Leo Kuper (20 November 1908 – 23 May 1994) was a South African sociologist specialising in the study of

genocide Genocide is violence that targets individuals because of their membership of a group and aims at the destruction of a people. Raphael Lemkin, who first coined the term, defined genocide as "the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group" by ...

Early life and legal career

Kuper was born to a

Lithuanian Jewish {{Infobox ethnic group , group = Litvaks , image = , caption = , poptime = , region1 = {{flag, Lithuania , pop1 = 2,800 , region2 = {{flag, South Africa , pop2 = 6 ...

family. His siblings included his sister Mary (d. 1948), who in later life directed the Johannesburg Legal Aid Bureau. Kuper trained in law at the

University of the Witwatersrand The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), commonly known as Wits University or Wits, is a multi-campus Public university, public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg, South Africa. The universit ...

, receiving there his BA and LLB degrees. As a lawyer, he represented African clients in human-rights cases, and also represented one of the country's early non- segregated

trade union A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

s. He supported the establishment of South Africa's first

legal aid Legal aid is the provision of assistance to people who are unable to afford legal representation and access to the court system. Legal aid is regarded as central in providing access to justice by ensuring equality before the law, the right ...

charity.

Wartime service

Kuper served with the Eighth Army in Kenya, Egypt, and Italy, as an

intelligence officer An intelligence officer is a member of the intelligence field employed by an organization to collect, compile or analyze information (known as intelligence) which is of use to that organization. The word of ''officer'' is a working title, not a r ...

, from 1940 to 1946. After the war he organised the National War Memorial Health Foundation, which provided social and medical services for disadvantaged people from all backgrounds.

Scholarly and political activities

In 1947, Kuper went to the

University of North Carolina The University of North Carolina is the Public university, public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referre ...

, where he earned an M.A. in sociology. He was subsequently appointed Lecturer in Sociology at the

University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university in Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingham (founded in 1825 as ...

in England. At Birmingham, Kuper directed a research project intended to help the city of

Coventry Coventry ( or rarely ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands county, in England, on the River Sherbourne. Coventry had been a large settlement for centurie ...

recover from the bombing it received during World War II. This project culminated in the publication of ''Living in Towns'' (1953). Kuper completed a doctorate in sociology at the University of Birmingham in 1952, and moved to

Durban Durban ( ; , from meaning "bay, lagoon") is the third-most populous city in South Africa, after Johannesburg and Cape Town, and the largest city in the Provinces of South Africa, province of KwaZulu-Natal. Situated on the east coast of South ...

, South Africa, as Professor of Sociology at the

University of Natal The University of Natal was a university in the former South African province Natal which later became KwaZulu-Natal. The University of Natal no longer exists as a distinct legal entity, as it was incorporated into the University of KwaZulu- ...

. Kuper was an active opponent of

apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...

. Under his headship, the Sociology Department at the

was the only integrated academic department in South Africa. Kuper and his colleague

Fatima Meer Fatima Meer (12 August 1928 – 12 March 2010) was a South African writer, academic, screenwriter, and prominent anti-apartheid activist. Early life Fatima Meer was born in the Grey Streets of Durban, South Africa, into a middle-class family ...

were subjected to

surveillance Surveillance is the monitoring of behavior, many activities, or information for the purpose of information gathering, influencing, managing, or directing. This can include observation from a distance by means of electronic equipment, such as ...

by the apartheid government, and classes taught in the department were infiltrated by government spies, resulting in a

chilling effect In a legal context, a chilling effect is the inhibition or discouragement of the legitimate exercise of natural and legal rights by the threat of legal sanction. A chilling effect may be caused by legal actions such as the passing of a law, th ...

. During his time in Durban, Kuper co-founded the

Liberal Party of South Africa The Liberal Party of South Africa was a South African political party from 1953 to 1968. Founding The party was founded on 9 May 1953 at a meeting of the South African Liberal Association in Cape Town. Essentially, it grew out of a belief tha ...

