“Richard Turner (1941-1978) was a rare being in South Africa: a genuine public intellectual. Rick lived as what the French call an intellectual engagé – someone whose commitment extends beyond writing and teaching into a range of public activities to change an unjust social order. In Rick’s case, this was the morally reprehensible apartheid system.
His many political activities, his writings, his teaching and the way he lived his daily life were deeply influenced by the existentialist philosophy of Jean-Paul Sartre. This is perhaps best summed up in his reply to a colleague’s query of why was he not more circumspect in his daily overt and deliberate violations of apartheid’s laws, knowing the racist state was bound to act against him?
“If you live in a fascist country, like we do, you have two options: you can be cowed and you can internalise the rules of fascism and live by them, and doing so you become a fascist to some extent; or you can choose to be free. I’ve chosen to be free, and I accept the consequences”
from Dan O’Meara “Rick Turner’s Key Ideas” ( PDF below)
We’ve chosen four articles to introduce Rick and his ideas:
First, Rick’s widow Foszia writes about Rick’s approach to living, their life together and ‘The Eye of the Needle’: https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2022-03-02-my-personal-reflections-about-writing-the-eye-of-the-needle/
Second, Halton Cheadle, a workers’ rights lawyer and student of Rick’s in Durban, overviews Rick’s contribution: https://www.wits.ac.za/news/latest-news/opinion/2022/2022-02/rick-turner-and-the-enduring-necessity-of-utopian-thinking.html
Third, SA History online’s discussion of Rick’s life and work: https://sahistory.org.za/people/rick-turner
Fourth, Dan O’Meara, a colleague at University of Natal Durban (now University of Kwazulu-Natal), sets out Rick’s key ideas in the note below:
Please see the Bibliography page for a range of articles discussing Rick’s work and life.
RICK TURNER'S PHILOSOPHY 