De-colonizing Universities in Africa (and the Rest of the World)

My paper - in the vein of critical university studies - focuses on the co-existence and antagonism between the logic of the academic world and the logic of neo-liberal concepts, stressing market-ideology in public organisations and transforming government into governance, including governance in the academic world, cultivating an audit culture, all for the benefit of the knowledge economy.

I am indebted to the work of Jürgen Habermas. Key concept in the rich and complex oeuvre of Habermas is the public use of reason. If we study the history and present predicament of universities in Africa (and the rest of the world) we can use three main concepts of Habermas’ theoretical framework. Firstly, the development of the Bürgerliche Öffentlichkeit (the development of the public sphere, in-between private people and the state/government. It was the realm of critical and rational debate. It was reason and not the identity of the speaker or writer that is decisive in this critical debate. Secondly, the kolonisärung der Lebenswelt (the colonisation of life world (by ‘system’). To indicate ‘society’ Habermas introduced a double-layered concept of lifeworld and system. Life world exists of three components, culture, society and personality. System is part of society at large and is primarily governed by the instrumental rationality through the de-linguistified media money and power in the subsystems, economy (Wirtschafts-system) and the state (Verwaltungssystem), money and power. What we see is a process of colonisation of life world by system, also at universities. And finally the Ideale Communikations gemeinschaft (community of communicative reason; a community where people can participate in a critical debate.

Then I will focus on the problematic of universalism versus particularism related to the aims of higher education in Africa and the rest of the world). The predicament of African universities coming from the colonial times, passing through the phase of independence, neo-colonialism, ‘development’, and neo-liberalism, is fundamentally different (particularism) compared with universities in the Western world, yet at the same time universities in Africa (and the rest of the world) face colonization of life world by system in the Habermasian sense of the word.

I will end my paper with a plea for what I call a global program of de-colonizing academia, in Africa (and the rest of the world). Universities should be unified in a global strategy of de-colonizing academia. Universities should be rooted in life world, i.e. in culture, society and personality. Universities in Africa (and the rest of the world) should be able to enact a community of communicative reason, contributing to a knowledge and knowledgeable society.