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Academic Freedom and the University of Malawi

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2014

David Kerr  and
Jack Mapanje
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Abstract:

Using the University of Malawi as an example, this article analyzes the opportunities and constraints faced by African intellectuals. It argues that during the anticolonial struggle, young nationalists conceived the University of Malawi as a potential engine for the transformation and development of the state. After independence President Banda, who established a repressive one-party state, severely restricted the university's intellectual autonomy through modalities of censorship. Some academics and students went into exile; others conformed to the dominant ideology; others resisted it furtively. Global pressures on both the university and the entire political economy of Malawi contributed to the triumph of prodemocracy movements in overthrowing the Banda regime. After the victory of the United Democratic Front government in 1994, many restrictions on intellectual freedom were lifted. Global socioeconomic forces, however, in complicity with the new government, continued to marginalize the university community. It is suggested that a productive regeneration of intellectuals' contributions to Malawi's development will be possible only through a major realignment of its intellectual capital.

Résumé:

Résumé:

En prenant pour exemple l'Université du Malawi, cet article analyse les opportunités et les contraintes auxquelles les intellectuels africains font face. Notre article avance que pendant la lutte anti-coloniale, les jeunes nationalistes ont conçu l'université du Malawi comme moteur potentiel pour la transformation et le développement de l'état. Après l'indépendance, le président Banda mit en place un régime répressif uni-partite, et restreignit sévèrement l'autonomie intellectuelle de l'université en instaurant des modalités de censure. Certains universitaires et étudiants partirent en exil, d'autres se conformèrent à l'idéologie dominante, d'autres y résistèrent de manière furtive. Les pressions au niveau global, exercées à la fois sur l'université et sur l'intégralité de l'économie politique du Malawi, contribuèrent au triomphe des mouvements pro-démocratiques lors du renversement du régime de Banda. Après la victoire du gouvernement du Front Démocratique Uni (United Democratic Front) en 1994, un grand nombre de restrictions sur la liberté intellectuelle furent levées. Cependant, les forces socio-économiques globales, complices du nouveau gouvernement, continuèrent à marginaliser la communauté universitaire. Nous suggérons qu'une régénération productive de la contribution intellectuelle au développement du Malawi ne sera rendu possible que par un réalignement majeur de son capital intellectuel.

Type
Research Article
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 45 , Issue 2: African Universities in Crisis and the Promotion of a Democratic Culture , September 2002 , pp. 73 - 91
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2002

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