Colonialism shaped modern universities in Africa – how they can become truly African

Colonialism profoundly shaped modern universities in Africa. It implanted institutions on African soil that were largely replicas of European universities rather than organically African.

For historian and political theorist Achille Mbembe, one problem of universities in Africa “is that they are ‘Westernised”. He describes them as “local institutions of a dominant academic model based on a Eurocentric epistemic canon that attributes truth only to the Western way of knowledge production”. This model, he says, “disregards other epistemic traditions”.

My research is mainly on universities, especially on issues of equity, inclusion and transformation. In a recent chapter I grapple with what universities need to do to stop being inappropriate replicas of European universities. How can they become, instead, African universities that address African needs?

I conclude that, to fulfil their key purposes of sharing and creating knowledge, they must play five associated…