‘Homecoming’ celebrates vast potential of academic diaspora

Tertiary education institutions across the African continent can benefit by tapping into the vast experience of the African diaspora through various means, including the exchange of teachers, research, public service and mentorship programmes, Ghana President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has said.

Addressing the opening of the African Academic Diaspora Virtual Homecoming conference 2020 organised by the Association of African Universities (AAU) in Accra, Akufo-Addo said African diaspora academics represent “a huge asset for the continent in meeting the challenges of African higher education,” and they can use the exchanges of “teaching, research, public service, faculty exchanges, mentorship programmes, knowledge transfer [and] intellectual remittances” to overcome the shortcomings that exist.

The three-day conference from 28-30 September brought together higher institutions across the continent and academics of African descent in the diaspora.

The president said diaspora academics have become “indispensable players in Africa’s rapidly growing and increasingly diversified education sector” and urged the AAU “to serve as a central coordinating platform to build stronger synergies among all academics for the benefit of all persons of African descent and mankind in general”.

He added that Africa, with an estimated population of 1.3 billion people, has the world’s most youthful population which, if well harnessed, would be the world’s game changer in the foreseeable future.

AAU as a platform for engagement

“But to fully tap into and exploit all the continent’s available resources – human, material or financial – for sustainable development calls for a concerted effort of all strategic stakeholders, and this is where the Association of African Universities has carved a niche for itself throughout its 53 years of existence in serving as the platform for such fruitful engagements,” he said.

Akufo-Addo said the AAU, unperturbed by the limited mobility and limitations imposed by the outbreak of COVID-19, had proved its mettle as a mobiliser of Africa’s human resources by assembling seasoned academics and educational stakeholders from across the globe to the virtual conference under the broader theme “Advancing African and Diaspora Academic Relations”.

He said the conference also complements the successes of the “Year of Return” programme initiated by the government of Ghana and the US-based Adinkra Group, and formally launched in Washington DC in September 2018 to encourage Africans in the diaspora to settle and invest in the continent.

“In their 400-year history beyond the shores of Africa, persons of African descent have played transformative roles in all endeavours of life including sports, creative arts, academia, research and innovation, while at the same time maintaining a strong cultural identity with Mother Africa,” Akufo-Addo said.

Financial might and human capital

The African diaspora, he said, has tremendous potential as a source of financial might and human capital, adding that, according to the records of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), one-third of Africa’s human capital is in the diaspora.

“Their annual remittances to the continent are worth billions of US dollars. The ‘Year of Return’, which was marked in 2019, commemorated not only 400 years of the first batch of African slaves to the Americas but, more importantly, also recognised and celebrated diaspora achievements and sacrifices in the time since that fateful event,” Akufo-Addo said.

He called for the strengthening of engagement of the diaspora beyond North America to include South America, the Caribbean, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Australia.

Akufo-Addo said African academic institutions, particularly in the tertiary sub-sector, must increase cooperation and collaboration among themselves as well as pursue North-South and South-South cooperation, especially with historically black colleges and universities and universities in the Caribbean and South America. “The dictates of the ever-changing 21st century knowledge-driven digitised economy calls for such collaborations,” he said.

AAU Secretary General Etienne Ehouan Ehile said that, since its inception, the AAU has been the leading advocate for higher education in Africa with the capacity to assist its member organisations in meeting national and continental needs. “This is achieved through enhancing the quality and relevance of higher education in Africa and strengthening its contribution to African development,” he added.

Ehile said, as part of its strategy to build a closer relationship with and among its member universities and other stakeholders, the AAU has established regional offices in Africa and the diaspora. A North America office established in October 2019 had built a strong partnership between the North American and African academic communities. “Homecoming” was a testament to that partnership, he said.