Centre for Education Rights and Transformation, UJ (3MB)

96 Pages·2013·3.26 MB·English

enOugh is A feAst
A TRIBUTE TO DR NEVILLE ALEXANDER
22 OctOber 1936 – 27 August 2012
22 OctOber 1936 – 27 August 2012 1
Published by the Foundation for Human Rights
8th Floor
209 Smit Street Building
209 Smit Street
Braamfontein
Johannesburg
South Africa
Telephone: [phone]/5
Fax: [phone]
Email:
cOntents
PREFACE .......................................................................................................................... 5
TRIBUTES TO DR NEVIllE AlExANDER
DIgNIFIED AND PRINCIPlED To THE END .................................................................. 9
A TRIBUTE To NEVIllE AlExANDER By SAlIM VAlly, BRIAN RAMADIRo AND JANE DUNCAN
Mail & Guardian, 31 AUgUST 2012
MEMoRIES oF THE lIME QUARRy AND gRATITUDE FoR lESSoNS
FRoM THE “TEACHER’S TEACHER” ............................................................................... 13
SPEECH By AHMED KATHRADA DElIVERED AT MEMoRIAl SERVICES FoR NEVIllE AlExANDER
“HAyI, ASIloSIKo lAKoWETHU UKUBUyA NgoMVA” ............................................... 16
[“oH No, IT’S NoT oUR CUlTURE To TURN oUR BACKS oN oUR oWN ACHIEVEMENTS”]
A TRIBUTE By SElBy NoMNgANgA, 08 SEPTEMBER 2012, ATHloNE, SoUTH AFRICA
HUMAN DIgNITy oNly THRoUgH RADICAl TRANSFoRMATIoN ............................ 21
A TRIBUTE To NEVIllE AlExANDER FRoM CoMRADES AND FRIENDS oF THE
WoRKER’S oRgANISATIoN FoR SoCIAlIST ACTIoN (WoSA)
INTERNATIoNAl JoURNAl oF SoCIAlIST RENEWAl, 29 AUgUST 2012
THE CoNSCIoUSNESS oF BEINg CoMPlETEly AND oNly HUMAN ........................ 23
A TRIBUTE To NEVIllE AlExANDER By CRAIN SoUDIEN, CAPE ToWN, 3 SEPTEMBER 2012
REVISITINg THE NATIoNAl QUESTIoN ....................................................................... 26
A NAMIBIAN TRIBUTE To NEVIllE AlExANDER By SHAUN WHITTAKER
TEXTS BY DR NEVIllE AlExANDER
SoUTH AFRICA ToDAy
THE MoRAl RESPoNSIBIlITy oF INTEllECTUAlS .............................................................. 31
SoUTH AFRICA: AN UNFINISHED REVolUTIoN? ....................................................... 39
RACE IS SKIN DEEP, HUMANITy IS NoT ........................................................................ 55
Cape TiMes, 15 APRIl 2011
lET US RETURN To THE SoURCE! ................................................................................ 59
IN QUEST oF A HUMANISM oF THE 21ST CENTURy
RoBIN HooD, RoBBEN ISlAND AND THE PoST APARTHEID STATE.......................... 67
souTh afriCan hisTory online (saho), 20 JANUARy 2011
AFTER APARTHEID: THE lANgUAgE QUESTIoN ......................................................... 71
HAS THE RAINBoW VANISHED? ................................................................................... 87
THE MEANINg oF NATIoNAl UNITy IN THE NEW SoUTH AFRICA
BIBlIogRAPHy ................................................................................................................ 95
22 OctOber 1936 – 27 August 2012 3
4 A tribute tO Dr neViLLe ALeXAnDer
PrefAce
he death of Dr Neville Alexander leaves the country bereft of a great revolutionary,
historian, educationist, linguist, writer and moral compass. He will be remembered
Tas much for his dedication to addressing the plight of the poor in a democratic South
Africa as for his commitment to the struggle against apartheid, and for which he was sentenced
to ten years imprisonment on Robben Island.
His incisive analysis of the failure of the democratic leadership to honour the much-vaunted
values enshrined in our Constitution remains a beacon for those searching for a way forward.
Alexander decried the continued structural inequality pervasive in the country. He believed
that the wave of violence engulfng us was its direct consequence.
Intellectual timidity would be an abrogation of responsibility; for Alexander, the ‘amorality
of capital’ provided a cover for the Faustian pact that perpetuated the country’s crisis of
values. Erstwhile Marxists, claiming there was ‘no alternative’, were now in bed with the
untransformed racists of the past ‘parading fake credentials’ to satisfy the requirements of
Black Economic Empowerment.
Until December 2011, he served as the Director of the Project for the Study of Alternative
Education in South Africa (Praesa), a research unit at the University of Cape Town. His fght
for multilingual education and mother-tongue learning was a vital contribution to language
policy. This was but a single brick in the visionary building of the socialist state, which ideal
he was never to forsake.
The son of a carpenter and schoolteacher, Neville Alexander was born in Cradock, Eastern
Cape. By the time he learned the facts of his maternal grandmother’s rescue from slavery in
Ethiopia, his campaign against the ethnic prejudice shaping the country’s identity politics was
entrenched.
As the essays and writings in this memorial collection reveal, Alexander was consistent in
his revolt against the vulgarity and profigacy of the power elites. He lived his ideals and the
values he proclaimed. He was offered an ambassadorship, which he declined. He remained an
activist to the end.
This small volume is our modest tribute to Dr Neville Alexander’s history, his talents and
commitment to social justice. our shared belief in the inalienability of human rights was an
enduring bond.
We mourn the loss of a fghter, activist and, above all, a thinker.
Hamba Kahle, Comrade Neville.
