Intellectual History in Contemporary South Africa

'Among other accomplishments in this history of political thought in South Africa, Michael Eze succeeds in transcending two major approaches often taken to ubuntu, the sub-Saharan conception of morality prominent in South African socio-political discourse. One approach is that since ubuntu was an ideal way of life in pre-colonial times, it is worth reproducing today, while the other is that since ubuntu is merely a recent construction by political elites, it has no authority to guide policy. In contrast to both, Eze convincingly argues that ubuntu was part of traditional African culture prior to colonialism, but was far from ideal, and hence is something that today's South Africans should refashion collectively. Eze's 'creative historiographical' approach to ubuntu should guide all future thinking about the topic.'

-Thaddeus Metz, Humanities Research Professor, University of Johannesburg, South Africa