Oketch, Moses O. (2004) “The mergence of private university education in Kenya: trends, prospects, and challenges” in International Journal of Educ

Oketch, Moses O. (2004) “The mergence of private university education in Kenya: trends, prospects, and challenges” in International Journal of Educational Development v. 24, page 119-136

1947 – the Asian community of Nairobi attempts to open the Gandhi Memorial Academy, but is denied. The Academy effort is eventually folded into the creation of Royal Technical College.

1969 – USIA enters Kenya.

p. 120: “The development of private higher education in Kenya is intractably linked to that of the public universities. First, the founding of the University of Nairobi has a history of private initiative, and second, the 1980s marked the unprecedented growth of public universities and the establishment of private colleges and universities.”

p. 120: “The 1980s . . . was the period during which Kenya’s second president, Daniel arap Moi began to consolidate his power. . . . Although Abagi (1996: p. 2) cites Moi’s desire for national pride and domestic politics as having influenced the expansion of state universities, it had also become clear to Moi’s government that even with the expansion of the University of Nairobi, the demand for university education would remain largely unmet. In 1981, a Presidential Working Party recommended the setting up of the second state university. In response to its recommendations, Moi University was established in 1984, with the academic mission of producing graduates specialized in technological and environmental fields. The establishment of Moi University broke from the tradition in Africa in which universities were an elevation of an existing institution such as a teachers college or a technical institute. Instead its establishment involved the clearing of a forest and erecting new buildings where none had existed before. In many ways, it was a university in the middle of nowhere.”

p. 120: “As Abagi . . . notes, the subsequent years saw the establishment of an additional three universities based partly on the social demand but moreso on the political expediency of the Moi government.”

FROM WHENCE DID KENYA’S UNIVERSITIES ARISE?

Kenyatta University -- had been the teacher training college

Egerton University -- had been the agricultural diploma college

Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology -– had been a constituent college of Kenyatta University

Maseno University -- had been a teacher training college, constituent of Moi University

Table 2 – see Excel spreadsheet – shows that government expenditure in inflation-adjusted prices, has decreased from the early 1990s to the start of the new millennium.

AUSTERITY MEASURES - Much of the decline in education spending has come from university-related efforts. Far fewer bursaries are on offer, for example. New building construction was also either slowed or stopped altogether. Results were lessened expense, but further overcrowding, dilapidated buildings, greatly increased deferred maintenance, etc.

p. 122: “While the austerity measures were a direct consequence of unplanned expansion of university education by the Moi government, [they] were also tailored along the recommendations of the World bank and IMF that advanced cost-sharing in higher education as one of the conditions for loan reimbursement under the unpopular Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs). The resultant impact was the loss of the glory that was once associated with state universities, marking for the first time a growing interest in the private higher education institutions in the country, which in spite of having had a history of existence since 1969 were kept at the periphery by the perception of their ‘poor quality’ and because of subsidies and automatic loans to students in the state universities.”

Registered and Fully Chartered Private Universities

University of Eastern Africa, Baraton (Seventh Day Adventist) – affiliated to Andrews University (Texas)

Catholic University of Eastern Africa (owned by the Congregation for Catholic Education)

Daystar University – affiliated with Messiah College (Pennsylvania) for undergraduate programs, and Wheaton College (Illinois) for graduate programs.

Scott Theological College

United States International University (affiliated with the Alliant University system, specifically its San Diego USIU campus)

Registered, but Unchartered Private Universities

East African School of Theology

Kenya Highlands Bible College

Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology

Pan African Christian College

St. Paul’s United Theological College

Unregistered Institutions Using Letter of Authority, and Awaiting Approval

African Nazarene University

Kenya Methodist University

Aga Khan University

Kabarak University (Africa Inland Church; former president Moi serves as Chairman of the Board)

The public universities exist via Acts of Parliament, and are administered via the Commission for Higher Education. The Commission runs into occasional political difficulty because its chair is a former university VC, and the current VCs do not always appreciate the former VC’s ideas/interfering.

p. 124: “[The Commission for Higher Education] is the sole accrediting body in the country for private colleges and universities, the Commission has also insisted that private institutions affiliated with foreign institutions eventually become autonomous, although they may be established initially with affiliation to such institutions. In addition, it ensures that students admitted to private colleges and universities possess the minimum qualifications for admission to state universities and colleges in Kenya, or in the case of students from other countries, equivalent qualifications.”

By 2000, chartered private institutions held 16.3% (one-sixth) of the total university enrollment.

Daystar held a female enrollment percentage of 62.2% by the 1999/2000 academic year. Female enrollment at the chartered private institutions was 54%, versus 46% male enrollment.

Public universities – 28.8% female at university of Nairobi in the 1999/2000 academic year. JKUAT had only 625 women, out of 3137 total students (19.9%) that year.

Oketch, in discussing the numbers found in his various tables, makes repeated mention of the fact that the Commission for Higher Education data sets do not include those students in parallel degree programs. He makes mention of the fact that this population of students is particularly big at the University of Nairobi – when will he define what this group is?

Page 127 – Oketch shows fees at Baraton – describes Baraton as typical – indicates students paid KSh 213,900 total (tuition, housing, fees) in 2000/2001 – roughly $3,000 for the academic year. This is somewhat more than what the University of Nairobi charges for its “parallel degree” programs, but isn’t as high as I would have figured.

p. 128: “Although the expansion of higher education is one of the visible legacies of the 24 years of Moi’s presidency, the unplanned expansion did not provide a lasting solution. Instead, it created a different set of problems for state sponsored higher education, a problem that has perhaps benefited the private institutions by moving them from the periphery to the forefront. State institutions were elevated to either university status or constituent colleges of universities without matching facilities to cater for expectant students and faculty. Double-intakes at the existing state universities over-stretched the physical capacity of classrooms and dormitories.”

Page 129 – via Phillip Altbach’s notion of the “global trend” in privatizing of higher education – “If parents can afford hundreds of thousands of Kenyan shillings to send their children to private academics at the primary and secondary level, then that is a compelling reason to expect them to invest heavily in their children’s higher education. Equally important is the push towards universal basic education to which Kenya is a member.”

p. 129; “The rapid growth in primary and secondary enrollments in Kenya has meant that more access is necessary at the tertiary level. . . In 2002, for example, only 10,966 of the 42,158 high school graduates who qualified for university education [26%] were admitted to the state universities.”

Parallel degree programs admit an additional 4,000 students to the number above (so, from 10,966 to 14,966) – but this only increases enrollment of qualified students in state universities from 26% to 35.5%

It is not until page 134 that Oketch gets around to the beginning of a description of parallel degree courses – these are enrollment opportunities offered to students who can pay the fees associated, but who had otherwise failed to meet the academic (school-leaving results) entrance requirements that the regular university enrolled students had to meet. This program can be seen – Oketch paints it – as a means for public institutions to recop some lost revenue, and somewhat cripple the smaller of the prvate institutions.

p. 130: “As enrollments and completion of secondary education have increased, it is the successful participation and completion of higher education that now determines life chances in Kenya. . . . With increasing unemployment among university graduates, a high school diploma is no longer a vehicle to even the most clerical positions in the country. The idea of an academic degree as a “private good” that benefits the individual in terms of increased earnings and competitive advantage in the labor market rather than a “public good” is perhaps widely accepted in Kenya today.”

Five Factors Explaining the Rise of Private Institutions of Higher Learning in Kenya

(1) Private institutions as a response to “market forces”;

(2) “differentiated demand” for educational services now exists in sufficient size – esp. re: religious affiliation and desire for ongoing spiritual, academic study;

(3) “Elite Demand” – following on elite primary and secondary academies, wealthy parents will seek all additional advantages for their children – including private colleges and universities;

(4) Government lost its belief that the State should be the provider of higher education exclusively; and,

(5) Foreign providers (purveyors?) of higher education have a cachet that may not always be merited, but can’t be denied. “American” education sells in Kenya.

p. 132: “All in all, private universities may be perceived as being autonomous and independent from manipulation by political authorities, but as they gain prominence, political interests are likely to emerge and grow. Interference can also come from weak institutional leaders and actors who feel especially vulnerable to competition and whose appointments are directly pegged to the whims of the country’s president.”

p. 133: “Leading public universities such as Nairobi, count among its weapons: hallowed symbols of national identity, articulate advocates with access to media, monopolies on professional training and tight ties with influential professions; alumni and former professors in top policy positions; student masses ready to march; or more privileged constituencies ready to defend their degrees. Such opposition can leave a stinging legacy even where private sectors are nevertheless launched. That is because the creation of these sectors in higher education often involves considerable bargaining. Thus the creation of private universities amid opposition often involves severe handicaps. Among these may be subtle prohibitions against state financial support. The government of Kenya has admitted its inability to extend any type of funding to the private universities.”

