The paradox of African scholarship

As the educational world celebrates the 50th year since the publication of renowned Brazilian scholar and activist Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the oppressed, we are reminded of the three positions that he advocated as part of his significant contribution to transformative education: firstly, that people act autonomously whereby they think for themselves without always having to be told to do so; secondly, that people engage in dialogue about resolving societal dilemmas; and, thirdly, that people use their educational values responsibly to bring about lasting change in the world.

From my engagement with African higher educational studies over the past two decades, I have identified determined scholarly efforts on the part of Africans to articulate their thoughts about societal matters that affect them on the African continent. Most notably, Kwase Wiredu (2004) remains intent upon espousing an understanding of African scholarship that distances itself from views that prejudice an uncritical acceptance of Eurocentric thought; N’Dri Assié-Lumumba (2005) advocates a view of African scholarship that fuses Western and non-Western (or indigenous) understandings of knowledge; and Kwame Gyekye (1997) maintains that African scholarship ought to be independent yet communally contrived, as people ought to do things in association.

Yet, despite the ambitious and laudable articulations of Wiredu, Assié-Lumumba, Gyekye and several others on the African continent and in the diaspora, I have observed with interest the commitment of many to the cultivation of humanity on the continent, this gleaned from my study of the literature on African thought and practice and from my personal supervision of African doctoral candidates. This commitment is reflected quite persuasively in several theses as Africans, in particular, show a renewed interest in combating the multiple forms of inhumanity that often culminate in dystopias, such as the abuse of children in warfare, military dictatorships, human and drug trafficking, famine and poverty, and food insecurity.

The point that I am making is that African scholars have been very strong in undermining inhumanity despite visible pockets of human dilemmas still mushrooming on many parts of the continent, most noticeably the re-emergence of undemocratic forms of governance that undermine just human living and rational forms of engagement. The Arab Spring that emerged as a democratic movement of individuals collectively bound by a common interest to jettison political autocracies via the use of social media is a poignant example of human uprising against injustice on the continent. To my mind, Freire would have been proud of Africans as they endeavour to bring into disrepute and quell unjust ways of living and governance.

Similarly, the enthusiasm shown by many Africans to do things in association rather than to act selfishly and individually to address human concerns is most evidently reflected in their desire to act with ubuntu (human interdependence and dignity) and ukama (human relationality). And, as supported by several PhD studies, the quest for ubuntu and ukama is a corroboration that Africans are deeply concerned and that they are committed to doing things together, with one another. Of course, there might be limitations to the degree to which human interdependence and relationality have been enacted but this is not a denial of the quest for human coexistence, dignity and cooperation. In this regard, Freire would have been less critical of Africans who endeavour to do things with some sort of communality!

However, despite the claims of many Africans to indigeneity and communality, there has been a tangible reticence on their part to act with justifiable autonomy. Certainly, some of the scholars whom I have encountered during my academic sojourn have shown a reluctance to be courageous and vociferous in making their voices heard. Understandably, there are still visible traces of intolerance towards difference on the continent and the brain drain predicament, whereby many scholars leave the continent to ply their profession elsewhere, and these traces of intolerance can be considered as evidence of such indifference towards autonomous voices. However, if African scholarship does not show the kind of boldness espoused in the scholarly life of Freire – who actually did some work on the continent in the 1960s and 1970s – African higher education will lack the credibility and longevity that it deserves!

References

Assié-Lumumba, N.T. 2005. African higher education: From compulsory juxtaposition to fusion by choice – forgoing a new philosophy of education for social progress, in Waghid, Y. (ed.). African(a) philosophy of education – Reconstructions and deconstructions. Stellenbosch: Department of Education Policy Studies. 19˗53.

Gyekye, K. 1997. Tradition and modernity: Philosophical reflections on the African experience. New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Wiredu, K. (ed.). 2004. A companion to African philosophy. Oxford: Blackwell.

Biographical note

Yusef Waghid is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy of Education at Stellenbosch University in South Africa. His current writings focus on a defence of African pedagogy, as enunciated in a recent book co-authored with Faiq Waghid and Zayd Waghid, Rupturing African teaching and learning: Cultivating ubuntu education, and a co-edited collection with Nuraan Davids, African democratic citizenship education revisited.