By Tandokazi Silosini, MA candidate in Political and International Studies

 

This year’s graduation was bursting with accolades and festivities as Rhodes bck体育app_bck体育官网下载-二维码平台 held sit-down ceremonies on campus for the first time in two years. Among the honours was the conferral of the Vice-Chancellor’s Book Award to Political and International Studies Lecturer, Dr Bongani Nyoka.

This award was established to recognise the publication of books that bring credit to the bck体育app_bck体育官网下载-二维码平台. The Vice-Chancellor’s Book Award Committee considers any text (including monographs, textbooks, novels, collections and popularisations) nominated by members of the bck体育app_bck体育官网下载-二维码平台 or applied for by the author(s) which has 1) been written or edited by a current member of staff at Rhodes bck体育app_bck体育官网下载-二维码平台, or a student, postdoctoral fellow, or an author formally affiliated with the bck体育app_bck体育官网下载-二维码平台 at the time of writing the book and 2) is considered to bring credit to the bck体育app_bck体育官网下载-二维码平台 because of the contribution it makes to scholarly literature, education, science or arts, and 3) has been published in the preceding four years.

This year the Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research and Innovation, Professor Peter Clayton, presented the award to Dr Nyoka for his book, The Social and Political Thought of Archie Mafeje; A Pan-African social scientist ahead of his time. Dr Nyoka is a lecturer in the Department of Political and International Studies at Rhodes bck体育app_bck体育官网下载-二维码平台 and a Senior Research fellow at the Johannesburg Institute for Advanced Study, bck体育app_bck体育官网下载-二维码平台 of Johannesburg.

Indeed, Dr Nyoka’s work is an excellent engagement with the intellectual life of the great South African thinker and activist Archie Mafeje.

Renowned Sociologist and DSI/NRF SARChI Chair in Social Policy Professor Jimi Adesina praised Dr Nyoka’s work as a significant contribution to scholarship and the African archive. In his review of the book, he comments, “At a time when ‘decolonisation’ of knowledge is stranded at the level of protest scholarship, Nyoka’s scholarly interrogation of Mafeje’s oeuvre is a welcome departure”.