Kenya Higher Education Loans Board – established by Act of Parliament in 1995 – but only helps regular students at state universities. Some private institutions are listed as coming under the aegis of the HELB, but the government continues to claim financial duress, and opts out of such support. And any private school that DOES come under the aegis of HELB is under constant surveillance re: meeting enrollment requirements, facilities quality, and other factors, lest they get de-listed.

p. 134: “A government that admits being “broke” but aspires to maintain control over universities is definitely treading a thin line.”

Ogot, Bethwell A. (1999) Building on the indigenous: Selected essays, 1981-1998

Ogot, Bethwell A. (1999) Building on the indigenous: Selected essays, 1981-1998 Kisumu (Kenya): Anyange Press Ltd.

Chapter Three - University development in Kenya – What Options? – pages 25-30

Keynote address at The Maseno University College Workshop o Development Options, 5-7 December, 1991 held in Kisumu

Ogot was Vice-Chair of the 1988 Presidential Working Party that produced the Kamunge Report.

Ogot makes the direct statement that: page 25: “Fro the early 1950s to late 1970s, university education in Kenya played a dynamic role in nation-building, especially by producing professional elites in the various walks of life. By 1980, university education in Kenya was beginning to pass over into mass education”

p. 26: “Turning to university education planning, there are two approaches which appear to be in conflict: the manpower requirement approach and the social demand approach. The former emphasizes the possible oversupply of graduates and high expenditures of university education. The latter emphasizes the right of all qualified individuals to university education. There is therefore a ‘mismatch’ between university education and the employment system.”

p. 29: :When we turn to the important area of cultural identity, it is evident that the very basis of the cultural life of people is being threatened. The worldwide influence of a certain number of cultural models, the effects of advertising and the media, the standardization of tastes and lifestyles induced by standardized production methods, the erosion of certain traditional values and the difficulty of identifying new ones, all these phenomena help to explain the concern of very many societies, to preserve, defend and promote their cultural identities. Society expects education, especially university education, to help solve this problem.

In order to play this new role, education systems must fight against the tendency to accord value only to the utilitarian aspects of their action which in some cases leads to reducing the importance attached to the humanistic and cultural dimension and content of education.”

Chapter Eleven – Social Sciences in the 21^st Century: From Rhetoric to Reality – pp. 147-158

Presented at the 3^rd Historical Association of Kenya’s Symposium, Egerton University, 5-6 August, 1995

Looking specifically at pages 152-153 – “social sciences in Kenya: the need for explanation”

p. 152: “The political context in which the positivist social sciences were transferred from the West to the Third World was not conducive to debate or questioning of their epistemological basis. Doubters and dissenters remained minority voices, until positivist social sciences were seriously challenged in the West itself during the 1970s.

Simultaneously, the traditional political context of colonialism and to an extent neo-colonialism changed, providing a new context conducive both to political and intellectual self-assertion by some African social scientists.

This expanded consciousness led to a critique of Western positivist social sciences for their ethnocentrism, their exaggerated claim to universality, their focus on causes of under-development through factors internal to these societies without adequate weight given to the role of colonialism. They were accused of serving the political and economic interest of the West and thus perpetuating intellectual colonialism and dependence. There were calls for intellectual decolonization, liberation and self-reliance, adaptation rather than wholesale thoughtless adoption of Western social sciences; and finally there were loud calls for indigenization.

But much of such outpourings were mere rhetoric. With few exceptions, most of the social scientific literature in Kenya is not oriented to cumulative growth of knowledge in nay specific field or in social sciences as a whole. Generally, it lacks theoretical orientation and theoretical framework. And wherever a theoretical framework is used, it is not itself subjected to critical assessment. Most African social scientists are wanting in methodological rigor and conceptual insight. Most of them are preoccupied with the social, economic, and political situation in their countries. True, their empirical studies and conceptual insights make us more aware of social life and problems in African societies, but their theoretical and methodological contributions to social science, as an international academic discipline, is limited.”

Ogot goes on to trouble the study of anthropology – “can we have ‘home anthropologists? And what is the implication [of any positive answer to the foregoing question] for the actual framework of anthropology as the study or non-Western societies by Western scholars?” (p. 153), as well as sociology.

Chapter Twelve - National Identity and Nationalism: concepts and ideologies – pages 159-170

Keynote address presented at the Commonwealth Association of Museums seminar on “Museums and National Identity – Broad Perspectives” held September 17-28, 1995, South Africa and Botswana.

p. 159: “In the anti-colonial struggles of the Third World, for example, nationalist ideologies proved to be powerful weapons. In countries such as India, Nigeria, Uganda, Ghana and Kenya, among many others, the early nationalist ideologies attempted to unite diverse peoples under the banner of a single national idea without raising the question whether the concept of nationhood which had evolved in Europe and the Americas was suitable for the ethnically pluralistic societies that were soon to become independent within the boundaries of former colonial territories. To the majority of Africans, for example, nationalism meant the removal of colonialism, it meant Uhuru, freedom, with the hope that other things would be added later.”

p. 160; “. . . the initial cohesiveness that sustained national identity in Western Europe was absent in many African countries at the moment of independence. Hence, most African countries, like others in the Third World, are still trying to cope with the opposing tendencies of a unifying secular nationalism that was dear to the “Founding Fathers” of these nations, and the centrifugal tendencies of regional, ethnic, linguistic, religious, and communal identities that command the loyalties of many hundred of millions of citizens of those nations.”

Nationalism in the post-colonial State as being a reflection of an Ideology of the State, rather than any kind of notions of people coming together in ways organic to their lives. In this view, in order to BE Kenyan, one must forego BEING Kikuyu (for example), or Muslim, or, etc.

European states absorbed cultural/ethnic minorities into a much larger ethnic “core group”. In the USA, that was and remains WASP, northern European identity.

p. 161: “Cohesion was the fruit of a deliberate, centralized, and at times harsh political effort, whether undertaken by centralized state bureaucracies, cultural elites, or others. Thus arose the “nationality principle” which identified state and nation and which led to the current world system of so-called nation-states.”

THEORIES OF NATIONALISM AND NATIONS

(1) nationalism as a primordial phenomenon based on rational or objectively valid criteria on the basis of which the world can be divided up into different national communities – nations exist as objective reality in history whether all its people are conscious of this national existence/identity or not – page 163: “Thus the nation, according to this theory is seen as a non-historical entity directly rooted in some transcendent or natural order.”;

(2) nationalism as a subjective consciousness of the members of the community – nation as the expression of a common consciousness. From Gellner – page 163 – “it is nationalism that engenders nations, and not the other way around. Benedict Anderson is also cited – from Imagined Communities. p. 164: “To the works of Ernest Gellner, Benedict Anderson and A.D. Smith, should be added those of Eric Hobsbawn and Terence Ranger. All these studies demonstrate close links between ethnicity and nationalism and national identity. In their writings, both Ernest Gellner and Eric Hobsbawn emphasized the idea that nationalism was a relatively recent creation, specifically a response to the upheavals of the industrial revolution and the evolution of modern bureaucratic states.”;

(3) nationalism as a functional requirement of the modern state – especially around the growth of communications, which lifted people away from local parochial identities and forged broader identity formations, and larger-scale economic and political connection.;

(4) nationalism as a specific form of politics that groups use under certain historical circumstances in opposition to the State – something that happens with States, by groups wishing to secede, introduce political reforms the State would not support, or expand the State to include similarly minded groups – think ‘Arab nationalism’ here;

(5) the Marxist interpretation of nationalism – nationalism = a false identity, a bourgeois concept that obfuscates the proletarian focus on the class struggle.

Chapter Thirteen - The role of the university in development pages 171-178

Keynote address presented at the Postgraduate Student Seminars – Kenyatta University – 16-18 October 1995

Ogot points out – page 173, that over 30,000 African PhD holders are industrialized countries – i.e. not in their countries of origin. Brain drain.

Poverty is the problem. Development is the issue. Education is the solution.

p. 175: “If African universities are to play a positive role in development, they must first radically recast themselves instead of reproducing archaic patterns which are completely unsuited to the needs of independence and the objectives of the contemporary world. In other words, the idea of a university must be rethought and the plant restructured.”

