ABSTRACT

Globally, the humanities seem to be experiencing a crisis of confidence, with declining student numbers and a loss of faith among scholars in the methods and powers of their research. Drawing attention to the post-apartheid state's undeniable preoccupation with the developmental benefits of science and technology, the report warns darkly of the "intellectual stagnation" and "moribund condition" of the humanities disciplines in the country. After World War II and under apartheid, the sciences also attracted lavish state support for research, but the humanities have generally worked from the bottom of the academic barrel. South African universities were racially exclusive, by design, from the outset. The censorship project could not bury the changes that were taking place around the world; by the end of the 1970s, South African humanities research was being profoundly enlarged and shaped by a project of interdisciplinary Marxism centered at the Wits History Workshop.