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Neville Alexander is not a household name, but he should be. As a
revolutionary public intellectual, activist and former political
prisoner, he is among the most important theorists of racial
capitalism to emerge during the struggle against Apartheid.
Alexander's writings engage with some of the important debates in
South Africa from the last 50 years, many of which have
international resonance today: from the unresolved national
question and the relationship between 'race' and class; the
continuities of racial capitalism in post-apartheid South Africa;
the role and purpose of schooling and higher education; and the
importance of nation building and multilingualism. An opponent of
the neoliberal trajectory embarked upon by the post-apartheid
establishment in the 1990s, Alexander was always reflective and
humble but never wavered from his own self-description: a
non-dogmatic Marxist, pan-Africanist and internationalist. This
carefully curated collection brings his incredible body of work to
an international audience for the first time. It features a
comprehensive introduction, a timeline of key events in the life of
Alexander, selected articles, speeches, op-eds, book chapters and a
bibliography of his writings.
Disputing the notion of a 'miracle' transition in South Africa, the
author argues that the new South Africa had to happen as it did
because of the socio-historical make-up of the country and the
leading players involved.He identifies and explains some of the
turning points at which critical choices were made by local and
international forces. Alexander, a former leading political
activist and commentator who spent time on Robben Island, goes
beyond what he calls 'the effervescence of parliamentary debate and
grandstanding' and explores a range of issues in post-apartheid
South Africa including national identity and the rainbow nation,
the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and the role and status of
language, showing the volatility, the tentativeness, and the
fluidity of the evolving situation. Neville Alexander teaches at
the Faculty of Humanities, University of Cape Town
This book brings together the contributions of twelve scholars
engaged in language activism, in research and in promoting peace.
The writers are keenly attuned to the potentially genocidal
consequences of language differences. In the articles they have
written, they make compelling cases for indigenous non-hegemonic
languages to be used and promoted, not only as a means of
communication but to preserve the multilingual communities
inhabiting the world. The book is a product of a collegial effort
resulting from a symposium on Language Policy and the Promotion of
Peace or the Prevention of Conflict, which was held at the
University of Osnabruck, Germany, in 2011. While many different
`angles of vision', positions, approaches and emphases are argued
in the contributors' commentaries and in their case studies, the
twelve scholars and activists are united in their call for a
multilingual global habitus. Neville Edward Alexander, the
principal editor of this compilation, spent about 30 years studying
and making policy proposals about the language question in South
Africa. In that country, eleven languages are officially recognised
by the post-apartheid government, and yet only two, English and
Afrikaans, enjoy high-status functions in official communications.
Alexander persistently called for mother-tongue instruction for
children in their formative years of schooling. Sadly, this radical
scholar and acknowledged sociologist of language died of lung
cancer while he was working on this volume in 2012. Arnulf von
Scheliha, the co-editor of this compilation, is professor of
Systematic Theology at the University of Osnabruck in Germany. His
main research topics are political ethics, interreligious
hermeneutics, history of theology, and transformation of religion
in pluralistic societies. He was the main organiser of the
symposium that brought international scholars together to reflect
on language policy and the promotion of peace, and that provided
the wide-ranging 'raw material' for this book.
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