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…
