Gambia-L:

The commentary/paper below was forwarded to me by a Ghanaian friend and I
hope one or two on the L might find it useful. It is written by Gambian
scholar Dr Ebrima Sall, formerly of CODESRIA in Senegal, and now a
researcher at The Nordic Africa Institute, Uppsala University, Sweden.

Kabirr: I still haven't recovered from the FA cup shock. Yes, it was a good
final! Manager Arsene Wenger announced today that he WILL buy new
world-class players for next season. Thierry Henry also told Sky Sports that
Arsenal MUST buy a "natural goal scorer" next season, because he was tired
of being accused of squandering golden chances/opportunities. We also need
an imposing defender next season - someone in the calibre of France's Lilian
Thuram. But Parma F.C. reportedly want £24 Million pounds for Thuram which I
am sure, Arsene Wenger, an economist-turned-soccer manager, will never pay.

Regards,
Ebrima

____________________________________________________________________


Academic Freedom and the African Community of Scholars: The Challenges

By Ebrima Sall (Co-ordinator of the new research programme "Conflict in
Africa - Post Conflict Transition in Africa States: The State and the Civil
Society")

Introduction

Ours are times when knowledge is said to be as important a factor of
production as physical capital. In its report, the very prestigious Special
Task Force on Higher Education in Developing Countries convened by UNESCO
and the World Bank states that "the world economy is changing as knowledge
supplants physical capital as the source of present (and future) wealth". 1

The "knowledge revolution" has led to a complete change in attitudes at the
level of some of the erstwhile archenemies of higher education in Africa
such as the World Bank. One of the casualties of structural adjustment in
Africa was higher education, for it was said to be an expensive luxury.
These days, every country is said to need at least one research university,
ideally fitting in, or rather, constituting the core of a "knowledge system"
conceived of as a coherent whole.

This change in attitudes vis-à-vis higher education in developing countries
is a welcome development that comes as a source of relief for African
scholars who have had to endure the severe restrictions on funding for
higher education occasioned by the implementation of SAP. The leaders of the
African independence movement, for whom independence was a necessary step
towards the elimination of poverty, were very clear about the need for
universities. The latter were not only seen as central to the process of
Africanisation of administrations through producing the human resources
required to run the newly independent states, but also as key players in the
struggle for nation-building and development. The basic assumption was
simple. Poverty, diseases and ignorance were seen to be conquerable.
Knowledge could help in that struggle.

Hence the serious efforts to build education systems that catered for the
whole range of needs. Schools and universities therefore mushroomed all over
the continent. From six universities in the early sixties, sub-Saharan
Africa (excluding South Africa) had some 120 universities in 1996, with
1,926,000 students. Studying, teaching, doing research or simply working in
a university, or in any other academic institution for that matter, require,
however, certain minimal conditions, one of which is academic freedom.

Academic freedom is "the freedom of members of the academic community,
individually or collectively, in the pursuit, development and transmission
of knowledge, through research, study, discussion, documentation,
production, creation, teaching, lecturing and writing". 2

It has also been defined as "the right of scholars to pursue their research
and teaching and to publish without control or restraint from the
institutions that employ them". 3

Such a freedom is a prerequisite for serious research: "without it
universities are unable to fulfil one of their primary functions: to be a
catalyst and sanctuary for new ideas, including those that may be
unpopular". 4

The level of intellectual freedom enjoyed by its intelligentsia can
therefore, to a certain extent, be a yardstick for measuring the level of
freedom that a given society enjoys. The independence of the mind is a
condition for the independence of a nation.

Serving the nation – expectations and dilemmas

The leaders of the newly independent states of Africa had a slightly
different understanding of the role of universities. Universities were to
serve the nation and participate in the development of the country. The
concept of a "development university" actually gained currency in some
countries. Few people would disagree with the view that some form of social
relevance is expected of universities and of research.

Among African academics themselves, there is a widely held view that
academic freedom also implies some form of obligation on the part of the
academics to give something back to their communities in return for the
freedom that they are calling for. This is best expressed by the notion of
"social responsibility". Some scholars actually initially shared the view
that academic freedom is a petty bourgeois claim, a sort of luxury that
poverty and crisis ridden societies cannot afford.

The problem, however, was that the participation of the universities in the
realization of the nation-building and development projects had to be done
on the terms defined not so much by the researchers or the academic
institutions, but by the politicians in power. Open resistance to such
"embrigadement" of academia to the state was for a long time strongly
repressed. Critical views were most unwelcome. The arrest and detention of
scholars and students suspected of being critical of official views or
policies, or simply for daring to struggle for better salaries, stipends or
working conditions became a frequent occurrence.

