Falola: Why Nigerian Varsities Must Expose Students to Diverse African Cultures

Funmi Ogundare

A Professor of History at the University of Texas at Austen, USA, Toyin Falola, yesterday, called on the universities in Nigeria to expand their general courses and programmes to expose students at an early stage of their university education to the cultural properties of different cultures and people in Africa.

Falola who made the call while delivering the 54th convocation lecture of the University of Lagos, titled: ‘’Decolonising African Higher Education for Transformational Development’’, explained that such move, will allow local understanding of the values of the people.

He added that the courses will provide insights into African epistemology, offering philosophical justifications and exposing the logic behind intellectually starved African wisdom.

“This will sharpen individual’s perspectives on subject matters around the continent, contributing to global debates on whether there was an African logic at an early point  and fostering an understanding of African logic,” he stated.

The university don stated that the courses would also take people back to the creative nods and mentalities of the old, while highlighting the role of African innovations in the comprehensive development of the continent.

“The aim is to help young people draw solutions from the past and understand the high possibilities of history-changing events and inventions starting from Africa,” he added.

Falola also called for an interdisciplinary combined Honours programme in culture, science and economics which would strengthen efforts towards decolonising of African universities.

The move, he noted, will involve an approach to education that allows students to explore and integrate knowledge from the academic disciplines of culture, science and economics.

” The interdisciplinary honours programme will feature a series of fundamental courses that establish a strong basis in each of these fields. Moreover, students would have the freedom to select optional courses based on their interests in culture, science and economics.”

He also proposed the creation of Centre of Creative Economies at the University of Lagos, in order to train students that would become entrepreneurs and come up with ideas that would resonate with the intermeddling with culture and creativity.

Earlier in her remarks, the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Folasade Ogunsola stated that it was imperative to examine Nigeria’s tertiary education system in Africa because it is what will shape minds for national development.

“Africa has lagged behind in development in the comity of nations. Our current educational system modelled on colonial constructs has not been able to drive the all-round development, revolutionary ideas, and industries that we need despite our population, heterogeneity and other positive demographic factors.

” Facts have also shown that our deficit in these critical areas isn’t due to a lack of intellect or human capacities. What we know is that we constantly seek validation from our colonial past. There is clearly still a lack of confidence in who we are,” Ogunsola said.