1 Introduction
The sovereign construction and equitable dissemination of knowledge is fundamental to the success of any society, together with the conditions under which it is embedded in global society. Right from the start, the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) therefore paid close attention to the policy field of education, science, and technology (EST). The 1963 OAU Charter recalled the general responsibility of the newly independent Heads of State and Government ‘to harness the natural and human resources of our continent for the total advancement of our peoples in all spheres of human endeavour’ (OAU 1963, preamble). The authors of the charter evoked a general sense of ‘progress’ and work for ‘the welfare and wellbeing’ of the African people. To this end, the charter called for educational and cultural as well as scientific and technical cooperation among member states (ibid., §2). This goal was kept by the African Union (AU). In the 2000 Constitutive Act of the African Union, a clear commitment is articulated towards advancing ‘the development of the continent by promoting research in all fields, particular in science and technology’ (OAU 2000, §3[m]).
Africa’s human capital will be fully developed as its most precious resource, through sustained investments based on universal early
childhood development and basic education, and sustained investments in higher education, science, technology, research and innovation, and the elimination of gender disparities at all levels of education. Access to post-graduate education will be expanded and strengthened to ensure world-class infrastructure for learning and research and support scientific reforms that underpin the transformation of the continent. (ibid., §14)
By 2063, the necessary infrastructure will be in place to support Africa’s accelerated integration and growth, technological transformation, trade and development. This will include high-speed railway networks, roads, shipping lines, sea and air transport, as well as well-developed ICT [information and communication technologies] and the digital economy. A Pan-African High Speed Train Network will connect all the major cities/capitals of the continent, with adjacent highways and pipelines for gas, oil, water, as well as ICT Broadband cables and other infrastructure. (ibid., §25)
Against this background, the AU has developed a number of specific policy initiatives in the field of EST. Following a brief look at basic facts and figures as well as an overview on policy coordination, this chapter calls attention to the Continental Education Strategy for Africa (2016–2025), hereinafter CESA 16–25; the Science, Technology and Innovation Strategy for Africa (STISA 2024); the Continental Strategy for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET); the Pan-African University (PAU), the Digital Transformation Strategy for Africa (DTS 2020–2030), and the African Space Policy and Space Strategy. In the last part of this chapter, the AU’s response to current debates on #RhodesMustFall and ‘decolonise the curriculum’ are briefly examined in determining how, if at all, the Union is responding to fundamental epistemological challenges that are closely related to the field of EST through its history and identity policies.
2 Facts and Figures about EST in Africa
Reliable, up-to-date, and comparable data on the status of EST in Africa is difficult to find. Nevertheless, some comparative figures are provided below. They all show that in global comparison the African continent is still lacking behind. Detailed data also suggests that there are big differences between (and within)
Education (all figures World Bank 2021): The primary school enrolment rate for Sub-Saharan Africa was 75.26 per cent in 2009 (latest figure) – as compared to 90.34 per cent for the MENA region (2018: 93.72%) or to a global average of 88.44 percent (2019: 89.41%). The primary school completion rate for Sub-Saharan Africa was 68.81 per cent in 2019 (2010: 67.95%) – as compared to 92.34 per cent for the MENA region (2010: 90.60%) or to a global average of 89.51 percent (2010: 88.83%). For girls, these figures are even lower: in Sub-Saharan Africa their primary school completion rate was 67.39 per cent in 2019 (2010: 64.47%) – as compared to 90.85 per cent for the MENA region (2010: 87.84%) or to a global average of 89.08 per cent (2010: 87.83%). The literacy rate among the age group 15–24 years in Sub-Saharan Africa was 76.32 per cent in 2019 (2010: 69.21%) – as compared to 90.12 per cent for the MENA region (2010: 88.94%) or to a global average of 91.73 percent (2010: 89.57%). And tertiary, or university, enrolment in Sub-Saharan Africa was only 9.44 per cent in 2018 (2010: 7.88%) – as compared to 40.59 per cent for the MENA region (2010: 31.40%) or to a global average of 38.36 percent (2010: 29.57%). In combination, these figures show that despite the many gains made since 2000, the challenges to achieve the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 ‘Quality Education’ continue to be huge (see United Nations 2021).
