Mindly Twists and Turns (PDF)

My familiarity with Professor Yusef Waghid's scholarship and our collaborationspan more than two decades. Therefore, a few words cannot appropriatelyencompass my account of the magnitude of his academic profile coupled withhis personal qualities and engagement. He is a global thinker who has madesignificant contributions to scholarship in South Africa, the broader African worldin the continent and the Diaspora, and the international community. ProfessorWaghid is an exceptionally prolific writer with consistent academic excellenceon topics of critical importance to education and other social institutions, andthe struggle for justice and social transformation. He has developed criticalinsights articulating the importance and necessity of epistemic equality withparticular reference to indigenous knowledge system, especially uBuntu. He is a creative scholar with significant and original contributions to knowledge and transformative curriculum and pedagogy. As a public intellectual, he emulates a dialectical relationship between theory and social realities with a consistentengagement for equality and quality educational opportunity, and social progress. He is one of the foremost intellectuals hailing from South Africa with a global stature. In addition to his prominence as a scholar, Professor Waghid has personal and enviable qualities as reflected in his collegiality, trustworthiness, responsiveness, reliability, and unfailing compassion.Professor N'Dri Assie-Lumumba, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, President of Comparative and International Education Society