Title_ Decolonizing the Postcolonial University? Possibilities and Exigencies with Evidence from Uganda

Author_ James H. MITTELMAN

Pages 1-48

Abstract_ Decades ago, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o famously raised the question of decolonizing the mind. Scores of postcolonial intellectuals followed with interventions on unmaking the ways that colonial education had bleached people’s stories embodying cultural inheritance and had caused epistemological violence. But the early postcolonial critics left open the issue of how to decolonize a principal site at which successor generations are taught and learn about civilizational values. What does it mean to decolonize the university in Africa? While many academics shared Ngũgĩ’s hopes for indigenizing learning and called for autonomous discourses, translating them into practice proved to be a daunting task. Given powerful global forces and local interests, it becomes a matter of who owns the university in Africa and who controls the production of narratives. Based on extensive fieldwork on knowledge structures in Uganda, including documentary research and numerous discussions with key stakeholders—governmental ministers, civil servants, upper administration at university, academic and general staff, and students—this paper assesses efforts to meet fundamental challenges common to higher learning in many postcolonial settings, where, like in Uganda, local protagonists are attempting to expand policy space and realize the promise of decolonizing the university.

Keywords_ Higher education, Decolonization, Development, Global South, Globalization, Postcolonial theory