AREPORT titled Human Resources for Knowledge Production in South Africa illustrates the extremely sad point that 98% of all scientific research output in South Africa is produced by white academics, albeit ageing ones.

In a country where whites constitute 8% of the population, surely this can’t be right.

Before I am made a sacrificial lamb, let me point out that I in no way intend to blame white academics for this state of affairs. My concern is how we as a society make sure that we bring the majority of our black population into the realm of knowledge production.

The South African knowledge base resides at the “big five” universities: Cape Town, KwaZulu-Natal, Pretoria, Stellenbosch and Wits.

Together, they produce 63% of all scientific output or peer-reviewed articles. They also produce 53% of all PhDs in the country.

Most of these PhD graduates are white, hence white dominance of knowledge production.

Where are the black PhD students? Why are black students not enrolling for doctoral degrees en masse?

Is it because we are lazy? Is it because of our crass materialism that we cannot wait to earn fat salaries in the private sector, to buy fast and expensive German sedans and expensive mansions in previously whites-only suburbs?

Do we not enrol for post-doctoral studies because we are first-generation graduates and we need to help out our destitute extended families?

The effects of white dominance are disastrous, and will have far-reaching effects for the future of South Africa.

Compounding this is the fact that research has shown that the white population in South Africa is declining. Will they still be producing knowledge for us in absentia? Scary thought.

How do we make sure that our universities attract sufficient young black academics to take over the responsibility of strengthening and expanding our knowledge base?

One of the major reasons given for the mass exodus to industry by academics — but mostly black academics — is that of “inadequate academic salaries”.

In fact, to augment their meagre earnings, a plethora of them have to engage in commissioned research and consultancy.

Should our universities be paying more to retain some of South Africa’s best black brains to teach and do research?

Although the contribution by female authors to scientific production has increased slightly, black female contributors are conspicuous by their absence.

Our knowledge base needs to be broadened in terms of race, gender and, most importantly, age. Our knowledge producers are ageing. We need to support postgraduate and post-doctoral enrolments to reverse the tide.

I think that it is a given that the dominance of knowledge production
by white academics in this country stems from our legacy of apartheid education.

The exclusion of the majority of black people from acquiring education has contributed immensely to the continuing dearth of black academics.

Since whites had the privilege of attending some of the best universities in the country, and generally assuming both teaching and research positions in these institutions, it goes without saying that they will constitute the core of knowledge producers.

Surely we cannot continue to operate as though everything is normal in the field of knowledge production.

The fact that 8% of the population is producing 98% of the country’s research output is not right. It cannot and should not be allowed to continue.

So what needs to be done?

Firstly, our universities need to encourage some of our best scholars to remain and enrol for their PhDs.

Our communities need to stop looking down on intellectual work.

Our crass material inclinations play a big part, as intellectual work is not seen as a profession with the highest of rewards and is therefore not as appealing as, for instance, accounting, auditing, asset management and so on.

The publishing industry has a big role to play in building the knowledge producers of tomorrow.

This will, however, not be easy — until this industry is reflective of the greater South African society.

Before the apologists start shouting that there are black people in the industry, let me hasten to add that they are mostly in the lower strata of the workforce — warehousing, drivers (promoting schoolbooks in Venda, Mt Frere and similar areas) — and the few who are in publishing are in African-language divisions, working on schoolbooks.

We need to unearth black publishers who can engage in unearthing black intellectuals.

As a publisher, I am well aware that most of our university textbooks are predominantly authored by our white academics.

Commercial publishing to all intents and purposes perpetuates this scenario, as lecturers tend to prescribe texts written by so-called established authors — basically a circle of close friends.

For instance, a few years ago it was no secret that most political science textbooks were predominantly authored by Afrikaans academics from the (now) University of Johannesburg, the University of Pretoria and Stellenbosch University.

Publishers are in a better position to facilitate inclusivity in the process of knowledge production in order to break the hegemony of certain institutions and individuals in certain academic discourses.

Publishers should make it their imperative to unearth the silent voices of those black academics/intellectuals who continue to inhabit our public institutions.

Black intellectuals in the nongovernmental sector should also be brought into the mainstream, as there is a lot of good work being done in this sector.

Otherwise South Africa will remain an insignificant player in the global knowledge economy.

No wonder our students continue to learn about gangsterism from US textbooks while they live the reality of gangsterism on the Cape Flats!

Solani Ngobeni is a publisher based in Cape Town. He writes in his personal capacity.