ACADEMIC FREEDOM IN AFRICA: THE DUAL TYRANNY

Abstract

THE ISSUE OF academic freedom is a subject close to my heart. To some extent I am abroad because not enough academic freedom seemed to be immediately available to permit me to be myself at home. I would prefer to believe that the deterioration of certain freedoms in Africa is very temporary and that in fact, as we look at the next twenty-five years before the year 2000, we will be witnessing important changes for the better. In this article, however, I will concentrate on an interpretation of the situation as it exists. But first let us deal with a problem of definition. The elements which add up to academic freedom include relative freedom for universities and similar institutions to determine for themselves what they are going to teach; who is going to do the teaching and to some extent, who is going to be taught. This involves autonomy to shape the curriculum and syllabus, relative freedom to recruit teachers, and some freedom to admit students by criteria chosen by universities. Then there is freedom for scholars to decide research priorities and research methods, to publish their research findings, and to publicize their intellectual positions. Finally, there is general freedom of expression for teachers and students as a necessary intellectual infra-structure for mental development and intellectual creativity. I believe intellectual freedom in Africa is up against a dual tyranny. One-a domestic tyranny-the temptations of power facing those in authority at this particular stage of the history of our continent. This is the political tyranny of governments as yet insensitive to some of the needs of educational institutions. The other tyranny is to some extent external. It is the Eurocentrism of academic culture as we know it today-the degree to which the whole tradition of universities is so thoroughly saturated with European values, perspectives, and orientations. The very institution of the university became in our type of situation virtually a mechanism for the transmission of European culture to nonEuropean parts of the world. These then are two major tyrannies. Let us reflect on them, beginning with the external one. African universities are indeed instruments for the transmission of western culture, whether they were specifically intended to be so or not. The graduate we produce from Makerere or Ibadan or Dakar, is a human being who has moved substantially towards becoming a specimen of European tradition. All of us who have been educated