Towards a contextual understanding of public intellectuals : assessing Thabo Mbeki against Edward Said’s characterisation of intellectuals within a South African context

Abstract

This dissertation analyses Edward Said’s characterisation of the intellectual, which is also referred to as the three positions of the intellectual, to determine its usefulness in defining, identifying, and understanding the role of public intellectuals in South Africa. It does this by exploring, through a rhetorical analysis, three of Thabo Mbeki’s speeches delivered between 1995 and 1998 when he was the Deputy President of South Africa. Together they trace the development of Mbeki’s African Renaissance philosophy; a philosophy he hoped would drive development in the country and across the continent. The dissertation concludes that, under the public performative criteria of Said’s characterisation and on the basis of these rhetorical analyses, Mbeki falls short of being characterised as a public intellectual. This is because the characterisation is a rigid typology and its general appeal effectively limits alternative forms of knowledge. Moreover, Said’s typology is largely informed by how he views himself as an intellectual and that it is this self-definition that limits the usefulness of his typology. This study shows that Said’s characterisation is of great value to the overall pool of knowledge on the intellectual, but that it fails to completely apply in a specific South African context.