This thesis attempts to reconcile Western and African philosophy with specific reference to the issues of rationality, culture and communitarianism. It also discusses the post-Enlightenment, Western philosophical concept of liberal "atomism" and the primacy of the individual and the emergence of a communitarian critique in response. This thesis intends exploring how Western notions of individuality and the communitarian response can be reconciled with contemporary African philosophy and African communitarian thought in particular. To do this, it is necessary to explore the problem of liberal individualism and how African communitarianism might reinforce the Western communitarian critique. African communitarianism has a processual understanding of personhood that underpins its conception of the Self. In contrast to this view, Western communitarianism has a relational conception of the individual Self. Thus, this thesis argues that African communitarianism has a more profound understanding of the constitution of the Self. To demonstrate these claims, this study discusses notions of rationality which inform each of the philosophical traditions. This will enable a comparative analysis of the above-mentioned philosophical traditions with the intention of uncovering the concepts that provide the platform for their reconciliation.

Thesis (MA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2011. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Despite the validity of arguments highlighting the inadequacy of existing theories to explain Third World and specifically African realities, criticism has perpetuated, rather than disarmed, status quo theories. This is because focus on (and thus within) the existing conceptual framework has impeded vision beyond these barriers, thereby hampering the formation of new, more applicable theories. The intellectual balance of power and methodological hegemony of the West is perpetuated, on the African continent through Western monopoly over course content in tertiary education as well as the preferences of publishers for Africanist rather than African contributions. This study provides a critical assessment of scholarly dominance on the topic of Africa in order contribute to a greater understanding of the dynamics acting to exclude non-Western ideas and experiences from the IR narrative. The study provides a content analysis of 25 peer-rated influential journals publishing IR content for the period January 2000 to August 2010. The aim was to identify dominant themes and scholars on the topic of Africa in IR. General biographical information on the five highest ranking scholars in terms of publication exposure was gathered in order to assess networks of academic and professional affiliation that could have contributed to their publishing success. Dominant themes vary between African, Third World and international-oriented journals. Governance is a prevalent theme throughout, but African journals prefer intervention to the international journals’ preoccupation with conflict in Africa. Third World Journals place development first. The five most prolific authors are Ian Taylor, Kevin C. Dunn, Cameron G. Thies, Nana K. Poku and Chris Alden. They are all currently lecturing at either American or British academic institutions and are all Africanists, save for Poku who is a diasporic African. Networks of affiliation are established through institutions of higher education primarily and through societal memberships. The internet does not seem to be an important tool of networking amongst Africanists. Dominant authors tend to collaborate, serve as article reviewers or on editorial boards of journals for which they also submit articles, and as research grant proposal reviewers, thus also constituting the gatekeepers in academia. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Ten spyte van geldige argumente wat aanvoer dat bestaande teorieë nie in staat is daartoe om Derdewêreld ervarings – spesifiek dié van Afrika – genoegsaam te begryp nie, het kritiek eerder hierdie teorieë versterk as ontsetel. Dit is omdat fokus op (en dus vanuit) bestaande teoretiese raamwerke die oorweging van elemente buite hierdie raamwerke onmoontlik maak, en sodoende die ontstaan van nuwe, meer verteenwoordigende raamwerke, teenwerk. Die intellektuele magsbalans en metodologiese hegemonie van die Weste word voortgesit, selfs op die Afrika kontinent, deur Westerse monopolie oor die kursusinhoude van tersiêre instansies, sowel as deur die voorkeur wat Afrikaniste se bydraes geniet bo dié van Afrikane vir publikasie. Hierdie studie bied ‘n kritiese analise van dominansie in kundigheid oor die onderwerp van Afrika om sodoende by te dra tot ‘n meer omskrywende geheelbeeld van die dinamiek wat nie-Westerse idees en ervarings uitsluit tot die diskoers van Internasionale Betrekkinge. Die navorsing is in die vorm van ‘n inhoudsanalise van 25 invloedryke joernale wat inhoud relevant tot Internasionale Betrekkinge publiseer, vir die periode Januarie 2000 tot Augustus 2010. Die doel is om dominante temas en kundiges oor die onderwerp van Afrika se internasionale betrekkinge te identifiseer. Biografiese inligting oor die vyf mees bedrewe kundiges in terme van publikasies is ingesamel om die netwerke van akademiese en professionele affiliasie wat moontlik tot hulle status kon bydra, te assesseer. Dominante temas verskil tussen Afrika-, Derdewêreld- en internasionaal-georiënteerde joernale. Regeerkunde is deurgaans ‘n prominente tema, maar die Afrika-joernale verkies intervensie teenoor die internasionale joernale se fokus op konflik in Afrika. Derdewêreld-joernale plaas meer klem op ontwikkeling. Die vyf mees bedrewe outeurs is Ian Taylor, Kevin C. Dunn, Cameron G. Thies, Nana K. Poku en Chris Alden. Hulle is almal lektore by Amerikaanse of Britse akademiese instansies en, behalwe vir Poku wat deel van die Afrika diaspora vorm, is hulle almal Afrikaniste. Netwerke van affiliasie word deur instansies van hoër opleiding of lidmaatskap aan professionele assosiasies bewerkstellig. Die internet is klaarblyklik nie ‘n baie belangrik instrument in kontakbouing vir Afrikaniste nie. Dominante outeurs is geneig om saam te skryf, hulle is dikwels die artikelkeurders vir joernale of dien op die redaksie en tree ook dikwels in ‘n hoedanigheid van keurders van navorsingsbefondsing op. As sulks is hulle gelyk die dominante akademici as die waghonde van die ivoortoring.