Universities must get specific in identifying the problems they seek to address, and then corral the resources (scientific, technical, and human) needed to deal with the problems.

Universities must begin to see their students as social change agents, knowledgeable in the scientific, technical and human resource elements that will assist in problem solving.

Universities must again see, as a practical aim of their efforts, the shaping of a “cultural and national identity, the creation of an African awareness of belonging to a sub-region, a region, a continent.” (p. 175)

p. 176: “. . . much of the university-based research is rarely utilized. There is therefore and urgent need for national policies aimed at making university basic research productive.

One way is to devise ways and means in which universities can collaborate with local industries and the government to promote national and regional development. The universities, the public and private sectors should jointly determine research priority areas. Having done this, the government could establish joint industry–university research centers throughout the country to carry out research in those priority research areas.

Ogot warns against too reductive a view of higher education as being simply a conduit to practical application, and not more:

Page 177: “We are more than the mere sum of our current economic needs; we are participants in a social and political enterprise which vindicated itself in terms of the values which it has progressively generated during our history. And the purpose of education – particularly university education – is to equip us to confront those values from time to time, to question their contemporary manifestations and to modify their application without destroying their relevance to our capacity for self-development as human beings.”

Chapter Eighteen - Lessons of experience: Higher education policy of the World Bank in Africa – pages 251-276

Public lecture given at Maseno University, April 27, 1998

You can’t review higher education in Africa in the last decades without looking at the financial constraints, and economic activity of major multinational forces like the World bank and the IMF, and the impact these bodies had, especially through SAPs, on local economic activity – specifically government support for education.

Lack of building space for offices, lecture halls, laboratories, etc.;

Lack of books and other academic resources;

Insufficient investment in latest technologies;

Lack of adequate remuneration to university staff and faculty;

Insufficient financial support to students (through loans – HELB in Kenya - and grants) – especially after cost-sharing was introduced;

Lack of direct time spent between instructor and student – too many students, too few instructors;

Etc.

1981 – World Bank – Education in sub-Saharan Africa: Policies for Adjustment, Revitalization, and Expansion – focus on cost containment, even while restoring quality – meaning students pay, meaning the elite continue to benefit, and other economic strata struggle.

1994 – World Bank – Higher Education: the Lessons of Experience – looked at ‘good practice’ in multiple countries.

(1) Encourage private institutions and private sector involvement in all universities. Differentiate institutions to avoid duplication of offerings (see rationalizing of tertiary institutions in South Africa in the 1990s).

(2) Diversify funding – shift burden from government to ‘direct beneficiaries’.

(3) Change role of government from one of direct control to one of autonomous institutions regulated by market mechanisms and only nominally supervised by the State.

(4) Finally, and somewhat contra-indicated by the other aspects, pursue policies that would assure quality and equity (socio-economic and gender) objectives.

Ogot questions Bank policy of mandating full adherence to the bank’s ideas of what good practice is as a measure of whether a government will qualify for Bank assistance. Contrast this with the reality that higher education needs may well differ from country to country, that socio-economic, economic, and political circumstances may not be identical from country to country – how then to deal with the prescriptive nature of Bank policies? While the Bank report acknowledges the specific nature of country circumstances, it nevertheless privileges convergence and commonality (i.e. prescriptive practices) rather than the acknowledged specificity.

Ogot moves to World Bank preferences for seeing multiple kinds of tertiary institution – technical colleges, teacher training colleges, etc. But he criticizes Bank policy and statements that engage in “academic drift” – that is, that expand into a larger conception – example – technical colleges becoming universities.

p. 256-257: “The process, known as “academic drift” is strongly criticized by the Bank, which regards the development of universities out of colleges and polytechnics as an aberration and an unnatural evolution. But is this argument true in a historical perspective? Was the creation of Moi University, for instance, a more ‘natural’ development than that of other Kenyan universities which reached university status through the upgrading of more vocationally oriented pre-existing colleges? The World Bank, moreover, has argued that University development is expensive. Rather than create new institutions, many countries especially in Africa, have upgraded existing institutions using the strength of well-established universities in their countries as a shield and support for fledgling colleges. It is interesting to note that the World Bank prescription notwithstanding, the Kenya government has stated in the National Development Plan 1997-2001, that during the plan period, the Commission for Higher Education will explore the possibilities of middle-level colleges starting degree programmes.”

Referring to H.E.L.B. loan programs to help Kenyan students pay for University, Ogot writes,

p. 260: “The grandiose strategy stated in the national Development Plan 1997-2001 on how to improve the education sector in Kenya is a good example of the dilemma higher education in Africa faces. According to the plan, the Higher Education Loans Board is to be restructured and capitalized so that it can give loans to all qualifying students. Virtually all university students, the Plan notes, will require the loans, which cover food, accommodation, book, and personal allowances. No wonder the Kenyan government has had to go to the World Bank to borrow money to capitalize the loan scheme!”

In the immediate preceding paragraph, Ogot had written that since 1975, 70% of the Kenyan students who had received HELB loans for university expenses had failed to repay the loan. So, it seems the World Bank has entered into a scheme to give money to the Kenyan government so that the Kenyan government can give money to students, where there exists 23 years of evidence that the funds may well not be repaid, all so the cost of higher education can be shared.

Ogot gets at World Bank economistic perspectives on page 265, specifically around the matter of what the purpose of higher education is. Is it to be utilitarian, vocational, connected to future jobs and earnings? Or are there other purposes to keep in mind?

p. 265: “To begin with, the World Bank report starts from an economic premise about the scarcity of resources rather than an educational one about the issue of quality. This is the big difference in approach to higher education between UNESCO and the World Bank. The former stresses quality, relevance, inter-African and international cooperation and management. Financing of higher education, for UNESCO, is part of management (20). The World Bank’s thesis, on the other hand, is that Africa’s universities will only be revitalized by reducing their dependence on state funding by charging full cost, non-subsidized fees. . . . Quality, according to the Bank, is an adjunct to budgetary issues (what else can one expect from a Bank?). The Bank therefore presents the problem of higher education as one of budgetary crises. But this is only half the picture.”

Nyerere, Julius K. (1973) “Relevance and Dar es Salaam University” in Freedom and Development: A Selection of writings and speeches, 1968-1973

Nyerere, Julius K. (1973) “Relevance and Dar es Salaam University” in Freedom and Development: A Selection of writings and speeches, 1968-1973 Oxford: Oxford University Press.

The speech at the Inauguration of UDASA as an independent national university, no longer formally a part of any university of East Africa.

p. 192: “. . . we should be clear in our own minds about the function of a university in the modern world, and about the particular tasks of the first University in Tanzania. Only when we have done this can we avoid the twin dangers, on the one hand, of considering our University in the light of some mythical ‘international standard’, or, on the other hand of forcing our University to look inwards and isolate itself from the world in which we live.”

Three functions of a University:
(1) transmits advanced knowledge from generation to generation, to serve as a basis of action or springboard to further research and investigation;
(2) provides a center for the advancement of frontiers of knowledge, by concentrating in one place, best intellects and abilities without begin preoccupied with day-to-day administrative/bureaucratic minutiae.
(3) Provides, through its teaching, for high-level manpower skills development.

p. 195: “The peasants and workers of a nation feed, clothe, and house both the students and the teachers; they also provide all the educational facilities used – the books, test-tubes, machines, and so on. The community provides these things because it expects to benefit – it is making an investment in people. It believes that after their educational opportunity the students will be able to make a much greater contribution to the society; they will be able to help in the implementation of the plans and policies of the people.”

p. 195: “Knowledge which remains isolated from the people, or which is used by a few to exploit others, is therefore a betrayal. It is a particularly vicious kind of theft by false pretences.”

p. 198: “The truth is that it is Tanzanian society, and African society, which this University must understand. It is Tanzania, and the Tanzanian people, who must be able to comprehend this University. Only when these facts are firmly grasped will the University of Dar es Salaam be able to give full and proper service to this society. The University of Dar es Salaam has not been founded to turn out intellectual apes whether of the Right [USA, Britain, as mentioned in previous sentences] or of the Left [Russia, Eastern Europe, China as mentioned in previous sentences]. We are training for a socialist, self-respecting and self-reliant Tanzania.”

p. 199: “Knowledge is international and inter-related. We need to know and understand as much as we possibly can; we need to learn from the past and present of all parts of the globe. All knowledge is relevant to us, even if we consider ourselves only as Tanzania citizens and ignore our existence as human beings.”

