University of Cape Town, 4th November 2004
Renewing the African University
Madam Chancellor, Mrs Graca Machel,
Vice-Chancellor, Professor Njabulo Ndebele,
Visiting Vice-Chancellors,
Chairperson of Council, Mr Geoff Budlender,
Chairperson of the Mandela Rhodes Foundation, Professor Jakes Gerwel,
Chairperson of Council, Association of Commonwealth Universities, Professor Goolam Mohamedbhai,
Vice-Chancellor, University of Mauritius,
Excellencies,
Distinguished faculty members, students and workers of the UCT,
Honoured Guests,
Ladies and gentlemen:
Africa has some of the most amazing proverbs. Their distinctive feature is in their remarkable concreteness and practical good sense. A typical African proverb has a logic that strikes you with a vivid sense of recognition. Take this South African proverb whose powers I invoke tonight, to help me thank the Chancellor and the University of Cape Town for bestowing this honour on me.
It says: akuqili lazikhotha emhlana, which is to say that there is no one so clever as to lick his or her own back. Well, the Chancellor thinks I am so supple and clever as to be able to lick my own back and accordingly deserve an honour. However I humbly accept this award for the affirmation of the faith shared by millions of Africans throughout our continent that we have the possibility to build a new Africa of which we shall all be proud. Indeed, this award tells us we have no option but to succeed.
I am certain this award rightly belongs to the many African people, young and old, who are daily working hard to ensure the regeneration of our continent. It salutes all those who are trying to build and consolidate democracy in the many African countries that have taken greats strides to make democracy an important part of their national life.
It pays tribute to those men and women in uniform who are prepared to lay down their lives so that peace can prevail in the DRC, Burundi, Darfur and other places. It honours those who are working in the African Union and NEPAD so that our continent can develop and Africans can walk tall as equals among the peoples of the world.
Because of the importance of this award, and the fact that we are also celebrating the 175th anniversary of this University, I would like us briefly to look at some of the challenges facing universities such as this one, as we work together for the renaissance of Africa.
In this regard, I would like to recall a remarkable occasion that happened in Kenya in 1968 with which you are familiar. It became known as 'the great Nairobi literature debate'. Ngugi wa Thiong'o, in his book, 'Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature', recalls what happened at the University of Nairobi and writes that:
"The debate started inno !he then head of the English Department Dr. James Stewart, presented proposals to the Arts Faculty Board on the development of the English Department. The proposals were in many ways pertinent. But they were all preceded by two crucial sentences:
'The English department has had a long history at this college and has built up a strong syllabus which by its study of the historic continuity of a single culture throughout the period of emergence of the modern west makes an important companion to History and to Ph!ever, it is bound to become less British, more open to other writing in English (American, Caribbean, African, Commonwealth) and also to continental writing, for comparative purposes.'
"A month later on 24 October 1968 three African lecturers and researchers at the University responded to Dr Stewart's proposals by calling for the abolition of the English Department as then constituted. They questioned the underlying assumption that the English tradition and the emergence of the modern west were the central root of Kenya's and Africa's consciousness and cultural heritage. They rejected the underlying notion that Africa was an extension of the West. Then followed the rejoinder:
'Here then, is our main question: if there is a need for a 'study of the historic continuity of a single culture', why can't this be Africa? Why can't African literature be at the centre so that we can view other cultures in relationship to it?'
"Hell was let loose. For the rest of 1968 and spilling over into 1969 the debate raged on, engulfing the entire faculty and the university. Thus within four sentences the stage was set for what has become the most crucial debate on the politics of literature and culture even in Kenya of today."
(p89, Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature, Heinemann, 1981.)
I think many of us would agree that the issues raised in 'The great Nairobi debate' of 1968 are still relevant today, here at this great University of Cape Town, in the whole of South Africa and in the rest of our African continent. Today, as in the past, universities are fountains of knowledge, whose specialities include constant development of ideas and on-going rigorous interrogation of old beliefs and assumptions.
In keeping with this, the three African lecturers and researchers at the University of Nairobi 'questioned the underlying assumption that the English tradition and the emergence of the modern west were the central root of Kenya's consciousness and cultural heritage. (And) they rejected the underlying notion that Africa was an extension of the West'.
The challenge that confronts this university and others in our country is whether we have posed and answered the question that the three African lecturers and researchers asked at the University of Nairobi: "If there is a need for a 'study of the historic continuity of a single culture', why can't this be Africa? Why can't African literature be at the centre so that we can view other cultures in relation to it?"
