ABSTRACT
The confusing, opaque nature of contemporary university practice is reinforced by the discourse of managerialism, which relies heavily on the jargon of the corporate world. This is a language of smoke and mirrors, distanced from actuality and thriving on equivocation and evasion. Modernity and aspects of the occult are interconnected in other respects. The ambiguous, paradoxical features of the ethos and discourse of "modernized" institutions of higher education have certain areas of commonality with the ideologies and the terminology utilised to justify Western colonial and neocolonial hegemony. They are also suggestive of the extent to which corporatised universities have become sites of ideological, discursive and psychological dissonance. Both Marx's points and some examples from the African supernatural are expressive of a deep-seated conviction that money is fleeting and ephemeral, and cannot be relied upon to provide long-term security or stability.
