Category: News

The Petty Bourgeoisie in the Thought of Amilcar Cabral and Walter Rodney

Paper presented to the International Symposium entitled ‘Amilcar Cabral: A national and universal heritage’, in commemoration of the centenary of Cabral’s birth held at Cabo Verde and Guinea-Bissau from 9 to 12 September, 2024.

We are pleased to share a new paper by Professor Issa Shivji, presented at the International Symposium on Amilcar Cabral: A National and Universal Heritage, commemorating the centenary of Cabral’s birth. The symposium was held in Cabo Verde and Guinea-Bissau from 9 to 12 September 2024.
The paper, titled: “The Petty Bourgeoisie in the Thought of Amilcar Cabral and Walter Rodney” explores the nuanced perspectives of Amilcar Cabral and Walter Rodney on the role of the petty bourgeoisie in revolutionary movements across Africa. Through a comparative lens, Professor Shivji delves into how both thinkers saw the petty bourgeoisie’s contradictions and potential in the struggle for genuine liberation.
This is a must-read for scholars and anyone interested in African revolutionary thought, political economy, and the legacies of Cabral and Rodney.
We invite you to engage with this profound exploration of the dynamics of class and revolution in African history and thought.
Best regards.

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Revisiting the Struggles for Academic/Intellectual Freedom and the Social Responsibility of Intellectuals in Africa:  The Case of the Dar es Salaam and Kampala Declarations 

by  J. Oloka-Onyango, Professor of Law School of Law, Makerere University, Uganda 

Revised text of Keynote Reflections at the Colloquia on Academic Freedom and Social Responsibility, University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, 7th to 9th November 2023 and Eduardo Mondlane University, Mozambique, 15th to 17th April 2024

Academic freedom is about the building of a new civilization. It is the site of struggle for a truly pluralist democracy; a bastion against authoritarianism and a challenge to fundamentalism. Thandika Mkandawire

Introduction

The Dar es Salaam Declaration on Academic Freedom and Social Responsibility of Academics (hereafter the ‘DD’), and the Kampala Declaration on Intellectual Freedom and Social Responsibility (hereafter the ‘KD’) have their geographical origins in Tanzania and Uganda, respectively. The former was adopted in April 1990, and the latter came into existence in November of that year. Both were primarily authored by the same individual, Issa Shivji, law professor at the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM).

While the author might have been the same, the institutional parents of the declarations were different: on the one hand, the University of Dar es Salaam Academic Staff Assembly (UDASA), and on the other, the Council for the Development of Economic and Social Research in Africa (CODESRIA). The DD had six signatories, all of them being staff associations of the different institutions that came together to adopt the instrument. These were the Ardhi Institute, the Co-operative College, the Institute of Development Management, the Institute of Finance Management, Sokoine University and UDSM, a mix of traditional universities and other tertiary institutions, all of them public or created by the state. Those who attended the Kampala Symposium and adopted the KD were academics, students, administrators, trade unionists, donors and members of civil society, drawn from all over the African continent and the diaspora, and including several non-Africans. Read more ..

Ujamaa, Ubuntu and Reimagining Pan-Africanism

Keynote Address at the Interna/onal Conference on Ujamaa, Ubuntu and New Pan Africanisms, Arusha, 23-25 May 2024

by Issa G. Shivji, Professor Emeritus, University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

This keynote address at the International Conference on Ujamaa, Ubuntu, and New Pan-Africanisms explores the deep philosophical roots of African values like Ujamaa and Ubuntu, emphasizing human dignity and equality. Prof Shivji critiques Western interpretations of African humanism, offering instead a perspective rooted in the African philosophical context. Highlighting Nyerere’s views on the unequal nature of human beings and their inherent equality in humanity, the text urges a reconsideration of Pan-Africanism as a revolutionary ideology against imperialism and capitalism. With thought-provoking insights on shifting from state-centric to people-centric approaches, it calls for a reimagined, anti-imperialist Pan-Africanism rooted in solidarity and human dignity.

This address provides a powerful framework for those interested in Pan-Africanism and African values, urging readers to rethink current ideologies and engage in intellectual activism. Dive into the full text for a compelling vision on how to revolutionize African thought and the global struggle for justice. Read more

 SYNTHESIS REPORT : Academic Freedom, Democracy and Sustainable Development in Africa: Re-envisioning the Role of the University 

Dar es Salaam (7th–9th November 2023) and Maputo (15th–17th April 2024)

by Muhidin Shangwe 

Department of Political Science and Public Administration University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania 

PART I: SETTING THE CONTEXT

Introduction and Background

From 7–9 November 2023 and from 15–17 April 2024, the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) held two colloquiums on academic freedom in Dar es Salaam and Maputo respectively.¹ They were organised in collaboration with the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM), which hosted the colloquium in Tanzania, and Eduardo Mondlane University, which hosted the colloquium in Mozambique. The choice of UDSM as the starting point of a series of colloquiums was based on its rich tradition in critical scholarship, which gave rise to the Dar es Salaam School in the 1970s. More importantly, it was in the city of Dar es Salaam that the historic Dar es Salaam Declaration on Academic Freedom and Academic Responsibility was adopted, on 19 April 1990. The colloquiums brought together a wide range of stakeholders to deliberate on the status of academic freedom, democracy and sustainable development in Africa. Participants included academics, publishers, members of civil society and civil society organisations, artists and representatives of student bodies. The reason for hosting these diverse groups of participants was perhaps best summed up by one participant—Simbarashe Gukurume, in Maputo—who asserted that academic freedom was too important to be left solely in the hands of academics and deans. Read more…