Party head attacks local academics

The president of the Botswana National Front, Duma Boko, attacked University of Botswana academics at the party’s conference last weekend, saying professors were failing the country and its people despite the massive investment that has been pumped into their PhDs, writes Sakarea Makgapha for The Botswana Gazette.

“Most of our PhDs are incoherent when they speak, and even more inarticulate when they write. I am not saying this because I know most of them personally and can speak to their lack of intellectual depth and vitality,” said the politician who used to teach law at the University of Botswana.

Boko said the BNF needed to encourage a culture of reading and inquiry to avoid being misled by a self-accredited army of ‘scholars’ and ‘analysts’ whose propaganda takes up newspaper space. “Proper analysis observes certain rules of logic, and in order to deserve our attention, it must be rigorous and enriching. Rootless academic trendiness does not wash. Serious intellectuals proffer solutions to society’s challenges; they do not sit in their nooks cursing the darkness,” he charged.
Full report on The Botswana Gazette site