Enhancing Humanities in Africa

It seems as Humanities across the globe is in a crisis. Several reports contribute this crisis to a decrease in funding, a declining number of students who enrol for Humanities and a declining number of graduates who find a job after they graduated in Humanities (Delany, 2013; Levitz & Belkin, 2013 and Tworek, 2013).

A recent study by the Academy of Science of South Africa echoes some of the global trends. One of the key findings, in their report titled Consensus Study on the Future of the Humanities in South Africa, indicates that humanities is a state of intellectual stagnation and has been in this moribund condition for the past 15 years. A report commissioned by the Department of Higher Education called the Charter for Humanities and Social Sciences had similar findings. The difference between the two was that the Charter was institutionalised as the National Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences and has to address the challenges Humanities in South Africa are facing. Even though these reports are only based on the state of Humanities in South Africa we may infer that this is most likely the case in the rest of Africa.

However, the reality is Humanities in Africa inherited a particular history of privilege and subjection at independence and since then we have been grappling with it, and it seems as we are stuck. These reports opened a debate in South Africa and other parts of Africa as to what is the way forward for Humanities in Africa.

Pillay (05 April 2013, Mail & Guardian) argues that “we should lead the critique of the humanities and social sciences we have inherited by pointing to its limitation.” Leading the critique would mean we are taking responsibility for a ‘new’ Humanities going forward. In addition to this, Premesh Lalu in an article in the Mail & Guardian encourages African scholars to think ahead and out of the deadlock (Lalu, 07 June 2014, Mail and Guardian). I have to agree as I found that the majority of scholarly work in Africa is stuck in the past and disregard the present and the future. There are two things we have to bear in mind in this debate: we cannot change the past and we live in the present. I am not disputing the importance of the past but we have the tendency of disregarding the present and the future in scholarly work.

Like many other disciplines, Humanities also operates in the present. Our reality is that the present is materialistic and technologically driven society. Technological advances shapes a future which is changing so rapidly that even the most progressive technologically driven disciplines find it hard to keep up. This can be either a threat or an opportunity. If we see it as an opportunity a new generation of Humanities students has to be innovative, contemporary and at the fore front of societal change. Thus, we must anticipate changes and approach it progressively. However, this can only be possible if we are clear of the future we want for Humanities in Africa.

So what is our point of departure?

Mahmood Mamdani of the Makerere Institute for Social Research (MISR) recently asked the question how do we think the world from Africa? In the famous Hollywood movie ‘Blood Diamond’ the mentor of the protagonist said to him TIA which means ‘this is Africa.’ He referred to the main stream Western view of Africa which is seen as violent, corrupt and exotic. Since then a new movement amongst young African musicians developed which is called TINA which stands for ‘this is new Africa’. This movement decided to reclaim African music and expose it to world. They are not standing back for any of their Western counterparts and have some of the most popular videos on Youtube. It is time for Humanities in Africa to reclaim their place in world but we can only do this if we know what our point of departure is and only then we are able to think the world from Africa.