In some cases, this led to the closure of certain faculties or the banning
of disciplines such as political science, sociology (as in Rwanda, and
Senegal after the 1968 student riots), law (in Mozambique…). Censorship was
strict and the suppression of academic freedom in general was severe in
countries ruled by authoritarian single party or military regimes. Among the
most dramatic episodes were the invasion of the campus of Lumumbashi (in
former Zaire) by security forces in 1990; the police brutalities in the
campus of Yopougon in Côte d’Ivoire in 1991, the Rwandan genocide, the
Algerian civil war and the Abacha dictatorship in Nigeria.

Academic freedom, or the lack of it, is in this sense a simple human rights
issue. Intellectuals discovered that from being the privileged and highly
respected few of a certain epoch, they now had to struggle to assert their
basic human and citizenship rights. Four principal actors more or less
determine the level of expansion or restriction of academic freedom in
Africa: the state, civil society, donors and academics themselves.

In the heyday of authoritarianism when single-party states and military
regimes were fairly widespread, the risks faced by scholars in Africa were
mainly in the form of state harassment. Arrests and detention, censorship,
and in extreme cases assassinations were quite common. 5

The Rwandan genocide was an exceptionally tragic moment for all, but Tutsi
and critical Hutu intellectuals were among those who were specifically
targeted for early, systematic elimination. Academic freedom may also be
limited by restrictions inherent in donor funding, and in certain so-called
solutions to the African economic crises. Finally, various kinds of
discriminatory practices based on gender 6, age, religious or ideological
differences existing among academics themselves also amount to violations of
academic freedom. 7

Fortunately, apart from Algeria and Burundi, and a few other cases, the risk
of physical elimination has lessened somewhat for academics in Africa. The
political liberalisations of the late eighties and early nineties have
brought about some improvement in that regard. The space for free inquiry
has become broader. Censorship of the kind that was instituted by president
Moi in Kenya before the adoption of a new constitution in 1992, Life
President Kamuzu Banda of Malawi, and apartheid South Africa has been
abolished.

However, with the conflicts and violence in countries such as Sierra Leone,
the university system itself has in some instances collapsed. In 1996, about
one third of the countries in sub-Saharan Africa were stricken by some form
of violent conflict. The strain on the entire educational system in such
countries is extreme.
Economic constraints and increasing plurality

Scholars are however faced with numerous resource constraints in a number of
countries. The more common situation in Africa today is actually one in
which the main forms of restriction to the freedom of scholars are of an
economic nature: teachers are poorly paid or not paid at all; universities
are overcrowded but under-resourced; student stipends are low and often not
paid; teachers become consultants, taxi drivers, etc. The economic problems
often lead to prolonged strikes, which are generally brutally suppressed.
The paradox is that the more liberal political systems and the much stronger
civil society that we have today make it possible for scholars to organise
and protest more easily.

However, the capacity of the state to respond to the needs of the scholars
is very weak, which partly explains its nervousness and repressive attitude.
There is also a problem of scale: the magnitude of the economic problems is
such that nothing less than a complete overhauling of the system will do.

The universities have gone a long way in the process of an all round
indigenisation in terms of course contents, the composition of faculty and
in their general outlook, and in their autonomisation. Many have succeeded
in not only "rooting themselves firmly in African soil" (Mamdani), but also
in freeing themselves from the "chains" that they were born in. 8

Although the public university is still the dominant model, private
universities, vocational universities, universities with a religious
orientation, distance learning institutions such as the open universities,
virtual universities and so forth have also been set up and their numbers
are gradually increasing.

This pluralization of academic and, more generally, knowledge producing
institutions is even more visible when we look at it from the angle of
knowledge production per se. A lot of good research is now being carried out
by councils and organisations such as CODESRIA, AAWORD, OSSREA, SARIPS, the
AERC, the AAS, and the Association of African Universities, and autonomous
research institutes and centres such as CBR in Kampala, CASS in Port
Harcourt, CRD in Kano, FESS in Addis Ababa, the Arab Research Centre in
Cairo, research NGOs such as GERDDES based in Cotonou, and professional
associations such as AAPS and AAA. (See list of acronyms.) Generations of
institutions and scholars co-exist. Hardly had the process of indigenisation
been completed when globalisation and what has been referred to as
"knowledge acceleration" brought new challenges to the universities.

However, out of this broad range of institutions and the complex links and
flows between them it seems that national and regional knowledge systems are
emerging. These systems are generally structured around the leading public
universities.

