Book is a stark reminder of the battles for academic freedom

The quest for academic freedom remains an ongoing struggle across Africa as universities, scholars and students continue to face attacks, threats, restrictions, interference and other violations against academic freedom and institutional autonomy from state and non-state actors, including religious militants.

In that regard, a new book, Academic Freedom in Africa: The struggle rages on, a joint work of 21 scholars, the majority of them from the University of Malawi, traces the struggle for intellectual liberty from the colonial and early post-independence eras, when universities operated under severe constraints, to the present, when many African governments are continuously paying lip-service to academic freedom.

In effect, the book, co-edited by two scholars from the University of Malawi, Yamikani Ndasauka, an associate professor of philosophy, and Garton Kamchedzera, an associate professor of law, is a critical appraisal of state dominance and control in the African academic landscape.

Although some regional bodies, such as the African Union and the Association of African Universities, have issued statements supporting academic freedom, most authoritarian governments see no need to uphold it, according to Ndasauka. Even in emerging African democracies, culture change has been too gradual to accommodate most strands of academic freedom.

Academic freedom lost

Ndasauka said that, even without abrasive repressive measures, violations of academic freedom often take more subtle forms.

“Such punitive actions include selective budget cuts to pressure non-compliant academics, harassment through audits, denied promotions, imposed limits on curriculum topics, and roadblocks to academic mobility through visa restrictions,” said Ndasauka.

Highlighting the current scope of academic freedom in African universities, Dr Simon Mathias Makwinja, a senior philosophy lecturer at the University of Malawi, and associates, noted that intellectual autonomy has dipped as violations are common across the universities. “Any attempt to engage [on] academic freedom and question the violations is considered to undermine the authority of superiors,” said Makwinja.

In their assessment, threats to academic freedom in Africa generally come from politicians, senior government officials, and university managers who use a narrow definition of academic freedom.

To such groups, academic freedom is merely the right to teach and conduct research while disregarding democratic values and fundamental human rights. In that context, many African universities have lost their academic autonomy, especially the power to appoint top management, choose the courses or programmes to teach, and select research fields.

Philosophical and political forces

In a chapter titled, ‘Navigating Between Liberal and Communitarian Perspectives of Academic Freedom in Africa’, Makwinja and associates observed that breaches in academic freedom in Africa are related to political and philosophical considerations. They noted that African governments that claim to be guided by socialist political thought are highly suspicious of academic freedom.

According to Makwinja and associates, many universities and other tertiary institutions in Africa have also experienced violations or attacks on academic freedom from dictatorial political systems that claim to transform African societies through ubuntu, ujamaa (Kiswahili for ‘togetherness’), African socialism, and other forms of home-grown African political philosophies and cultural systems.

International relations

However, writing on how international relations are influencing violations of academic freedom in Africa, two Nigerian scholars, Dr Uchenna Azubuike Ezeogu, a senior lecturer of philosophy at Nigeria Maritime University, and Dr Gregory Emeka Chinweuba, a lecturer of philosophy at Enugu State University of Science and Technology, Nigeria, argued that unequal partnerships, especially in research between African scholars and their Global North counterparts, are synonymous to a loss of academic freedom by African academics.

To the two academics, the subtle imposition of Western philosophical tradition, which often includes the denial of the existence of African philosophical thought, robs African scholars of the freedom to explore and search for truth.

In this context, Ezeogu and Chinweuba questioned the universality of academic freedom, even more so when the control of academic freedom in Africa has drawn little attention globally.

Academic freedom and democracy

Despite some of those challenges, Dr Liisa Laakso, a senior researcher at the Nordic Africa Institute in Sweden and Hajer Kratou, an assistant professor of economics at Ajman University in the United Arab Emirates, say academic freedom is good for democracy in Africa.

In a chapter titled, ‘Importance of Academic Freedom for Democracy in Africa’, Laakso and Kratou noted that, although higher levels of education do not impact on most citizens in Sub-Saharan Africa, it is more likely to offer critical opinions, especially in terms of how they rate the national economy and the degree to which they distrust government and state institutions, including state-run news media.

Citing findings of Afrobarometer, the pan-African survey research on African peoples’ attitudes, experiences and aspirations in different countries, the two scholars noted that higher education has contributed to democratic dividends. “University education in many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa has supported people’s ability to acquire information and demand political rights,” stated the two researchers.

However, the researchers appeared unsure how African universities would manage to increase their autonomy in the future in an environment of intense violations and threats, taking into account that, in many countries, the state controls decision-making powers over the management of higher education.

University reform and academic freedom

According to Happy Mickson Kayuni, a professor of political science at the University of Malawi and the executive dean of the school of law, economics and government, there are concerns that the current reform initiatives in African universities have the potential to curtail academic freedom.

In an analysis titled, ‘Tensions, Contradictions, and Paradoxes of Entrepreneurial University Reforms and Academic Freedom in Africa’, Kayuni faulted the emerging entrepreneurial reforms in African universities that promote partnerships between academia, government and industry.

Based on the Triple Helix theory, collaboration and knowledge exchange among the three sectors are supposed to drive innovations in economic development and guarantee universities’ success.

However, Kayuni noted that university reforms based on the Triple Helix model are likely to achieve the opposite, as unifying institutions that do not have apparent common interests and the observation that African universities lack the resources to undertake independent research implies that academic freedom is at stake.

In essence, within the Triple Helix model, universities are the weaker partners, and there are indicators that their “Mickey Mouse voices” are unlikely to lead to asserting their autonomy. “What needs to be done is redefining the Triple Helix model to suit the African context by including other key stakeholders, such as independent civil societies with robust voices to protect academic freedom,” suggested Kayuni.

Through several case studies, authors of Academic Freedom in Africa: The struggle rages on think actualising academic freedom and university autonomy in most countries will not be easy.

Given the Nigerian experience, Lucky Oritsetojumi Akaruese, a professor of philosophy at the University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria, says it will require the responsibility of intellectual communities that include faculty members and students to be actively involved in the sustained struggle for academic freedom.

“Mere advocacy of academic freedom as contained in the Kampala Declaration cannot lead to intellectual independence in African universities, as many political leaders view assenting of those freedoms as a sign of weakness which radically negates the dictates of their propensity for raw power,” said Akaruese.

The Kampala Declaration on Intellectual Freedom and Social Responsibility is an advocacy and non-binding statement affirming that every African intellectual has the right to pursue intellectual activity, including teaching, research and dissemination of research results without fear. It was adopted at a symposium on academic freedom and social responsibility of intellectuals held in Kampala, Uganda, on 29 November 1990.

Contestations

In the book’s closing remarks, Kamchedzera says that, as the struggle rages in the ivory towers about intellectual independence, a clear and widely accepted definition of academic freedom in Africa has yet to be agreed upon, and inherent meanings remain contested.

In a chapter titled, ‘Battle Lines in Africa’s Struggle on Academic Freedom’, Kamchedzera discusses the rising issue of whether academic freedom can give scholars and students social and political freedoms and rights.

However, irrespective of the definition adopted by academic theorists of academic freedom, Kamchedzera and several of the other co-authors noted that the battle lines for the struggle for academic freedom are on two fronts: within the academy itself and between the academy and external forces.

In this regard, it appears that the resistance to the erosion of academic freedom could gain momentum in the years ahead.