AFRICA: Building the next generation of leaders

University of Cape Town Vice-chancellor Max Price lamented the dearth of student activism, at the inaugural African Student Leaders' Summit held in the city from 6-10 September. The aim of bringing student representatives from across the continent together, he said, was to contribute to the rise of the next generation of leaders, who will help develop solution's to Africa's many challenges and take advantages of its significant opportunities.

The summit was attended by more than 80 student representatives from 23 universities in 10 African countries. They were there to focus, as the summit website suggests, on "African issues, African problems and, above all, charting the way forward for African solutions".

The event was a collaboration between the students' representative council (SRC) and the department of student affairs at the University of Cape Town, in partnership with the universities of Fort Hare, Western Cape and the Witwatersrand.

Selection of student participants was based on their leadership track record and passion for Africa, with consideration also for gender equity to encourage female participation.

Price said most student struggles today were centred on personal desires and individualised freedoms, with a shift away from a broader activism that groomed people for future leadership. He argued that the student movement has become apathetic and that rather than being "cause for consolation" students have become "cause for concern".

With specific reference to South Africa Price, who was president of the SRC at the University of Witwatersrand (Wits) in the last 1970s, said real student movements had evaporated after the coming of democracy in 1994, after which most people thought there was no need for a protest movement.

He suggested that students have "the ability and space to find out more about society" and the privilege, duty and opportunity to be involved in and organise social movements - especially on campuses, where there are many people.

Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh, of the SRC at the University of Cape Town, said the summit could deepen the process of participatory democracy in Africa and help to develop a new brand of African leadership.

Pointing to massive problems associated with anticipated population growth - such as the provision of accommodation, feeding people and security concerns - University of the Western Cape Vice-chancellor Professor Brian O'Connell said current university students were the most important generation South Africa had ever had, because they have the power to determine the future of society - if they crack solutions to the continent's problems.

An educator for the past 39 years, O'Connell said students had the role of questioning higher education leadership, producing better arguments and evidence to guide leadership, and contributing to discourse.

Wits Vice-chancellor Professor Loyiso Nongxa told the student leaders they must understand that the core mission of universities was to build intellectual capital to deal with the problems of the day. He said human capital translated into knowledge-based products was the challenge for Africa in the 21st century.

Nongxa - a renowned mathematician, the first black vice-chancellor of Wits and South Africa's first African Rhodes Scholar - said the abundance of natural resources did not necessarily lead to development in African countries. For this, the continent depended on the talents of its university graduates:

"We cannot rely on others for solutions to problems that are ours," he stressed.

Ayanda Mjekula, dean of students at the University of Fort Hare, told the summit that the role of higher education in furthering development was often hampered by the circumstance of being in a rural setting. Citing the case of his own university, he said universities were expected to perform desipte the absence of financial support.

Mjekula touched on the challenges of students from low-income families failing to pay fees, the absence of local industries for support and the fact that African universities underestimated their own potential and capacity, measuring themselves against foreign universities.

He said higher education should move away from the narrow mentality of dealing with issues on their own: there must be collaboration if solutions are to be found.

* Represented at the summit were: University of Botswana; from Ghana the University of Education, Winneba, Accra Polytechnic, University of Ghana, Islamic University College and Christian State University College; St Paul's University, Kenya; the University of Namibia; Niger Delta University and the Federal Polytechnic, Oko, Nigeria; University of Swaziland; University of Zimbabwe; El Nileen University in Sudan; and Makerere University and Christian University in Uganda, and from South Africa the universities of Cape Town, Western Cape, Wits, Fort Hare, Free state and Johannesburg.