African Academia Research Articles

Exploring a framework to manage bullying in South African academia: Human resources perspective

Exploring a framework to manage bullying in South African academia: Human resources perspective

The perilous path: reimagining promotion and tenure in African academia.

The current scientific publication architecture and business models are structured to privilege high-impact Western journals. This has been perpetuated in academia and by funding agencies, where a researcher´s value is often measured by the number of publications and where these papers are published. However, the current system renders journals from low- and middle-income countries, including African journals, largely invisible. Indeed, it is important to answer the fundamental question of why we conduct research. Most would argue that research is only ethically grounded if its core purpose is to create impact and improve lives. There is compelling evidence that the time lag from evidence generation to translation into policy is about 17 years. There is no evidence that publishing in a high-impact journal is more likely to create an impact. Indeed, the move by many universities away from using the impact factor as a measure of academic value is increasingly welcomed. It has become critical to redefine and restructure academic merit. In this essay, we will explore the Afro-centric dimensions of the publish-or-perish rhetoric and its impact on tenure in African academia. We argue that context-relevant and alternative metrics are needed to redefine academic merit, as well as the intentionality of African governments and universities to invest in, trust, and value their own journals as non-negotiables in giving African journals the visibility and trust they deserve. We present an African Population and Health Research Centre (APHRC) approach, supported by the Gates Foundation, intentional in decolonizing the global publication space, and clearly aligns with its mission of improving lives in Africa through research.

The State and Development in Africa

Colonisation obstructed the internal process of state formation and development in Africa and left legacies of authoritarianism, corruption and political instability. Embodied in the post-colonial state and sustained by foreign aid, these colonial legacies constitute the main obstacles to development in postcolonial Africa. The only way to liberate Africa and ensure its progress is athree-stage process involving the repudiation of foreign aid, the restructuring of territorial boundaries in accordance with African realities, and the formation of an African continental government. The African academia should be in the vanguard of African liberation by educating and mobilising the populace.

Overcoming a legacy of racial discrimination: competing policy goals in South African academia

AbstractBecause discrimination is systemic, efforts to counter it must also be systemic. The South African case is instructive because it is extreme: Apartheid deliberately excluded the majority of the population, Black South Africans, from fully participating in society, but post-Apartheid efforts to achieve transformation have had limited success. This article examines the university system, where transformation involves increasing the size of the system; improving scientific quality and changing the racial composition. This will require more Black South Africans to do PhDs, to select academic careers and to be selected into the top universities. Policy interventions can be developed for each of these elements, but will they be complementary or contradictory? We simulate a calibrated model to address this question. Results reveal direct trade-offs, with different combinations resulting in different benefits. By highlighting the differential gains of different policy combinations, this article can support informed policy-making about a highly complex issue.

Academic Staff Strengths of Postgraduate Training Programs in Pharmacology in the USA Pre- and during Covid-19 Pandemic - A Cue for Capacity Building in Pharmacological and other Programs in Nigerian Universities.

Structure and function go hand in hand for program success. For the training of pharmacologists, this is also true. A component of structure is academic staff strength. We wanted to know the total academic staff strength of programs and departments in American universities that run training programs in pharmacology at post graduate level in order to inform development in Nigerian and other African academia. Through departmental and program webpages, we mined data on academic staff of departments running graduate programs leading to PhD Pharmacology in the USA. All the data were mined within 96 hours of starting the investigation in 2016 and again in 2021 and were studied using descriptive statistics. There were a total of 25 such programs listed by the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (ASPET) website. From the descriptive statistics, the programs were not identical and varied in their staff compositions by numbers. A total of 1,993 academic staff members in 2016 and 2,042 academic staff members in 2021 were serving the 25 graduate pharmacology programs collectively. Notably more than 25% and less than 50% of the three categories of professorial cadre were non-pharmacology PhD holders. From the composite data of 2016 and 2021, mean staff per program were: 23 professors, 13 associate professors, and 15 assistant professors per program with 2 each of adjunct staff in the categories of professor, associate professors, and assistant professor. Also composite average per program were 5 joint staff, 3 postdoctoral fellows, 4 emeritus professors, and 11 various researchers. A pattern of top heavy majority of professors was derived from both the 2016 and 2021 investigations. Post docs, miscellaneous researchers, joint staff, and emeritus professors formed a dynamic pool. In totality, staffing of the 25 graduate pharmacology programs in the USA in 2016 and in 2021 were top - heavy experience and expert laden with the professorial cadre, diversified, and depicted dynamism during COVID-19 pandemic. KEY WORDS: academic staff, staff strength, USA universities, Nigerian universities, pharmacology, PhD program.

