Rick Turner was a South African academic and activist who rebelled against apartheid at the height of its power and was assassinated in 1978 when was 32 years old, but his life and work are testimony to the power of philosophical thinking for humans everywhere. Turner chose to live freely in an unfree time and argued for a non-racial, socialist future in a context where this seemed unimaginable.

This book considers Rick Turner's challenge that political theorising requires thinking in a utopian way. Turner's seminal book The Eye of the Needle: Towards a Participatory Democracy in South Africa laid out some of his most potent ideas on a radically different political and economic system. His demand was that we work to escape the limiting ideas of the present, carefully design a just future based on shared human values, and act to make it a reality, both politically and in our daily lives.

The contributors to this volume engage critically with Turner's work on race relations, his relationship with Steve Biko, his views on religion, education and gender oppression, his model of participatory democracy, and his critique of enduring forms of poverty and economic inequality. They show how, in his life and work, Turner modelled how we can dare to be free and how hope can return, as the future always remains open to human construction. This book makes an important contribution to contemporary thinking and activism where the need for South Africans to define their understanding of the greater common good is of crucial importance.

This collection revisits the work of Rick Turner, a South African political theorist, and addresses contemporary debates.

About the Author
Michael Onyebuchi Eze teaches Africana studies at California State University, Fresno and is an associate to the SA-UK Bilateral Research Chair in Political Theory, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg and the University of Cambridge. Lawrence Hamilton is Professor in Political Studies and the SA-UK Bilateral Research Chair in Political Theory at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. Laurence Piper is Professor of Political Science at the University of the Western Cape, and University West. Gideon van Riet is Associate Professor in Political Studies at North-West University. Michael Onyebuchi Eze teaches Africana studies at California State University, Fresno and is an associate to the SA-UK Bilateral Research Chair in Political Theory, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg and the University of Cambridge. Lawrence Hamilton is the Chair at the SA-UK Bilateral Research Chair in Political Theory at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. Laurence Piper is Professor of Political Science at the University of the Western Cape, and University West. Gideon van Riet is Associate Professor in Political Studies at North-West University. Paula Ensor is Emeritus Professor in the School of Education, University of Cape Town. Daryl Glaser is an associate professor in Political Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg Christine Hobden is a senior lecturer in Ethics and Public Governance at the Wits School of Governance, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. Billy Keniston is Visiting Assistant Professor of History and African Studies at St. Lawrence University. Ayesha Omar is Senior Lecturer in political theory in the Department of Political Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg and Research Associate at SOAS (University of London). John Sodiq Sanni is a lecturer in the Philosophy Department at the University of Pretoria. Tendayi Sithole is Professor in the Department of Political Sciences, University of South Africa and Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Pan-African Thought and Conversation, University of Johannesburg. Crain Soudien is Emeritus Professor in Education and African Studies at the University of Cape Town, an Honorary Professor at Nelson Mandela University and the President of Cornerstone Institute.


Book Information
ISBN 9781776148936
Author Michael Onyebuchi Eze
Format Paperback
Page Count 280
Imprint Wits University Press
Publisher Wits University Press