Yasmin Sooka & Hanif Vally
for the foundation for human rights
22 OctOber 1936 – 27 August 2012 5
6 A tribute tO Dr neViLLe ALeXAnDer
TRIBUTES
To DR NEVIllE AlExANDER
22 OctOber 1936 – 27 August 2012 7
8 A tribute tO Dr neViLLe ALeXAnDer
DignifieD AnD
PrinciPLeD tO the enD
A TRIBUTE To NEVIllE AlExANDER
By SAlIM VAlly, BRIAN RAMADIRo AND JANE DUNCAN
MAIl & gUARDIAN 31 AUgUST 2012
eville Alexander’s death, coming as it does Middle East closely. Previously Neville formed strong
in the wake of the massacre of striking bonds with Ben Bella and Ernest Mandel, as well as
Nmineworkers at Marikana, is a double blow. with leading revolutionaries in Namibia, Palestine and
He had the breadth of intellect and depth of knowledge other countries.
to help the world to understand the signifcance of In South Africa’s increasingly crass intellectual
these events. environment, where many around him were
Throughout his life, Neville maintained the abandoning their moral compasses and replacing
important combination of being an activist and a principled political interventions with buffoonery, he
scholar. His activism saw him imprisoned on Robben stood out as a voice of great insight, attempting to
Island for ten years and subjected to house arrest for provide what he at one stage described as a “gPS” for
a further six years. For his entire life, he both argued the country.
for and practised a principled approach to building The recent events at Marikana would have come as
an independent anti-capitalist left, while emphasising no surprise to Neville. Cutting through the hype about
the need for unity of all organisations committed to a South Africa’s celebrated transition to democracy,
socialist future. he warned repeatedly of the long-term dangers of
He believed that it was impossible to wage a the compromises arrived at during the negotiated
successful struggle without a theory, and remained settlement – compromises that ensured the continuity
committed to using the analytical tools of Marxism of the capitalist state and the highly unequal social
to develop this theory. His Marxism was not vulgar; it relations embedded in it.
was enriched by his deep understanding of the South In fact, in two books on the transition, Neville
African reality, with its complex intersections of “race”, argued that “it is common cause in South Africa that
class and gender. He was also an internationalist unless a radical redistribution of material resources is
following recent developments in North Africa and the realised within the lifetime of the present generation,
22 OctOber 1936 – 27 August 2012 9
all the glib rhetoric of social transformation, national building a new, united historical community. He
democratic revolution, and African Renaissance will argued that they essentialised “race”, which would
come to mock their authors and exponents in the probably make it all but impossible for “race thinking”
years ahead”. He warned repeatedly of the potential to disappear in a future South Africa. He frmly rejected
for social instability. the racial classifcations of the apartheid state, and
His prescient ability to predict South Africa’s drew on the concept of “racial capitalism” to explain
political trajectory made him an unpopular fgure with the ways in which the South African state derived
the ruling establishment, who were often unsettled economic and social value from the maintenance of
by his critique of the dominant, largely celebratory racial identities.
discourse of national liberation and their own role In the two subsequent decades, he developed this
within it. But he was also widely respected, even by line of argument, asserting that, in order for South
those he criticised. Africa to emerge as a nation, it would need to be
Remarkably, despite foreseeing the mess that South united on all levels of the social formation, including
Africa fnds itself in as a likely trajectory, he never lost the economic, cultural and social. To simply proclaim
hope in the ability of its people to achieve the Azanian South Africa the “rainbow nation” was premature as
uhuru that so many had hoped for. the material conditions that would allow a united
His optimism was profound. He had a deep respect nation to come into being were simply not present.
for humanity and the ability of the human spirit to These realities meant that the nation’s social cohesion
overcome the most diffcult of odds, and believed that was built on quicksand.
human beings were not inherently self-centred. He In fact, Neville feared that society would fracture,
knew periods of great despair in his life, but he never creating space for opportunistic leaders to mobilise
lapsed into cynicism. racial divisions to build power bases. Using the
His great love for humanity also made him a very xenophobic attacks in 2008 as a salutary backdrop, he
humble person. Not one to be impressed by titles warned emphatically that: “Things can fall apart very
and status (or what he liked to call “honorifcs”), he quickly. our entire sociohistorical fabric can unravel
believed that, in his own words, “intellectuals are not within a few weeks: it took less than 100 days in
people who go to universities, but are people who Rwanda!”
understand how society works and how to change In later years, he argued that unless state institutions
it”. He did not just mouth these sentiments, but lived placed disadvantage rather than “race” at the centre of
them, continuing with grassroots work to the end of their transformative strategies, they would advantage
his life. a narrow group of black people only and perpetuate
Neville viewed ostentation with disdain. He was race thinking, at the expense of the working and
humorous, perfecting the art of scorn towards the unemployed poor.
politically and morally corrupt sections of the elite, but His work on language developed his arguments on
he was also always inspirational. Neville’s analysis was the national question. He believed that South Africa
often enlivened by characters and events from german would not unite unless indigenous languages became
literature, greek mythology and Shakespearean the languages of power. He was a frm believer in
comedy, and his everyday speech was peppered with the power of critical pedagogy and quality public
aphorisms such as “enough is as good as a feast” and education. The latter issue occupied his mind in his
“you shall be judged by your deeds, not by your words.” last few weeks.
Neville will be remembered for his pioneering work If Neville could be faulted for anything, it would be
on the national question and language. Writing under for insuffcient introspection about why independent
the pseudonym “No Sizwe” in the 1970s, he critiqued left organisations have so far failed to have consistent
the dominant liberation organisations’ approach to mass resonance, and why their ideas have failed to
10 A tribute tO Dr neViLLe ALeXAnDer