Science (all figures World Bank 2021): Three indicators are briefly looked at here – the number of patent applications (resident), trademark applications with the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), and scientific and technical journal articles. There are no figures on patent applications for the Sub-Saharan Africa region, only for selected countries. In this respect, in 2019 77 patents were registered originating from Kenya (2010: 294), 1,290 from Nigeria (2010: 64), and 567 from South Africa (2010: 821), to name but a few. For the MENA region, 15,802 patents were counted in 2019 (2010: 13,869), and worldwide 2,144,825 (2010: 1,160,899). The number of trademark applications coming from Kenya in 2019 was 7,205 (2010: 4,167), Nigeria 18,658 (2010: 20,560), and South Africa 37,371 (2010: 30,549). This is in stark contrast with the MENA region (2019: 303,093, 2010: 100,448) and global figures (2019: 3,789,328, 2010: 3,557,865). Finally, research output in the natural and technical sciences as measured by journal articles confirms the above observations on an African continent that is facing tremendous challenges to build up its
Technology (all figures World Bank 2018): In 2016, 74.4 mobile cellular telephone subscriptions per 100 people were counted in Sub-Saharan Africa (2010: 44.4) – as compared to 111.2 in the MENA region (2010: 92.9) and 101.6 worldwide (2010: 76.5). The number of fixed broadband subscriptions in Sub-Saharan Africa was 0.4 (2010: 0.2) – as compared to 7.7 in the MENA region (2010: 2.6) and 12.5 worldwide (2010: 7.9). And in terms of quality, in 2016 the international internet bandwidth (bit/s per internet user) was 47,625 in Sub-Saharan Africa (2010: 43,579) – as compared to 42,518 in the MENA region (2010: 8,818) and 78,795 worldwide (2010: 28,691).
3 AU Coordination of EST Policies
The framing of the policy field has changed over time. Particularly in the 1990s, the OAU focused on themes captured under the heading ‘education and culture’. The field of ‘education, science and technology’ is a more recent innovation of the mid-2000s and linked to the increasingly popular notion of ‘knowledge societies’1 – with ‘arts and culture’ somewhat getting disentangled from this field lately (and gaining more prominence in its own right). Recently, the prospect of a knowledge-based economy is seen by the AU not just as an alternative to the ‘resource-based economy’, but also as a means to overcome the continent’s condition of exploitation and dependency (see AU Commission 2019, 4).
With a view to revitalise the Union’s efforts in higher education, the 25th Ordinary Session of the AU Assembly (Johannesburg, South Africa, 14–15 June 2015) established a team of ten heads of state and government to champion the newly assembled EST policy field (AU Assembly 2015). The summit committed ‘to the establishment of a team of ten Heads of State and Government (two from each geographic region) as African EST champions, to meet and report on the status of education, science and technology in Africa, to the AU Summit once a year’ (African Union 2015, §8). Senegal’s president Macky Sall was appointed coordinator of ‘the group [of] champions’.
A report of the C10 was tabled at the 33rd Ordinary Session of the AU Assembly (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 9–10 February 2020), which also adopted the Action Plan. This plan started from an honest assessment, noting with concern ‘the underperformance of the education, training, research and innovation systems across many African countries and its inability to support the implementation of AU Agenda 2063’ (ibid., preamble). Yet, at the same time the C10 noted with appreciation ‘the efforts by African Universities to support Africa’s development Agenda through the Africa’s Universities’ Agenda for Higher Education, Science, Technology, and Innovation Strategy for Africa and efforts to increase staff capacities in universities through the Graduate Teaching Assistantship program’ (ibid.; see below). The C10 summit detailed recommendations for investing in EST, promoting education in Africa, and engaging the private sector. It furthermore stressed the immediate need to implement the three policies summarised in more detail in the following sections of this chapter.
Apart from the C10, the Specialised Technical Committee on Education, Science and Technology (STC-EST) remains the most important political fora to develop further the CESA 16–25 agenda – its 3rd session was held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from 10 to 13 December 2019 (the 4th session is scheduled for 26–28 May 2021). Within the AU Commission (AUC), the policy field falls under the commissioner for human resources, science and technology, which is led by Prof. Sarah Mbi Enow Anyang Agbor (Cameroon, elected in July 2017). The department is directed by Mahama Ouedraogo (Burkina Faso, acting) and comprises three divisions: Human Resource and Youth Development, Education, and Science and Technology. The staff size is slightly above 70.
