Radical geography, mainstream geography and Southern Africa

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Abstract
The emergence of Anglo‐American radical geography is reviewed, the mainstream geographical reaction is noted, and its impact in a southern African context assessed. Radical geography in South Africa has tended to parallel trends established in Anglo‐America, although not always appropriately. To date, the mainstream response to local radical contributions has been one of stony silence. Given the concrete realities of Marxist political practice in southern Africa, this silence is judged as inadmissable, even in terms of liberal intellectual and political principles. The epistemological and political assumptions of the paper are then clarified. Mainstream/ radical debate on geography in southern Africa, it is alleged, is both possible and desirable, particularly when it enters into school curriculums, planning debate, and the like. The paper concludes with some examples of the way in which communication and debate could be encouraged with regard to the ‘on the ground’ implications of capitalism and socialism in southern Africa.

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