The history of the Fulbright program in Africa is one of slowly growing political and economic interest in the continent and an ongoing adjustment to radical political and social changes. The program has followed the directive of avoiding all appearances of cultural imperialism and keeping apart from political or bureaucratic interference. Responding to the growth of universities in Africa and the expanding interest and expertise of American students and scholars, the program grew rapidly in the 1970s and was strengthened in 1978 with the addition of the Hubert H. Humphrey North/South Fellowships for midcareer civil servants and in 1980 by the University Affiliation Program and the African-American Issues Center Program. The Fulbright has been largest in the largest countries or those of greatest interest geopolitically to the United States—Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania, and Liberia. The Republic of South Africa presents the greatest challenge to an exchange program founded on academic excellence and free intellectual inquiry.
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References
1.
1. Robert J. Armbruster, ed., A Process of Global Enlightenment, International Education: Link for Human Understanding (Washington, DC: Board of Foreign Scholarships, 1976), p. 5.
4. Vernon McKay, “American Interest in Africa,” in Vernon McKay, ed., Africa in the United States (New York: MacFadden-Bartell, 1967), pp. 10 ff.
5.
5. As the subsequent data will verify, the Fulbright program in Africa adjusted to the political demarcations of the continent then followed by the Department of State, beginning with an endeavor to include the entire continent—except for Egypt, which was considered a part of the Near East and Southeast Asia—and gradually altering the lines to suit practical and political reality. Consequently, it was possible to confine a discussion of Africa to Africa south of the Sahara—further divided into Anglophone, Francophone, and Lusaphone countries—though this did violence, perhaps, to the reality of geography and alignments on the continent as expressed in the United Nations or the Organization of African Unity. Independence aside, 47 countries including the Malagasy Republic and excluding Egypt and the Canary and the Seychelles Islands constitute Africa today, foreign policy objectives often dictating which country will or will not be included in the Fulbright program.
6.
6. Board of Foreign Scholarships, A Quarter Century: The American Adventure in Academic Exchange (Washington, DC: Department of State, 1971), pp. 25-26.
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7. In the Republic of South Africa, higher education for nonwhites had been under the control of the English-language universities. Therefore, many nonwhites enrolled in the Universities of South Africa, Cape Town, Witwatersrand, Rhodes, and Natal. Fort Hare, started in 1916 and incorporated in 1923, was for Africans from any tribe. In 1951 it was annexed to Rhodes. In 1959, all non-Europeans not registered by 1 January 1959 were barred from entering any white institution except the Medical School at Natal and correspondence classes at the University of South Africa. In March 1960, the first Bantu college was opened. Fort Hare was now exclusively for Xosaspeaking students. See Martena Sasnett and Inez Sepmeyer, Educational Systems of Africa, Interpretations for Use in Evaluations of Academic Credentials (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1966), p. 1070.
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8. The Department of Education administers the Foreign Area and Language Training Program through the Office of International Education. The program is designed “to promote and improve foreign language training and area studies in American universities.... Grants available under this program include doctoral dissertation research abroad, faculty research abroad, group projects abroad and grants to bring foreign curriculum consultants from Africa to the United States.... These programs are different from other Fulbright-Hays activities in that their objective is research and training with no provisions for lecturing assignments overseas or for direct exchanges.” The Teacher Exchange Program was moved to the United States Information Agency about a year ago.
9.
9. Currently, the staff responsibilities are allocated among the following programs: UCLA-Somalia Project; University of California (Berkeley)-University of Nairobi Project; African-American Issues Center; U.S. Lecturers Program; U.S. Senior Research Scholars Program; Junior Staff Development/African Student Program; American African Educational Foundation Program (South African Students); American Studies Research Fellowship Program; University Affiliations Program; Francophone/Lusophone Africa Summer EFL [English as a Foreign Language] Institute; South Africa Long-Term EFL Training Project; Georgetown University's South African Lawyers Program; U.S. Student Program; African Senior Research Scholars Program; African Scholars-in-Residence (Lecturers) Program; Teachers, Technology, Texts Program.
10.
10. This number represents those students brought in 1957 to the United States on a highly publicized and accelerated program by Tom Mboya, a labor leader and politician in Kenya.
11.
11. See Adelaide C. Hill, “African Studies Programs in the United States,” in Africa in the United States, ed. McKay, pp. 65-88, for an early history of the development of these programs. Another twenty or so programs exist in the colleges and universities.
12.
12. Other programs in sub-Saharan Africa are typically supervised by one-person United States Information Service posts rather than by commissions.
13.
13. Annual Report (Washington, DC: Board of Foreign Scholarships, 1976), pp. 5-6.
14.
14. Report on Exchanges (Washington, DC: Board of Foreign Scholarships, 1978), p. 4.
15.
15. “The Fulbright Program in the Eighties: Summary of Conference Proceedings” (Pamphlet, Board of Foreign Scholarships and the International Communication Agency, [1980?]), pp. 7-10.
16.
16. Ibid.
17.
17. After 1981 no grants were made to U.S. citizens to go to South Africa.
18.
18. The educational program for politically disadvantaged South African students is not a Fulbright exchange program and does not require that the Board of Foreign Scholarships select each student. It is coordinated by the International Institute of Education, but it is important to note because it is a special initiative responding to acute circumstances not unlike the airlift sponsored by Tom Mboya, mentioned earlier. In 1986, 250 students in the program were studying at 168 U.S. colleges and universities.
19.
19. Boston University, Harvard University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, “A Proposal to the United States Information and Communication Agency for the Study of African-American Issues” (1983), p. 1.
20.
20. The higher figure of $3,794,630 can be used for African students because this figure includes students from South Africa and Liberia added to the Regional Program for African students.
21.
21. W.E.B. DuBois, The Souls of the Black Folk (New York: New American Library, 1969), p. 78.