Nyang’oro, Julius E. (1990) “The quest for pluralist democracy in Kenya” in Transafrica Forum: A Quarterly Journal of Opinion on Africa and the Cari

Nyang’oro, Julius E. (1990) “The quest for pluralist democracy in Kenya” in Transafrica Forum: A Quarterly Journal of Opinion on Africa and the Caribbean v. 7, no. 3. pages 73-82.

Starts with riots in Nairobi (and eventually Nakuru, Nyeri, and elsewhere) over four days in support of Matiba’s and Rubia’s request for a multiparty demonstration at Kamukunji Grounds – denied by Moi’s government.

Matiba and Rubia arrested.

Julius points out that perspectives that saw Kenyatta’s government as “a fairly open political system was grossly deceiving.” (p. 74). Stalwarts from pre-independence days (Odinga, and others) had left KANU by 1966 – a scant two+ years after independence – to form KPU (Kenya People’s Union). KPU would be proscribed by 1969, its leadership long harassed and some arrested and detained without trial.

1982 Air Force coup attempt – failed, but laid groundwork for Moi to bring his team into power (he had been somewhat reliant on Kenyatta’s advisors for years) – more Kalenjins, fewer other ethnic groups represented. As Julius says, page 75: “In effect, this is a reenactment of the Kenyatta era except that the favored ethnic groups are different.”

Robert Ouko’s murder is described – he had gained too much prestige international and domestically – he was a fluid speaker and thinker who outshone Moi in terms of assuaging Westerners about what was going on in Kenya. Julius links the killing of Ouko with Kenya’s single-party state orientation, with events beginning to fully blossom in East Europe, events that would lead to the Berlin Wall coming down.

Julius also mentions that by the time of the Matiba and Rubia arrests, Nyerere was publicly speaking about the possibility that Tanzania would give up single-party governance. Nyerere was no longer President, but he still led CCM. Omar Bongo (Gabon) and Houphouet-Boigny (Cote D’Ivoire) were also discussing an opening away from single-party rule in their countries by this time.

p. 77: “In essence, President Moi is suggesting that Kenya’s political maturity was further behind (for example) than that of Tanzania or other countries whose leadership had acknowledged the need for, or the possibility of, a multi-party system.”

Rationale for one-party systems in Africa – in the immediate post-colonial time frame, attention was best focused on economic development, not political squabbling.

In Kenya, as elsewhere, one-party states – assumed to be in a big enough political environment to continue to encourage debate about policy – soon gave way to a stultifying of debate, and a quashing of any outspoken resistance to policy suggestions. Suggestions become mandates in such circumstances, as all power rests with the Executive making the suggestions.
Multi-partyism is thus an attempt to expand the political space for debate within society – and so is taken as direct threat to Executive authority. Gosh, how familiar in 2007 Bush America.

To illustrate the above point, Julius describes the Anglican Church (Church of the Province of Kenya - CPK) leaders – Bishop Henry Okullu of Maseno South in Nyanza Province, and (soon-to-be late) Bishop Alexander Muge of Eldoret. Bishop Okullu would, on July 15, 1990 excoriate the government in his sermon, at which he also condemned the government’s decision to detain Matiba and Rubia without trial. The government soon began going after Bishop Okullu.
p. 80: “What is significant about the reaction of the MPs and Cabinet Ministers to Bishop Okullu’s call for dialogue is the recklessness with which suggestions to detain the Bishop were made. Indeed the call for his detention made his point more eloquent than anyone could anticipate: a difference of opinion in Kenya today could be the difference between staying in or out of detention.”

Nkulu, Kiluba (2005) Serving the Common Good: A {ostcolonial African Perspective on Higher Education.

Nkulu, Kiluba (2005) Serving the Common Good: A {ostcolonial African Perspective on Higher Education. New York: Peter Lang

As the title suggest, this is a dialogue of sorts between the ideas of liberal and utilitarian education – with some combination of the two arising as Nkulu’s “service to the common good.”

Introduction – pages 1-4

p. 2: “Nyerere hoped that a combination of analytical reflection with action and communal values would help solve problems in society and foster human-centered development. Nyerere wished university education to inculcate a socialist attitude, meaning a spirit of corporate solidarity, sharing, social responsibility, and solving problems together.”

Nkulu bemoans the focus on individualism and (presumably, self-supporting, go-it-alone) entrepreneurship as a focus of higher education in more recent decades.

p. 2: “Critics in the West have underscored the complicity of institutions of higher education with big corporations in their destruction of the world’s social and ecological environment. Criticisms from Africans have focused on the perpetuation of colonial attitudes of superiority and dominance by educational institutions.”

p. 2: “. . . Nyerere hoped for a higher education model that would cultivate and nurture a spirit of critical inquiry, social justice, and commitment to serve the community, and not perpetuate the colonial mindset of seeking disproportional power and privileges for selfish interest.”

Chapter One – Classic Trends in Educational Theory – pages 5-26

A review of Plato’s ideas on education – especially the focus of learned people on doing “what is best for the community”. Education for good citizenship.

John Amos Comenius (1592-1670) – Moravian bishop. Leading education reformer during the brutal Thirty Years War in central Europe. Educated persons as “pan-sophists” – as people capable of knowing all things as they become most fully human. Encyclopedic knowledge as a goal, one that links humanity as sharing a common destiny. Human power of reasoning as a faculty developed through education, and held as a moral underpinning of society.

John Locke – first of the Enlightenment philosophers – 17^th century – as industry and mercantile trade blossomed, other spheres of power, aside from hereditary land ownership, came into play. The social order shifted Locke’s ideas on education sought to acknowledge the place of power of the new classes. Education for social utility.

Jean-Jacque Rousseau – 18^th century individuals are born free, but enslaved by societal environments in which they find themselves. He espoused universal, individual human rights. Rejects Locke-ian social stratification and advocates equality across classes and experience. Education for social cohesion. p. 11: “Rousseau defines the educated person as the one who thinks freely and s willing to engage in a social contract with others.”

Studium Generale – the Latin term for a guild/corporation of “people engaged in higher learning” (12).

John Henry Cardinal Newman – 1801-1890 – Church of England minister who converted to Catholicism, but found “deficiencies” in Catholic education. Founded the Catholic University of Ireland – 1850s – just after the potato famine was at its height, and as cholera was sweeping Ireland. Newman held liberal ideas about higher education – focused on producing the “gentle-person,” someone capable of reasoning through wide ranging issues. Newman is Locke-ian in regard to focus on the gentle-person, but anti-Locke-ian in his favoring of education for more than utility, for a “higher purpose.” Education as a pursuit of knowledge for its own worthy, worthwhile sake. The refined intellect as the final aim of higher education.

Jose Ortega y Gasset – 1883-1955 – Spanish - Jesuit-educated in Spain and Germany – higher education as an effort to produce “cultured persons.” Ortega y Gasset sees a difference between a learned person and a cultured person. A learned person can be someone with great knowledge of broad subject areas, but if that person is not working on behalf of society, then the knowledge is incomplete. A cultured person applies the knowledge to an awareness of society, its needs, etc. A cultured person knows the issues at play in society, a learned person only knows his subject. Ortega y Gasset sought to combine the Spanish profession-oriented university model with the German research-oriented model and produce a more liberal environment, one that would in turn produce cultured persons who would work to benefit society.

Pages 16-17 – a group of African scholars are discussed – the most particular issue concerns separation of African universities from African social and cultural issues (Shivji; Mamdani; Mazrui). African universities produce Gasset-ian learned persons, rather than cultured persons. African universities are entirely too rooted in Western traditions of universities – more German (per Ortega y Gasset) or research-oriented, separating universities from society. European languages as media of instruction downplay importance of African culture, so no wonder universities are separated from African culture and society.

Pages 17-18 – a group of Western critics (Bowers, Stanley, and Barnett) of universities as elitist, corporatist, capitalist institutions that have led the moral decay of Western (and other) societies in favor of corporate agendas of control and power. Adoption of market practices as a path to enslavement to capitalist notions of society. Higher education is no longer useful to society or liberal for its own self. It is entirely beholden to a particular, capitalist form of economic engagement.

Nkulu ends the chapter with several pages on John Dewey’s pragmatism – practical knowledge as an integration of liberal knowledge (knowledge for its own sake) with “useful” knowledge (skills acquisition).

SEE PAGE 86 FOR APPLICATION OF THESE PHISLOPHIES TO Nyerere

Chapter Two – Educational Models in Pre-Colonial Africa – pages 27-44

Indigenous education in Africa as a “lifelong learning experience” – new knowledge for use in society was always to be pursued, and this new knowledge would flow from “useful” to “cultural” as societies changed over time.

