Thabo Mbeki, postmodernism, and the consequences

Abstract

Explanations of former South African President Thabo Mbeki's public and private views on the aetiology of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the country remain partial at best without the recognition that the latter presuppose and imply a postmodernist/postcolonialist philosophy of science that erases the line separating the political from the scientific. Evidence from Mbeki's public speeches, interviews, and private and anonymous writings suggests that it was postmodernist/postcolonialist theory that inspired him to doubt the "Western" scientific consensus on HIV/AIDS and to implement a public health policy that dragged its feet on full roll-out of antiretroviral therapy, causing thousands of avoidable deaths. A weak reductio ad absurdum allows us to conclude from this premise that postmodernist/postcolonial critique of "Western" science ought to be shunned. A comparative argument from consequences further suggests that in a situation where a misguided health policy has lead to a humanitarian catastrophe, and where postmodernist/postcolonialist critique of science can and has been used to justify this policy, an alternative theory ought to be preferred on which such justification would not be possible. The paper closes with a call for a non-relativist alternative to postmodernist/postcolonialist philosophy of science, and evaluates the potential of recent developments in 'Studies of Expertise" to yield such.

'We Still Living': The Digital Media and Fake-talk around COVID-19 in Tanzania

“…And one might well ask why a president with a PhD in chemistry would question the science (The Citizen 2021). One answer is that Magufuli had a deep distrust of 'Western' scientific hegemony and its relationship with Africa, a reaction explained as an outcome of a colonial legacy (see also Sember 2008, 62;Kowalenko 2015).…”

“…The massiveness of this platform and the potential reach it offers both purveyors and debunkers of 'fake news', in addition to the fake-talk accompanying it, all play an important role in creating a spectacle of what some would prefer to bury. If we examine these instances of performativity and spectacle on social media in relation to other similar criticisms of 'Western' biomedical interventions in Africa (James and Lees 2022;Kowalenko 2015;Robins 2004), then we can see that they do more than embody and display characteristics of good citizenship in Tanzania: they assert Tanzania's place in the world. The performativity expresses a specific form of postcolonial citizenship that is part of the struggle, processes, and practices of decoloniality to reclaim agency from colonial power and knowledge in Africa.…”