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V. Foreign Higher Education and Education Systems, International Relations, Bilateral Relations
B. Essays, Commentaries, Statements
Author OKOLIE, Andrew C.
Title Producing knowledge for sustainable development in Africa : implications for higher education
Publication year 2003
Source/Footnote In: Higher education. - 46 (2003) 2, S. 235 - 260
Inventory number 16770
Keywords Entwicklungsländer ; Entwicklungshilfe : Bildungshilfe ; Ausland : Afrika : Hochschulwesen allgemein
Abstract This article complements the critique of the development policies and practices implemented in Africa's local communities by African governments and international development agencies by linking them to a specific hegemonic form of knowledge and knowledge production which largely structures the way in which Africans, including African scholars, know development, Africa and the world. They often exclude, marginalize and inferiorize African traditions, knowledges and ways of knowing. With food policy making in Africa as a case, I examine how higher education is implicated in the process by which development knowledges are generated and become dominant in Africa as well as its consequences. Borrowing from critical theory I raise questions about which knowledges are promoted, privileged and become dominant and how. I argue that higher education in Africa should be rethought and restructured to better reflect the actual lived experiences of the vast majority of Africans. This requires that local communities, including their various segments, participate meaningfully in the generation of knowledge about their development to ensure the relevance and acceptance by the people of the policies and programs that these knowledges engender. Institutions of higher learning and research can do this by becoming true centres of critical inquiry into knowledges and ways of knowing, including non-hegemonic knowledges and ways of knowing in the West. They can facilitate this by creating spaces for the expropriation of what is suitable in modern science and technology and their re-articulation with elements of Africa's traditions, values, practices and relationship with nature in order to pursue development policies that are African-centred and sustainable. (HRK / Abstract übernommen) Okolie, Andrew C., E-Mail: andrewokolie@trentu.ca