Put differently, the question is whether our universities, here in South Africa, have sufficiently transformed, not only with regard to the important matter of ensuring that these institutions are representative of all our peoples and cultures, but importantly, on the issue of curriculum content which would simultaneously prepare students adequately for the challenges of the world of modern technology, science and commerce while not losing their identity, their history, their culture and their responsibility to their African countries.
Are we able to say, without any hesitation, that these centres are not enclaves of our colonial and apartheid past, but have instead embarked on the important path, in the words of Ngugi wa Thiong'o, of decolonising our collective mind?
The interlocutors at the University of Nairobi posed another pertinent question, which, although it referred to matters of literature, does challenge all of us as we work for the renewal of Africa. In this regard, Ngugi continues about the same debate that:
"What was interesting was that the details of the debate were the same: all sides were agreed on the need to include African, European and other literatures. But what would be the centre? And what would be the periphery, so to speak? How would the centre relate to the periphery? Thus the question of the base of the take-off, the whole question of perspective and relevance, altered the weight and relationship of the various parts and details to each other."
Similarly, today as we work for the renaissance of our continent it has become important that whatever we are doing should have a centre to which the various parts should relate. This centre is the Constitutive Act of the African Union, the Union itself and its development programme, the New Partnership for Africa's Development. We are of the firm belief that the AU and NEPAD constitute the take-off of the regeneration programme of the African continent.
Chairperson,
Allow me to return to proverbs. This!on't stay when the room is no longer there". I believe that a lot of of the world's problems including those facing our continent, have something to do with how many of us continue to dream of ceilings of rooms that have long disappeared.
In this context, I would dare to suggest that the persistence of poverty, underdevelopment, war and instability in the world today has something to do with our inability to think beyond those factors in world history, which have shaped the regularities of global politics and trade over time. The persistent maladies they caused have lived with us until we began to take them for granted; giving them in some cases the status of natural law. The way things have been, we think, will always be. We think in this way to our peril.
Einstein also observed: "The problems that exist in the world today cannot be solved by the level of thinking that created them". (http//en.wikiqoute.org/wiki/Albert-Enstein)
I do not know which came first: the Nigerian proverb, or Einstein's insight? The sequence of origin is of little consequence. What is fundamental is the similarity of depth of insight. Both Einstein's insight and the Nigerian proverb tell us that if the premises on which we base important decisions do not change in response to fundamentally altered circumstances, we are likely to prescribe false solutions, dreaming of ceilings for rooms long gone.
But there is an intriguing difference between Einstein's statement and the Nigerian proverb. While one insight is attributed to an individual, the other is attributed to the people of a country. As we know, no one holds a copyright on proverbs. No one can tell who created them. Yet, they may have originated from individuals who were reflecting their experiences. But clearly, no sooner are they created, than they merge into the collective consciousness as if they have always been there because they simply make sense.
The appearance of proverbs and their absorption into the social mind must be one the most telling examples of how people collectively make their world, where everyone is allowed to make a contribution. This begs a challenging question - just how much of Africa's collective wisdom has been deployed in contemporary Africa, in the service of its peoples? There is no doubt that a major part of the future of our continent lies in the answers to this question.
From the time of the great temples of knowledge in Ancient Egypt to the modern age, centres of higher learning have used their knowledge and innovation to propel societies to high levels of development and progress. Yet, institutions of higher learning can only make a meaningful contribution to the development of society if they work in partnerships among themselves and with other sectors.
In this regard, I think the value of this occasion is embodied in the partnerships demonstrated in a number of instances. The first is domestic. The University of Cape Town celebrates its 175th anyversary while we celebrate 10 years of our country's new democracy. While in itself this coincidence is noteworthy, we refer to it more significantly as a signal for reflection. The coincidence focuses our imagination on the connection between the past and the future in the life of a country and its various institutions.
On the one hand is the perspective of 350 years of modern history that has seen our country and the entire continent through the prism of conquest, colonialism, industrialisation, and independence. On the other hand is the life of institutions within that larger perspective. Today we celebrate the resilience of one institution, which has survived through many phases of our national history.
There are many other similar institutions across the land that have collectively become part of a system of higher education, and among the key assets of our country. The matters we posed at the beginning are of central relevance as we look into the future of the necessary partnership among these institutions.
In the second instance is the partnership between the University of Cape Town and the Mandela Rhodes Foundation dedicated to making a meaningful contribution to the historic task of rebuilding Africa's leadership capacity through, among other important programmes, the scholarship that has just been announced. Launched just over a year ago, I am told that the Mandela Rhodes Foundation seeks to focus resources towards helping build leadership on the African continent.
