The sociological imagination of S.E.K Mqhayi: towards an African Sociology

What areas of social life do our existing social theories allow us to understand, and what areas of society leave us baffled, unsettled and unable to respond? This paper will argue that we are in need of new interpretive tools to allow us to understand the areas of our social world that have previously been excluded from academic view by our colonial and apartheid history, and even by progressive liberal and Marxist responses to apartheid. By first surveying the intellectual history of sociology’s emergence as a discipline and its formations in South Africa, I will argue that we are unable to effectively think about large areas of the African cultural and social world within our society. In search of alternatives this paper will explore the work of the prolific early 20th c. intellectual, S.E.K. Mqhayi. Mqhayi was a product of the complex social hybridity of his time, but oriented this hybridity towards amaXhosa and African people. By looking at his various mediums of writing I will argue that Mqhayi offers powerful insight into the complexities of the changing social world of his time and that his methodologies -- so different from those of academic sociology -- give us powerful insights into an African tradition which can revitalise contemporary social inquiry.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Department of Sociology

Year dc:date.issued

2014

Author dc:creator

• Schoots, Leo Jonathan

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Mangcu, Xolela

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/13272

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/13272