Roger Southall on John Daniel:
Strategic Review for Southern Africa
John Daniel, the TRC and Transitional Justice
Memorial for Professor John Daniel, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 6 August 2014
Catherine Jenkins
John in the 'Sixties: a tribute to John Daniel
Duncan Innes
University of the Witwatersrand
6 August 2014
Duncan Innes
University of the Witwatersrand
6 August 2014
Roger Southall’s tribute to John Daniel
Botanical Gardens, Durban
3 August 2014
I have been asked to speak to John as a scholar. This is not easy as there was never any boundary between John’s academic work, his political activism and his wider concerns with life around him. But let me get the chronology out of the way first.
After gaining his BA from the University in Natal in 1964, John secured prestigious post-graduate fellowships in the US, first at Western Michigan, then at the State University of New York. His Phd, awarded in 1975, was on ‘Radical Resistance to Minority Rule in South Africa’. By then, John had moved to Swaziland, where he first taught at Waterford, a remarkable school which was pioneering no-racial education. Then, in 1974 he was appointed in 1974 to a lectureship in politics at the University College of Swaziland, then a constituent campus of the University of Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland). He continued to lecture in Swaziland until the crackdown on the ANC in Swaziland forced him to flee the country in 1985. After a year in a research post in Amsterdam, he moved to London as the Southern African editor for the independent radical publisher Zed Books, whose guiding spirit was his old friend from NUSAS days, Rob Molteno. He stayed at Zed until 1991, when with things in South Africa rapidly changing, he initially took up a Senior Lectureship in Political Studies at Rhodes, before being appointed Professor of Political Science at the University of Durban-Westville in 1993. It was from UDW that he was seconded as Senior Researcher to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) during 1997-99. Subsequently, in 2001, he moved to the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) as a Research Director in Democracy and Governance and Director of Publications of HSRC Press. Thereafter, – as his CV nonchalantly puts it – he was ‘compulsorily retired’ in 2006. However, John did not recognize the word ‘retirement’, and very soon re-emerged as the Academic Director of the South African end of the School for International Training, a study programme for American students. This was a last post which he filled with enormous zest before handing over the directorship to Imraan Buccus in 2010. Even then, John continued lecturing on SIT courses until eventually bad health got the better of him.
There is enough in all that to indicate that John had a formidable track record as an academic. But who was the man behind it? Allow me to highlight three aspects of his work: his constant concern for political relevance; the important content of his writing; and thirdly his brilliance as an editor and publisher. Yet I cannot do this without initially indicating how his character imbued all that he did.
John was warm, passionate, optimistic, critical, enthusiastic, open and friendly. He was always fun to be with, possessed an irreverent sense of humour and was a lover of politically incorrect jokes, especially over a drink. He was also something of a raconteur, which is a polite way of saying he thoroughly enjoyed gossip, and indeed whenever I wanted to impart something of importance to the nation I broadcast it through Radio Daniel. He was also an exuberant and exciting lecturer, holding his audiences in his hand; and throughout his career, he was always a devoted mentor to his junior colleagues and students. Amidst all this, John’s life – not just his work – was totally committed to the making of a better South Africa, whatever personal cost this might have for him. He was not without flaws, of course. The most egregious of these was his support for Liverpool Football Club. But if you bought the package, you got a terrific bargain.
My wife and I arrived in Lesotho in January 1975, Hilary to teach Statistics, while I joined the ‘Govt and Admin’ department. However, within days of my arrival, I was despatched to Swaziland to teach for this confounded John Daniel person who had gone down with hepatitis. From his bed, John issued magisterial instructions about who and what I was to teach, laying the foundations for my jokes in later years that I was always doing his work for him.
I cannot recall the particular courses I was teaching, but they probably included lecturing on Contemporary African Politics. John was to write about the approach adopted in such courses in an article he wrote on ‘Teaching Politics in Exile’, for the journal Politikon. All the courses taught within the department were subjected to intensive debate at departmental meetings (although, alas, the quality of discussion declined markedly during the day under the influence of numerous glasses of Tassenberg – surely the cheapest and nastiest of South African wines – compulsorily replenished by the inspirational but wildly eccentric head of department, Professor David Kimble).
