Minister of Higher Education and Training, Dr Blade Nzimande, has expressed his shock and sadness at the passing on of Professor Bernard Magubane. Prof Magubane, a historian and sociologist, was one of South Africa’s leading social scientists.
“An eminent academic and a leading Marxist intellectual, he spent many years in exile, teaching at universities in the United States where he was a member of the ANC and a leading activist of the anti-apartheid movement in the USA. His passing on is a sad loss within the ranks of progressive academia,” Minister Nzimande said.
Prof Magubane was born in 1930 on a farm near Colenso in KwaZulu-Natal and moved with his family to Durban where they stayed in Cato Manor informal settlement. His experiences of apartheid oppression turned him into a political activist.
After studying for a BA degree at the University of Natal, he did his post-graduate studies in the United States where he earned his PhD at the University of California in Los Angeles. He went on to become an academic, teaching at American universities. Prof Magubane wrote extensively; his best known book was The Political Economy of Race and Class in South Africa (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1979) which, despite being banned in South Africa, was an important source of knowledge and inspiration for many of us during the struggles of the 1980s.
Prof Magubane returned to South Africa in 1994 and became Editor-in-Chief of the South African Democracy Education Trust (SADET) in Pretoria, which published the important four volume series, “The Road to Democracy in South Africa”.
Throughout his years in exile, he remained an active member of the African National Congress (ANC) and made an important contribution to building a South African – and indeed an African – scholarly community.
“I would like to extend my deepest condolences to Prof Magubane’s family and friends, who have lost a father and a loved one. The academic community and all democratically minded South Africans have lost a true inspirational leader and a great intellectual,” Minister Nzimande said.
Enquiries:
Vuyelwa Qinga
Chief Director: Media Management
Minister for Higher Education and Training
Cell: 076 883 4144
Tel: 012 312 5538/39
E-Mail: Qinga.V@dhet.gov.za