Cultural studies in South Africa, or not

This contribution to the International Journal of Cultural Studies' ongoing series ponders cultural studies’ relative failure to retain a presence in South African academia today, suggesting that local and historical mis/uses of the notion of culture may have some impact on how it has been received in this particular context.

Women’s refusal of racial patriarchy in South African academia

ABSTRACT This paper explores the career experiences of women academics at three South African universities. To understand the experiences of women academics, we conducted an intersectional interrogation of the politics and practices of belonging in departmental cultures. The sample consisted of thirty women academics whose interviews were analysed through a discursive thematic frame. We found that while all participants experienced gender-based discrimination which hinders academic progression, the barriers experienced by black women academics are compounded by the intersections of race, gender, and motherhood. Patriarchal and racist institutional, disciplinary and departmental cultures served as further challenges to belonging. On the other hand, through counter storytelling and refusal, women created alternative spaces of sociality where suffering co-exists with pleasure, refusal and survival. Ultimately, the paper suggests refusal as a generative theoretical lens to surface the complexity of women academics.

Developmental consequences of identity-driven African studies

In this article, we show how scholarly insistence on the preservation of a certain African tradition, heritage, or identity, inhibits agentic reflections and actions in response to contemporary developmental needs of African societies. This article attempts to answer this question: Of what use are the traditions, heritages and identities if they only enhance a sense of continental and cultural pride but do not enhance well-being, nor contribute to solving global human challenges? We argue that there is nothing special about traditional precolonial societies in Africa, except that: (i) they were traditional as different from modern; and (ii) they were precolonial. But they were not the only societies that had these features. Many scholars have ignored these facts because of a desire to emphasise Africa’s uniqueness in the face of, for instance, what is termed epistemic violence. We highlight three anti-development consequences of this approach for African studies. First, it normalises the marketisation of the knowledge-making process in Africa. Second, it justifies Wahbie Long’s submission that something is seriously wrong with African academia. Third, it inhibits agentic reflections and actions in response to the contemporary needs of African societies.

7 - Diaspora Collaboration and Knowledge Production in Africa: Reflections on Caveats and Opportunities

Irrespective of its conceptualisation, diaspora contributes to the development of the homelands through diverse forms of collaboration. The increase in remittances and diaspora involvement in fostering democratic values are obvious examples. A new emphasis, however, is on developing the African academia through various forms of partnership and collaboration between diaspora-based and African-based academics. A number of initiatives, funding opportunities and research partnerships to this effect are emerging. Nevertheless, these partnerships are complex and do not always translate into win-win situations, especially for institutions and academics in the global South. In this article, I reflect on some personal experiences in research collaborations as part of the diaspora and as an African-based academic. In so doing, three possible caveats in maximising the gains of diaspora partnerships in knowledge production are highlighted. I argue that while opportunities for knowledge collaboration abound, ensuring a sustainable win-win relationship in diaspora partnerships demands careful introspection at every turn.

The black female body: Representation of the erotic in contemporary visual art in Africa

Black sexual politics and its interaction with the eroticized female body in African art are still surprisingly underexplored topics in African academia (“African” not “Africanist”, to follow the distinction made by Jones in “African Scholarship, Eurocentricism and the Politics of Knowledge”). This gap is curious given the surge of contemporary African artists utilizing erotic imagery generated through 18th-century scientific racism, and its perpetuation in the imperialist epistemic structures of institutions — such as museums — in the centuries following. An icon such as Sara Baartman, the South African Khoikhoi woman exhibited at European freak shows in the early 1800s, is a poignant example of haunting images that represent the spectacular denigration of the black female body. Moreover, historically, the artistic canon has often given the perception of the black woman’s body as grotesque, animalistic, systematically subordinate, or fetishized. However, through artwork, the same body that was once unsightly has become a call to arms, suggesting that instead of continued victimization, black women wield the ‘erotic’ body as a resistance tool. African female artists are engaging with themes of eroticism and sexuality as inextricably entangled with historical violence and trauma through performance, live art, and painting. This article aims to interrogate the use of the erotic as a mechanism to navigate the complex terrain of post-colonial identities, power, and the abiding historical ‘weight’ of the colonial archive. To accomplish this, it will present several fundamental arguments that feed into black feminist interrogations of the body including a meditation on body politics and gender being rewritten into the colonial paradigm. Through the examination of the work of two prominent artists — Tracey Rose and Lady Skollie of South Africa — the author synthesizes various representations of the erotic, coupled with how it engages with issues of history and reappropriation of the black female form. Using Baartman as a guiding symbol, this article will argue that contrary to its previous confinements as an overly policed trope, the black female body is charged with an artistic power that explodes, leaks, and subverts the historical narrative, making it a constantly evolving archetype in contemporary visual art.

