“The progressive intellectual appears by many accounts to have lost his or her voice; their silence deafening…” -  Dikene & Gumede, 2009 

In a country where it has been suggested that the distinction requirements at schools be moved down from 80% to 70%, it is of grave importance that we evaluate the role of knowledge and what significance we attach to it. Do we respect and value the production of knowledge, or is contemporary South African society being “dumbed down”? And if knowledge is no longer an essential commodity, do we have a need for a “thinking class”; the intellectuals? 

Where are our great South African minds?

Are they hiding in fear of our society’s seeming intolerance of criticism and dissent? 

Eminent thinkers Leslie Dikeni and William Gumede examine how South African intellectuals have regressed from drivers of change in the Apartheid era to disenchanted ghosts that appear to fear critical engagement in The Poverty of Ideas.

This book offers differing but critical evaluations of the responsibility of the progressive intellectual in a new democracy. During the struggle against apartheid intellectuals have spoken out and more often then not influenced the trajectory of events. But it appears that today’s intellectuals are paralysed by fear of raising the ire of authority…              

About the Authors

William M. Gumede is Senior Associate and Programme Director, Africa Asia Centre, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London; and Honorary Associate Professor, Graduate School of Public and Development Management, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. He was Deputy Editor of the Sowetan, South Africa’s largest national daily newspaper. He is author of the bestselling book Thabo Mbeki and the Battle for the Soul of the ANC (2005).

Leslie M. Dikeni is Research Associate at the Department of International Politics, University of Pretoria. He was executive director, Africa Secretariat, UN Human Rights Commission. He has been a Senior Researcher at the Centre for Policy Studies. His research interests include globalisation and the social construction of knowledge.

List of Contributors

William Gumede

Leslie Dikeni

James Matthews

Albert Nolan

Grant Farred

Jeremy Cronin

Dan O’Meara

Mahmood Mamdani

Jonathan Jansen

Prishani Naidoo

Vishnu Padayachee & Graham Sherbut

Helga Jansen-Daugbjerg

Mandisa Mbali

Shireen Hassim