Thomas G Karis

1919 - 2017
   Thomas G. Karis, a critic of U. S. policy on South Africa who became a leading historian of the South African liberation movement, died of natural causes on August 18 at the age of 97. Professor Karis was the chief author and editor of a four-volume book series, From Protest to Challenge: A Documentary History of African Politics in South Africa 1882-1964, published in the 1970s. A reviewer in the Times Literary Supplement of London called the series "a feat of such distinction that it is hard to call to mind a single parallel or precedent." Karis later was a co-author, with Gail Gerhart of Columbia University and others, of an updated second edition of the series that appeared in six volumes between 2010 and 2017 from Jacana Media in Johannesburg. 
      Karis was born November 21, 1919, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His parents were Greek immigrants who changed their surname from Katritses to Karis after World War II.  He was valedictorian of his high school class and graduated from the University of Minnesota with honors in three years.  At Columbia University he won the Toppan Prize in Constitutional Law in 1942.
      He served in the U. S. Army during 1942-46, and participated in the liberation of Pilsen, Czechoslovakia. He concluded his service as a captain in Information and Education, European Theater Headquarters.
      After the war, Karis returned to Columbia, where he received a doctorate in political science in 1951. His life-long interest in South Africa began that year, when he joined the State Department. During 1957-59, he served in the American Embassy in Pretoria, reporting on black politics, labor, and the Treason Trial.
      Lacking ambition to rise in the State Department, he resigned and soon after began teaching political theory and constitutional law at City College. He became department chair and, later, executive officer of the Political Science doctoral program in the CUNY Graduate School. In 1968-69 was Visiting Professor at the University of Zambia. During that time, the Pretoria government refused to issue him a visa for South Africa. In 1976, he co-authored an article with William Cotter advocating a policy of visa retaliation. In 1977, he was a fellow in Yale University's Southern Africa Research Program. Issued a visa in 1979, he returned to South Africa.
     Karis was co-author of South Africa's Transkei: The Politics of Domestic Colonialism, published by Northwestern University Press. He criticized the U. S. policy of "constructive engagement" with South Africa in the Reagan years and argued for economic sanctions. He testified before congressional committees, and published two articles on South Africa in Foreign Affairs in the 1980s.
       After retiring, Karis received two honorary doctorates in South Africa and served on the Human Rights Watch African advisory committee. In 2014 he traveled to South Africa for the last time, where he was among those receiving national honors bestowed by the South African president.  
       Karis's wife Mary died in 2012. They are survived by three sons –- Demetrios, Aleck, and James –– and four grandchildren.