I have always been a big fan of Xolela Mangcu. Even when I do not agree with him, his columns usually make me think and challenge my preconceived ideas – something a good columnist ought to do. But I must say he had a piece in The Weekender today which made me cringe. Maybe its my Calvinist upbringing which instilled in me the notion that one is not supposed to brag. Mangcu clearly is not a Calvinist. He writes:
Look, I have not done very badly since I left my dusty township. To be sure, mine is not a rags-to-riches story. I just hate it when black people genuflect to white audiences about how poor they were and how they had to pull themselves up by their bootstraps and all of that. “Ag, shame,” the whiteys say.
No, mine was not a rags-to-riches story. I came from a comfortable background and I never went to bed on an empty stomach. But still, check this out and tell me it’s not impressive.
After high school I went to Wits University at the tender age of 17. By 22 I had my master’s degree.
Off I went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Cornell University for my PhD. And then I enjoyed a string of post-doctoral fellowships at Harvard University’s John F Kennedy School of Government and later at Harvard’s WEB Du Bois Institute. Then you can i nclude in the mix my stint as a Warren Weaver Fellow at the Rockefeller Foundation. And to think I had to apply to get into these places!
After all of that, I went back to work with young people in Ginsberg.
But the highest honour of them all is my elevation to a nonresident senior fellow at the Brooking Institution. For the uninitiated, Brookings is the most influential think tank in the world. Some of the world’s major institutions — including the United Nations — were designed by Brookings scholars.
And what is their model? A co-operative but critical relationship between a nation’s thinkers and its government. The institution is a hop from the White House and the US c ongress. Senior senators come in and out to share and receive policy ideas.
It’s truly an incredible place, and for my talent to be recognised at such a place would make my mother smile. Smile too if you will.
And if you find this self-indulgence really, really annoying, then just pretend to be an American.
Self-indulgent? You betcha! I suppose its difficult to come up with something original to write if you have a weekly column and a weekend newspaper page to fill, but, Eish!, this is a bit much. Dear readers, if I ever write something like this please ridicule me and tell me I am way out of line. (But again, maybe some of you think I have already posted pieces like this…)
Maybe that is the benefit of a Blog. One gets instant feedback and the bloggers keep one on one’s toes. They also correct mistakes and engage with arguments and in the process we all may just learn something. That is why I love doing this Blog. Thanks again to all you people out there who have taught me so much, including (some of you might be surprised to hear!) a little bit more humility!
Keep up the good work! Just a pity Lindelani Maseko is so quiet these days…. At least Sarah Palin will have more time now that she is retiring as Governor to contribute her considerable wisdom….
I don’t mean to spoil his buzz, but the UN was actually the brainchild of our very own Jan Smuts. Jan Smuts was not a Brookings scholar.
Besides, Dr Mancgu has a Phd in city planning, which explains why he has to blow his own horn in his own newspaper columns. Nobody else is going to blow the dust off that horn.
Impressive CV of the Dr. But it being written in a column? I want to puke!
Worrying, is that Mangcu believes that such shameless self-praise in necessary. With such accolades, why? Worse still, is his assumption that readers are interested, or need to know this personal information. We don’t. I like to think that commentators use their education and experience to present the public with some well-reasoned ideas. And thats all. Readers deserve better. Perhaps he start on his memoirs!?
True achievers never brag in public about their achievements. They never talk about their qualifications in this way, as thought they are in some sort of interview. They are often humble and show off only through apply these achievements in practice.
I have had it with his arrogance and bragging streak. He may be one of the intelligent black guys, but his propensity to throw his CV in public everytime he gets a chance really makes me wonder about how of the social intelligence he has.
He is a joke! What has he done with the PhD in city planning anyway. He has posed as a public intellectual.
Pretty poor form Dr. Mangcu. I’m sure that even in the brash US of A this would be considered a bit voor op die wa.
In the past two weeks The Weekender (or maybe that should be Weakender) has published a columnist punting his wife’s book, a columnist who has confessed to having writer’s block (and it showed) and the Louis Farrakhan of SA who bored us all with his qualifications. Truth is they can no longer afford real columnists after the huge losses last year. If you want quality writing go to http://www.moneyweb.co.za.
Where’s my Alaskan hottie?
