Dr Christopher Isike University of Zululand, South Africa And Mr Olumuyiwa Amao

1. An Africanist Analysis of Course Design and Contents of Teaching Political Science in Neo-Colonial Africa Dr Christopher Isike University of Zululand, South Africa And Mr Olumuyiwa Amao Doctoral Candidate, School of Social Sciences University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

2. Introduction • Although African Studies was formulated initially to serve non-African interests almost 100 years ago, a Pan-Africanist nationalist struggle developed, culminating in its appropriation as a key epistemological foundation for a new Africa. • However, more than 50 years after, neo-colonial African university education has not focused on the development of African epistemologies. • There remains a disconnect between knowledge that and knowledge how; • knowledge produced in either the physical or social sciences remain disconnected from the real experiences of the African peoples • Highlights the contradiction in empiricism and constructivism when it comes to Africa

3. Introduction cont’d • This paper attempts to use course design and content in political science in selected African universities in Nigeria and South Africa to examine the Pan-African African studies vision. • Its broad question is what are the intended learning outcomes of these courses and as such for the discipline? • What epistemological models of knowledge production drive teaching Political Science in African universities? • What challenges exist? • And how can we refocus on producing relevant knowledge for the continent and by the continent based on its realities and the lived experiences of its peoples?

4. Theoretical consideration • Anchored mainly on the work of Ake (1982) which sees social sciences in Africa as neo-imperialism: • It foists on the developing countries, capitalist values, capitalist institutions and capitalist development, shapes the learning outcomes in social sciences towards addressing questions of how to make the developing countries more like the West and more importantly, it propagates mystification, and modes of thought and action, which inevitably serves the interest of capitalism and imperialism (Ake,1982:xiii). • Most Third world social scientists have accepted too uncritically, the social science which they learned from their Western universities, books and journals, and they busy reproducing and spreading this social science, often with unshakeable conviction. Some of them are convinced that the social science which they have learned is purely science and value free; they are all the more seduced to this point of view when they have a quantitative bent as the mathematicization of a problem is so readily confused with scientific objectivity (Ake,1982:135).

5. Theoretical cont’d • In this seminal work, Ake problematizes the methodological and ideological bias of social knowledge production in Africa thus: • Eurocentric teleology • The equation of the ideal to reality • The capitalist bias • Zeleza (2006:1)supports Ake’s thesis: • Eurocentricism is deeply rooted in the very origins of the enlightenment project and its unyielding hierarchical geographies of knowledge.

6. Theoretical cont’d • Zeleza (2006) further noted: • in their encounters with Africa, the disciplines have travelled a considerable distance from their unadulterated Eurocentric origins, but many traces remain which continue to envelope Africa in the analytical shadows of difference and even derision. • Chabal (2009) on politics of suffering and smiling which captures the resilience of the African masses. • Should be part of a theory of African politics

7. The Pan African vision of a decolonizing Africa through education • Dismantle the hegemony of European thought as part of the struggle to reconstruct the historicity and integrity of African thought, • To renegotiate the epistemic terms of knowledge production, • to rid the disciplines of the civilizational and cognitive elements of Eurocentric knowledge • To affirm African humanity long denied by the European normativism. • Obviously some disciplines have been more successful than others, the social sciences such as economics and political science and law have not faired well enough.

8. Course content analysis • Mamdani versus Harris on Content versus Pedagogy, UCT • Tables 1 – 5

9. Preliminary findings • Generally, more focus on pedagogy rather than content • Generally knowledge production not pertinent to Africa’s political realities • At OAU, of the 45 courses offered, 6 (SOC 203, POLS:303, 312,318, 405, 418) have a direct relationship with the prevailing Nigerian socio-economic and political environment; • Four (4) other courses (POLS: 204, 307, 402 and 409) are indirectly related to Africa’s prevalent socio-economic and political realities; • The remaining 29 remain rooted in Eurocentric political thought • At UNIBEN, of the 39 courses offered, only 8 (POLS: 111, 112, 212, 223, 323, 320 412, and 413) have a direct relationship with the prevailing Nigerian socio-economic and political environment; • 4 other courses (POLS: 214, 311, 422, and 427) are indirectly related to Nigeria/Africa’s prevalent socio-economic and political realities;

10. Preliminary findings cont’d • The remaining 25 remain rooted in Eurocentric thought • At UI, of the 44 courses offered, 5 (POS: 112, 114, 333, 343, and 421) have a direct relationship with the prevailing Nigerian socio-economic and political environment; • 6 (POS: 213, 214, 215, 216, 322 and 455) are indirectly related to Nigeria/Africa’s prevalent socio-economic and • The remaining 30 remain rooted in Eurocentric thought • At UKZN, only 6 of the 40 courses (POLS: 203, 204,307, 704 and 705) have a direct relationship with South Africa’s prevailing socio-economic and political environment; • 4 others (POLS: 206, 3186, 318 and 722) are indirectly related to Africa’s prevalent socio-economic and political realities, • The remaining 28 remain rooted in Eurocentric political thought

11. Preliminary findings cont’d • At Honours level, of the 16 courses offered, 1 (POLS 704) is focussed on SA • The remaining 15 are generic and Eurocentric • At UNIZULU, of the 10 political sciences courses offered, 1 has a direct relationship with the prevailing socio-economic and political environment in SA • The remaining 9 are generic and Eurocentric in content even though lecturers have the freedom to focus on SA or African cases (CPOL 201; Political Sociology) • At the Honours level, of the 5 courses offered, 1 (CPOL 598) • 1 (CPOL 596)is focussed on Africa • Overall, most courses that relate to NIG and SA political realities are electives • There is more freedom over course content in SA than in NIG more

12. Concluding remarks • So far, we have raised more questions than answers • What is knowledge? • What is the truth? • Time for an African social science based on African methodologies? • Phenomenology versus realism? • Using western measure of scientivism, how empirical is knowledge production in Africa if it is not based on the lived experiences of Africans?