I grew up in Cape Town during the dark years of Apartheid in a very, very violent society. I was radicalized, as were many of our generation, by the Zionist socialist movements, which were more socialist than Zionist at that time, and in which many South African scholars got their training in leftist social theory…
What was interesting about the School of African Studies [at the University of Cape Town] in those days, where anthropology was situated along with archaeology and African languages, was that it was the only place on the campus which was licensed to have black and white faculty together – 1964-1966 – the period of the sabotage trials, the rise of ‘Umkhonto we Sizwe’, Pogo, etc. – it was a strange moment. Very repressive. It is hard to explain to our students what it was like growing up in a fascist education system. Under South African law anybody who had had any connection with the Communist Party could lose their jobs. This happened to a lot of our teachers: Jack Simons – who wrote a brilliant book, Caste and Colour in South Africa – and who trained many important South Africans, like Albie Sachs – was summarily banned during our second year. We were out of the classrooms as much as possible, protesting. Of course, many of the books that we teach now and take for granted were banned…