Professor Bernard Magubane died last week at the age of 82. He is seen here at the birthday celebration Unisa hosted when he turned 80.
Minister of Higher Education and Training, Dr Blade Nzimande, has expressed his shock and sadness at the passing of Professor Bernard Magubane. 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 is a sad loss within the ranks of progressive academia,” Minister Nzimande said.
Bernard 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 postgraduate 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. Magubane wrote extensively; his best known book was The political economy of race and class in South Africa, which, despite being banned in South Africa, was an important source of knowledge and inspiration for many during the struggles of the 1980s.
Throughout his years in exile, he remained an active member of the ANC and made an important contribution to building a South African – and indeed an African – scholarly community.
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 series, The road to democracy in South Africa. SADET and Unisa Press will launch the final two volumes of the series on Freedom Day, 27 April 2013. Magubane’s presence at this event will be sorely missed.
“I would like to extend my deepest condolences to Professor 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.
Unisa joins the Minister in extending its condolences to the Magubane family.
*SAnews.gov.za
