Crain Soudien (2019) the Cape radicals : intellectual and political thought of the new era fellowship. Johannesburg : Wits UP

Abstract

The Cape Radicals presents a fascinating history of the New Era Fellowship (NEF), an organisation that emerged in the latter part of the 1930s as one manifestation of the South African anti-Stalinist Left. As such, the book is an important intervention in the ongoing effort to retrieve hidden intellectual-political traditions in early twentieth century South Africa, traditions which have been obscured by the dominant historiographical emphasis on the African National Congress. Soudien’s claims about the political and pedagogic significance of the NEF are centred on its grand ambitions, its intellectual foresight and its decisive local influence, as well as the paradox of its failure to establish a wider base and its subsequent historical marginalisation. In this latter sense, The Cape Radicals raises questions about the politics of contemporary historical retrieval and invites reflection on the larger historical processes of institutional sanction, neglect or erasure. This history of a relatively small but influential organisation is situated within the larger context of anti-colonial thinking in South Africa and is therefore an important addition to existing histories of left progressive movements. It is centred in particular on the Cape Town intellectual scene and undertakes an important recovery of the hidden social, intellectual and political history of Cape Town itself.