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Global Science, National Horizons: South Africa in Deep Time and Space*

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Global Science, National Horizons: South Africa in Deep Time and Space* The Historical Journal, , (), pp. – © The Author(s), . Published by Cambridge University Press. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/./), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. doi:./SX GLOBAL SCIENCE, NATIONAL HORIZONS: SOUTH AFRICA IN DEEP TIME AND SPACE* SAUL DUBOW Cambridge University ABSTRACT. In his inaugural lecture, Saul Dubow, Smuts Professor of Commonwealth History at Cambridge University, discusses the modern history of science in South Africa in terms of ‘deep time’ and space, drawing links between developments in astronomy, palaeontology, and Antarctic research. He argues that Jan Smuts’s synthetic discussion of South African science in , followed by J. H. Hofmeyr’s discussion of the ‘South Africanization’ of science in , has parallels in post- apartheid conceptions of scientific-led nation-building, for example in Thabo Mbeki’s elaboration of the ‘African Renaissance’. Yet, whereas the vision of science elaborated by Smuts was geared exclu- sively to white unity, Mbeki’s Africanist vision of South African science was ostensibly more inclusive. The lecture concludes by considering South Africa as one of several middle order countries which have used national science and scientific patriotism to address experiences of colonialism and relations of inequality and to assert their influence in regional contexts. I In an easily overlooked passage in his best-selling autobiography, Long walk to freedom, Nelson Mandela recalls how, as a secondary school student, he wit- nessed a performance by the Xhosa praise poet Krune Mqhayi in which the stars were divided amongst the nations of the world. In the course of his recital, Mqhayi conceded the Milky Way to rapacious European colonizers and the constellations to various African polities. Then, at a critical moment, Magdalene College, Cambridge, CBAG [email protected] * Inaugural Lecture, Smuts Professor of Commonwealth History, Magdalene College, November . The author wishes to dedicate this lecture to the memory of his teacher and friend, Patrick Harries, who died suddenly in . This article draws on material that will be published as The scientific imagination in South Africa, with William Beinart. The author is grateful to Professor Gary Gerstle who introduced his inaugural lecture, and to Magdalene College, which hosted it. Thanks as well to Paul Betts and James Secord for helpful comments. Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.33.42, on 27 Sep 2021 at 18:58:15, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0018246X19000700 SAUL DUBOW the imbongi dramatically lowered his voice, sank down on his knee, and claimed the gleaming Morning Star for the ‘House of Xhosa’. A star-struck Mandela experienced intense pride. This formative episode is recalled by microbiologist and former president of South Africa’s National Research Foundation, Khotso Mokhele, in his introduc- tion to a lavishly illustrated book celebrating the success of SALT, the Southern African Large Telescope. Mokhele’s purpose in retelling the story is to suggest that Mandela’s engagement with the heavens at the start of the twentieth century might be read as a portent of ‘how intense the relationship between the people of Africa and the heavens above could be’, and as a means of stimu- lating ‘questions that go to the root of our existence’. The implications of Mqhayi’s striking division of the heavens between whites and blacks remains relevant today as many young South Africans question the premises of non-racialism and, for present purposes, the persistent view of ‘western’ science as a value-free, neutral activity, committed to the common good. Scepticism towards colonial knowledge and values has a long lineage. Mandela’s own political formation describes an arc that saw him move away from a race-conscious ‘Africanist’ position in the s to become an advocate of multi-racialism the following decade and, after his release from prison, a com- mitted and charismatic champion of non-racialism, human rights, and recon- ciliation. Even in the midst of the ‘miracle’ of political transition in the s (and well before the emergence of the angry twenty-first-century ‘fallist move- ment’), a vocal constituency in the African National Congress (ANC) argued that the ‘rainbow nation’ of Mandela and Tutu was too much of a concession to the old order. Thabo Mbeki, Mandela’s deputy, was one of these critics. In seeking to escape Mandela’s long shadow, Mbeki expounded his own vision of an ‘African Renaissance’, an idea that combined a strongly developmentalist and technocratic approach with a commitment to the advance of indigenous knowledge. This article explores unlikely parallels between today’s