Makerere Students, Disinclined to Take Chapters Sum up the Fndings and Implications for Risks That Might Imperil Their Careers, Have Been Research and Policy
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Frederick Kamuhanda Byaruhanga. Student Power in Africa's Higher Education: A Case of Makerere University. New York and London: Routledge, 2006. 168 pp. $65.00, cloth, ISBN 978-0-415-97746-3. Reviewed by Carol Sicherman Published on H-Africa (February, 2007) In this book, originally his UCLA dissertation, vides the political context, a chronology of the Frederick Byaruhanga disputes the common opin- events, and an "interpretive reflection." Two fnal ion that Makerere students, disinclined to take chapters sum up the fndings and implications for risks that might imperil their careers, have been research and policy. as conservative as their fabled university. In cata‐ Byaruhanga distinguishes three types of ac‐ loguing and expounding on student challenges to tivism: "welfare-related," ideological, and "sur‐ authority since 1952 (when Makerere became a vival." The frst significant protest (in 1952), a boy‐ university-level institution), he tells a virtually un‐ cott of the dining halls in a demand for better known story largely through local newspapers food, concerned student "welfare"--a matter of and forty-one interviews. The ex-demonstrators psychological as well as culinary comfort. Ideolo‐ whom he interviewed are now MPs and govern‐ gy in-spired protest in the 1960s as students ment ministers, officials in the World Bank and demonstrated against American bombing in NGOs, educators, lawyers, and business people. northwestern Uganda (a spill-over from conflict Byarhuhanga, the frst scholar to tackle head-on in Congo) and the hanging of three African na‐ the question of student power at Makerere, has tionalists by the Smith government in Rhodesia. A chosen a topic important to both Uganda and the decade later (in 1976), students plotted, bravely region, for until the early 1960s Makerere educat‐ but unsuc-cessfully, to overthrow the Amin gov‐ ed nearly all the elite of East and Central Africa. ernment. After three introductory chapters--a summary "Survival" demonstrations, increasingly fre‐ of Ugandan history as it pertains to Makerere; an quent from the early 1980s to the present, are a overview of education in Uganda; and a survey of post-Amin version of the earlier "welfare" student activism with emphasis on African uni‐ protests, with two differences. First, student lead‐ versities--Byaruhanga marches, decade by decade, ers have emphasized the principle of self-determi‐ from the 1950s through 2005. Each chap-ter pro‐ nation. Second, both the student demonstrations H-Net Reviews and en-suing government repression have been of an impact have students had on Makerere? characterized by serious violence. In December Very little, this book implies; no one has learned 1990, the new Student Guild president (Norbert the lessons of the past. The foresight and fexibili‐ Mao, now a leading MP) spearheaded a rejection ty exhibited by Ssebuwufu appear to have left lit‐ of a Guild constitution imposed by the Ministry of tle trace, vanquished by the equally authoritarian Education. Even as he put forward a host of eco- traditions inherited from pre-colonial and colo‐ nomic "survival" issues--the abolition of al‐ nial cultures. Students continue to erupt in violent lowances for books, transportation, and sta‐ protest. National politics echoed on campus com- tionery--Mao connected the protests with the gov‐ pound the antagonisms. ernment's costly pursuit of war in the north and Byaruhanga has much to teach students lead‐ its toler-ance of corruption. The government sent ers and university administrations in Africa. He police to campus just as students were discussing pro-poses additional lines of research--cross-na‐ call-ing off the strike. Police shot two students to tional comparisons (beginning with the sister death, and the university closed.[1] As univer-sities in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam), explo‐ Byaruhanga remarks, the weak Makerere admin‐ ration of gender roles in student activism, and istration was "sandwiched" between students and "the nexus between student activism and political government (p. 111). aspiration" (p. 162). To this list other topics could The proximate cause of the 1990 tragedy was be added, including examination of what students the denial of allowances, a measure made neces- do not protest and what administrations do not sary by Structural Adjustment policies imposed by do. Students have been indifferent to the marked the World Bank and IMF. Had the Makerere ad‐ inequalities of access to Uganda's fag-ship univer‐ ministration conferred with Guild leaders and en‐ sity. The breathtaking lack of consultation of stu‐ couraged them to consult with their constitu-ents, dents by government and university is matched the deaths and closure need never have hap‐ by the apparent failure of the university to enlist pened. In the later 1990s, under genial Vice-Chan‐ the