Report warns that space for free flow of ideas is shrinking

Several African governments are restricting and curtailing the freedom of movement of academics and students through targeted actions, policies and practices that have frustrated the free flow of ideas, according to Scholars at Risk (SAR), a human rights network that roots for the protection of educators and academics globally and endorses the liberty of people to think, to question and to share ideas.

SAR released its annual flagship report, Free to Think 2021 on 9 December, which analyses violent attacks, detention, prosecution, killings and other threats impacting on higher education communities and academic freedom around the world. In Africa, Nigeria, South Africa and Zimbabwe have been mentioned.

According to Clare Robinson, the advocacy director at SAR, Free to Think 2021 covered the period between 1 September 2020 and 31 August 2021 and highlighted incidents of violent attacks in the university space, the use of force against students and travel restrictions.

Some African countries, where attacks on scholars, students and staff were perpetrated by state and non-state actors, including armed militant and extremist groups, police and military forces, although details were scanty, included Angola, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Eswatini, Kenya, Liberia, Morocco, Senegal, Sudan, Tunisia and Uganda.

Academics

The report noted that, in 2018, Patrick Lumumba, a Kenyan law professor, was deported from Zambia. He had been invited to deliver a lecture on Chinese-African relations, a potentially politically and diplomatically sensitive topic.

In a similar incident, the report highlighted how Cameroon state officials blocked Patrice Nganang, a scholar based in the United States, from leaving the country. He was arrested and ultimately blacklisted and banned from leaving Cameroon for writing an article critical of the government.

On May 24, this year, Egyptian authorities barred Walid Salem from travelling to the United States to resume his doctoral studies at the University of Washington. He was detained in May 2018 and held for six months, apparently for his research regarding Egypt’s judiciary, and was later charged alongside activists and journalists with spreading false news.

Another Egyptian postgraduate student, Patrick George Zaki, who is pursuing a masters degree in women and gender studies at the University of Bologna in Italy, has been detained in Egypt since 7 February 2020 in an apparent retaliation for his research. According to SAR, Zaki conducts research and advocacy on gender issues and human rights.

But, even harsher, in Algeria, Said Djabelkhir, a professor of Islamic studies, was in April this year jailed for three years on charges stemming from social media comments. According to Amnesty International, a professor at the University of Sidi Bel Abbes had filed a complaint against Djabelkhir for the posts in his Facebook page, describing them as offensive to Islam.

Nigeria

Over the past year, scholars and students in Nigeria have been affected severely as a result of attacks by Boko Haram, the Islamist rebel group.

In this regard, SAR researchers reported that, since 2017, Boko Haram had attacked the University of Maiduguri repeatedly, while other armed criminal groups seeking ransom had abducted about 1,000 students and staff from primary to higher education in Nigeria since December, 2020.

In March alone, this year, several violent raids occurred in northern Nigeria during which 90 higher education students and staff were abducted and at least 11 people were killed.

On 10 March, gunmen stormed the National Institute of Construction Technology in Uromi and abducted one student and one member of staff who were rescued by security forces six days later.

But, a day after the raid at Uromi, heavily armed gunmen attacked the Federal College of Forestry Mechanisation in Kaduna and abducted 39 students and staff, who were released later.

In April, 20 gunmen raided Greenfield University, a private university in Kaduna, kidnapping 20 students and an employee of the university. According to the report, five of the abducted students died in captivity while the rest were released after a hefty ransom was paid to their captors.

In May, gunmen raided Taraba State University and kidnapped Umar Buba, the head of the faculty of agriculture, who was released later.

But, whereas Boko Haram insurgents and other criminal gangs were involved in most of the raids and kidnappings of students and educators in northern Nigeria, on 16 December 2020, police fired tear gas and chased students of the Sa’adatu Rimi College of Education in Kano.

They were peacefully protesting against a sudden closure of the college following a reported uptick in COVID-19 cases and abductions of secondary school students by Boko Haram.

Similarly, in February this year, unidentified state security forces used tear gas and beat students from the University of Abuja who were peacefully protesting a 100% increase in tuition fees.

In addition, on 28 June, two students of Kaduna State College of Education were hit by stray bullets when police clashed with students also protesting against a similar fees increase.

South Africa

In South Africa, repeated violent clashes between police, private security forces and students protesting on- and off-campus over access to higher education, were reported by SAR.

“Incidents reported during this period in South Africa centred around student protests over access to higher education, especially from March when the [minister responsible for higher education and training] announced a massive funding shortfall that would severely impede many students’ ability to commence or resume their studies, especially those who had historical debt,” stated the report.

On 9 March, police used force against students of the University of the Witwatersrand who had blockaded a road near campus with burning tyres. Police also responded by firing rubber bullets to disperse the students and, according to the report, one student was arrested.

Similar incidents also occurred at the University of the Free State, Mangosuthu University of Technology, Walter Sisulu University and the Central University of Technology when, between March and April this year, police used stun grenades, rubber bullets and water cannons to disperse students protesting about fee increases. Students and members of the police services were injured.

Shrinking space for free discourse

According to Robinson, most of those attacks demonstrated a shrinking of the space for free inquiry and discourse.

The report added how academics and higher education students are detained, arrested, and subjected to criminal investigations for participating in on- and off-campus protest activities, online speech, and for their associations.

That had been the case of Ahmed Samir Santawy, an Egyptian second-year masters student in sociology at the Central European University in Vienna, who was arrested, in apparent retaliation for his research on women’s rights and reproductive rights. Egyptian police held Santawy incommunicado for five days, during which he was badly beaten.

Early this year, police in the Zimbabwe capital, Harare, arrested six student leaders for holding a press conference demanding the release of a jailed student leader named Makomborero Haruzivishe.

Following the press conference, three of the students, Liam Kanhenga, Paidamoyo Masaraure, and Pritchard Paradzayi, were charged with not wearing masks, while Tapiwanashe Chiriga, Takudzwa Ngadziore and Nancy Njenge, were charged with public violence.

According to the report, Haruzivishe is a member of the opposition party and was arrested on charges of incitement and resisting arrest in connection with his political expression.