Africa’s postcolonial states, universities and situated ideologies
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Date
2024-12
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The International African Institute
Abstract
Arowosegbe’s (2023) treatise on the crisis of higher education across the African
continent raises many issues about the failures of Africa’s postcolonial states and the
situations of the continent’s public universities. His courage in bringing to the fore
the predicaments of Africa’s public universities is commendable. Two issues in
particular attract my attention. First, while he underscores the strained relations
between the state and the academy and recognizes the existence of some divergent
ideological underpinnings therein, his account neglects the impacts of ideological
contradictions on society’s political stability and socio-economic development.
Second, his account omits the quandaries of private universities in Africa, an aspect of
higher education across the continent that should not be overlooked if one is to
holistically appreciate the predicaments of Africa’s universities within the context of
the role of the postcolonial state.