Staffed by a mix of South African exiles, eager if naïve young Africanists like myself, and locals, the task was to make our courses relevant for our student bodies – composed largely of South Africans and Zimbabweans as well as students from the BLS countries. After all, these were exciting times. The liberation war was raging in Zimbabwe and popular resistance was on the move again in South Africa. As John wrote in his Politikon article, the mission was to produce a decolonized curriculum for our students, and unsurprisingly this involved our devouring the radical African political economy of the day while engaging the revisionist wave of scholarship then beginning to emerge in and about South Africa.
John was absolutely central to this enterprise. He co-produced a reader on The Political Economy of Africa which was later to be published by Routledge (and to feature widely on international reading lists), as well as scouring the literature to edit two locally produced readers composed of otherwise scarce readings on Swaziland for his students. These were early indications of John’s insistence that a political science for southern Africa could never be abstract, but had to be firmly rooted in the struggles for liberation, freedom and democracy.
Similar concerns characterized John’s extensive writings. John lamented to me only a year or so ago that he had never written a book. In retrospect, this is unsurprising. As Morris Szeftel, the prominent radical Africanist and friend, once remarked of John: “He never sits down!” John was too restless a character to remain rooted for long hours in front of a computer! He was always wanting to be ‘on the go’. As a result, his forte was the production of numerous articles, both popular and academic, these characterized by trenchant analysis combined a wonderful style as if he was simply telling a story.
And what terrific stories he always had to tell! He retained an abiding interest in Swaziland, and to the very end, wrote passionately about repression and resistance in that unhappy country. He became justly famed for chapters he produced for successive volumes of the State of the Nation series published by HSRC Press upon South Africa’s post-apartheid corporate expansion into Africa. However, perhaps above all, the importance of his contributions lay in his work for the TRC, where his passion for the recording of the brutalities of the apartheid regime were given full rein. John was to write important sections of the TRC’s Final Report, notably the Historical Introduction, that on ‘Gross Human Rights Violations outside South Africa, 1960-94’ and the Findings and Conclusion in Volume 5. These are major contributions which will be commented upon by scholars for many years to come. Thereafter, John continued to write about transitional justice, most recently in a volume edited by Cathy Jenkins of SOAS and Max du Plessis. Cathy presented this paper for him at a recent conference in Oxford. Even though by this time he was terribly ill, he managed to engage in a lively question and answer session by Skype as if nothing was wrong.
Finally, let me turn to John as editor and publisher, roles in which I worked with John extremely closely. John had all the qualities an academic publisher and editor needs. Rob Molteno kindly wrote to me that when John came to Zed, at a time when at last the apartheid regime was beginning to show severe signs of wear and tear, he brought two principles to bear on what sort of books should be published. The first was that Zed should be open to all writers who were involved in the struggle, regardless of their political affiliation; the second, was that Zed should reach out to audiences wider than the normal academic and student communities. Under his tutelage, Zed proceeded to produce numerous important texts – many of them highly controversial - by a remarkable array of authors drawn from a wide variety of progressive persuasions. These contributed forcefully to debates about the character that the liberation struggle was assuming and the sort of society that a free South Africa should be.
At the HSRC, John was charged by the CEO, Mark Orkin, with transforming HSRC Press, hitherto a profoundly dreary enterprise devoted to internal publication, into a genuine academic press. Working closely with Gary Rosenberg, Karen Bruns and others, John did just that. He rapidly opened up the press to the publication of books by all comers, not just those from HSRC. Within a short space of time, the press rose in esteem and renown, its catalogue soon rivalling that of its major competitors within an increasingly exciting South African publishing context generally. But how many of those authors would have made it into print without John’s ability to bash them into shape? How many authors should not in reality have acknowledged him as a co-author?
