Education in Africa 
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 Periodical article |
 Leiden University catalogue |
 WorldCat |
| Title: | The Efforts to Restore Intellectual Freedom in Africa |
| Author: | Hyden, Goran |
| Year: | 1991 |
| Periodical: | Issue |
| Volume: | 20 |
| Issue: | 1 |
| Period: | Winter |
| Pages: | 5-14 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic term: | Africa |
| Subjects: | intellectuals human rights Law, Human Rights and Violence Education and Oral Traditions |
| External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/1166768 |
| Abstract: | Codesria organized a symposium in Kampala, Uganda, in November 1990 on 'Academic freedom, research and the social responsibility of the intellectual in Africa'. This article reflects on the current struggle to restore intellectual freedom in Africa, drawing on what transpired in the Kampala Symposium. First, it traces the various positions on human rights that have prevailed in Africa since independence. In the 1960s there was little or no debate about democracy or human rights. In the latter part of the 1970s African countries began to claim that 'development' was their right. In the wake of the political transformation in Eastern Europe in 1989 this position was abandoned in favour of the liberal argument that civil and political rights are preconditions for development. Next, the struggle of Africans in realizing intellectual freedom is examined. The monopolization of political power that African leaders embarked upon in the wake of national independence was particularly harmful for intellectual freedom. In the 1980s intellectuals became impatient with the inability of the continent's one-party rulers to provide solutions to its economic and social problems and there was a growing demand for political reform. Finally, the article discusses the dilemmas facing Africa's intellectuals: How can they perform their role without alienating the masses? How can they be both nationalists and universalists? How can they become advocates for democratic rights without appearing to merely echo the voices of the international donor community? Notes, ref. |