This thesis is not a life history of Archie Mafeje. Instead, it is an attempt to grapple with his ideas. This thesis is said to be a ‘biography’ insofar as it is dedicated to a study of one individual and his contribution to knowledge. In trying to understand Mafeje’s ideas and the intellectual and political environment that shaped them, the thesis relies on Lewis R. Gordon’s concept of ‘epistemic possibility’. The thesis comprises four main parts. Part I locates Mafeje and his work within the broader African intellectual and political environment. Part II evaluates his critique of the social sciences. Part III focuses on his work on land and agrarian issues in sub-Saharan Africa. Part IV deals with his work on revolutionary theory and politics. Broadly speaking, this thesis is the first comprehensive engagement with the entire body of Mafeje’s scholarship. Specifically, the unique perspective of this thesis, and therefore its primary contribution to the existing body of knowledge, is that it seeks to overturn the idea that Mafeje was a critic of the discipline of anthropology only. The view that Mafeje was a mere critic of anthropology is in this thesis referred to as the standard view or the conventional view. The thesis argues that Mafeje is best understood as criticising all of the bourgeois social sciences for being Eurocentric and imperialist. This is offered as the alternative view. The thesis argues that the standard view makes a reformist of Mafeje, while the alternative view seeks to present him as the revolutionary scholar that he was. This interpretation lays the foundation for a profounder analysis of Mafeje’s work. In arguing that all the social sciences are Eurocentric and imperialist, he sought to liquidate them and therefore called for ‘non-disciplinarity’. It should be noted that in this regard, the primary focus of this thesis consists in following the unit of his thought and not whether he succeeded or failed in this difficult task. / Sociology / D. Litt. et Phil. (Sociology)

This study is, by its intention at any rate, an attempt at assembling the scattered fragments of Can Themba’s life to make a composite being out of the various existing phenomena that shaped the contours of his life in both literary and literal senses. Given the disjunctive manner in which Can Themba and his work have been represented thus far, a combination of Historical and Biographical research methods will underpin the approach of this study. The resultant approach is the Historical-Biographical method of research. According to Guerin et al (2005, 22) the Historical-Biographical approach “sees the work chiefly, if not exclusively, as the reflection of author’s life and times or the life and times of the characters in the work.” This research is premised on the conviction that an individual is a constellation of multiple factors that play a pivotal role in the construction of their persona. These factors will be traced from his family background, early schooling, tertiary education, socio-economic conditions as well as his contribution to various newspapers and journals. While so much has been written about Themba and his work, there is no comprehensive biography of Can Themba as a person. Most importantly, the factors that contributed to his making as well as his breaking, or destruction, have not been interrogated in a form of comprehensive academic research. Rightly or wrongly, Themba’s meteoric rise into the South African literary canon is often traced from the moment he won the inaugural Drum Magazine short story competition. Themba became one of the most popular journalists and rose within the ranks of Drum to become the Assistant Editor. However, my research demonstrates that winning the Drum short story competition was the culmination of a literary talent that was developed and had been simmering for a number of years. Themba studied at the University of Fort Hare between 1945 and 1951 alongside the likes of Dennis Brutus, Ntsu Mokhehle, Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe, Mangosuthu Buthelezi, and many other prominent individuals. He was a regular contributor to The Fortharian, a university publication that published opinion pieces, poems and short stories. This is a vital component of Themba’s intellectual growth and it remains the least explored aspect of his life. As a result, what has been discursively documented by various scholars, writers and journalists, thus far, is a very parochial representation of Can Themba’s oeuvre. / English Studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (English Literature)

Using the theoretical idea of ‘writing between’ to describe the condition of the travelling subject, this study attempts to chart some of the literary, intellectual and cultural connections that exist(ed) between black South African intellectuals and writers, and the experiences of their African- American counterparts in their common movements towards civil liberty, enfranchisement and valorised consciousness. The years 1913-1936 saw important historical events taking place in the United States, South Africa and the world – and their effects on the peoples of the African diaspora were signficant. Such events elicited unified black diasporic responses to colonial hegemony. Using theories of transatlantic/transnational cultural negotiation as a starting point, conceptualisations that map out, and give context to, the connections between transcontinental black experiences of slavery and subjugation, this study seeks to re-envisage such black South African and African-American intellectual discourses through reading them anew. These texts have been re-covered and re-situated, are both published and unpublished, and engage the notion of travel and the instability of transatlantic voyaging in the liminal state of ‘writing between’. With my particular regional focus, I explore the cultural and intellectual politics of these diasporic interrelations in the form of case studies of texts from several genres, including fiction and autobiography. They are: the travel writings of Xhosa intellectual, DDT Jabavu, with a focus on his 1913 journey to the United States; an analysis of Ethelreda Lewis’s novel, Wild Deer (1933), which imagines the visit of an African-American musician, Paul Robeson-like figure to South Africa; and Eslanda Goode Robeson’s representation of her African Journey (1945) to the country in 1936, and the traveller’s gaze as expressed through the ethnographic imagination, or the anthropological ‘eye’ in the text. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2008.