The various sub-policy fields are administered by an array of institutions. In education, these are the Pan-African University (PAU, see below), the
In the implementation of EST, the AU often partners with the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the Planning and Coordinating Agency (through its Science, Technology and Innovation Hub) of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), as well as bilateral donors, such as the German development agency (GIZ).
4 EST Policy Initiatives
In the following, six major policy initiatives of the AU in the field of EST are highlighted. The status of implementation of most of these policies can be gauged from the AU’s website: it is work-in-progress.
4.1 Continental Education Strategy for Africa (2016–2025), CESA 16–25
Inspired by Agenda 2063 and Sustainable Development Goal 4 (Quality Education), CESA 16–25 aims ‘to “create” a new African citizen who will be an effective change agent for the continent’s sustainable development’ (African Union 2016). The strategy was drafted in 2015 and adopted the following year at the 26th Ordinary Session of the AU Assembly (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 30–31 January 2016); it falls under the department’s education division. Among others, CESA 16–25 is guided by the principle that knowledge societies ‘are driven by skilled human capital’ and that education has to be ‘holistic, inclusive and equitable’. In addition, ‘[g]ood governance, leadership and accountability in education management’ are identified as key factors. In order to facilitate ‘intra-Africa mobility and academic integration through regional cooperation’, education and training systems need to be harmonised. And, finally, ‘[q]uality and relevant education, training and research’ are regarded as ‘core [elements] for scientific and technological innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship’(ibid.).
This strategy was adopted by the 23rd Ordinary Session of the AU Assembly (Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, 26–27 June 2014). It envisions an Africa whose transformation is led by innovation with a view to create a knowledge-based economy (African Union 2014). It falls under the science and technology division. The strategy defines four mutually reinforcing pillars, which are prerequisite conditions for its success: (1) building and/or upgrading research infrastructures; (2) enhancing professional and technical competencies; (3) promoting entrepreneurship and innovation; and (4) providing an enabling environment for science, technology, and innovation (STI) development in the African continent (ibid., 10). This is to be achieved through, first, ‘improving STI readiness in Africa in terms of infrastructure, professional and technical competence, and entrepreneurial capacity’ and, second, ‘implementing specific policies and programs in science, technology and innovation that address societal needs in a holistic and sustainable way…’ (ibid., 11).
4.3 Continental Strategy for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET)
This strategy was mainly developed under the commissioner for human resources, science and technology, Dr Martial De-Paul Ikounga (Congo), who’s term of office was 2013 to 2017.2 It was originally developed in 2007, when the AUC wanted to revitalise TVET in Africa through the Plan of Action for the Second Decade of Education for Africa 2006–2015 (African Union 2006), which was adopted at the 6th Ordinary Session of the AU Assembly (Khartoum, Sudan, 23–24 January 2006). Implementation of the strategy falls under the science and technology division. TVET provides ‘a comprehensive framework for the design and development of national policies and strategies to address the challenges of education and technical and vocational training to support economic development, creation of national wealth and contribute to poverty reduction through youth entrepreneurship, innovation and employment’ (African Union 2018, 6).
4.4 Pan-African University (PAU)
To increase the low level of post-graduate training opportunities and research outputs, the 15th Ordinary Session of the AU Assembly (Kampala, Uganda, 25–27 July 2010) decided to create the Pan-African University. It was developed to act as a standard for all other universities within Africa and officially launched on 14 December 2011. The PAU rectorate is based in Yaoundé, Cameroon. The host
The PAU focuses on five thematic areas: basic sciences, technology, and innovation; life and earth sciences (including health and agriculture); governance, humanities, and social sciences; water and energy sciences (including climate change); and space sciences. The thematic areas are assigned to institutes hosted by existing universities across Africa’s five geographic regions as follows:
- –the Institute for Basic Sciences, Technology and Innovation (PAUSTI), as part of Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology in Kenya (East Africa),
- –the Institute for Life and Earth Sciences (including Health and Agriculture) (PAULESI), hosted by the University of Ibadan in Nigeria (West Africa),
- –the Institute for Governance, Humanities and Social Sciences (PAUGHSS), based at the University of Yaoundé II in Cameroon (Central Africa),
- –the Institute for Water and Energy Sciences (including Climate Change) (PAUWES), located in the University of Tlemcen in Algeria (North Africa), and
- –the Institute for Space Sciences (PAUSS), to be coordinated by the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT), plus a consortium of six other South African universities (Southern Africa). Operations were to commence in February 2019 but were delayed. South Africa made it a priority of its presidency of the Union in 2020 to fast-track the finalisation of technical and legal arrangements.
