Polemics of Knowledge in South Africa: Some of the Key Issues Avoided by Critics

The politics of knowledge remains a contentious issue among academics, students, politicians and society at large. While a fair amount of the literature on this subject has been generated, what emerges is that there is no uniform understanding in terms of what is responsible for the retarded state of knowledge in Africa. Accordingly, Africa contributes very little to scientific publications compared to other continents. The partial understanding generated in this regard largely focused on the soft impediments. Against this backdrop, this paper drew from qualitative materials to identify and critically analyse some of the often downplayed key issues avoided by critics in grappling with the question of the retarded state of knowledge in South Africa compared to that of its peers in the Global South and elsewhere. While the list elaborated below is not exhaustive, the research for this paper points to a cauldron of controlled circulation of literature, academic bullying and sabotage, administrative inefficiencies, and the nature of the employment contract as the hard issues responsible for the failure of universities to correct the sad state of knowledge in South Africa. Yet, these issues have not received adequate scholarly attention in prevailing discourses about this academic and policy conundrum.