African studies in an African university

Abstract

One would have supposed that the necessity for African studies as a university subject, especially in Africa, is beyond question. Yet, there exists a serious division of opinion amongst academics; not as to the need to study and understand African problems but as to how best to do this without upsetting the traditional academic applecart. Those who are doubtful about the validity of African studies as an academic discipline can marshal weighty arguments in support of their hesitation or opposition. They fear the consequences for the old and established disciplines of anthropology, sociology, history, geography, economics, if African studies were to emerge on its own, casting, as it were, a blurring shadow upon the edges of these disciplines. Would African studies emerge as a hybrid or an amalgam taking into its bosom some of the well-known aspects of these disciplines? It would, in any event, be unsatisfactory since a dabbling in such diverse disciplines cannot permit intensive study of any and so must fail to satisfy the canons of sound academic training. Or would African studies merely appear as the study of subjects relating to Africa as a geographical entity? How does one justify such a geographical organisation of studies? At best, it could only take the form of the application of certain disciplines to illumine Africa as a region of the world. If this were admissible, should one have this kind of African studies in Africa, especially as no one spoke of English studies, as such, in England until the emergence of the University of Sussex? After all, an African university cannot help but study Africa in the normal course of its university functions. Why make the whole a part, by distinguishing and separating African studies specially from the rest of the courses of study in a university? Viewed from the angle of research, the position is equally unsatisfactory to the sceptics about African studies. In an African university the various academic departments in the different faculties would, in the pursuance of their normal business, undertake research into their proper subjects be they mathematics or physics, English or French, anatomy or biochemistry and the important thing is that they should thereby contribute to the advancement of universally valid knowledge of the subject as