African Academics: A Study of Scientists at the Universities of Ibadan and Nairobi

Abstract

This paper analyzes how western academic and intellectual traditions are being transformed at two African universities, the University of Ibadan (Nigeria) and the University of Nairobi (Kenya). It is argued that the academic and intellectual culture of these universities must be understood in terms of the accommodation of conflicting influences on African academic life: authority and autonomy; individualism and collectivism, and, finally, cosmopolitanism and specificity. While Ibadan and Nairobi are described as faithful to the traditions of Western universities in many ways, these traditions are influential selectively. Moreover, the academic and intellectual culture of these universities is shown to comprise traditions which are indigeneous and unreconciled with their colonial inheritance.