The reason I did not emigrate, says a friend, is because in SA there is never a dull moment. On the face of it, an article titled “Why are black South African students less likely to consider studying biological sciences?” should be dull enough. Except this research, published in the South African Journal of Science, unleashed a political storm in the past week.

The “UCT (University of Cape Town) executive” said it “distances itself from the contents of the paper” by one of its own professors and charges the published piece as being “offensive to black students at UCT” and “black people in general.” I will come to this in a moment...