Market solutions inadequate

With SAP and the rise of neo-liberal ideologies, a major form of risk to
serious scholarship is the drive for "marketability". The quality and
relevance of the outputs of academic institutions and scholarship are
defined more and more in terms of their so-called market value, or in terms
of the ability to provide immediate solutions. The importance of disciplines
and course contents, including in subjects such as law, is judged more or
less in terms of their "market value".

The so-called new "success stories" are the Makereres and other universities
which have gone far in the implementation of liberal modes of functioning,
especially in terms of the ability to raise funds by commercialising a
number of services.

This is a major cause for concern. As Issa Shivji, the renowned Tanzanian
scholar who took an active part in the drafting of the Dar es Salaam and
Kampala Declarations on Intellectual Freedom (adopted in April and November
1990, respectively) put it: "You know what to expect from the state and how
to resist, but you don’t know what to expect from the market. The state lets
you know that it is out to hang you (the academic/intellectual), so you can
put up a fight. The market gives you a long rope to hang yourself."

Yet the market has hardly ever been able to provide adequate solutions to
Africa’s problems. Higher education and research are even less likely to be
the areas where adequate market solutions are expected:
"On its own, the market will certainly not devise [quality higher education
systems]. Markets require profit and this can crowd out important
educational duties and opportunities. Basic sciences and the humanities, for
example, are essential for national development. They are likely to be
underfunded, unless they are actively encouraged by leaders in education who
have the resources to realise this vision". 9

Additional critical issues

With the rise in hard, identity politics of a religious or ethnic nature,
and the mushrooming of campus cults, many scholars get harassed for their
views. Identity politics are also often very gender-biased. So, female
scholars feel more threatened.

Other kinds of challenges faced by African academics include the spread of
HIV/AIDS, which has also led to serious loss of life among academics in some
countries. World Bank figures on this are quite alarming. For instance, more
than 30 per cent of the teachers of Malawi and Zambia are said to be
infected by AIDS. In 1996 alone, 600 teachers lost their lives in Zambia. In
1998, the figure had doubled.

Finally, there is also the rising threat of marginalisation from the rest of
the global community of scholars through lack of access to IT and other
modern means of research and publishing.
The list of issues that are critical to academic freedom is long. Among the
most critical and difficult to deal with is that of "impatience" on the part
of civil society; impatience for solutions to the current problems
bedevilling Africa. In Senegal, a few years ago, the press ran a debate on
what was called the breakdown of intellectuals ("la panne des
intellectuels"), who were seen to have failed in providing solutions to the
economic and social crises in the continent.

It is however important to remember that academic freedom is not a problem
for "developing countries" alone, and least of all still a problem for
African intellectuals only. Elsewhere, particularly in the industrialised
countries, it is with funding and the problems of political correctness that
the problem is posed. Private funders claim a right to have a say in the
determination of curricula and the content of courses taught and research
carried out in the universities, and to determine their quality or
relevance. This puts into question the very central notion of peer review,
which has always governed academic institutions and activities.

Academic freedom is therefore a clear issue of human rights and democracy.
It is also about how we conceive of our societies. Independence of thought
is a precondition for the realization of citizenship and the all-round
development of societies. Each society has to generate the capacity to think
for itself and make its own reading of the world, which means producing its
own organic intellectuals. But the latter have to be recognized as such. A
lot has been achieved, but there is still a long way to go...

______________________________________________________________________

1. The Task Force on Higher Education and Society (TFHES), 2000, Higher
Education in Developing Countries. Peril and Promise. Washington: The World
Bank, p. 9.

2. Dar es Salaam Declaration on Academic Freedom, 1990; see also Diouf &
Mamdani, 1994, Academic Freedom in Africa. Dakar: CODESRIA.

3. The Columbia Encyclopaedia; cited in the report of the TFHES, p. 60.

4. TFHES, p. 60.

5. See CODESRIA, 1996, The State of Academic Freedom in Africa.

6. See CODESRIA’s recent publication on: Women in Academia: Gender and
Academic Freedom in Africa, edited by E. Sall.

7. See Imam, Mama & Sow, 1994, "The Role of Academics in Expanding and
Restricting Academic Freedom", in Diouf & Mamdani, Academic Freedom in
Africa. Dakar: CODESRIA.

8. Thandika Mkandawire, 1997, "The Social Sciences in Africa: Breaking Local
Barriers and Negotiating International Presence. The Bashorun M.K.O. Abiola
Lecture Presented to the 1996 ASA Annual Meeting" ; in African Studies
Review, vol. 40 no. 2, p. 17.

9. TFHES, 2000, Higher Education in Developing Countries, p. 11.

_________________________________________________________________________
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