Academic Freedom and Apartheid

"In 1986 in Britain something very dramatic happened; the result of which was to institutionalize the ideas of Peter Ucko. At the time the official world organization of archaeologists was an ancient, very decrepit, frightfully Eurocentric organization called the IUPPS, which stands for International Union of Proto and Prehistorians, largely centered in Western Europe and France. They were largely indifferent to the archaeology and archaeological theory of North America and post-colonial continents and stubbornly Euro-centric. Peter Ucko had come back from Australia and had accepted reluctantly the request of the IUPPS to hold their next congress at the University of Southampton where he become a professor. But he made a condition. The condition was that the central topic should not be the usual “How many flints have you found my dear old boy?” Instead he demanded the inclusion of indigenous archaeologists: practitioners who were themselves Native Americans, Inuits, people from different countries in Africa, Aboriginal Australians. They should come. We should use the congress funds not for the usual jollies and feasts but to pay for their air tickets because they come from poor countries and they can’t pay the fare. So the IUPPS grudgingly consented to let Peter Ucko have his way, but a couple of months before the congress was due to start, something happened. This was 1986, and there was an academic boycott of South Africa, but Peter Ucko had invited a number of South African archaeologists. Word spread rapidly and students said that they were not going to help and rooms and facilities were withdrawn. It spread all the way to public services and civil service unions in Southampton and there were threats to withdraw accommodation, public transport etc. The situation was rapidly running out of control, presenting Ucko with a dilemma. He could either dis-invite the South African archaeologists – a pretty awful thing to have to do – or he could invite them and the world congress as he had planned it wouldn’t take place. The delegates of other countries wouldn’t come if the South Africans were going to be there. So he dis-invited them and all hell broke loose. Most of the archaeological establishments from North America, Europe and Britain withdrew in horror shouting that he had violated academic freedom and that he was unscrupulous and an enemy of liberal democracy that he brought politics into science and research in an unforgivable way. However Ucko stuck to his guns. The IUPPS cancelled its congress and withdrew its support saying they were outraged at what Ucko had done. But Ucko still stuck to his guns and the congress did take place. Get the weekly Five Books newsletter October 8, 2009. Updated: January 28, 2022 Five Books aims to keep its book recommendations and interviews up to date. If you are the interviewee and would like to update your choice of books (or even just what you say about them) please email us at [email protected]"