In addition, there is the Africa Virtual and e-University as the open, distance, and e-learning arm, located at the headquarters of the PAU in Yaoundé.
4.5 Digital Transformation Strategy for Africa (DTS 2020–2030)
On 9 February 2020, the AU adopted its strategy for the digitalisation of the continent in the coming decade. The DTS falls under the commissioner for
4.6 African Space Policy and Space Strategy
With reference to the African Outer Space Programme, promoted under Agenda 2063, and as key mechanisms for implementing STISA 2024, the 26th AU Assembly approved both the African Space Policy and Space Strategy. A couple of years later, the 32nd Ordinary Session of the AU Assembly (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 10–11 February 2019) decided to locate the African Space Strategy in Cairo, Egypt. The African Space Policy responds to ‘a number of fragmented initiatives that have a regional dimension’ (AU Commission 2016, 7). The policy aims ‘to bring all of these pockets of excellence together to create synergised, complementary programmes to foster collective actions towards Africa’s development, and eventually enable the continent to be a global space player’ (ibid.). The objective is twofold: first, to ‘create a well-coordinated and integrated African space programme that is responsive to the social economic, political and environmental needs of the continent, as well as being globally competitive’, and second, to ‘develop a regulatory framework that supports an African space programme and ensures that Africa is a responsible and peaceful user of outer space’ (ibid., 9).
The African Space Strategy follows the same logic as the digitalisation policy: on the one hand, it is acknowledged that the continent ‘is facing serious challenges in ensuring adequate provision of basic necessities, such as food, shelter, a clean and healthy environment, and proper education, for its growing population’, yet, on the other, there is great hope that a ‘slowly awakening’ Africa can benefit by leapfrogging from space science and technology (AU Commission 2019, 4). The core of the strategy is geared towards developing
4.7 Ratification of Legal EST Instruments
Like in other policy fields, AU member states are fairly slow in ratifying and depositing the legal instruments they have adopted in the field of EST. The AUC website lists six legal instruments relating to EST (African Union 2021a).3 Only two, the Statue of the African Space Agency (29 January 2018) and the Revised Statute of the Pan-African University (PAU) (31 January 2016),4 have entered into force. The African Union Convention on Cyber Security and Personal Data Protection (27 June 2014) has only been signed by 14 member states and ratified/deposited by 8 member states; the Statute of the Pan African Intellectual Property Organization (PAIPO) (30 January 2016) has been signed by 6 member states – none have ratified/deposited. And the Statute of the African Observatory in Science Technology and Innovation (AOSTI) (30 January 2016) as well as the Statute of the African Science Research and Innovation Council (ASRIC) (30 January 2016) have not been signed, ratified, or deposited at all.
5 Outlook: EST in Context – Arts, Culture, and Heritage
The above-described EST policies are being operationalised in a concrete historical context that is characterised by at least two major dynamics: first, a debate about the lasting impact of conceptual Eurocentrism and colonial legacies in higher education and, second, a controversy about the return of African art looted during European colonial rule and the restitution of African cultural heritage. In both debates, African and European actors – single and collective – are repositioning themselves and renegotiating their mutually constituted identities.
Initially in the higher education sector, and then also in the more general public, the past few years have seen some extremely controversial but also very constructive debates around #RhodesMustFall and the need to ‘decolonise the curriculum’. Starting in 2015, students in South Africa questioned the politics
Likewise, recently intensified debates around art looted from the African continent during colonial rule, including its return and restitution, raise questions not only of post-colonial justice but also of memorialisation and ownership (see Sarr and Savoy 2018; and, for a brilliant case study, Hicks 2020). Of course, these questions are not just negotiated between African and European stakeholders, but also within African societies.
How does the AU place itself in this context? Since the days of the OAU, there is a rich tradition of the continental body to engage in concrete history and memory politics. This is closely linked to diverse and contested visions of African unity and ideas of pan-Africanism (see the sharp analysis by Abrahamsen 2020; and the voluminous overview by Rabaka 2020). Since 1969, the OAU had organised Pan-African Cultural Festivals, a Pan-African Film Festival, and Pan-African Festivals of Arts and Culture.