In this, its aims are at one with the goals of the New Partnership for African Development. We hope that the Mandela Rhodes Foundation will play a catalytic role in ensuring that at all levels we produce leaders who will help to make the 21st an African Century. In this regard, few things can demonstrate with such clarity the building of new rooms with new ceilings within the fabric of history.
To place the names of Mandela and Rhodes side-by-side in this manner is an unusual yet innovative thing to do. It is perhaps a practical way to give expression to our constitution's injunction that we come together across historical divides, for the benefit of present and future generations. It is a way of making history functional and alive, rather than just some inanimate thing to be looked at, and in our case lamented. In this case, those aspects of Cecil Rhodes's otherwise contested legacy which can be put to work for the good of Africa, are being harnessed - in particular the legacy of his desire for excellence in education and entrepreneurship.
In our particular context, the pairing of a Nelson Mandela and a Cecil Rhodes drives home the significance of the link between continuity and change in the history!eers opened up Africa to European colonisation, Mandela and other African leaders sacrificed for the restoration of Africa to itself.
The project to help build Africa's leadership capacity has been underway for sometime and has taken many forms. This evening we would like to pay tribute to one such initiative. Launched in 1995, the Univ!ineering Partnership in Africa, ot!ht together eight African universi!esent today, into a unique partnership.
I am happy that the Universities of Cape Town, Botswana, Dar es Salaam, Jomo Kenyatta, Makerere, Nairobi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe have cooperated to develop academic staff capacity in partner institutions in the disciplines indicated in the name of the project. I am informed that of all the 17 PhDs and 5 Masters graduates of the programme, not a single one of them has left Africa to work elsewhere.
The partnership between UCT and the Mandela Rhodes Foundation can only build on such rich experience as it focuses on leadership capacity beyond the academy. I am privileged to convey my best wishes to this initiative, and am glad to hear of the commitment that all the Foundation's resources will be expended in Africa.
The third instance of partnership galvanises energies across the globe by linking the Association of African Universities, our own South African Universities Vice-Chancellor's Association, and the Association of Commonwealth Universities in a project to revive higher education in Africa. This partnership is driven by the belie!be at the heart of any sustainable effort to rebuild our continent.
It is altogether fitting that one of the partners in this noble project should be the Association of Commonwealth Universities, one of the important organisations of the Commonwealth, which represents more than 500 universities drawn from across the globe. We look forward with confidence to the ACU mobilising the international capacity developed over almost a century, in support of and in partnership with Africa's universities.
Africa has had great universities. Higher education in Africa, we should remember, stretches back to ancient Egypt, where the great Temples imparted knowledge not only to Africans, but also to many who were to play leading roles in the later civilisation of ancient Greece.
Later, many other centres of learning flourished in Aksum, Nubia and other parts of the continent. Among these great centres of learning was Timbuktu in the 15th and 16th centuries. Today, through a special Presidential project, the governments of South Africa and Mali are working together to preserve the priceless Timbuktu Manuscripts and other ancient documents, which tell us of a glorious past of knowledge and civilisation.
I am certain that many of us also recall the vibrant intellectual life in various centres of the African continent such as Dar es Salaam, Makerere, Nairobi, Ibadan, and Fourah Bay in the Sixties and the Seventies.
Chairperson, on the 9th February, 2001, the Association of African Universities, at its General Conference in Nairobi, issued a Declaration on the African University in the Third Millennium. The Association called for "the revitalisation of the African University, and for a renewed sense of urgency in acknowledging the crucial role they should play in contributing to the solution of the many problems facing our continent."
In particular, I would like to acknowledge and draw attention to three aspects of this Declaration, which pose a special challenge. The African universities pledged that:
· "To a greater degree than ever before, African universities must renew their commitment to helping Africa find effective solutions to its perennial problems of poverty, hunger and disease. They must, by their research and teaching, strengthen their contribution to improvements in food production and distribution, disease control and health service delivery, and the general well being of their people. In particular, the HIV/AIDS crisis poses a serious threat to African societies within which universities are situated. African Universities must be in the forefront of research, education and action in this area. We recognise that the solution to this problem might well reside in Africa.
· "African universities must strengthen their linkages with the productive sector, private and public, in agriculture, industry and the services, in order to increase the relevance of their work and to ensure its easy infusion into production for the benefit of national society and the economy.
· "African universities must contribute more actively to the removal of incessant social conflict, civil war and sub-regional disputes and the displacement of human being, by establishing research projects and courses on peace and conflict resolution, democracy and human rights, solidarity and good governance." (Association of African Universities. Declaration on the African University in the Third Millennium, Accra, 2001)
These are noble objectives.
