Why African universities fail to meet post-colonial dynamics
Once the fountain of intellectual osmosis and progressive knowledge output, African universities are running the danger of becoming redundant because of failure to formulate educational frameworks that meet the needs of society.
WHAT is the real problem behind this maladjustment of universities churning out thousands of “fit for purpose” graduates who fail to productively assimilate into the economy? Is it just about the broader economic challenges being experienced in most African countries or it’s about the nature, form and content of the knowledge that is being imparted to students?
Indeed, what is the philosophy of education prevalent in most post-colonial universities in Africa?
Most academics and scholars are agreed that the major malaise affecting African universities is failure to evolve from a Western pedagogical framework of acquiring knowledge to an African philosophy based education, not only responsive to people’s needs, but also in tune with their cultural, social, political and economic sensibilities.
Prominent South African academic, Phillip Higgs lucidly places the dilemma of African universities in their failure to disentangle from educational frameworks that continue to desecrate on indigenous systems of acquiring and appropriating knowledge.
In a research paper titled “African philosophy and the transformation of educational discourse in South Africa,” published in the Journal of Education, No 30, 2003, Higgs asserts that: “The liberation of Africa and its people from centuries of racially discriminatory colonial rule and domination has far reaching implications for education thought and practice.
“(As such) the transformation of educational discourse in South (Africa) requires a philosophical framework that respects diversity, acknowledges lived experiences and challenges the hegemony of Western forms of universal knowledge.”
The South African academic further contends that African philosophy as a system of knowledge(s) can provide a useful philosophical framework for the construction of empowering knowledge that will enable communities in South (Africa) to participate in their own educational system.
The ultimate role of this philosophical body as alluded to by Higgs is viewed as being able to generate a new foundation and social fabric with the capacity to harness ethos and intellectual production among African people as agents of their own humanity and collective progress.
In unpacking the dilemma confronting African universities, the analysis must be conscious of the fact that all over the world, universities are places where knowledge is internalised, questioned and considered.
What then is the crux that lies beneath the failure of African universities in responding to the social, political and economic challenges of the day?
It must be noted that knowledge is not pursued just for its end. Any university must be conscious of the need to produce knowledge that impacts positively on society.
Particularly worrisome in Africa is the apparent dis-juncture between what universities purport to do and what happens in society.
That is why the likes of Higgs and others like Yusuf Waghid — a distinguished Professor of Philosophy of Education at Stellenbosch University in South Africa are convinced that the only way out of the current quagmire is the wholesale adoption of an African philosophy of education.
What is this African philosophy of education?
According to Higgs and Prof Waghid an African philosophy of education is one based on the notion of Ubuntu, which is education guided by communitarian, reasonable and culture depended action.
Derived from the Nguni proverb “Umuntu ngumntu ngabantu” — meaning a person depends on others just as much as others depend on him or her or “I am because we are.”
An African philosophy of education is not only concerned with the validity of a story, but with the procedure in which the story is narrated — the clarity and argumentation that will present reasons for one’s views.
While these may not always appeal to the understanding of those who listen, or listeners might contest the logic of the narrations, the existence and proliferation of these beliefs must be understood within the context of a particular life world.
The African philosophy of education emphasises interpersonal engagement and contestation and distillation of ideas.
It is not an individualistic impassive pursuit of knowledge for its sake. It is symbolically represented by a circle in which each member is an equal contributor to the discourse.
Far from being abstract, an African philosophy of education derives its relevance in dealing with everyday life challenges ranging from hunger, famine, poverty, violence and the exclusion of the other.
In reality, the African philosophy of education empowers a learner with the relevant tools for dealing with life vagaries and not just being instruments for the job market.
Students are not just imbibers of knowledge, but are equipped with the ability to initiate new modes of existence through various inventions that assist in improving the quality of life.
As illustrated by Prof Waghid, African philosophy of education’s goal is to bridge the pseudo-dichotomy between theory and practice.
The claim that African philosophy merely theorises is therefore mere conjecture given the fact it’s actually embedded with an energy and drive to change undesirable situations and conditions.
Indeed, it is difficult to delink thinking from acting.
Any acceptable theory on education must out of necessity infuse positive education practices that take shape through autonomous thinking, engagement and freedom made visible through deliberation.
An African philosophy of education permits inquirers to look at how education practices; teaching learning, managing and governing universities on the continent can be made more pragmatic.
It is regrettable that most African universities have remained stuck with colonially imposed frameworks that are proving irrelevant and mentally distorts scholars’ perception of themselves and their relation to the environment.
Any university striving to become a credible knowledge producer ought to be responsive to the needs of a society within which it is located.
Being responsive to the needs of the society does not entail producing “mechanical” engineers, doctors, scientists. It entails moulding scholars who are holistic and are imbued with a clear understanding and appreciation of who they are in relation to their immediate and external environment.
Zimbabwean scholar Dr Tafataona Mahoso taunts the emphasis on producing “mechanical” graduates who are out of sync with the African philosophy on education.
Calling for wisdom at higher institutions of learning, Dr Mahoso advances his arguments by way of an elaborate narration in the Patriot newspaper of April 21, 2016.
