African Society : Towards Critical Perspective

The sociological and political writings of Bernard Makhosezwe Magubane on African political history, political economy and political philosophy constitute a vital portion of a monumental legacy to later generations by an Africa intellectual who came to maturity through a historical consciousness that emerged in the decade of the 1960s. This was a period characterized by the radical contentious philosophies of history : African Marxism, African Nationalism and the reactionary ideologies aligned with imperialism and colonialism. The essays of Bernard Makhosezwe Mugubane stand at a fascinating intersection with the intellectual systems of Frantz Fanon, H.I.E. Dhlomo, Ngugi wa Thiong'o and Amilcar Cabral. They are first and foremost what Cabral and Fanon were clamouring for : an instrumentarium of the construction of a progressive African ideology or African ideologies. What enabled them to realize this remarkable breakthrough is that they are a continuation of the revolutionary thought of Fanon and Cabral. Magubane was among the first African academic scholars to have seen the historical significance of Fanon and Cabral, respectively in the mid 1960s and in the early 1970s. Written in exile during the Exile Period in South African intellectual and cultural history, these essays until recently were not easily historically locatable within the genealogical structure of South African intellectual traditions. Undoubtedly, this had been due to the 'political philosophy' of apartheid and its ideological manifestations.