We may wish to compare the Association of African Universities' Declaration and Ngugi's recollection of an event around curriculum, which we cited earlier. Clearly, the self-confidence reflected in the discourse of Ngugi's time in the late sixties differs noticeably from the correct perspectives but formal tentativeness of the Declaration in 2001.
While Ngugi and his colleagues seem to assume a universal audience that is present in both the debating room as well as in a borderless beyond, the Declaration seems to address an audience not in the room. While it seeks to persuade an outside audience of the declarer's bona fides, the "great Nairobi debate" displays a self-assurance that says 'at this moment in history, you will hear me',
Yet, both address the fundamental challenges facing our continent. It would be important to assess the degree to which our universities have and are responding to these challenges.
I invite you to explore this process further, beyond this lecture. But it is a matter of sadness that Africa was unable to sustain such intellectual ferment as was present in the many universities on the continent during the period of decolonisation. It seems as if the African University lost its spirit and its soul in the last two decades or so. Where it once engaged the anti-colonial project with zest, it now strives to have that zest rekindled in response to an external imperative immediately around it, but from which it remains distant.
What happened to it is not too difficult to understand. The soul of the African university died, in part, with the decline of the modern post-colonial African state as one country after another fell under military rule and other forms of unrepresentative government, which severely limited the capacity of Africa to take advantage of the genius of its peoples. It is for this reason that we should reflect on the recent democratic developments on the continent and see whether we cannot begin, once more, to deploy the available collective wisdom and capacity of our people for the development of our countries.
I would suggest that our entire continent remains at risk until the African University, in the context of a continental reawakening, regains its soul. Among other things, a successful continental reawakening requires multiple sources of creativity. The collective mind that produces our proverbs should enable the greatest numbers of the citizens of Africa to participate in productive activity driven by their creative genius. Undoubtedly, it is the historic responsibility of the African University to harness this genius.
The unlocking of this genius will require among other things that we eliminate gender discrimination and oppression. The programmes pioneered over the past twenty years by the ACU to enhance the participation and profile of women in the governance of universities will need to be intensified in the new global partnership, to enable African women to take their rightful place in our universities.
The historic process to end the debilities of the past has assumed a formal articulation in the Vision and Mission of the African Union to: "build an integrated Africa, a prosperous and peaceful Africa, driven by its own citizens and representing a dynamic force in the international arena."
In this way, the new Africa can only be a product of the creative interface between the public, the private, and civic sector domains. At the centre of this interface is the system of education. If the education system, particularly at its higher levels, is to supply society with citizens of vision and commitment, it must win and enjoy the respect of the whole of society and must be accessible to all. In this context, a university should not be an enclave or an ivory tower whose curricula and programmes have little relation to the society in which it operates.
At the same time, education must be accorded recognition as a space for unfettered intellectual enquiry. It must be trusted for its critical objectivity, its quality, and for its capacity for public accountability.
Few would dispute the fact that universities are better able to serve society when they function with a great deal of self-regulation within a public accountability framework. And of course success in self-regulation will depend upon building and enhancing capacities in internal management and governance.
We trust that the new partnerships, within the region, the continent and the Commonwealth, will continue to contribute significantly to the enhancement of these capacities and create the conditions that will enable Africa's universities to become integrated into the international networks that are so critical to success in the knowledge economies in which we now live.
Chairperson,
The spirit of the African University is more than the sum total of its outreach projects, now called social responsibility. It includes fully acknowledging and restoring dignity to the self-actualising activities of teaching, learning, and the search for new knowledge; and recognising the capacity of the human intellect to liberate through questioning and disputation.
It includes finding cures for diseases that have depopulated our continent for centuries; and discovering inventive and sustainable ways of ending poverty through successful entrepreneurship. It also means making sure that in the design of our history syllabi, African history is not confined to the beginning and end of colonialism.
This spirit of African University should stimulate our imaginations and our sense of identity through the literary, visual, and performing arts; allow for the free movement of teachers, researchers, and students across the African continent; and create differentiated systems of higher education across the continent to meet its diverse educational needs.
Clearly, it includes restoring trust to academic leadership, academic leadership that sees as a central priority the development of university education that has at its heart a new kind of learning and teaching that fosters active citizens inspired by a healthy African pride, committed to the national development effort, social transformation and embued with a commitment to global responsibility. Working together we can and must achieve all these and revive the great spirit of the African University.
I believe that effectively to give birth to the new, we must be angry at our past. In this context I now leave you with one more proverb, this time from Lesotho: "No matter how hot your anger may be, it cannot cook". The African university should make the real fire that cooks.
I thank you.