Quoting Professor Tarek H Hassan’s paper titled “The Current Crisis of Medicine and Science and the Place of Music” Dr Mahoso said the renowned medical scientist and surgeon from Egypt had risen in his own country, Europe and North America to become trainer of trainers of medical doctors had to realise that so-called modern science and medicine had reached a dead-end.
Dr Mahoso quotes Prof Hassan saying: “The totality that science disintegrates and fixes for study, measurement, description and observation and then cannot re-integrate the parts into the whole and certainly not into a living whole keeps emerging as a continuous reminder to science of its limits and limitations
“For the wise men this totality is a continuous source of learning, admiration, respect and insight. It is (however) a continuous threat and humiliation to arrogant scientists who refuse the humility of wisdom.”
According to Dr Mahoso, what first shocked Prof Hassan’s European and North American audiences was the fact that he was a Western-trained Egyptian scientist of Arabic extraction recommending ancient African relational philosophy and science as a solution to the crisis of ‘modern’ science and medicine in general and to the training of medical doctors in particular.
Dr Mahoso asserts that Prof Hassan was able to demonstrate that he could improve the performance of medical doctors in the real world of medical practice by changing the medical school curriculum to include painting, the playing of music instruments and the learning of any arts which enhanced the trainee doctor’s capacity to listen, observe the minutest movements and actions of others in order to co-ordinate one’s own movements and actions with theirs to achieve a common goal.
Prof Hassan learned of this integration of clinical medicine with music and arts therapy by studying ancient African health and medical philosophy from the age of Aknaton, 5 000 years ago.
Dr Mahoso is convinced that the underlying principle to this approach was that of African relational philosophy and science as opposed to Eurocentric linear philosophy and science.
Highlighting the shortcomings of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) programme and the 2011 directive to make PhD degrees a mandatory requirement for tenure — track university lectureships, Dr Mahoso, the two programmes represent isolated prescriptions without diagnosis.
He argues that it is not clear what real time, real community and real society problems were intended to be solved by the two programmes and doubts whether there was any research evidence obtained to relate problems to the proposed prescription and how the prescription was to administered in Harare, Bulawayo, Mutare and Gweru as well as in Muzarabani, Chiredzi, Gokwe, Mwenezi and Chipinge.
“If one traces the origins of the projects or programmes, it becomes obvious that they did not start from any scientific research and observation carried out on the ground, which research led to and guided the design of the prescription.
“Rather, they started from modelling after a visit or visits to other countries. Worse still, some of the projects arose from donor-sponsored funding proposals and from foreign books and modules,” writes Dr Mahoso.
He posits that a university system which is an organic manifestation of higher learning and intellect within and for its society would be expected to respond strategically and creatively to these internal and external opportunities, challenges and changes.
Dr Mahoso’s summation of the dilemma confronting African universities is encapsulated in his contention that the question for higher education is not why the Bushman has not yet reached Mars, but why SADC has not yet built the equivalent of the US land-grant university in the Kalahari and Namib deserts so that the people of the region may obtain maximum benefit from the indigenous science of the Khoisan and the Dobe San.
“If the white racist academics sees nothing in the Kalahari or Namib deserts, how and why did the ‘Bushmen’ sustain life for millennia on ‘nothing’,” he says.
Dr Mahoso’s views are shared by Professor Ali Abdi, the Somalia born academic currently the Head of the Department of Educational Studies at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
In “The False Promise of the Digital Revolution — How computers transform education, work, and international development in ways that are ecologically unsustainable” published in 2014, Prof Abdi writes about “Deconstructing the colonial and reconstructing the indigenous” saying: “. . . in the history of the extensively colonised Africa, the imposition of European philosophies and theories of knowledge, complemented by the denial of that the ancient continent had any philosophy, philosophy of education, other coherent thought systems, has perhaps done as much damage as any other project of imperial enterprise.”
Prof Abdi maintains that one of the main plunderers of the post-colonial elite has been continuation of colonial philosophies and epistmologies as the main defines of education and development in the continent.
It is the same post-colonial elites who have become inverted mirrors of Western Eurocentric identity who unfortunately continue to shepherd the new generation of undergraduates who also hate everything about themselves.
But maybe instead of blaming those managing African institutions particularly their failure to appreciate the essence of the African philosophy on education, one might need to also look at whether the post-colonial environment itself is building capacity for its universities to produce relevant graduates.
It is not in doubt that institutions of higher learning need to be centres of policy making and development.
Universities need to sell their ideas to policy makers, but what is there to sell if the ideas are largely irrelevant to post-colonial challenges.
There is serious need for adjustments informed and sharpened by the African philosophy on education in how univer- sities produce knowledge, so that they don’t become small islands in Africa where knowledge production is tangential to the needs of the continent.
Those managing African universities need to emancipate themselves from rustic colonial hangovers and start situating the production of knowledge within Africa philosophy.
The fundamentality of African philosophy as the panacea to the current maladjustment lies in that it is the only framework that can contribute to the transformation of educational discourse in philosophy of education in Africa.
This is so because African philosophy respects diversity, acknowledges lived experience and challenges the hegemony of Western Eurocentric forms of universal knowledge.
Conclusively, African philosophy of education is critical in that it contributes to construction of empowering knowledge that will enable communities in Africa to participate in their own educational development.