Apart from promoting African arts and culture, three major themes stand out: memorialising slavery, engaging the African diaspora, and constructing Africa’s history. Following the commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the abolition of slavery in 2007, the AU organised a series of related meetings in South Africa: the 1st Ministerial Diaspora Conference (Midrand, 16–18 November 2007), the African Diaspora Summit (Johannesburg, 10–11 October 2008), and the Global African Diaspora Summit (Sandton, 25 May 2012). The theme gained huge momentum when the UN General Assembly proclaimed 2015 to
all people of African descent to make this a year of reconnection and re-engagement with our African identities, collective interests and to seek to forge practical and ambitious initiatives that will build our unity and offer prosperity to our peoples. (AU Assembly 2019a, §2)
And in 2020, the 33rd AU Assembly called for closer collaboration and cooperation between the African Union and ‘the African diaspora people of African descent in the Caribbean and Pacific regions’ (AU Assembly 2020c).
Given the importance of various trajectories that developed after independence, it is no surprise that the AU also took an interest in how these histories and their global entanglements are narrated. It therefore welcomed the UNESCO’s initiative to produce an eight-volume ‘The General History of Africa’ (UNESCO 1981–1999) and called for the AUC, in cooperation with ministers of education, to develop a ninth volume ‘covering the recent history of decolonization, end of Apartheid and Africa’s position in the World’ (AU Council 2009, §5(1)).5
This interest also led to the adoption of the Encyclopaedia Africana Project (EAP).6 Proposed by Ghana, which is hosting the Secretariat for the Encyclopaedia Africana Project in its capital Accra, the project was adopted by the 22nd Ordinary Session of the AU Assembly (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 30–31 January 2014) (AU Assembly 2014). In 2019, the AU decided to make this one its flagship projects under Agenda 2063 (AU Assembly 2019b). The EAP ‘aims to provide an authoritative resource on the authentic history of Africa and
The 33rd AU Assembly appreciatively noted the efforts of Malian president Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta, who was ousted in a coup d’état later that year (on 19 August 2020), as ‘AU Champion for the Promotion of Arts, Culture and Heritage’. The summit deplored the insufficient funding of this policy field by member states and called upon them ‘to allocate at least 1 [per cent] of their national budget to the sectors by 2030’ (AU Assembly 2020d, §5). The year 2021 was declared the AU Year of the Arts, Culture, and Heritage. The summit also expressed its support and called for funding of the African World Heritage Fund (AU Assembly 2020e).
This unequivocal rhetorical thrust to commemorate Africa’s past and build on its arts, culture, and heritage is somewhat contradicted by AU member states’ reluctance to ratify the 2006 Charter for African Cultural Renaissance (which is replacing the 1976 African Cultural Charter for Africa). This document, among many other things, wants to ‘develop all the dynamic values of the African cultural heritage that promote human rights, social cohesion and human development’ (African Union 2006b, §3[k]); it also aims to ‘provide African peoples with the resources to enable them to cope with globalization’ (ibid., §3[l]). By 18 June 2020, only 14 members had ratified and deposited the legal instruments (African Union 2021e). For the charter to enter into force, it takes the ratification of two-thirds of member states.
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Websites
AUC Department of Education, Science, and Technology. URL: <https://au.int/en/education-science-technology>.
AUC Department of Promoting Sports and Culture. URL: <https://au.int/en/promoting-sports-culture>.
On the notion, see Stehr (1994), Dunning (2000), and Cloete et al. (2015), but also UNESCO (1996, 2006). The Western roots of the concept (modernisation, modernity, and post-industrial societies) and its transfer to the African continent may not have been discussed thoroughly enough. See also the last section of this chapter.
The strategy was published on 22 October 2018.
However, some of the lists have not been updated for more than three years.
This statute does not require signature or ratification.
The project was launched in 1964. Currently, UNESCO is planning vols. 9 to 11.
The EAP was initiated by Ghana’s first president (1960–1966), Kwame Nkrumah, and eminent African diaspora scholar Dr W.E.B. DuBois in 1962. It was granted observer status with the OAU in February 1975.
The other history-related flagship project is the Great African Museum, which is meant to become a ‘focal centre for preserving and promoting the African cultural heritage’ (African Union 2021b). It is planned to be launched in 2023 as part of the First Ten-Year Implementation Plan of Agenda 2063. Located in Algiers, Algeria, ‘[t]he Museum of Africa Permanent Memorial of Slave Trade will showcase, protect and promote the rich cultural heritage of the continent’ (AUDA-NEPAD 2021).