Education in Africa 
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| Title: | The teaching and research of political economy in Africa with specific reference to East Africa |
| Author: | Campbell, H. |
| Year: | 1988 |
| Periodical: | The African Review: A Journal of African Politics, Development and International Affairs (ISSN 0856-0056) |
| Volume: | 15 |
| Issue: | 1 |
| Pages: | 89-106 |
| Language: | English |
| Notes: | biblio. refs. |
| Geographic term: | East Africa |
| Subjects: | economic research political economy economics education Economics, Commerce education |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the teaching and research of political economy in East Africa in the context of the present world capitalist crisis and raises questions about the methodological tools required to sharpen the teaching of Marxist political economy in Africa. The author believes these questions are conjunctural and relate to the intellectual concerns of the period of decolonization and the recent reversals engendered by the economic crisis. Arguing that political economy must be grounded in the specific conditions of the society in which one is studying or teaching, the author describes the concrete experience of the teaching and research of political economy at Makerere University, Kampala (Uganda), and the University of Dar es Salaam (Tanzania). Political economy at Makerere proved unable to transcend the ideological parameters of colonial scholarship. A major negative consequence was the inordinate stress on the need to modernize 'tribal' structures and a total disregard of regional differentiation. The University of Dar es Salaam, when it was established, was conceptualized in the same manner as Makerere, where the whole process of knowledge production was alien to the social processes in the society. Scholars such as W. Rodney, C. Thomas, J. Rweyemamu, and others, attempted to teach alternative conceptions to the modernizing themes. However, this scholarship could not develop fully as long as the intellectuals remained isolated and the workers and poor peasants had not fully asserted themselves as a political force. Notes, ref. |
