Kgothatso B Shai

Scholarship and Politics in South Africa's Higher Education System Kgothatso B Shai

The subject of the politics of knowledge production is as old as knowledge itself and remains hotly contested, especially among scholars. Among others, Mokoko Sebola, Tawanda Nyawasha and Molefi Asante have recently made controversial contributions on this subject in relation to Africa in general and South Africa in particular. In this book the author draws from an Afrocentric paradigm to present an alternative and refreshing perspective on the politics of higher education, scholarship and ethics in Africa. While the book draws heavily from the South African experience, it also offers lessons for Africa, the black world and the global south. It begins with an extended critique of Sebola's contribution on the subject and then synthesizes his views with the Nyawasha-Asante debate on the same subject. While the book's point of departure is to draw attention to the limitations of the works of the aforementioned scholars; it raises the discourse by switching from an individual to systems level of analysis.

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Kgothatso B. Shai is an Associate Professor and Head of Cultural & Political Studies at the University of Limpopo in South Africa. He was educated at the Universities of Venda and Limpopo, South Africa, where he received a PhD in International Politics. He has published widely in many peer-reviewed national and international journals. His special research interest is on Afrocentric and protest scholarship.