, and became chairman of its Natal branch. On 6 December 1956, Kuper and

Alan Paton Alan Stewart Paton (11 January 1903 – 12 April 1988) was a South African writer and anti-apartheid activist. His works include the novels '' Cry, the Beloved Country'' (1948), '' Too Late the Phalarope'' (1953), and the short story ''The Wa ...

spoke on behalf of the Liberal Party at a fundraising event in Durban in aid of the

Treason Trial The Treason Trial was a trial in Johannesburg in which 156 people, including Nelson Mandela, were arrested in a raid and accused of treason in South Africa in 1956. The main trial lasted until 1961, when all of the defendants were found not g ...

defendants. They and four other speakers were arrested and charged under a segregationist statute, the Natal Provincial Notice No. 78 of 1933, accused of "holding, or attending, or participating in ... a meeting of natives". Of the ensuing trial, Paton recalled: On 1 August 1957, all six defendants were acquitted on appeal. During the 1960s, Kuper moved to

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, United States, where he took up teaching and researching at

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

and was appointed professor of sociology. His publications include ''The Pity of it All'', ''Passive Resistance in South Africa'', and ''The Prevention of Genocide''. His book '' Genocide: Its Political Use in the Twentieth Century'' (1981) was particularly widely cited. Kuper was a founding member of the International Council of the Institute on the Holocaust and Genocide in Jerusalem. In the mid-1980s, he founded

International Alert International Alert is a global peacebuilding charity established in 1986. It aims to promote dialogue, training, research, policy analysis, advocacy, and outreach activities. The organization addresses the root causes of conflict by working wi ...

, with the support of Michael Young,

Martin Ennals Martin Ennals (27 July 19275 October 1991) was a British human rights activist. Ennals served as the secretary-general of Amnesty International from 1968 to 1980. He went on to help found the British human rights organisation ARTICLE 19 in 19 ...

and others.

Personal life

In 1936, Kuper married anthropologist Hilda Beemer, with whom he had two daughters: the international human rights lawyer Dr Jenny Kuper and the painter and sculptor Mary Kuper.

