Controversial UCT professor quits
University distances itself from ‘racist’ research article
An academic accused of promoting racism through a research article he coauthored has resigned from the University of Cape Town (UCT) and removed his affiliation with the institution from the article in question.
Yesterday, the university confirmed that Professor Simplice Asongu tendered his resignation after a journal article he co-authored with Oasis Kodila-Tedika sparked controversy.
The study, which is titled Intelligence and Slave Exports from Africa, was published in the Journal of Interdisciplinary Economics. It makes a finding that countries with higher IQ levels were more likely to experience lower instances of slave exports from Africa.
“We postulate and justify a hypothesis that countries which are endowed with higher cognitive ability are more likely to experience lower levels of slave exports probably due to relatively better abilities to organise, corporate, oversee and confront slave vendors,” it states. Yesterday, UCT spokesperson Elijah Moholola said they distanced themselves from the content of the research paper. “The university views any research based on or proposing racial stereotypes as being contradictory to the university’s academic values and standards of scholarship. UCT rejects the assumptions of the paper and this line of research as bad science. It is in opposition to our commitment to academic excellence and an inclusive community,” Moholola said. He said they requested Asongu, who was affiliated to the development Finance Centre at the UCT Graduate School of Business, to remove his affiliation to the institution in the article.
“The study had not been submitted to the ethics committee of the Graduate School of Business and no other members of the school were involved in the research. The adjunct professor has since written to the journal withdrawing his relationship with UCT,” Moholola said. Asongu, a Cameroonian academic, had not responded to questions sent to him via e-mail by the time of publishing.