Initiation rites – didactic and social functions – taught about the self and the self-in-society. These also began the process of detailing for individuals which roles they would be suited for in their society – healer; rainmaker; priest; etc. John Mbiti is cited and quoted at length here. So, too, are Audrey Richards and Victor Turner. Culwick and Culwick are cited for their work among the Wabena of Tanzania, who taught girls and boys their place in society via initiation/bush schools. Boys, especially, were taught a range of subjects, and a curriculum was understood to exist – religion, law, custom, tribal history, genealogies, manners and etiquette, military tactics, medicine, handicrafts, agriculture, animal husbandry, etc. were all topics in the Wabena educational milieu. Individual students focused on areas of their own strength and skill.

p. 32: “In summary, African indigenous education was practical and responsive to needs in society. It emphasized the teaching of values as a way of integrating individuals within their collectivity, their immediate social and cultural environment. Indigenous African education is of interest as it informs a local model which emphasized the acquisition of productive skills along social and cultural values for the molding of civic-minded persons.”

More to Higher Education models in pre-colonial Africa:

CHRISTIAN (and pre-Christian)

Catechetical schools – second century C.E. - Alexandria (Egypt) as a first order example – Clement of Alexandria as a particular early scholar. Trained leaders for the early Catholic church. Origen was a 3^rd century leader of catechetical schools, and founded such a school in Caesarea before being martyred.

But Alexandria was a center of learning well before the Christian era. The Library at Alexandria is well-known to have drawn scholars from the Mediterranean for centuries prior to Christ’s arrival.

ISLAMIC

Al-Azhar University (Egypt) was founded in the late 10^th century C.E. (970 C.E.) as a means to educated the people of the region about Fatimid Islam (a Shia form that saw Mohammed’s daughter Fatima as the rightful line of descent for Islam). With time, Al-Azhar, which began as a mosque, expanded its offerings beyond religion, “evolving into a cultural and intellectual center” (36). Within decades, scholars from throughout the Muslim world were traveling to Al-Azhar.

13^th century C.E. – Leo Africanus (and later writers) attest to the development of centers of higher learning in Fez, Morocco. J.F. Ajayi attests that evidence shows that Karawiyyin Mosque, which would become Karawiyyin University in Fez, was actually founded in 859 C.E., thus well before Al-Azhar University in Egypt. Arabs, Berbers, Jews, and Christians were all found in Fez, at the university.

p. 37: “Historical records show that the more prosperous an Islamic state was, the more its wealth was spent on furnishing residential quarters, mosques, and madrasas, thus attracting scholars.”

Ibn Khaldun – famed historian of North Africa – is noted to have lived at Karawiyyin University for several years in the 14^th century.

Sankore University (University of Timbuktu) – oldest center of higher learning in sub-Saharan Africa. Founded at the nexus of multiple trade routes, in a location known to Berbers, Soninke, Songhai, Arabs, Malinke, Fulani, Tuareg, et al peoples. Founded as early as 1100 C.E. (per Henry Louis Gates), and supported by mansa Musa with major infusions of capital in the early 14^th century.

p. 40: “Cisoko records that “theology, Islamic law, history, grammar, logic, rhetoric, ethics, and astrology” were the basic disciplines taught at Sankore. Saad and Ajayi mention geography,. The interpretation of the Koran, mathematics, medicine, science, and traditions as other subjects that were also taught. The nature of the subject matter reflects what may have been an emphasis on the pursuit of liberal education.”

p. 40: “. . . Sankore [University] was a studium generale which attracted students and faculty from abroad. Interestingly, Sankore was well endowed from local patrons and did not depend on external funding to operate. It trained elitist leaders and enjoyed academic freedom.”

p. 41: “Failure to impact higher education in Africa south of the Sahara may have been, in part, related to the use of Arabic as the language of instruction (because it was the language of the Koran), making Sankore similar to colonial universities which used foreign languages to instruct Africans. That higher education at Sankore did not integrate Islamic humanism with indigenous African cultural values may be another reason for its failure to impact higher learning in the rest of sub-Saharan Africa. But intellectual clerics from Sankore might have contributed to the rise of basic education in West Africa. Koranic schools (one type of basic education) were started in West Africa before colonial penetration, Kano in Nigeria being one example.”

Ibn Rushd (a.k.a. Averroes) – a well-known scholar of the 12^th century – traveled from (Moor-dominated) Spain south to Fez. Translated Aristotle’s metaphysics into Arabic.

Ibn Tufayl – 12^th century scholar also traveled from Spain to Fez.

In concluding, Nkulu notes that the indigenous form of education was practical, being responsive to local interests and cultures, whereas the higher education model of Al-Azhar, Karawiyyin, and Sankore universities was liberal, extra-parochial, and elitist (illiberal).

Chapter Three – The Impact of Colonization on Education in Africa – pages 45-62

Nkulu quotes Albert Sarraut (France’s Minister for Colonial Affairs in the early 1920s), who states explicitly that France had an obligation to educate Africans for France’s own “evident economic, administrative, military, and political interests.” (45)

Western-style education for the purposes of controlling – funneling – the masses into economic activity that supports the colonial power(s). Other imperatives – Christian evangelization; the “civilizing mission”; etc.

Nkulu goes on to discuss Ngugi (The River Between) and Achebe (Things Fall Apart and No Longer at Ease).

Fourah Bay College (Sierra Leone; est. 1827) – founded by the British outfit, Church Missionary Society (CMS). CMS sought to offer higher education to Africans so as to get the help of educated Africans in missionary work throughout Africa. British colonial authorities had objections to this, as they saw Africans as incapable of being thoroughly educated – they saw industrial schools as preferable for Africans.

Fourah Bay College became affiliated with the University of Durham (UK) in 1876, and independent from 1959, only to become a constituent college of the University of Sierra Leone in 1966. – “the only institution of higher learning in West Africa from which a student could graduate with a degree” (p. 48) until the 1940s! Humanities, theology, elementary science, and teacher training were the foci at Fourah Bay College until the 1950s, when economics, engineering and other subjects were added.

Liberia College (est. 1862) – trained statesmen and clergymen to serve the independent republic. Long supported by the Phelps-Stokes Fund. Edward Blyden taught at Liberia College.

p. 49: “Blyden saw missionary education as substituting “ecclesiastical dogmatism” for liberal education, thus enslaving the mind. Blyden’s call for the creation of a West African university in 1872 reflects an interest in awakening critical consciousness among Africans. Blyden believed the West African University would contribute knowledge for accelerating “the moral and spiritual progress” of black people. He wanted an institution to generate what he called “the intellectual and moral state in the community which will give it not only a congenial atmosphere in which to thrive, but food and nutriment for its enlargement and growth; and out of this will naturally come the material condition of its success.” (long ending quote comes from Hollis R. Lynch, Black Spokesmen, 1971, page 225)

Gordon Memorial College (Sudan; est. 1898) – at first a vocational school, possibly established to counter the spread of Islam, then a secondary school, before becoming a college by the 1920s. Became the University College of Khartoum in 1951.

British Advisory Committee on Education – colonial era sop to missionary groups seeking to educate Africans who could then proselytize and bring in recruits to the various mission churches.

Makerere University (Uganda, est. 1921), created as a trade school for carpenters, by 1922 it had added para-medicine, veterinary science, land surveying, and agriculture courses. Full secondary school by 1933, University College by 1949, affiliated in this latter role with the University of London.

1933 – Currie Report – of the aforementioned Advisory Committee – requested several colleges be upgraded to universities.

1937 – De La Warr Report – emphasized the need to teach courses in African Studies, including African languages, anthropology, African law, economics, indigenous governance, etc.

1943 – Channon Report – proposed accelerating the establishment of higher education throughout the colonies, with first degrees to be awarded in Britain.

1945 – Asquith Report – integrated all previous reports and outlined how colonies could connect with the University of London. The colonies would partner with Britain on developing higher education opportunities for a limited group of colonized Africans.

p. 52: “[the] Asquith [Report] proposed that the University of London should “adapt its syllabuses and curricula to the specific needs of different colonial colleges . . . send out examiners . . . allow the staffs of the overseas colleges to take part in examining.” The report became the final policy paper of Britain in colonies throughout the colonial period.”

Yaba Higher College (Nigeria, est. 1932) – later moved to Ibadan (1948) – originally offered courses in vocational training, agriculture, forestry, medicine, veterinary science, surveying, civil/mechanical engineering, and teacher training for secondary schools.