Higher Education and Skills Development in Africa: An Analytical Paper on the Role of Higher Learning Institutions on Sustainable Development

Many Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in Africa face challenges that require the intervention of national governments, development partners and other stakeholders. HEIs also require new investment paradigms to maximize students’ acquisition of work-ready skills, knowledge and attitudes to enable students to contribute effectively to the workforce. The objective of this study was to identify reforms and investments needed to strengthen Higher Education (HE) in Africa and to inform the design and implementation of future investments and policy for sustainable development. A systematic review approach, involving a synthesis of literature on this theme in Africa in recent years, by African governments, education networks, academia and international bodies, was employed. The study used data from UNESCO and World Bank databases which were blended with the synthesis of the literature. The obtained literature was analysed and synthesized on the basis of its relevance and value to the HEIs study discourse. Textual and thematic analysis tookcentre stage with a view to establishing current reforms in HEIs and the concomitant investments that national governments and other key stakeholders need to make to have robust HEIs. The study used the Human Capital Theory that postulates that the most efficient path to the national development of any society lies in the improvement of its population, which is considered as the human capital. Despite criticisms of the human capital theory at the individual level on the extent to which education is directly related to improvements in occupation or income, human capital theorists generally assume that after all the known inputs into economic growth have been explained, much of the unexplained residual variance represents the contribution of the improvement of human capital, of which education is seen as most important (Merwe, 2010). The results of the study show that HEIs have done very little to promote Intra-Africa Academic Mobility and nurture HEI-industry partnerships to address demand and supply aspects of the labour force. The massification of higher education, resulting in a democratization of education, and the advent of the knowledge economy and globalization, among other factors, are being experienced without commensurate planning and with no corresponding accompanying increase in resources to enable the HEIs cope with the increased student population. HEIs in Africa are sub-optimally capacitated to combat Africa’s pressing challenges such as unemployment, climate change and COVID-19 pandemic. The study points out that HEIs need to evolve in tandem with continental and global market needs to achieve Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) number 4 on quality education. Further, it recommends that HEIs should encourage Intra-Africa Academic Mobility and foster HEI-industry partnerships to address demand-and-supply aspects of the labour force. In this respect, HEIs in Africa should be developing curricula aimed at building capacity of leaders and professionals to respond to the need to decarbonize and dematerialize development in Africa and leverage on the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Consequently, HEIs must prepare students to be entrepreneurial and resilient; able to continue to learn and reinvent themselves and their careers throughout their lives. Indeed, HEIs should view themselves as creative hubs where partners come together and harness each other’s synergy to innovate and solve societal problems.

Politics and Community-based Research: perspectives from Yeoville Studio, Johannesburg ed. by Claire Bénit-Gbaffou et al