It was at the HSRC that I worked closely with John in launching and editing the first four volumes of State of the Nation, published by the Press. Designed to be a revival of the radical South African Review series published by Ravan Press in the 1980s, State of the Nation brought together progressive analyses of the political economy and rapidly changing international profile of the now democratic South Africa. It rapidly became the HSRC’s Press’s best-selling title. Ultimately, alas, it got all a bit too much for the post-Orkin HSRC hierarchy, and the editors were summarily and very rudely removed! But within a few years, we had started up again, working with colleagues in the Sociology Department at Wits to produce the New South African Review, published by Wits University Press. I am delighted to say that there is unanimous agreement amongst the editors and the press that the fifth volume, when it appears, will be dedicated to John Daniel.
I can hear John now, standing next to St. Peter and looking down upon us with a glass of celestial Glenfiddich in his hand: “Come on Southall, get on with it! These good people want to get out of here and get a decent drink!” So when you can, raise a glass to John: scholar, activist – and, above all, friend.
After gaining his BA from the University in Natal in 1964, John secured prestigious post-graduate fellowships in the US, first at Western Michigan, then at the State University of New York. His Phd, awarded in 1975, was on ‘Radical Resistance to Minority Rule in South Africa’. By then, John had moved to Swaziland, where he first taught at Waterford, a remarkable school which was pioneering no-racial education. Then, in 1974 he was appointed in 1974 to a lectureship in politics at the University College of Swaziland, then a constituent campus of the University of Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland). He continued to lecture in Swaziland until the crackdown on the ANC in Swaziland forced him to flee the country in 1985. After a year in a research post in Amsterdam, he moved to London as the Southern African editor for the independent radical publisher Zed Books, whose guiding spirit was his old friend from NUSAS days, Rob Molteno. He stayed at Zed until 1991, when with things in South Africa rapidly changing, he initially took up a Senior Lectureship in Political Studies at Rhodes, before being appointed Professor of Political Science at the University of Durban-Westville in 1993. It was from UDW that he was seconded as Senior Researcher to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) during 1997-99. Subsequently, in 2001, he moved to the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) as a Research Director in Democracy and Governance and Director of Publications of HSRC Press. Thereafter, – as his CV nonchalantly puts it – he was ‘compulsorily retired’ in 2006. However, John did not recognize the word ‘retirement’, and very soon re-emerged as the Academic Director of the South African end of the School for International Training, a study programme for American students. This was a last post which he filled with enormous zest before handing over the directorship to Imraan Buccus in 2010. Even then, John continued lecturing on SIT courses until eventually bad health got the better of him.
There is enough in all that to indicate that John had a formidable track record as an academic. But who was the man behind it? Allow me to highlight three aspects of his work: his constant concern for political relevance; the important content of his writing; and thirdly his brilliance as an editor and publisher. Yet I cannot do this without initially indicating how his character imbued all that he did.
John was warm, passionate, optimistic, critical, enthusiastic, open and friendly. He was always fun to be with, possessed an irreverent sense of humour and was a lover of politically incorrect jokes, especially over a drink. He was also something of a raconteur, which is a polite way of saying he thoroughly enjoyed gossip, and indeed whenever I wanted to impart something of importance to the nation I broadcast it through Radio Daniel. He was also an exuberant and exciting lecturer, holding his audiences in his hand; and throughout his career, he was always a devoted mentor to his junior colleagues and students. Amidst all this, John’s life – not just his work – was totally committed to the making of a better South Africa, whatever personal cost this might have for him. He was not without flaws, of course. The most egregious of these was his support for Liverpool Football Club. But if you bought the package, you got a terrific bargain.
My wife and I arrived in Lesotho in January 1975, Hilary to teach Statistics, while I joined the ‘Govt and Admin’ department. However, within days of my arrival, I was despatched to Swaziland to teach for this confounded John Daniel person who had gone down with hepatitis. From his bed, John issued magisterial instructions about who and what I was to teach, laying the foundations for my jokes in later years that I was always doing his work for him.