Achimota (Ghana, est. 1924) – a comprehensive (primary through tertiary) school. Became the University College of Ghana at Legon in 1948. It was created to offer education at a level of the best to be found in Britain, but to do so with African conditions in mind, and to African purposes. This proved a contradictory mission – how sincere were the founding British officials – how much of the “best to be found in Britain” actually made it into planning for Achimota?

p. 53: “The affiliation of Makerere, Yaba, and Achimota with the University of London could be seen as diminishing the degree of partnership with local circumstances, thus giving the impression that these African institutions were a reproduction of British higher education.”

Roma College (Lesotho, est. 1945)

Trinity College (Ethiopia, est. 1949), became University College of Addis Ababa in 1950, and haile Selassie I University in 1961.

University College of Rhodesia and Nyasaland (Rhodesia, est. 1953). Via the Asquith Report, it affiliated with the University of London in 1955. It is now the University of Zimbabwe.

French colonial examples:

Institute of Law (Madagascar, est. 1947) – affiliated with University of Aix-Marseille

Institute of Higher Studies (Senegal, est. 1950) – affiliated with the Universities of Paris and Bordeaux. Became a university by decree in 1957.

Institute of Higher Studies (Madagascar, est. 1955)

Institute of Higher Studies (Cote D’Ivoire, est. 1958)

Institute of Higher Studies (Congo-Brazzaville, est. 1959)

DR Congo – first six-year secondary schools not established until 1948. By 1954, university classes were being offered at Lovanium (Kinshasa). The Catholic University of Louvain in Brussels had started operating a research entity there in 1925.

DR Congo – the Free University of Congo (University of Kisangani) was decreed in 1963, three years AFTER independence, having been first established in 1955. The State University of the Congo opened in 1956, it was later renamed Official University of Congo (1963), and affiliated with the Free University in Brussels – this was again renamed and is still called the University of Lubumbashi)

Nkulu’s point with these other examples is how closely Africa’s colonial era institutions maintained connections with the home country’s institutions.

1960s saw the growth of homegrown universities with the presumed purpose of educating enough locals so as to replace any remaining ex-colonial administrators, teachers, etc. Nigeria’s examples include University of Nigeria Nsukka (1960), Ahmadu Bello University, University of Ife (Obafemi Awolowo University), and University of Lagos – all in the 1960s. Eventually, Nigeria would have the largest university system on the continent. Ghana’s examples include Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi (1961 – an upgrade of Kumasi College), and Nkrumah did away with Legon’s affiliation with the University of London in the late 1950s. The University College of Cape Coast was established in 1962, as a teacher training center in affiliation to the University of Ghana, Legon.

Nkrumah’s efforts in the late 1950s and early 1960s to establish African Studies – Africa’s history taught in Africa by Africans – are described briefly (pages 58-59). By 1962, African Studies were compulsory to all students at Legon, with the Institute of African Studies having been founded by then.

From Conscientism: Philosophy and Ideology for De-Colonization – page 79 – “The philosophy that must stand behind this social revolution is that which I have once referred to as philosophical Consciencism; Consciencism is the map in intellectual terms of the disposition of forces which will enable African society to digest the Western and Islamic and the Euro-Christian elements in Africa, and develop them in such a way that they fit into the African personality. The African personality is itself defined by the cluster of humanist principles which underlie the traditional African society.”

University of Yaounde (Cameroon, est. 1962)

University of Abidjan (Cote D’Ivoire, est. 1964)

University of Malawi (est. 1964)

University of Zambia (est. 1965)

1961 UNESCO conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia reported out a plan to establish 32 institutions of higher learning throughout Africa between 1961 and 1980. These institutions were to maintain “international standards” and remain connected to the societies they served.

p. 61: “Higher education continues to be perceived as perpetuating the colonial mindset of education for access to power, prestige, and wealth. Walter Rodney, one of the outspoken critics of colonialism and slavery, assumed that colonial Western education was designed not “to promote the most rational use of material and social resources,” but “to instill a sense of deference towards all that was European and capitalist”.”

Chapter Four – Nyerere and Social Transformation in Tanzania – pages 63-90

A brief biography (pages 63-72) of Nyerere includes information about his formal schooling (that is, Western education),as well as some intimation that he may have “experienced indigenous education” as was common in that era (he was born in 1922, one of 26 children of his polygamous father (who had 22 wives). Nyerere would attend Makerere College from 1942, age 20) – from page 65.

Nyerere becomes a devout Catholic while at Tabora Boys Secondary School, and is baptized just prior to graduation in 1942. He also becomes an ardent scholar of World War II, trying to understand, as a youth, what brought the U.S. and Japan to war.

While at Makerere College, Nyerere founded the Tanganyika Welfare Association (TAWA) for students from that colony, and became the organization’s Secretary. On learning that his idea to establish branches of TAWA in Tanganyika itself would collide with existing efforts – principally the lower-level civil service association Tanganyikan African Association – Nyerere was persuaded instead to reorient TAWA to become a Makerere satellite of TAA. His interest in politics as an adult could be viewed with this effort as first-order expression.

Nyerere, after accepting a teaching post at Saint Mary’s College in Tabora (college in the old British sense of “A levels” I’d think), he was offered a scholarship to pursue doctoral studies (economics, history and philosophy would be the focus of his work) by the University of Edinburgh (1949).

Nyerere would be influenced by the writings of John Stuart Mill – especially as concerns Mill’s ideas that “freedom, which implies making of personal choices, and development, or the fulfillment of one’s potential, complement each other.” (p. 70)

Nyerere would attain a Master’s Degree – the first Tanganyikan to do so – in 1952, and return directly to Tanganyika, without further pursuing the PhD he had gone to Edinburgh to attain. Back in Tanganyika, at Saint Francis College, in Pugu, near Dar es Salaam, he began teaching again. He was also elected President of TAA. He would rewrite the TAA statutes, modeling them on Kwame Nkrumah’s CPP statutes (by this time, Nkrumah was already Prime Minister of a self-ruled Gold Coast)

1954 – TAA morphs into TANU (Tanganyika African National Union), n overly political organization fighting for the liberation of the colony.

1957 – Nyerere attends Ghana’s independence celebration. Nkrumah suggests a Pan-African conference be set up for 1958. Nyerere organizes nationalist leaders of east and southern Africa, who attend such a conference in Mwanza.

1958 – Nyerere arrested by the colonial authorities for inciting anti-government activities. He is fiend and released. By 1959, Nyerere wins the general elections and heads the Council of advisors to the colonial governor.

1960 - TANU again wins general elections, and Nyerere is appointed Chief Minister of Tanganyika. He becomes Prime Minister in December 1961, when Tanganyika achieves independence.

Arusha Declaration – 1967 – Ujamaa (familyhood/brotherhood/sisterhood/community) established as a guiding principle of governance.

p. 74: “In essence, the Arusha Declaration was a strategy designed to facilitate Tanzania’s social transformation. The declaration called for socialism and self-reliance. The main characteristics of this strategy were an emphasis on equality (to consolidate national unity and harmony), democratic participation in the decision-making process, elf-reliance (dependence on personal effort primarily to eliminate poverty), and the creation of a socialist environment (to foster communal values and not assertive individualism).”

Nkulu posits that Nyerere’s ideas, as expressed in the Arusha Declaration, are akin to contemporaneous Swedish ideas of society. Olaf Palme, then (1968) Prime Minister of Sweden (and eventually the assassinated Prime Minister – 1986) and his ideas about Social Democratic values, was influential.

p. 76: “Through this combination of thought and appropriate action, Nyerere and his political party hoped to transform Tanzania into a democratic nation that would uphold the communal values which characterized life in pre-colonial African societies.”

Nkulu acknowledges that the ujamaa practices (distinct, in my mind from the formative ideas) of relocation and villagization, separated people – in some cases forcibly – from the land in which their identities were rooted. Such a practice – again, distinct from the ideas – could hardly be seen as supportive of “communal values.”

Nkulu mentions Desmond Tutu’s notion of Ubuntu – individuals are human only in community (p. 77) – link this to ethnic conflict in Kenya, focused on nation-building there, and the absence of development on Kenya’s coast.

Tabora Boys School as modeled on Eton – the most elite school in Britain. Nkulu cites Shirley DuBois as to the British interest in making education/schooling a pursuit for an indigenous elite – not for any democratization process. This is what Nyerere would pursue post-Arusha Declaration.