Reviewed by: Politics and Community-based Research: perspectives from Yeoville Studio, Johannesburg ed. by Claire Bénit-Gbaffou et al Paul Jenkins Claire Bénit-Gbaffou, Kirsten Dörmann, Sarah Charlton, Sophie Didier (eds) (2019) Politics and Community-based Research: perspectives from Yeoville Studio, Johannesburg. Johannesburg: Wits UP. This quite recent publication (2019) from Wits University Press is based on a ‘City Studio’ undertaken by the School of Architecture and Planning at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in the three-year period 2010 to 2012. Originally planned as two separate books, it was eventually edited into one quite long publication (circa 400 pages) and published some considerable time later. Only available in hardback, while it is relatively accessible in South Africa (R550) it is – like so many limited-edition academic books these days – expensive elsewhere (eg £78 though Amazon UK, at almost three times the recommended South African price). This mention of the book’s cost is relevant to its potential readership, as it would be most likely to be of interest to academics working with communities (especially in South Africa), as well as community organisations and/or NGOs working with academia. While the former could benefit from library purchases, the latter are much less likely to access the book’s content in its current published form.1 This then leads to query: why produce a book with such a community focus? The editors’ declared objective is to examine the objectives, processes and (to a limited extent) the results of academic engagement – and it is explicitly a review from the university’s viewpoint, even more so, primarily that of the editors. The material is authored by 24 different people (four of whom are also the editors) – half of the authors being academic staff and half were students (at Masters or PhD level) at the time of the studio. Two [End Page 118] contacts, the others all at Wits University at the time (eight were based at the host School). Of the 28 chapters, the editors are involved in 16, and the lead editor (who also directed the studio) in 12 of these – including individually authoring the principal introductory and review chapters. There is thus a quite narrow authorial and editorial focus. Some authors, of course, have moved on since the studio was completed some eight years ago, and the relatively long time delay from studio implementation to book publications does show through in the text, which was generally not updated closer to publication date. That this was perhaps inevitable given time constraints from all involved is understandable, but with fast changing community politics it again reinforces the academic focus of the book project (and also to some extent, doubtless, the result of academic pressure to publish). Here is perhaps the moment to state the reviewer’s personal engagement with/awareness of the project. As a visiting professor at the School of Architecture and Planning at Wits University from 2010–2013, this brought an awareness of the studio through invitations to go along to at least one event in the area – but more so, the reviewer was appointed as head of the School in late 2013, stepping back to a part-time professorship in late 2018 and retiring a year later from academia. As such he was involved in the resource manage-ment issues for the City Studios which came subsequent to Yeoville, and also aware of the struggle for publication of this book by School staff. During this term as head of School there was no other direct involvement; however, the role did provide an understanding of the possibilities and constraints for how such community-based research can be accommodated within South African academia. The reviewer also has personally had extensive experience of community-based work, both professionally and academically, mostly in Portuguese-speaking Africa and UK academia – concerning planning and architecture issues – which also provides a wider context for this review. This included extensive action research, NGO training and community engagement (including in South Africa during the transition 1993–1996) of what has been termed ‘spatial agency’, which also has relevance for this review. Returning to the stated objectives of the book, according to the lead editor and...

Re-imagining Africanisation of sustainable epistemologies and pedagogies in (South) African higher education: A conceptual intervention

This article aims to foreground the conceptual premise that (South) African academia should be the hub of Afrocentric knowledge production, both at theoretical and practical levels, through the efficacy of both “academic” and “non-academic” intellectuals. We further argue that these intellectuals, undergirded by epistemic desires for organic knowledge production, should be considered germane in the process of Africanising (South) African academia. The Afrocentricity theory, Antonio Gramsci’s (1971) and Syed Hussein Alatas’ (1977) conceptualisation of intellectuals serve as lynchpins for the conceptual forte of this article.

Exploring an Unmapped Physical Culture Landscape in Colonial South Africa

Physical culture is a health and strength training movement that originated during the 19th century. This area of study has been neglected within the South African context. This was because the dominant view in South African academia, expressed by the physical educationist, Claude Smit, centred around an entrenched belief that physical culturists regarded strong muscles as the sole outcome of physical activity. Therefore, Smit argued, they only concerned themselves with the physical aspects of physiology and anatomy without taking into account any educational principles. Further, its main concern was with programmes of physical training, sold to the broader public, on the pretext that it had certain health benefits. 1 This study shows otherwise and that physical culture in circus, theatres and Eugen Sandow’s visit to South Africa was part of a (mostly invisible) web between pedagogy, entertainment and colonial prejudices.

Adopting social media as an information system – a case study of an internet service company in Abuja, Nigeria

Purpose In considering the ubiquity of information systems (ISs) and the increasingly important role served in modern business and service delivery, social media if properly leveraged gives potential competitive advantage to a company in its respective industry. With Paramount Web Nigeria Ltd. as a case study, this paper aims to focus on the important aspects of adopting social media as an IS such as data privacy principles and the role of social media in the context of a small internet service company. Design/methodology/approach Relevant research information was relied upon to highlight the various factors involved with adopting social media as an IS. Findings Data handling and privacy policies must also be considered and properly devised if the concerned company is to effectively adopt social media as an IS. Decision-making tools such as SWOT analysis and the quality triangle are vital during the planning stages of deploying an IS. Research limitations/implications Research papers on aspects of social media as an IS especially in West African academia has been lacking. The challenge is in contextual information related to similar topics. Practical implications Findings detailed in this paper will serve to provide a better understanding of the important factors to be considered when adapting a new IS to an existing business. Originality/value This paper serves to highlight the potential factors to be considered when dealing with business ISs with a strong focus on social media and internet related services.

