africa's appetite for knowledge and to appreciate the role o its 'advanced elements' in the struggle for a just society. We remain one of the region's the record the lowest literacy rates, even when compared to other developing regions. The love for knowledge, books, ideas has been lost in the winds of institutional demacration (i.e. Timbuktu)and degeneration (Africa's institution's of higher learning have been reduced to undigniied monuments and at worst memorial gravesites o generations preceeding ancient ones). This needs to change. President TM speaks of the continental call to 'rebuild the city of Carthage'. However, Im no longer confident that Africa can boast of a cadreship committed to taking up this task for principles sake, as many have sold their souls to the highest political bidders, sacrificing principle for the sake of political expedience. This is a sad truth dear cdes. Mediocre has displaced the culture of excellence in service, where vulture contends with owl to occupy the highest seats of lands. The game of survival of the fittest is not for the meek nor cowardice.<br /><br />Evil flourishes when good people sit done in indifference and do nothing. If we could start by rebuilding and creating synergies between existing organisations/networks/movements of scholar activists, as a start this could yield serious fruits in future....we should never despise the days of small beginnings, nope not at all!!Zukiswa Mqolombahttp://www.yahoo.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3268763091226029271.post-13844139992050633302011-03-31T02:10:11.579-04:002011-03-31T02:10:11.579-04:00What we should do as young emerging intellectuals?...What we should do as young emerging intellectuals? what should be the normative role of our emergent scholarship? How we part take in movement of the centre? For me, I should think, while we are learning and taking stock from the works of our intellectual heros like franz fanon and others, we should do so conscious of their shortcomings and mistakes and try to learn from these. We should not repeat the same mistakes they did. As young intellectuals, we should join the vanguard intellectaul movement that seeks to decolonize social sciences in Africa. How? by continuing to add critical balance to the policy debates in Africa and by mainstreaming African perspectives in the international discourse.Like Prussian who, after the death of George Hegel, formed a thinking club called Young Hegelians, we should also form like-minded youth thinking clubs and discursive communities. It is sadness today in South Africa that our brothers and sisters have turned to the 'twitterati' and 'blogerrati' for knowledge and critical analysis because our public intellectuals are not available to offer sound critical analysis on current affairs. We as young intellectuals we are not helping because most of the time we write in a language that is not understandable and we remain trapped in the abstract world. As young intellectuals, we should not be butterfly chasers nor should we be theory intoxicated intellectuals. We should assist in generating new African intellectual toolkits and in changing the West's gazing and writing about Africa.We should be able to balance the theoretical and real world. We should not be afraid to write, we should not be afraid to think and flush out of our continental discourse those who are hell bent in reinforcing the status quo and in advancing the interests of key actors in a globalizing world.Thembani Mbadlanyanahttp://www.yahoomail.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3268763091226029271.post-61908383710484902842011-03-31T02:09:04.414-04:002011-03-31T02:09:04.414-04:00I concur with what colleagues have alluded to abov...I concur with what colleagues have alluded to above.It is a fact that African policy makers and decision makers need expert knowledge to bear on their legislative and policy decisions.This expert knowledge should by no means imported and extroverted- it should be informed, first and foremost by our ontological african experiences.This expert knowledge should come from one of our own, it should come from our African intellectuals and from our epistemic communities like CODESRIA.<br /><br />With regard to redifining our purpose and striving towards achieving it, I should think there have been many initiatives to that direction- APRM and NEPAD being examples. Our intellectuals have also contributed a lot in these initiatives. But for me the problem lies at African Institutions of governance,continental geo-politics and lack of visionary and decisive leadership. New Visions, new visions are developed and elaborated on but the problem is lack of coordination, competing interests of African countries, lack of urgency of some states and continued external intervention on African Affairs.<br /><br /><br />With regard to 'shifting the centre', I dont think the centre will shift anytime soon.This is so because African scholarship, as Gcobani rightfully points out, its still fragmented.Our Intellectuals are working in silos, with little, if any collaboration.We are witnessing 'intellectaul survival of the fittest' where our intellectuals are competing for the West sponsored fellowships and study grants. Although CODESRIA and others are trying, there is little effort to build a strong thinking class and discusive communities in the continent. What compounds this problem is that, our social sciences is still not decolonized, its still extroverted. Our academia is still emblematic of mimetic isomorphism (achieving conformity through imitation)and our intellectual frames of reference are still grounded on western scholarly traditions. We as the emerging young African intelligentsia, we commit the same mistake of our forebeares. Our emergent scholarship is not framed in such a way that it will move the centre. As the new cohort/cadreship of African Intellectuals, we continue to idolize western scholarship and to be concerned with status anxiety. We are not moving beyond knowledge regurgitation and we are not transcending the abstract world.For me the centre will only move when we have reached a consensus on what are 'african studies', what is 'african social sciences' and what is the normative role of african schoalrship in shaping continental futures and in moving the centre.The centre will only shift when African scholarship has, as its raison d'etere , embedded autonomy. It will move when African intellectuals have managed to form a formidable thinking force that is centred on intellectual activism.