expertise of those teaching in its own Master cellor John Ssebuwufu, Makerere instituted new of Arts in Peace and Conflict Studies. and apparently effective means of commu-nicat‐ A good deal of this book is a chronicle of ing with students (reforms that Byaruhanga might events. Byaruhanga makes excellent use of eye‐ have discussed more fully). But Ssebu-wufu did witness accounts, particularly of the past thirty not succeed in institutionalizing this new ap‐ years. His analysis, although spare, is insightful. proach and demonstrations have bedeviled his While the research on the protests themselves is successor, Livingstone Luboobi. Makerere has re‐ quite rich, in other areas it is thin. Some topics turned to square one. Students and staf, rendered could be better feshed out, such as the complex natural allies by the high-handed behavior of the question of autonomy (of the Student Guild, of Uganda government and Makerere administra‐ Mak-erere itself vis-à-vis the government), the tion, strike and demonstrate again and again.[2] failed "needy students" scheme, and certain fea‐ Byaruhanga reports a placard in a May 2005 tures of Makerere student life that will be unfa‐ demonstration reading: "Ssebuwufi was much miliar to outsiders. better. We want him back." (p. 132) This book blazes a trail for scholars of higher Byaruhanga's interest in the impact of stu‐ education in Africa. Byaruhanga's interviews dents on universities is in keeping with the broad‐ show the value of oral history and make one long er in-clination in African studies to examine agen‐ for memoirs by veterans of Ugandan higher edu‐ cy of supposedly subservient groups. How much ca-tion.[3] His call for analysis of student power in 2 H-Net Reviews Kenya and Tanzania, essential for comparative pledge made in April 2004 for a salary increase. study, should be heeded. Policy-makers in univer‐ On November 12, Museveni ordered Makerere sities and ministries of education need good infor‐ closed; on December 5 he ordered it to reopen in mation about the past if they are to avoid the dis‐ January 2007; a student demonstration on Decem‐ couraging replication of mistakes. ber 7 in support of the strike was suppressed. See As it happens, Byaruhanga and I were in the chronology to date in Evelyn Lirri, "Makerere email contact while both of us were researching Strike: Will the Lecturers' Spirit Crack?" Monitor books about Makerere (we have never met).[4] It (12 December 2006). was he who told me that a Routledge editor, hav‐ [3]. One example is W. Senteza Kajubi, who ing read the abstract of his thesis in Dissertation has publicly expressed regret for his failure to Abstracts International, had proposed publica‐ avoid the ultimately fatal confrontation in 1990 tion in a series edited by Molefi Asante. Taking during his second stint as Makerere's Vice-Chan‐ worthy dissertations off the proverbial dusty shelf cellor (John Eremu, "Kajubi Regrets 1990 Mak‐ is a good thing, but dissertations inevitably re‐ erere Killings," New Vision (3 April 2004). Kajubi quire revisions before becoming books. It appears and Makerere's long-time Registrar, Bernard that neither Routledge nor the series editor ex‐ Onyango, are only two of the veteran academics pected revision or offered the slightest editorial and administrators whose vast knowledge needs help. It is inexcusable that a short book priced at to be recorded. $65 should be replete with a wide variety of er- [4]. See my Becoming an African University: rors. Misspelled names render follow-up impossi‐ Makerere 1922-2000 (Trenton: Africa World Press, ble: the historian Nakanyike B. Musisi is given in 2005; Kampala: Fountain Publishers, 2006). the bibliography and in citations as "Nakanyike, M."; another source, Seftel, is spelled in three dif‐ ferent, incorrect ways (pp. 3-5, 173; the name ap‐ pears correctly on p. 7); the journalist John Eremu is sometimes cited as Elemu. Most of the other types of errors, although distracting, do not im‐ pede understanding. Editors and publishers, who surely know that newly minted academ-ics can‐ not resist the lure of publication, are professional‐ ly obligated to ensure that the books they sell are worthy in all respects. Both Routledge and Asante have much to answer for in this re-gard. Finally, the price puts the book out of reach of the very readers whom it could benefit most. The African scholarly world would welcome a correct‐ ed edition at an affordable price by a Ugandan publisher. Notes [1]. The frst closure occurred a year earlier, in November 1989. [2]. On 3 November 2006, staff struck to de‐ mand that the Ugandan government honor a 3 H-Net Reviews If there is additional discussion of this review, you may access it through the network, at https://networks.h-net.org/h-africa Citation: Carol Sicherman. Review of Byaruhanga, Frederick Kamuhanda. Student Power in Africa's Higher Education: A Case of Makerere University. H-Africa, H-Net Reviews. February, 2007. URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=12865 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.