I cannot recall the particular courses I was teaching, but they probably included lecturing on Contemporary African Politics. John was to write about the approach adopted in such courses in an article he wrote on ‘Teaching Politics in Exile’, for the journal Politikon. All the courses taught within the department were subjected to intensive debate at departmental meetings (although, alas, the quality of discussion declined markedly during the day under the influence of numerous glasses of Tassenberg – surely the cheapest and nastiest of South African wines – compulsorily replenished by the inspirational but wildly eccentric head of department, Professor David Kimble).
Staffed by a mix of South African exiles, eager if naïve young Africanists like myself, and locals, the task was to make our courses relevant for our student bodies – composed largely of South Africans and Zimbabweans as well as students from the BLS countries. After all, these were exciting times. The liberation war was raging in Zimbabwe and popular resistance was on the move again in South Africa. As John wrote in his Politikon article, the mission was to produce a decolonized curriculum for our students, and unsurprisingly this involved our devouring the radical African political economy of the day while engaging the revisionist wave of scholarship then beginning to emerge in and about South Africa.
John was absolutely central to this enterprise. He co-produced a reader on The Political Economy of Africa which was later to be published by Routledge (and to feature widely on international reading lists), as well as scouring the literature to edit two locally produced readers composed of otherwise scarce readings on Swaziland for his students. These were early indications of John’s insistence that a political science for southern Africa could never be abstract, but had to be firmly rooted in the struggles for liberation, freedom and democracy.
Similar concerns characterized John’s extensive writings. John lamented to me only a year or so ago that he had never written a book. In retrospect, this is unsurprising. As Morris Szeftel, the prominent radical Africanist and friend, once remarked of John: “He never sits down!” John was too restless a character to remain rooted for long hours in front of a computer! He was always wanting to be ‘on the go’. As a result, his forte was the production of numerous articles, both popular and academic, these characterized by trenchant analysis combined a wonderful style as if he was simply telling a story.
And what terrific stories he always had to tell! He retained an abiding interest in Swaziland, and to the very end, wrote passionately about repression and resistance in that unhappy country. He became justly famed for chapters he produced for successive volumes of the State of the Nation series published by HSRC Press upon South Africa’s post-apartheid corporate expansion into Africa. However, perhaps above all, the importance of his contributions lay in his work for the TRC, where his passion for the recording of the brutalities of the apartheid regime were given full rein. John was to write important sections of the TRC’s Final Report, notably the Historical Introduction, that on ‘Gross Human Rights Violations outside South Africa, 1960-94’ and the Findings and Conclusion in Volume 5. These are major contributions which will be commented upon by scholars for many years to come. Thereafter, John continued to write about transitional justice, most recently in a volume edited by Cathy Jenkins of SOAS and Max du Plessis. Cathy presented this paper for him at a recent conference in Oxford. Even though by this time he was terribly ill, he managed to engage in a lively question and answer session by Skype as if nothing was wrong.
Finally, let me turn to John as editor and publisher, roles in which I worked with John extremely closely. John had all the qualities an academic publisher and editor needs. Rob Molteno kindly wrote to me that when John came to Zed, at a time when at last the apartheid regime was beginning to show severe signs of wear and tear, he brought two principles to bear on what sort of books should be published. The first was that Zed should be open to all writers who were involved in the struggle, regardless of their political affiliation; the second, was that Zed should reach out to audiences wider than the normal academic and student communities. Under his tutelage, Zed proceeded to produce numerous important texts – many of them highly controversial - by a remarkable array of authors drawn from a wide variety of progressive persuasions. These contributed forcefully to debates about the character that the liberation struggle was assuming and the sort of society that a free South Africa should be.
At the HSRC, John was charged by the CEO, Mark Orkin, with transforming HSRC Press, hitherto a profoundly dreary enterprise devoted to internal publication, into a genuine academic press. Working closely with Gary Rosenberg, Karen Bruns and others, John did just that. He rapidly opened up the press to the publication of books by all comers, not just those from HSRC. Within a short space of time, the press rose in esteem and renown, its catalogue soon rivalling that of its major competitors within an increasingly exciting South African publishing context generally. But how many of those authors would have made it into print without John’s ability to bash them into shape? How many authors should not in reality have acknowledged him as a co-author?