<br /><br />[continued below]Thembani Mbadlanyanahttp://www.yahoomail.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3268763091226029271.post-4359819885866385582011-03-30T09:21:02.030-04:002011-03-30T09:21:02.030-04:00This is a really great and timely article Zukiswa....This is a really great and timely article Zukiswa. Very well written and key at the moment in painting both the historical account and contemporary projections as to where African intellectuals should be engaged the most - and I agree with it entirely for the most part. But I also think most importantly we also really need to start questioning whether Africa’s intellectuals are really ready for the task ahead of them, indeed in the last 10 years it has been inspiring to see the new ‘cadre’ of scholar activists emerge with novel intellectual orgasms as to where we should be going – as interpreted by our own generation/eye. But knowledge production by African scholars on Africa is still very polarised at the moment and the reason why African scholars have not been able to penetrate to mainstream scholarly policy decisions to effect proper social change has been largely because of the collaborative failure of our intellectuals. <br /><br />While indeed there have been young thinkers emerging, but I think we should start critically looking at the value of creating ‘world class’ intellectuals without any grounds on which to make a positive contribution in society, and the only way I foresee it happening is through (interdisciplinary) collaboration between intellectuals which gaining momentum at the moment in academe but has NOT taken off. <br /><br />I think at the moment climate change is probably the area where African intellectuals are failing to actually interpret reality as lived and experienced by Africans at the moment, again falling into the same trap and relying on knowledge produced overseas for what is a completely different climate, therefore resulting in ineffective results (am working on a paper on this and it still forms a large part of my theses which I will share with the Bokamoso people in time), but the point is that as alluded to in Thembani’s paper there is this pre-occupation with ‘status’ amongst African intellectuals, I.e. it’s no longer about now making and serving people through knowledge production for policy makers, but the discourse has shifted to which prestigious (often foreign) journal an intellectual will be published in etc. <br /><br />Will make you and example, am following on Twitter two prominent intellectuals in Africa on Twitter at the moment: one (1) Achille Mbembe who feeds us food for thought EVERYDAY on Fanon and SA’s contemporary position and where the youth can play a role etc, and the other (2) another well known academic in Jo’burg who updates 80% of the time about the next conference they are attending, which fellowship they have been awarded etc. now these are important signifiers that although we are already building the new cadre, no doubt about that, but most of them are also falling into the same trap which have for the most part rendered intellectuals completely useless in Africa, with two distinct prototypes of intellectus emerging: those who want all the glory for themselves (who care about prestigious journals, fellowships etc), and those like Mbembe who make time to Tweet everyday engaging and responding to African youth they have never met, only to teach them Fanon and his importance to us. <br /><br />So in moving forward: how do you propose we move beyond this ‘status anxiety’ that Thembani talked about to a more critical engagement with each other’s work’s as intellectuals (in a supportive, but still engaged way), when the system is favourable to individual achievement? How do we in Africa merge polarised views on hot and contested African issues and still make a difference? (e.g. in context of climate change – some academics saying it’s an issue of importance to Africa and others saying it is not) How do we take these discussions beyond the 10% that has access to the internet in Africa to the 90% who have never touched a computer screen? …Gcobani Qambelahttp://twitter.com/#!/gcobani_qambelanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3268763091226029271.post-60554315297618210582011-03-30T08:35:51.389-04:002011-03-30T08:35:51.389-04:00Thank you for this, we too often get lost in exter...Thank you for this, we too often get lost in external viewpoints and approaches to the issues of our beloved continent. Like Siphokazi, I would like to hear more about concrete ideas around today's intelligensia structuring itself towards knowledge production geared at African development. In addition, I would like to suggest that as part of this new vision, a platform/forum for today's thinkers to share ideas and contributions would go a long way towards achieving this goal.Nadia Ahmadouhttp://www.yahoo.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3268763091226029271.post-40802495599500342852011-03-30T06:17:27.686-04:002011-03-30T06:17:27.686-04:00Thanks for this piece Zuki. It continues nicely th...Thanks for this piece Zuki. It continues nicely the debate Thembani, Gcobani and Bose have opened about the place/value of knowledge production in the continent. It does seem that during Fanon’s time, Nkruma, Sobukwe , Mafeje and the many great African thinkers the struggle was much easier to define that is the colonial resource and intellectual projects. What you all show is Mbembe’s dilemma of the postcolony under resourced and needing to define purpose and audience. I need you to tell me the ways in which we can begin to “discover our mission, to fulfil it or betray it.” If I am a young graduate today at some university who wants to be part of “moving the centre” where do I start? What should be my next move after reading your article? Now that I know what other thinkers in the continent have done and what intellectuals elsewhere have also contributed to the condition of the continent, where do I begin my journey?Siphokazihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15337255783667231624noreply@blogger.com