Dear Fred Amonya and readers,

This is loaded question which I believe needs some clarifications.

If I understand you, your assertion seems to imply that it was the struggle for independence in African states that made the universities viable in that the call for self-governance and decolonisation of the states required radical thinking which at the time could best be produced by the academic. Moreover, in order for the newly independent states to charter the new course of direction, they needed to be resolute and prove beyond doubt their abilities to sustain the independence. This determination and zeal was however truncated by the patrimonial politics, coups d'tats and prebendal governments that appeared across the Continent starting in the late 1960s and spreading across the next two and half decades (I hope this is what you meant by "the turmoil of the seventies and eighties").

Now on the substantive question of "what is the jolt that will force our universities to go back to the short stint of liberal thinking of the sixties?" I am not too sure about the meaning of this question, but if it is in reference to maybe a trigger or wake-up call for African universities to take their rightful role, then I will say it is long overdue.

First, the very lopsided nature of the international system should tell African universities to restructure their course contents, especially in the liberal arts and social sciences to address the things that matter the most to the Continent - the true meaning of sovereign-equality.

Secondly, our universities should focus more on aspects of the African society that would spearhead developmental projects and pay less attention to following everything foreign.

Thirdly, African universities should focus on developing programs that promote African unity and cooperation in the truest meaning of the terms. The benefits that will accrue to this Unity and Cooperation should be the fulcrum around which our liberal arts and social sciences should revolve.

In addition, African universities should promote the African identity and personality. We should value ourselves us a people and the liberal training should encourage the spirit of patriotism which is a key ingredient in the development of any nation.

Finally, to address the question directly, the jolt to force our universities should be the very fact that these universities have the responsibility of training and equipping people with critical thinking and problem solving skills. As such, they do not necessarily need an external push. It is what they have been established to do. Thus, their failure to deliver on the mandate given them simply means they have failed the entire African Continent and the result is what we see in today's international system.

Thanks. Let us call your proposition The Jolt of the Margins. It is an appealing view. So, is that jolt strong enough to change the character of our education? Recall, our education is largely transactional. Popular courses are associated with apparent remuneration. That price mechanism would be fine. However, it plays out in a largely clerical world. The market seeks clerks. Ultimately, the bigger challenges of the continent are starved. Can that jolt push Africa off the clerical market? If not, which one will?

I can not speak for Africa or its universities. I can, however, speak for the UK, maybe even Canada a little. In the UK, I was lucky enough to enjoy a very good liberal arts education as an undergraduate which I enjoyed. So much so that I carried on to do my MA and then a DPhil. At that point, I was wholly unfit for any life outside the academy!

My BA, in itself, got me no where work wise. I was advised to apply for the role of Quantity Surveyor, the very job I had given up to go to university! No wonder I pursued my MA. Doing that in Canada taught me a lesson about liberal arts education. MA students tended to pursue theses that were related to aspects of the economy: housing, social care, workers' compensation and so on. These people tended to get related jobs.

Needless to say, I was not of that ilk, and I continued on. As it turned out, my DPhil effectively disqualified me from anything other than self-employment or academic work. The rest of my life then became some combination of those two.

All this to say, liberal arts education is an immense privilege for the individual, and often an expensive indulgence from the tax payers perspective! Most students these days want post-university commercial employment. Universities here now claim to provide that, although many seem not to. Students pay big money to get a degree, and expect it to be valuable, in pure, blunt, money terms. Liberal arts is generally out of favour with "customers" and "providers". More's the pity!

Christopher NOCK

Thanks Christopher. That’s a facet of the subject. Pity a civil engineer in Africa trying to appreciate the complex space of development without liberal education. Anyway, the physical sciences and mathematics are hollow without the liberal whole. How can a student appreciate calculus without history? Often, we in Africa tend to blame penuciary demands. Is that not a shallow excuse?

Well, I think it is a shallow excuse. Indeed, many employers here actually say the prefer candidates with liberal arts education, for the very reasons you allude to.

NOCK