Follow
Wandia Njoya
  • Home
  • About
  • Blog
  • Reviews
  • CV
  • Media
  • Gallery

Breaking the cycle of academic silence in Kenya

11/9/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
Perhaps one of the most tragic things about academic study and publishing in Kenya is our underestimation of how important they are to our nation’s and continent’s historical consciousness and psyche. Most of the time you hear Kenyans talk about academic work, they see it in terms of degrees and access to jobs, or they dismiss academic work as largely irrelevant, or as too “theoretical” for practical use. Even university administrations treat research and publishing as outside the core “business” of education.

Yet, our limited scholarly output ends up costing the continent, both in terms of cultural baggage, and also in shillings and cents. And lives.

The best example that I always quote, is that of Rwanda. When the genocide against the Tutsi broke out in 1994, the world had literally no template from which to understand what was going on. There had been very little publication on the country, and the most authoritative documents were the anthropological pieces that provided the very historical framework on which the genocide was based, together some quaint writings by travelers and journalists. There’s an interesting book by Adam Lebor, Complicity with evil: The United Nations in the age of genocide, in which he reveals that some of the decisions by the UN to abandon countries in crisis are largely caused by the shallow intellectual engagement on the countries affected. 

Similarly, when it comes to Kenyan elections, one of our most divisive issues, most of the publications are in foreign-based journals. That means that at every election year, tracing voting patterns and historical analysis requires consulting materials published abroad. And we pay for those materials in foreign currency. Even when the studies are by Kenyans in Kenya, they are largely funded by foreign donors. Recently, Nick Cheeseman received a grant of £800,000 to study elections, resources which Kenyan scholars would be hard placed to get from their own country. That means in a few years, we’ll be interpreting Kenyan elections over the ages from studies done elsewhere.

The same thing has been happening in studies on religion. Of the well-known academic books on how religion interacts with Kenyan society, few focus on the use of media by both the churches and the rest of the society. Unless this changes, in a few years’ time, we’ll be receiving foreign scholars with enough resources to scour the internet and the expensive newspaper archives, and to write narratives about the implications of the media on matters of faith.

The other problem we have is the silence of academics on controversial issues in Kenya. We in the universities have left the role of discussing hot topics to the media, and yet we know just how limited the media are. They don’t have the time or resources to carry out in-depth studies like universities do, and more than that, once the heat is over, the material goes straight to the archives. Universities, on the other hand, may be boring but they are the ones that insist on the complexity of issues, and keep issues in the national memory as the media moves on to the next big thing.

We are determined that Kenyans should be part of the academic conversations surrounding hot button issues, and that is why we have decided to host a conversation with Pastor Muriithi Wanjau of Mavuno Church. We hope that we can inspire a few studies and even articles and books that go beyond the typical MA thesis structure of getting statistics on pictures and on who agrees/disagrees with the Church, and look at the theological implications and how we can fearlessly tackle the dilemmas of the 21st century. 

I’m quite excited about this event, which is the second similar one we have organized. The first was a lecture by Muoki Mbunga on the controversy surrounding the Mau Mau compensations. When I grow up, I’ll have less tedious bureaucracy and enough time to ask for a grant from some foreign donor to host more such events, while our rich Kenyans spend money on election campaigns and leave their wealth for their kids to fight over in court.

0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    THANK YOU
    ​for voting for wandianjoya.com as
    ​best
    social issues and active citizenship blog
    2019!



    Wandia Njoya

    African. Woman. Wife. Teacher.

    Categories

    All
    147not Justanumber
    Administration
    Africa
    Arts
    Education
    Faith
    Football
    Health
    Ideas
    Kenya Elections 2017
    Kenya Elections 2022
    Land And Environment
    Leadership
    Love And Revolution
    Music
    Neoliberalism
    Racial To Ethnic Capitalism
    Rwanda
    Speeches
    Youth

    Archives

    December 2022
    November 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    May 2022
    March 2022
    November 2021
    October 2021
    August 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    December 2020
    June 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    May 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    April 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.