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Life on the Hill: Students and the Social History of Makerere

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2011

David Mills
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Abstract

How will history judge British late-colonial efforts to export its model of higher education to Africa? In this article I challenge any simple interpretation of the ‘Asquith Commission’ university colleges – such as Makerere or University College Ibadan – as alien impositions or colonial intellectual ‘hothouses’. Focusing on Makerere University in Uganda, and drawing on a variety of archival and personal sources, I show how its students and faculty engaged in an ambivalent recreation and subversion of the Western idea of the university and its foundational discourses. I suggest that the institution offered a space to question and debate the purpose of an African university education. Students and staff made use of their limited political autonomy to challenge and rework the colonial hierarchies of race and culture. As a result, Makerere remained an influential forum for intellectual debate, cultural expression and social critique until the mid-1970s. Whilst this legacy is made less visible by the subsequent years of political crisis, underfunding and expansion in student numbers, it remains an important historical legacy from which to rethink the future of African universities.

Résumé

Comment l'histoire va-t-elle juger les tentatives coloniales britanniques d'exporter son modèle d'enseignement supérieur en Afrique? Cet article remet en question l'interprétation simple des collèges universitaires nés de l'≫Asquith Commission≫, à l'image des collèges de Makerere et Ibadan, en tant qu'impositions étrangères ou pépinières intellectuelles coloniales. A travers l'exemple de l'Université de Makerere en Ouganda, l'auteur se sert d'archives et de sources personnelles pour montrer comment les étudiants et la faculté sont engagés dans une recréation ambivalente et une subversion de l'idée occidentale de l'université et de ses discours fondateurs. Il suggère que l'institution a offert un espace de questionnement et de débat sur le but de l'enseignement universitaire africain. Les étudiants et le personnel ont usé de leur autonomie politique limitée pour remettre en cause et retravailler les hiérarchies coloniales de race et de culture. De ce fait, l'Université de Makerere est restée un forum influent de débat intellectuel, d'expression culturelle et de critique sociale jusqu'au milieu des années 1970. Même si cet héritage a perdu de sa visibilité lors des années de crise politique, de manque de financement et d'augmentation de la population étudiante qui ont suivi, il demeure un héritage historique important à partir duquel repenser l'avenir des universités africaines.

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 76 , Issue 2 , May 2006 , pp. 247 - 266
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 2006

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