1974 – Musoma Declaration

p. 78: “. . . a policy statement by the National Executive Committee of the TANU – a party led by Nyerere – stipulated that “the main purpose of education is to enable man to liberate himself” from elements which deprive one of freedom to control one’s destiny or transform one’s environment. Thus, education in Tanzania became reflective of the policy of socialism and self-reliance while Nyerere was that country’s president. Schools and institutions of higher learning integrated intellectual activities with work and service to the community.”

Omari’s criticism of Nyerere’s policies is mentioned.

p. 79: “Omari’s criticism is based on the fact that Tanzania’s socialist policies (mandatory National Service and work experience prior to enrollment at the university) seemed to indicate that the university education was being used for vocational training for the masses instead of perpetuating the elitist liberal tradition. Mandatory National Service was perceived as a radical attempt by the government of Tanzania to coerce students into community service, a way of countering the pursuit of the so-called intellectual and social arrogance colonial higher education was accused of fostering.”

Plato’s three types mentioned (p. 80) – uneducated persons; non-practical intellectuals; and philosopher-ruler (educated AND practical). Page 81: “Nyerere literally became the kind of philosopher Plato wished would descend into “the cave” and help “fellows” to see the reality beyond the shadows.”

Nkulu later (p. 86) says Nyerere was not a Plato-nist regarding higher education, as he was not after educating an elite, but a popular, mass kind of applicable higher education. In this same section, Nkulu revisits the scholars described in the first chapter (Locke, Rousseau, J.S. Mill, Comenius, Newman, and Ortega y Gasset). Nyerere is defined – sort of – as a combination of all of these, taking pieces of each philosophy as appropriate for his view of what higher education in Tanzania should be.

1961 – Nyerere states a philosophy of education at the opening of Kivukoni College, a precursor college to University College of Dar es Salaam, dedicated to students of education. P. 81: “. . .graduates of Kivukoni must be like the yeast in a loaf, effective because it cannot be isolated, its presence being known by the work it has done.” Nyerere would later (1964) speak at the graduation ceremony of the first group of students to complete their Kivukoni studies. This would also be the ceremony that established the University College of Dar es Salaam.

1966 – Nyerere speaks to the General Assembly of the World University Service – “The University’s Role in the Development of New Countries.” – “Nyerere castigated those who were in pursuit of knowledge for its own sake, which he saw as a luxury for poor countries. He proposed that an institution of higher learning ought to pursue the knowledge which can solve the problems of society.”

p. 84 – Nyerere as a Freire-an thinker – education as promoter of “critical consciousness.”

p. 86-87 – Nyerere is shown to have taken elements of the philosophies of each of those noted in Chapter Two.

p. 87: “Nyerere was himself an example of the kind of educated person he envisioned for Tanganyika. He was highly educated for leadership and yet he had an attitude of service (a servant-leader) to society. Nyerere was an intellectual committed to responding to daily-life issues in Tanzania and elsewhere in Africa for the welfare of all human beings.”

p. 87: “One of the most interesting conclusions about Nyerere may well be his ability to balance elements from African and Western cultures with a rare touch of pragmatism. Like John Dewey, Nyerere hoped that combining critical analysis with positive action would not only ascertain the link between education and real issues, but also help to solve the problems of society. Both Dewey and Nyerere hoped education would enable individuals to better understand and to relate to the world in which they live with the purpose of contributing to its transformation for the better.”

Chapter Five – The Dar es Salaam Model of Higher Education – pages 91-118

1955 – Working Party on Higher Education approved a proposition to establish a university in Tanganyika. No description of who constituted this group (indigenous and/or colonial).

1958 – a second Working Party on Higher Education – appointed by the Secretary of State for the Colonies on behalf of the Governments of East Africa – recommended opening a university college in Morogoro by 1965/66 (Morogoro is the site of Sokoine University).

1961 – The Tanganyika National Assembly voted to establish a Provisional Council of the University College. Law Studies would constitute the initial focus. The U.C. would grow to become the constituent college of the University of East Africa by 1963, and UDASA by 1970.

See A.J. Temu (1970s) and Eric Ashby (1960s) for comparative history of the constituent schools of the University of East Africa.

Nkulu describes some contention between the University of London, and scholars and administrators in East Africa about adapting London expectations to East African realities. Concerning the study of law – see below, quote from p. 94.

p. 94: “The University College in Dar es Salaam documents how, in early years, legal education involved “critical study of cases, by means of ‘moots,’ by rapid interchange between teacher and student in the discussion-style lecture and by the more demanding confrontation of minds in the small tutorial.” In this way, creative thinking may suggest critical and creative adaptation of Western legal concepts to the conditions of East Africa.”

p. 96: “In order to make the curriculum relevant to Tanzania, the University College of Dar es Salaam sought to adapt the Western legal concept to the social, political, economic, and cultural realities of East Africa, thus setting itself in contrast to British legal tradition. Such adaptation could have been in line with the hypothesis that curriculum change is often influence by an array of social factors among which demography, politics, economy, and technology are the most salient. In fact, higher education curriculum is culturally and ideologically embedded in “the social order of the society” being served.”

1964 – Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences begun at University College of Dar es Salaam. Economics, education, geography, history, language and linguistics, literature, and political science are offered. This Faculty would lead the way in application of Swahili to the broader society as national language and medium of instruction.

1965 – Faculty of Sciences opens. Botany, chemistry, mathematics, physics, and zoology are offered.

1968 – Faculty of Medicine opens.

1969 – Faculty of Agriculture opens in Morogoro.

1973 – Faculty of Engineering opens.

1979 – Faculty of Commerce and Management opens.

1970 Act of Parliament that led to establishment of UDASA – Section 4: University Objectives and Function:

(a) to preserve, transmit and enhance knowledge for the benefit of the people of Tanzania in accordance with the principles of socialism accepted by the people of Tanzania;

(b) to create a sense of public responsibility in the educated and to promote respect for learning and pursuit of truth;

(c) to prepare students to work with the people of Tanzania for the benefit of the nation;

(d) to assume responsibility for University education within the United Republic and to make provision for places and centers of learning, education, training and research;

(e) to cooperate with the Government of the United Republic and the people of Tanzania in the planned and orderly development of education in the United Republic;

(f) to stimulate and promote intellectual and cultural development of the United Republic for the benefit of the people of Tanzania; and,

(g) to conduct examinations for, and to grant degrees, diplomas, certificates, and other awards of the University.

EASE – East African Society and Environment – would morph into the Institute for Development Studies - began as a seminar in the Faculty of Law. Eventually became a common interdisciplinary course.

Social and economic Problems of East Africa – established by the Faculty of Law in 1964 – is suggested as an alternative beginning to the Institute for Development Studies.

p. 99: “Piccioto and Abdul Paliwala maintain that the course which later became known as Development Studies was introduced after the sending away of about three hundred students from the University of Dar es Salaam in 1966 due to a protest against the government’s decision to make National Service mandatory for all university students. Students marched to the State House and accused the Government of acting in a way “worse than colonialism.” Shivji explains that Social and Economic Problems of East Africa was first organized in the Law Faculty in response to increasing calls for a university education relevant to Tanzania. According to Shivji, proponents of the course believed it would transform the so-called traditional and bourgeois approach to education. Bourgeois education was accused of compartmentalizing knowledge and empowering a small group of people over the majority.”

1969 – Development Studies initiated by that name at UDASA, post Arusha Declaration.

1970 – a Department of Development Studies is established. Within the Faculty of Arts and Social Science.

1973 – the Department of Development Studies becomes the Institute of Development Studies.

1980/81 – a PhD program is established at IDS.

Primary Aims for the course on Development Studies: (page 100)

• To expose students to the theories and problems of social development in the Third World (developing countries) in general, and Africa and Tanzania in particular;
• To guide students to an understanding if alternative development strategies at both national and international levels;
• To enable students to develop appropriate tools of analysis, such as critical analysis as well as an integrated broad approach, for analyzing development issues;
• To prepare, in collaboration with relevant Faculties, personnel who are qualified to deal with problems of development in Africa in general, and in Tanzania in particular;
• To ensure that teaching and learning remain consistent with the aims of the general development objectives of Tanzania; and,
• To guide students to acquire the appropriate tools and methods for analyzing and integrating theory with practice.