It was at the HSRC that I worked closely with John in launching and editing the first four volumes of State of the Nation, published by the Press. Designed to be a revival of the radical South African Review series published by Ravan Press in the 1980s, State of the Nation brought together progressive analyses of the political economy and rapidly changing international profile of the now democratic South Africa. It rapidly became the HSRC’s Press’s best-selling title. Ultimately, alas, it got all a bit too much for the post-Orkin HSRC hierarchy, and the editors were summarily and very rudely removed! But within a few years, we had started up again, working with colleagues in the Sociology Department at Wits to produce the New South African Review, published by Wits University Press. I am delighted to say that there is unanimous agreement amongst the editors and the press that the fifth volume, when it appears, will be dedicated to John Daniel.
I can hear John now, standing next to St. Peter and looking down upon us with a glass of celestial Glenfiddich in his hand: “Come on Southall, get on with it! These good people want to get out of here and get a decent drink!” So when you can, raise a glass to John: scholar, activist – and, above all, friend.
Statement from the University of KwaZulu-Natal
Professor John Daniel
1944 – 2014
It is with sadness that we inform you of the passing on of Professor John Daniel on the 25 July 2014. Professor Daniel was a former Head of Department of Political Science at the University of Durban-Westville and an alumnus of the University of Natal where he received his undergraduate degree in Political Science in 1964.
He also taught at universities in the United States, Swaziland and the Netherlands. He was active in student politics in South Africa and served two terms as president of the National Union of South African Students (NUSAS).
Professor Daniel went into exile in 1968 and returned to South Africa in 1991 to head the International Studies Unit at Rhodes University. In 1993, he was appointed Head of Political Science at the University of Durban-Westville. From 1997 to 1999, he was seconded to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) as senior researcher responsible for documenting the South African state's gross human rights violations outside South Africa. In 2001, he joined the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), as a researcher in governance and democracy and as the head of its publishing arm, the HSRC Press. From 2002 to 2006, he co-edited and contributed to four volumes in the HSRC's State of the Nation series.
In recent years, John’s writings were primarily concerned with issues of transitional justice in South Africa and on the political economy of South African-African relations post-apartheid. In 2006, Professor Daniel retired from the HSRC and joined the School for International Training (SIT) as an academic coordinator; he eventually took over as the programme’s academic director, a position he held until June 2011.
The academic community will remember him as an activist, intellectual, scholar, great story teller, mentor and editor. We express our deepest heartfelt condolences at this time to his family and loved ones.
Professor John Daniel
1944 – 2014
It is with sadness that we inform you of the passing on of Professor John Daniel on the 25 July 2014. Professor Daniel was a former Head of Department of Political Science at the University of Durban-Westville and an alumnus of the University of Natal where he received his undergraduate degree in Political Science in 1964.
He also taught at universities in the United States, Swaziland and the Netherlands. He was active in student politics in South Africa and served two terms as president of the National Union of South African Students (NUSAS).
Professor Daniel went into exile in 1968 and returned to South Africa in 1991 to head the International Studies Unit at Rhodes University. In 1993, he was appointed Head of Political Science at the University of Durban-Westville. From 1997 to 1999, he was seconded to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) as senior researcher responsible for documenting the South African state's gross human rights violations outside South Africa. In 2001, he joined the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), as a researcher in governance and democracy and as the head of its publishing arm, the HSRC Press. From 2002 to 2006, he co-edited and contributed to four volumes in the HSRC's State of the Nation series.
In recent years, John’s writings were primarily concerned with issues of transitional justice in South Africa and on the political economy of South African-African relations post-apartheid. In 2006, Professor Daniel retired from the HSRC and joined the School for International Training (SIT) as an academic coordinator; he eventually took over as the programme’s academic director, a position he held until June 2011.
The academic community will remember him as an activist, intellectual, scholar, great story teller, mentor and editor. We express our deepest heartfelt condolences at this time to his family and loved ones.