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Archie Mafeje Quotes

1936–2007 South Africa

Archibald Boyce Monwabisi Mafeje (30 March 1936 – 28 March 2007), commonly known as Archie Mafeje, was a South African anthropologist and activist. Born in what is now the Eastern Cape, he received degrees from the University of Cape Town (UCT) and the University of Cambridge.

South Africa
Academics
Activists
Anthropologists

Random Archie Mafeje quote

8 quotes

The task before African intellectuals is not to imitate but to create.

History is not made by abstractions but by real men and women acting under concrete historical conditions.

The African experience has to be understood on its own terms and not merely as a reflection of European history.

If in the face of apparent defeat, we cannot maximise our gains, then it is imperative that we minimise our losses.

Anthropology cannot claim innocence where it has served the interests of domination.

What is the point of dispute, folks? Imperialism is the child of Enlightenment, anyway.

While we are free to choose the role in which we cast ourselves as active agents of history, we do not put on the agenda the social issues to which we respond.

There are no texts without a context.

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Archie Mafeje (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.