Reconceptualising African Scholarship in a Multi-cultural context : Some Reflections on Humanities and Social Science Disciplines at a South African University Lubna Nadvi School of Politics / Social Sciences : UKZN

Introduction -What constitutes (excellent) African Scholarship? Does it include the following; i)Content and Framework of Scholarship must be indigenous to Africa (IKS) ? ii)Researcher must be of African origin or based at an African institution ? iii) Scholarship must attempt to address African “problems” with African solutions ? iv) Scholarship can be produced externally to Africa but must include core African content?

Reconceptualising African Scholarship -Acknowledging Africa’s colonial history and importing of multiple influences to the continent, hence there is a multi-cultural backdrop within which African research / scholarship is produced (including race, language, nationality, ethnicity, caste, religion, etc) -Colonial and post colonial context is critical to understanding that while we are producing African – centric scholarship, such scholarship is also the product of a variety of political and socio-economic realities on the African continent (period of liberation struggle and de-colonisation : 20 th c /1960 – 1990; democratisation : 1990s; intensified globalisation and migration : 2000s. Under-development, resource-wars, poverty, famine / drought, disease, patriarchy, elitism, etc) -These realities have all shaped what and how we teach, research and write. Much of the post-colonial period in Africa has focused on affirming “Africanness” against the onslaught of external paradigms and frameworks -Contemporary African scholarship while utilising the ideas of African thinkers such as Fanon, Nyerere, Nkrumah, Amin, Mazrui, Mamdani, etc is also struggling to define itself outside of a very rigid conceptualisation of what constitutes “international” scholarly discourse

-Kwesi Prah maintains that we must distinguish between Africanisation (a largely elitist phenomenon of deploying persons of African origin into various positions) and Africanism (which is closely associated with the preservation of African languages) (2004) -Hence he argues that preservation and development of African languages is key to advancing core African scholarship and identity -However in a context where in some parts of Africa, English, French, Portugese, Arabic etc are the core languages spoken, what does it mean to be African in these contexts ? -While there is an acknowledgement that these are all official languages of the continent, they also have a particular ideological and cultural influence, which shapes discursive practices -In addition there is a growing Asian influence in Africa with its multiplicity of languages and cultures (Indian, Chinese, etc) -Hence African scholarship arguably becomes something of a melting pot of ideas and concepts (and this is a phenomenon that is not unique to Africa, but is increasingly being seen in South America, Asia and elsewhere in the formerly colonised world)

Humanities and Social Science Disciplines in SA Universities -Two disciplinary areas, viz Political Science and Gender Studies at UKZN Political Science / International Relations - Core theories and concepts are still primarily European / English (More recently African leaders such as Nkrumah and Nyerere, Thinkers such as Mamdani and Fanon and concepts such as Ubuntu and Traditional African governance are being taught / introduced into curriculum) - Terminology such as “nuclear non-proliferation, balance of power, diplomacy, democracy, good governance, etc are still located as ‘euro-centric’ ideas - Globalisation has created new challenges in terms of “localising” knowledge Gender Studies -Core theoretical ideas emerge from British / American institutions -Many consider Feminism as being alien to African notions of patriarchy and cultural practices (however African theorists such as McFadden, Mama, etc have interrogated this more closely and argued that Feminism is a more universal idea) -Theories of Sexuality / Queer Theory / Masculinity studies are all seen as “external” to what is traditionally understood as African thought -Gender is being redefined as not just male / female but ‘alternative’ in the international scholarship – this poses challenges to local conceptions of identity

Some Conclusions -In a globalised world, no scholarship can claim to be purely indigenous to a particular region -This is not necessarily a negative thing -African – centred scholarship must therefore attempt to maximise on the various influences which have come to shape it, whether it is knowledge relating to technology, concepts, belief systems etc, and attempt to utilise these to build localised capacity -It is also useful to employ Prah’s distinction between Africanisation (which has its uses but must be understood as a means to an end and not necessarily as an end in itself) and Africanism (which is about foregrounding a particular set of identities related to geography, heritage, history, etc) -The African project should never forget its colonial history but in moving forward it has to redefine itself as ideally attempting to advance the interests of a particular geographical region, while harnessing the multiple influences which are a legacy of its past -African scholarship should ideally attempt to employ the same approach