scientific interests in deep time, associated with the country’s post-apartheid entrance into the global community of nations, and earlier conceptions of South African science developed a century ago when racial segregation was being implemen- ted in a systematic fashion. Notwithstanding major differences in assumptions and contexts, political leaders in both eras have had to grapple with matters of imperial, colonial, and indigenous knowledge. Understanding national science then and now raises intriguing conceptual questions about the produc- tion and diffusion of scientific knowledge in an internally divided, middle-order country, with claims to regional leadership. These questions are addressed towards the end of this article. Nelson Mandela, Long walk to freedom (London, ), pp. –. Khotso Mokhele, ‘Foreword’, in D. Buckley et al., Africa’s giant eye: building the Southern African large telescope (Cape Town, ), p. Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.33.42, on 27 Sep 2021 at 18:58:15, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0018246X19000700 SOUTH AFRICA IN DEEP TIME AND SPACE II In an iconic speech marking the adoption of the new post-apartheid South African constitution in , Mbeki proclaimed that he owed his being to the Khoi and the San, ‘the blood of the Malay slaves who came from the East’ and also to ‘the migrants who left Europe to find a new home on our native land’. ‘Being part of all these people, and in the knowledge that none dare contest that assertion’, he declared: ‘I am an African.’ The speech was widely interpreted at the time as a profession of racial inclusivity. And to some extent it was. Yet, closer inspection of the text reveals nagging doubts. ‘At times, and in fear’, Mbeki confessed, ‘I have wondered whether I should concede equal citizenship of our country to the leopard and the lion, the ele- phant and the springbok, the hyena, the black mamba and the pestilential mosquito.’ As president of South Africa, such doubts came to the fore and Mbeki became reflexively Afro-centric. He convinced himself that HIV/AIDS was as much a blight on the dignity of African personhood as a matter of public health. Western pharma companies were wilfully exploiting the AIDS crisis in order to sell their drugs and experiment on Africans. Tragically, this drew Mbeki into the camp of AIDS denialism. He rejected a roll-out of anti-retroviral ther- apies in favour of indigenous solutions, including a fraudulent drug known as ‘Virodene’ which had no positive benefits other than to enrich its promoters. Hundreds of thousands of lives were unnecessarily sacrificed until the govern- ment was forced to change its policies (today, South Africa has the largest anti-retroviral roll-out programme in the world). Yet, in other respects, the mod- ernizing Mbeki did great service to South Africa’s involvement in global science. In , George Ellis, a distinguished cosmologist at the University of Cape Town and co-author of a book on Space-time with Stephen Hawking, prepared an important position paper on behalf of the Royal Society of South Africa. Along with its more demotic partner, the SA Association for the Advancement of Science, the Royal Society was a key civic institution in the tumultuous decade of reconstruction following the – South African War and culminating in the first new South Africa in . Both organizations sought to detoxify British imperialism by presenting universal science in terms of the cool spirit of reason and reconciliation. Now, as the miracle of the second new South Africa was being mapped, Ellis argued that twenty-first-century South Africa should prepare itself to become part of ‘the global community’. He considered it unlikely that the country would become a ‘great power’ during the next century on account ‘of Thabo Mbeki, ‘Statement on behalf of the ANC on the occasion of the adoption by the Constitutional Assembly of “The Republic of South Africa Constitution Bill ”, Cape Town, //’,<www.mbeki.org////statement-on-behalf-of-the-anc-on-the- occasion-of-the-adoption-by-the-constitutional-assembly-of-the-republic-of-south-africa-consti- tution-bill--cape-town-/>. Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.33.42, on 27 Sep 2021 at 18:58:15, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0018246X19000700 SAUL DUBOW limited human and natural resources’. It would instead have to ‘find an appro- priate niche where its resources can be maximised through cooperation’. This would entail taking advantage of South Africa’s position on the African contin- ent and in the southern hemisphere. Two years later, the government published a White paper, Preparing for the twenty-first century. This policy document maintained that science was about more than satisfying utilitarian objectives: we should not be ‘a second-class nation, chained forever to the treadmill of feeding and clothing ourselves’.
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