A certain Dr Murerwa, the Min of Lands in Zimbabwe went to Harvard before 1980. When he returned home after many years in the West, armed with a Masters, PhD…he told his father about his academic conquests. His father, who lived near a popular Government High School called Goromonzi listened politely before he asked his burning question, “Son you have been to all those Harvards I see. When are you going to go to Goromonzi High School?”
Maybe the question to Mangcu is, “So when are going to go to Parktown Boys?”
I have heard similar stories and CVs been rolled out for all to see in a pub by a drunken person. To actually wake up and put it in a newspaper is weird. Maybe he is deceivingly trying to tell the world that he is a great scholar…there is not much evidence in his writings though.
But then his mother must be proud!
Thanks for the namecheck, Pierre, and of course, David. I’m adding the fact that I get so much support from you guys to my considerable (35 pages and counting) CV.
But, before I even read your kind words, I was going to write, Pierre: no need to mention your humility. Maybe I missed it, but did you announce your new professorship at UCT on this blog? I certainly didn’t read it here first. And when the news did come up, it was from one of your readers, I seem to recall.
As for this Mangcu dude, he’s welcome to join my campaign team for the next presidential run anytime. He seems like a damn fine praise singer to me.
Garg,
Reading is one thing, understanding what you read is another. But then again, it may be that you eyes saw what your brain wanted to read; Mangcu was referring to the actual building when he said designed and not the idea behind the formation of the UN, which is well documented.
Sne – when he refer’s to the ‘institution’ of the UN, I doubt the implication is meant to be a literal building. That aside, Mr Mugabe himself has a PhD in Economics from Cambridge or something along those lines….paper is pretty, practice is what counts.
Sne
Thank you for your input. If the common man had any kind of taste – even poor taste – I’d be flattered that one feels the need to correct me. Just a few minor points you might want to consider:
You never, ever put punctuation in your salutation. The Queen of England shall have a stroke and moonwalk after Michael Jackson straight into Madame Tussaud’s.
Which, pray tell, UN building are you referring to? The UN Headquarters in New York was designed and built by one Wallace Harrison. Coincidentally, Harrison was not a Brookings scholar either. See for yourself:
http://www.brookings.edu/experts.aspx?l=W
By sheer coincidence, you won’t find our very own Dr Mangcu on their list either.
Do you even know what a city planner does? City planners do not in fact design nor build buildings. The only kind of erections they are legally allowed to oversee are not to be discussed in good company.
City planners – like Brookings scholars – influence public policy. They pick their noses over cucumber sandwiches and say things like: “That, my good man, is a splendid idea. I wish it were mine. In fact, I’m going to claim that it is mine.” Then, they proceed to tell people who know how to build buildings where they may and may not build buildings and how they may be built, despite not actually knowing anything about building in the first place.
That is why city planners end up writing newspaper columns, which is a blessing in disguise. The ennui of someone blowing his own horn in public is far less damaging than that of someone digging through the rubble of a poorly constructed building looking for the remains of their own kids. This is why I commend Dr Mangcu for his excellent choice – clearly in the public interest – to stick to a practice where he can’t damage anything but his impressive reputation.
Thanks Garg.
Garg // Jul 4, 2009 at 11:14 pm
“…..Dr Mancgu has a Phd in city planning….”
Have you seen Ginsberg???!!!!!
Two things apart from Dr Mangcu’s ego:
* he has become quite conservative; now he is repeating the nonsense arguments of rightwingers that poor black people play the poor black “card.”
* It’s a non-resident fellowship at a place not known for its research. They’re more like pundits.
I wish Xolela Mangcu would stick to town planning, which is the subject of his formal training, when he feels the need air his views in public. His mission as the self-styled ambassador of black intellectuals is wearing me out. The perpetual personal references to encounters with cousins and old friends in his column (and I use the term in the broadest possible sense) make me want to use The Weakender (chapeau, Bullard!) for peeling vegetables on before I read it.
I also blame The Weakender, which I stopped buying because Mangcu’s rambles spoil my apetite, because the pay him and every single reader’s letter in every single issue is better reading than any of his column. To their credit, the other op-ed pages have a running head ‘Opinion and Analysis’ where the one featuring Mangcu’s column only says ‘Opinion’.
Professorship at UCT, congratulations Prof…its been long and well deserved from the days you taught me constituional law at UWC.
well deserved