IDS was a site for argument between Social Democratic support of Tanzanian socialism – emphasizing commitment to the people – and radical Marxist interpreters of Tanzanian socialism – who saw the need for a closed-ranks party vanguard.

p. 101: “Herbert Kliebard describes curriculum as a place where the battle over “values and beliefs” shaping national policies is engaged. Should the introduction of EASE and Development Studies have sought to inculcate values and attitudes of self-determination, one can argue that Nyerere’s ideas and Tanzanian politics influenced university curriculum. In theory, the teaching of the common interdisciplinary course presupposes a link between undergraduate curriculum at the University of Dar es Salaam and the national discourse on socialism and self-reliance at the time.”

p. 105: “Nyerere’s influence on the curriculum at the University of Dar es Salaam may not be self-evident, but Nyerere’s support or greater tolerance of foreign scholars contributed to making Dar es Salaam an intellectual and political sanctuary. Scholars and political activists from all over Africa and beyond went to Dar es Salaam while relevance to economic, political and social problems in Tanzania and Africa was sparking critical reflections on campus, thus boosting the reputation of Dar es Salaam as a progressive institution.”

Page 107 - Quoting Shivji (1996): “The great strength of that period, it seems to me, was the critical attitude. Nothing was taken for granted. Everything was subjected to criticism and evaluation. The intellectual at the time saw himself/herself as a social critic, not as a careerist, or simply an arm-chair contemplator or thinker. The spirit of the time, if I may summarize it in a phrase, was “doubt everything,” – not as a cynic, but as a critic. Dare to think – not simply as a contemplative philosopher, but as a historical actor. Dare to rebel – not as an anarchist, but as an organizer.”

University Students African Revolutionary Front (USARF) and TANU Youth League (TYL) – each was active in the Faculty of Law in the mid-to-late 1960s, prior to the establishment of UDASA as an independent national university. Each was militant against perceived neo-colonial attitudes and practices among the (often largely foreign) faculty. Each contributed to student action against unpopular policy decisions –perhaps including mandatory National Service.

Wretched of the Earth is described as being an essential part of the reading by radical students of the lat 1960s and into the 70s. Yoweri Museveni is quoted – page 110 – in a 1986 speech at his alma mater, UDASA – speaking about the course on Development Studies and the way in which the course led to students learning to think critically and to act on their thought.

p. 111: “David Court quotes Yash Tandon as reporting: Whatever its present weaknesses, inherently or as reflections of the wider society, EASE is one of the very few instances of successful (or relatively successful) experiments in African universities to create areas of knowledge, and methods of acquiring knowledge, that are both indigenously relevant and interdisciplinary.”

Walter Rodney was teaching at UDASA (1968-1974) when How Europe Underdeveloped Africa was first published (1972), his second time through Tanzania, having taught there earlier in 1968, until gaining a position at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica. He would be expelled from Jamaica (or, rather, not permitted to re-enter the country after attending a conference in Canada), and returned to Tanzania to teach, write, and engage.

In the end, Nkulu contrasts Rodney’s radical Marxist stance versus Nyerere’s Social Democrat stance, gives Rodney points for establishing a critically engaged atmosphere at UDASA, but wonders whether this atmosphere actually assisted Tanzania in engaging its needs as Nyerere saw them.

Chapter Six – Nyerere and the Idea of Higher Education in a New Century – pages 119-140

p. 122-123: “The decision to dismiss some three hundred students from the university College of Dar es Salaam because of their participation in the 1966 protest march to the State House against mandatory National Service has been interpreted in a number of ways. Nyerere’s supporters approved the decision because they assumed students were ungrateful to a government which ahd invested much in their preparation for service to society. Their assumption was based on the allegation that students rejected mandatory National Service but demanded increase in their allowances. Refusal of mandatory service to the nation and demand of increased benefits from the same nation instead sounded detrimental to social equity, to the well-being of many. One can assume Nyerere felt betrayed by the people he was trying to help get free education, but who would not agree to serve the nation.

In contrast, Nyerere’s opponents denounced the dismissal of students because of what they realized to be a contradiction of the claim that higher education should concern itself with enabling individuals to analyze critically, to understand, and to respond to societal problems. The denunciation of students’ dismissal is a reminder of the traditional conflict between politics and scholarship, between power and academic freedom. Political leaders give the impression that they want higher education to empower individuals for critical reasoning, but they find it difficult to tolerate the challenge of political establishment by intellectuals. It is possible Nyerere backed the dismissal of students, in part, for fear of political setbacks the protest might cause to the country and to his own leadership.”

p. 123: “The dismissal of university students in 1966 was controversial. The students’ protest could be justified on the grounds of critical enquiry and not of political and social considerations. Because the protest appeared defiant to the political establishment and detrimental to the public interest, one can realize that the sending down of students from the University of Dar es Salaam was not necessarily anti-intellectual the way Nyerere’s critics have charged. The decision was motivated, perhaps, by interest in undermining the presumed intellectual and social arrogance colonial higher education was accused of entertaining. It is widely assumed that Western-style university graduates see themselves as very special and entitled to increased power, benefits, and prestige, compared to the rest of the society. Graduates from the University of Dar es Salaam interviewed during the doctoral research, which preceded this book, have affirmed that National Service made Tanzanians realize their moral obligation to serve the country in return for free education.”

p. 123-124: “Other critics have accused Nyererte of authoritarian drifts. John Saul (a former instructor at the University of Dar es Salaam until the early 1970s) blames Nyerere for having kept a blind eye on the forceful extraction and expulsion of Akivaga from the university and the country, and also on the humiliation of students and faculty by security forces during the 1971 crisis. According to Saul, Nyerere was responsible for such authoritarian and undemocratic practices that his own government forces allegedly perpetrated. The use of forces in all the instances Saul has alluded to does not necessarily establish a case for Nyerere’s authoritarianism or anti-democratic attitude.

One of the most significant charges against Nyerere’s policies on higher education was levied by I.M. Omari in an article mentioned earlier. Omari points to the fact that mandatory National Service and Education for Self-Reliance were radical moves by which Nyerere and the Tanzanian government attempted to change higher education from a colonial and liberal model into a utilitarian model. Enlistment in the National Service was the first radical attempt by which the government used coercion to inculcate a traditional African “attitude of mind” – a communal attitude of solidarity, sharing, and social responsibility – that Nyerere believed had once characterized corporate existence in traditional African societies. Education for Self-Reliance castigated “elitism” and intellectual arrogance, writes Omari.”

Musoma Declaration – mandated that changes to be made to university admission. Students now came from the work force, with testimonials from supervisors and party apparatchiks as to candidates “good character and work discipline.” (124). As Nkulu indicates, page 126, it may have been Nyerere’s lieutenants who couldn’t handle the criticisms coming from students, and who were tougher on students than Nyerere himself would have been – he, after all, sought to create a higher education environment of critical analysis and assessment. Perhaps Nyerere stance on Akivaga and Musoma was that the political cost of fighting his lieutenants was greater than the educational benefit of more fully supporting the students.

Conclusion – pages 141-143

p. 141: “As the world becomes even more globalized, there is the risk that institutions of higher education worldwide will limit themselves to the production of learned but uncultured experts (to paraphrase Ortega y Gasset), those professionally trained individuals who are less sensitive or irresponsive to issues affecting the welfare of many in society.”

p. 142: “ . . . politics and finances impact and influence educational policies significantly. Politics implies to power to bargain, control, or negotiate shared interests with various stakeholders, whereas finances implies the prerogative to dispose of cash resources as one chooses. In the context of Tanzania, Nyerere appears to have had political but not financial power. He had political power to influence policies favor the welfare of all in his country, but he lacked financial power to implement fully the same policies. External donors and funding organizations had financial power over Tanzania. Dependence on external funding contributed to ineffective implementation of reform policies in cash-strapped Tanzania.”

p. 142: “In Africa, successful reform in higher education requires mental transformation beyond political and financial autonomy. Africans have to adopt new attitudes of mind capable of fostering a sense of the common good, responsibility, accountability, and cooperation with local bases in addition to partnership with external donors. Strengthening community-based funding and support inspires a spirit of corporate ownership conducive to social participation by many, if not all, and provides room for autonomous implementation of locally and nationally initiated policies and programs. That is, educational reformers in Africa should envision new ways of building human capacity for social transformation and not for capital accumulation exclusively.”

p. 142-143: “On the one hand, liberal education enhances abilities for participation in democratic processes but not for solving problems such as the ones related to food security, health, and the like. On the other hand, utilitarian education prepares for solving social problems but not for acquiring abilities for critical investigation or participation in the democratic processes. Liberal and utilitarian education have both strengths and limitations, but a balance between them is far better and highly desirable.”