The use of tense and aspect in isiZulu and English by isiZulu L1/English L2 speakers: An empirical investigation

ABSTRACT Past research indicates that the acquisition and subsequent usage of tense/aspect markings by second language (L2) speakers pose particular challenges. Such challenges may emanate, inter alia, from differences in the tense/aspect systems of a L2 speaker’s two languages. This article compares and contrasts the use of tense and aspect in isiZulu and English by isiZulu L1/ English L2 speakers. We conducted an empirical intra-individual study among first-year mechanical engineering students enrolled for a communication skills module at a university of technology. The participants produced two written reports on a hypothetical series of events which culminated in an imaginary laboratory accident. We investigate how similarities and differences between English and isiZulu manifest in the written reports of each student. The qualitative, intra-individual data analysis indicates that our participants carefully position the events on a linear timeline and that they encode the chronological succession of these events in detail in their L1. In contrast, these abilities are less apparent in the L2. Here, the chronological order of events is less clear because the students tend to ‘simplify’ the available L2 tense/aspect system; in particular, they seem to avoid the English inflectional morphology ‘-en’ (aux+ -en). Thus, English L2 students may be supported by (1) allowing space for the L1 to impact on the learning of the L2, and by (2) engaging students through custom-made, contextualised simulation activities that reinforce the use of English tense and aspect. Furthermore, our research supports transformative language policies and a promotion of African languages inside and outside academia.

Necessity of Restructuring the China-Africa Education Cooperation to Leverage the Fastest-Growing Economic Ties

Study Focus: This article put forward the necessity of rebalancing the China-Africa Fastest-Growing Economic Ties with a Leveraged Education Cooperation as well as the necessity of restructuring the actual patterns of China-Africa Education Cooperation. Methodology: The content of this paper relies on written documents (including books, scientific journals, articles, and official reports) from primary and secondary sources most of which are available online as well as on the author’s teaching experience in Chinese and African Universities. Findings: 1) “Business” but not "Education” remains the top driver of the China-Africa cooperation. Therefore, it is noteworthy questioning the share of fundamental areas of cooperation such as Education and Culture that should pioneer and propel sustainable partnerships. 2) African countries seem disadvantaged in the actual patterns of China-Africa Education Cooperation. There is a need to restructure the cooperation on education and improve the overall image of China and Africa Cooperation. 3) The Chinese Study of Africa and the African Study of China are not contemporary stories, but a continuous course of very old history that can be traced back before the Christian era and should be further promoted in today’s modern academia. 4) From a theoretical basis to a scientific methodology, from institutionalized frameworks to government policies, an epistemic assessment of China by the African academic circles is of urgent need. The African scholarship should have its de-westernized appraisal of China and vice-versa. 5) Up to now, there is no genuine African Sinology in African academic curriculums. A sort of Africa-centered study of China that fulfills traditional discipline criteria must be put in place in today's African Academia. Conclusion & Suggestions: In brief, there is a real necessity of rebalancing the China-Africa fastest-growing economic ties with leveraged education cooperation and reforms. It is for Chinese and African scholars a sole duty to brainstorm new patterns of cooperation, and so paves new ways for an in-depth study and understanding of China and Africa. Moreover, a genuine African Sinology that uses a socio-scientific methodology to critically examine and investigate China, understands the Chinese spirit by all means and draw the benefits for the interests of African people must take place in African education curriculums. For that purpose, the present article proposes the terminology “Afrisinology” as a new paradigm to approach the African Study of China in African academia. Keywords: African Studies, Sinology, “Afrisinology”, China-Africa Education Cooperation. DOI: 10.7176/JAAS/62-03 Publication date: March 31 st 2020

South African AIDS Activism, Art and Academia: A Memoir from the 2000s

This memoir from the 2000s reflects on the role of AIDS activism and research in the struggle for antiretroviral treatment both globally and in South Africa. It draws on personal experiences and touches on the Long Life body-mapping project to discuss the challenges posed by stigma and notions of masculinity that undermine access to treatment for men.

The Coming of a Perfect Storm? "Forced Privatisation" and Precarious Labour in South African Academia

The Coming of a Perfect Storm? "Forced Privatisation" and Precarious Labour in South African Academia

Building capacity or enforcing normalcy? Engaging with disability scholarship in Africa

ABSTRACTIn contemporary South African academia, “community engagement” is a valued commodity. My work as a nondisabled white man with disability activists and as editor of the African Journal of Disability is viewed as good for my career, and as an appropriate form of engagement and empowerment. In this article, I engage critically with the question of the extent to which capacity building is simply about increasing capacity. I ask whether capacity building inevitably involves elements of disavowal of the experience and competencies of less powerful people. I compare capacity building to the enforcement of normalcy, a process which disability scholars criticize with justification. I ask whether it is possible in unequal social contexts to engage with the politics of voice without imposing a hegemonic narrative on nondominant voices. I suggest links between the politics of engaged scholarship and processes of domestication of troubling bodies and minds.