Keynote speaker Yanis Varoufakis, renowned radical economist and former Greek Finance Minister, will speak on Africa in the Face of the new Cold War and the West’s new colonial escapades The annual Ben Turok Memorial Lecture marks the anniversary of the death of IFAA’s founder and former director, the struggle … Read More
IFAA FORUM: “Washington Bullets” A conversation with Vijay Prashad
Surplus and the Institute for African Alternatives invite you to a discussion on ‘Washington Bullets’ with author Vijay Prashad. Vijay Prashad is an Internationally renowned Indian historian and journalist. He is an executive director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, Chief Editor of Leftward Books, and advisor to The Progressive … Read More
IFAA FORUM: “Too White to be Coloured. Too Coloured to be Black” Ismail Lagardien
The Institute for African Alternatives and Surplus Books is pleased to host a critical forum featuring writer, columnist, and political economist Ismail Lagardien. He has recently published a book entitled “Too White to be Coloured. Too Coloured to be Black: On the search for home and meaning” which is garnering … Read More
The Men’s Cafe: Can men mother their daughters?
Surplus Books, InsideOut and the Institute for African Alternatives invite you to Surplus Radical Books Store’s third gathering in our series of Men’s cafes. We are pleased and excited at the interest and traction that this initiative has garnered so far! The Men’s Café is a monthly event that provides … Read More
The Men’s Cafe: The Hidden Side of our HIS-story
Surplus Books, InsideOut, and the Institute for African Alternatives invite you to the Surplus Radical Books Store for the second gathering in our series of Men’s cafes. Our theme for this discussion is the ’Hidden side or our HIS-story.’ We focus on the question of why and how men resist … Read More
IFAA pays tribute to Professor Vishnu Padayachee
“…[W]e will miss your boundless energy, your strength, your wisdom, your uncompromising intellectual incisiveness in the interests of the fundamental social transformation of our country; in the interests of the masses and not an elite.” These are the words of world-renowned economist and intellectual, Professor Vishnu Padayachee, who passed away … Read More
IFAA pays tribute to Cecyl Esau
By Moira Levy The Institute for African Alternatives (IFAA) joins many South Africans in mourning the passing of Cecyl Esau, who will be remembered for his work as an underground activist in Umkonto we Sizwe and a community organiser within the United Democratic Front (UDF). His interest in politics emerged … Read More
Philosophy Plays Role in Thinking About Social Equality
Although it has widespread appeal, equality can be seen as a rather arbitrary ideal. From a humanitarian point of view, to relieve suffering or to uplift people living in absolute deprivation are immediately comprehensible goals. The same is not true of equality: why should an equal distribution of resources be considered … Read More
Some Propositions on the Black Elite: A response to James Ngculu
My point of departure is the following: Does the national question have the same content after the coming to political power of the African National Congress (ANC) as before ? The ANC tradition Apartheid deliberately obstructed the emergence of a black elite and even a black middle class. This … Read More
African Nationalism in the ANC
The “national question” fifty years ago In May 1954, a symposium was staged in Cape Town on the national question. In attendance were, among others, Lionel Foreman, Thomas Ngwenya and Jack Simons. The purpose of the symposium was explained as being: “To encourage and develop a unity of ideas in … Read More
From Afro-Centrism to Decolonial Humanism: A Response to Simphiwe Sesanti
One by one, nations across the African continent won formal political independence in the second half of the 20th century. Some decades since the formal end of colonial rule, the continent continues to be plagued by significant residues of a bygone era. Neo-colonialism is a concept designed specifically to … Read More
SA, the Global South and the Future of Capitalism: An Interview with Prof Vivek Chibber
Zunaid Moolla, New Agenda Deputy Editor spoke to Vivek Chibber while he was on a speaking tour of South Africa. He is a Professor of Sociology at New York University ZM: You have been to South African several times now. Do you see or hear anything different with this … Read More
Ideas and Power: Academic Economists and the Making of Policy
From the struggle years of the mid-1980s to the gearshift of the mid-1990s, progressive academic economists played a tangled role in the development of South Africa’s post-apartheid economic policy. Vishnu Padayachee is distinguished professor and Derek Schrier and Cecily Cameron Chair in Development Economics, School of Economics and Business Sciences, University of … Read More
Black Solidarity and the Quest of a Non-Racial Humanity: Biko’s Enduring Political Dilemma
Dr M John Lamola writes that, Steve Biko’s philosophy of Black Consciousness argued that a racially defined black solidarity could bring about a nonracial future in South Africa. This apparent paradox calls for an examination of the dialectical thinking upon which it was built. Black solidarity, “the realisation by blacks of … Read More