The intermittent debate around the role of black intellectuals, especially academics — whether they are absent from public debates and hence have minimal impact on critical policy issues — is apt and needs to be urgently addressed.
Though these accusations are partly grounded in fact, there are gaps in the analyses that need to be confronted.
One defect is that this view fails to focus on the critical barriers that continue to contribute to this unsatisfactory state of affairs: the hurdles that beset black intellectuals.
To address the issue, we have to start with very basic questions. Where are these black intellectuals that we are told are silent? Do they exist in sufficient numbers to have an impact on debate? What is being done about the institutional, discriminatory and other obstacles that they face like other designated groups? What is being done to nurture, develop and assist the black intellectual?
The truth is that this is one sector that has been ignored by transformation projects and it is imperative to question why this is the case. There is profuse talk about the support that is being rendered by business and the government to various charters that seek to redress the imbalances of the past, but very little has been done in respect of black intellectuals.
The emphasis has been placed on assisting those who are seen to be much more influential, such as emerging businesspeople and bureaucrats. For example, of the few developmental efforts being made by universities to produce young black academics, there is very little evidence of business and government support in this. Most of these programmes are funded by external donors and most of them are closing down.
The reality is that a university career is simply unappealing to young black graduates, compared with one in business or the government.
Qualification to be an academic demands excellent candidates. And, quite frankly, the packages offered by academia are pathetic compared with those in business or the government. Thus, there is stiff competition for young, competent black minds from business and the government as the two have more resources than academia.
Potential young black academics have much more to gain by joining the private sector or the government than academia. To them, academia equals poverty, a situation accentuated by a society obsessed with crass consumerism.
Granted, salaries and benefits are not the only criteria in choosing a career. However, resources should be directed at changing the mindsets of young graduates to cultivate the perspective that the pursuit of knowledge is a critical and fulfilling profession, both for society and the individual.
In addition, institutional change should be accelerated, business should provide tangible support and the government should exhibit much more firm political commitment in assisting the black intellectual.
Another aspect that constrains the development of black intellectuals is a prescription that stifles their creativity. On the one hand, they are expected to support the “black viewpoint”, a challenged view in this increasingly changing society, where group solidarity based on based on skin colour is evaporating.
They are also confined by the conundrum that they are not “objective”. They are especially lambasted if the views they express coincide with those of the government or the African National Congress.
In both cases, they are placed under relentless pressure and they get caught up between the proverbial devil and deep blue sea.
Intellectual activity by its very nature — as it deals with ideas, knowledge and inquiry — demands freedom to operate without onerous burdens from any quarter.
This unqualified criticism of black intellectuals is further limited by its failure to grasp current trends. Most of them, like the majority of other South Africans, are not fundamentally opposed to South Africa’s transformation since 1994.
Indeed, the bulk of them are in business and the government. They are driving these processes and are therefore, contrary to perceptions, not silent. They are the ones crafting the very issues we are accusing them of not addressing. Maybe the problem is publicity, not the quality of their input.
In this regard, the media have to shoulder most of the blame because they are the forum where most public debate is carried out.
It would be disingenuous to round off this debate without pointing some criticism at black intellectuals themselves. They are largely disorganised and exist in narrowly defined enclaves.
For instance, many institutions have transformation forums that are failing on their mandates to foster equity and related issues — and yet black intellectuals are doing very little about this.
We need a multifaceted approach that demands initiative and creativity from black intellectuals themselves. This should be complemented and balanced by firm assistance from business and the government and willingness of institutions to change.
They must also be freed from the shackles that bind them to what they should do, think, write and produce, if they are to make any significant contribution to South African society.