One of the most important discussions that the issue of Dr Pallo Jordan has finally brought up is the question about the calibre of the South Afrikan intelligentsia, and most pointedly, its failure to utilise its qualifications to contribute to the creation of a higher civilisation that has been fashioned for our country by the Black intelligentsia of yesteryears. A month ago I wrote a status update lamenting the failure of SASCO convocants to do one simple act of documenting the organisations history. I argued that some day, a White kid from a bourgeois background with a Political Science degree is going to write a book about the history of SASCO and that this book, with its vulgarisation of the organisations history, will be the sole existing documented story of SASCO, a story that will be taught to our grandchildrens children in the next century. All this will happen because with all the intellectuals that the organisation boasts, it cannot point us to an encyclopedia written by its own members and leaders. It cannot direct us to a coherent documentation that takes us from the organisations genesis right through to the present-day struggles that characterise the neo-liberal milieu in which it organises. And make no mistake, this is not an attack on SASCO, primarily because the organisation itself is not the problem. It is the reflection of the real problem, for it is a microcosm of an even greater challenge that afflicts this country: a crisis of post-mortemism. South Afrika is a breeding ground for post-mortem intellectuals. For those who arent familiar with Forensics, a post-mortem is an examination of a corpse (dead body), done by a medical examiner, to determine the cause of death. Post-mortem intellectuals, therefore, are intellectuals who sit and watch a crisis occuring (at times they even contribute to it) and when the damage is complete, they pen very eloquent analyses and critiques. They are more comfortable writing intelligent reviews and criticisms of other peoples original works, but do not project that same energy to constructing new ideas or seriously contributing to discourse. And yet, the role of intellectuals is to give birth to progress - to construct ideas that will echo through the hallways of eternity. Intellectuals cannot perpetually be examining corpses to ascertain the cause of death. So as the emotions fade away (and ofcourse some of us were very emotional, incorrectly so, in our defense of Dr Jordan), we must now begin to go deeper into the issues that this story raises. One of these issues ought to be an honest self-introspection as to what exactly are all these certified intellectuals in our country doing. Dr Hendrik Verwoerd held a PhD in Psychology and he used it to architect the diabolical system of apartheid. He used his qualifications to capture what Steve Biko correctly called the most potent weapon in the hand of the oppressor - the minds of Black people. The psyche of natives. Many decades later, his intellectual work is reverberating through a South Afrika that is still trapped in the brutal labyrinth of systematic and structural apartheid. What are the PhDs of certified intellectuals of today doing? Where exactly are certified intellectuals in this country?
Posted on: Mon, 04 Aug 2014 15:30:04 +0000
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