Works

# # Passive Resistance in South Africa by Leo Kuper (New Haven, Yale University Press, 1957, 256 p., 4 p. of plates : ill. ; 21 cm). # # # # Pp. xviii+ 452. 21s. paperback. # # # # # # # # # # Cases and Materials on Genocide by Leo Kuper Foundation Staff, Publisher: Routledge (/1859419291). # Genocide Reader (Criminology) by Leo Kuper Foundation, Routledge Cavendish, 1 January 2007, 600 pages. # ''"Blueprint for Living Together"'' in Leo Kuper, ed., Living in Towns, London, 1953. # # # # # # ''"Techniques. of Social Control in South Africa"'' by Leo Kuper, Listener 55, 31 May 1956, pp. 708. # "''Rights and riots in Natal''" by Leo Kuper In Africa South, Vol.4, No.2, Jan–Mar 1960, pp. 20–26. # ''"The Heightening of Racial Tension"'' by Leo Kuper, In The Heightening of Racial Tension, Vol.2, 1960, pp. 24–32. # ''"Ethnic and Racial Pluralism: Some Aspects of Polarization and Depluralization."'' In Leo Kuper and MG. Smith, M.G. (Eds) Pluralism in Africa. Berkeley and Los # ''"Racialism and Integration in South African Society"'' by Leo Kuper, In Racialism and Integration in South African Society, Vol.4, 1963, pp. 26–31. # ''"The problem of violence in South Africa"'' by Leo Kuper, in Inquiry (Taylor & Francis), Vol.7 (1–4), 1964, pages 295–303. # ''"Book Review: Caneville: The Social Structure of a South African Town. Pierre L. Van Den Berghe, Edna Miller"'' by Leo Kuper, In American Journal of Sociology, Vol.71 (1), 1965, pp. 115. # ''"Neighbour on the Hearth."'' by Leo Kuper – Environmental Psychology: Man and His Physical Setting, edited by H. M. Proshansky, W. H. Ittelson and L. G. Rivlin, (New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1970). # ''"Continuities and Discontinuities in Race Relations: Evolutionary or Revolutionary Change"'' by Leo Kuper in Cahiers d'études africaines ( published by EHESS ), Vol. 10, Cahier 39, 1970, pp. 361–383. # # ''"African Nationalism in South Africa, 1910–1964"'' by Leo Kuper in The Oxford History of South Africa, Vol. II, M. Wilson and L. Thompson (eds.), Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971, pp. 424–476. # # # ''"Book Review: Ethnicity and Resource Competition in Plural Societies. Leo A. Despres"'' by Leo Kuper, In American Journal of Sociology, Vol.82 (5), 1977, pp. 1146. # ''"Types of Genocide and Mass Murder"'' by Leo Kuper, In Israel W. Charny (ed.) Toward the understanding and prevention of genocide: Proceedings of the International Conference on the Holocaust and Genocide. Boulder and London: Westview Press, 1984, pages 32–47. # # ''"The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide."'', by Robert Jay Lifton and by Leo Kuper, Political Science Quarterly, Vol.102 (1), March 1987, pp. 175. # ''"In the Belly of the Beast: The Modern State as Mass Murderer"'' by Robin M. Williams, Leo Kuper, in Contemporary Sociology, Vol.16 (4), 1987, pp. 502. # ''"Genocide and the Modern Age: Etiology and Case Studies of Mass Death"'' by Leo Kuper, Isidor Walliman, Michael N. Dobkowski, In Contemporary Sociology, Vol.17 (1), 1988, pp. 24. # # ''"Theological warrants for genocide: Judaism, Islam and Christianity"'' by Leo Kuper – Terrorism and Political Violence, Volume 2, Issue 3, 1990, pages 351–379. # ''"On Jewish Disconnection from Other Genocides."'' by Leo Kuper – Internet on the Holocaust and Genocide, Issues 49–50, Special Section, 1990, p. 7. # Revolution and Genocide: On the Origins of the Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust, 2nd edition by Robert Melson, Leo Kuper (Introduction), Leo Kuper (Foreword by) # # ''"The Genocidal State: An Overview"'', by Leo Kuper in Pierre L. van den Berghe, ed., State Violence and Ethnicity (Niwot, CO: University Press of Colorado), 1990, pp. 44. # ''"The Roots of Evil: The Origins of Genocide and Other Group Violence."'' by Leo Kuper, Ervin Staub, In Contemporary Sociology, Vol.19 (5), 1990, pp. 683. # ''"The Genocidal Mentality: Nazi Holocaust and Nuclear Threat"'' by Leo Kuper, Robert Jay Lifton, Erik Markusen, In Contemporary Sociology, Vol.20 (2), 1991, pp. 217. # ''"Lethal Politics: Soviet Genocide and Mass Murder since 1917"'' by Leo Kuper, R. J. Rummel, In Contemporary Sociology, Vol.20 (3), 1991, pp. 433. # ''"Reflections on the Prevention of Genocide,"'' by Leo Kuper in Helen Fein (Ed.) Genocide Watch. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1992, pp. 135–161. # ''"Theoretical Issues relating to Genocide: Uses and Abuses"'' by Leo Kuper in G.J. Andreopoulos (ed.), Genocide: Conceptual and Historical Dimensions, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 1994, p. 31–46.

Notes and references

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External links

Leo Kuper Foundation website ?

Research biography and collection detailsCollections archived by University of California
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kuper, Leo 1908 births 1994 deaths 20th-century South African lawyers Alumni of the University of Birmingham Jewish South African anti-apartheid activists South African anti-apartheid activists Genocide education Liberal Party of South Africa politicians Writers from Johannesburg South African emigrants to the United States South African Jews South African people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent Politicians from Johannesburg University of California, Los Angeles faculty White South African anti-apartheid activists ASA Best Book Prize winners