The Cry of a Lone Academician

Now, now, now yesterday I was lucky. I eventually got a chance to attend the "East Africa at 50: A Celebration of Histories and Futures" conference at the University of Nairobi. You see my work itinerary could not allow me to be there for the opening day on Tuesday. Please do not ask me about the nature of my work. I am not proud and I am not willing to divulge details now. 

My failure to attend the conference on the opening day means that I missed a life time opportunity to listen to the 1st keynote address my Euphrase Kezilahabi. Kezilahabi is the Tanzanian guru credited for having broken ranks with traditional Swahili verse. You recall usawa wa vina vya kati na vya mwiso? Mizani? Kiitikio/kibwagizo? Mishororo? He has written what we call in literature free verse as opposed to bound verse – yake ni shairi huru/guni. You may not understand but this is a big deal for a literary fan like me. He is also famed for having a plethora of texts such as: 

• Rosa Mistika -1971
• Kichwamaji -1974
• Dunia Uwanja wa Fujo -1975
• Gamba la Nyoka -1979
• Kichomi (poems) -1974
• Mzingile - 1991
• Nagona - 1990
• Karibu Ndani - 1988
• Rosa Mistika – 1988 among many others

Now you understand why I am disappointed for having missed the opening day of the conference. It is litotical for me to say that I am bitter.

            But I am fortunate because yesterday I got the chance to attend the conference and present my paper titled “The Vulgarities of Language and Cultural Aestheticism”. More fortunate because the 2^nd keynote address of the conference was given by Susan Kiguli, The chairperson of the department of literature at Makerere on the subject of “orature”. Even more fortunate because the evening was crowned by some serious intercourse between Kezilahabi and Prof Kithaka wa Mberia. The Swahili discourse of the evening was nostalgic for me especially because I have a soft spot for Kiswahili. It was part of my academic pursuit at the university up to 2^nd year until ... a story for another day.

Reminiscing away in Malindi 2012

Let us go back to one Kithaka wa Mberia. He is a playwright and poet from Kenya. His works include:

• ·         Redio na Mwezi (poems) – 2005 
• ·         Maua Kwenye Jua la Asubuhi (play) – 2004
• ·         Kifo Kisimani (play) – 2002
• ·         Bara Jingine (poems) – 2001
• ·         Mchezo wa Karata (poems) – 1997
• ·         Natala (play) – 1997 among many others.

This is why I am boasting for having been party to such a highly inspired session with all the scholars from the world over. Kithaka and Kezilahabi’s experiences demonstrate that most writers share one thing in common – disavowal for poor politics/bad governance. For instance, Kithaka says that his name is symbolic of the bush because whilst growing up, his mother’s hut was full of herbs as a result of the lack of hospitals or dispensaries. This is what makes him to have constant altercations with poor leadership for failure to equitably distribute resources throughout the country. He attributes poor leadership as resulting to marginalisation.

            It is thus obvious that bad governance is to blame for the socioeconomic stratification of the country. Kithaka wa Mberia contends that the writer as the voice of social consciousness must have heightened senses – sight, smell, hearing, taste and touch (visual, olfactory, auditory, gustatory and tactile for the academician). The writer must have the ability to ask why? Why is a young girl a prostitute? Why is a young man a robber/mugger? Why are people violent? Why do we have beggars? Why is there poverty and destitution? In his concluding remarks, he reckons that these issues have to do with poor governance.

            The other aspect emerging from Kithaka’s observations was the fact that in Kenya we do not have tribal clashes but political clashes. On this I concur with him because I have always argued that Kenya has two main tribes: the rich and the poor. Whoever thinks otherwise is grossly mistaken or mis-educated. Acts of social degeneration et al are a resultant effect of impoverishment of human beings – dehumanisation and destitution of people by a few selfishly and economically empowered individuals. J M Kariuki once upon a time described Kenya as “a nation of 10 millionaires and 10 million beggars”. Reckon that!

            Now you know why mine is the cry of a lone academician. I am moaning the death of my academic career because the administrative demands from my employer are non-academic. I am continuously feeling frustrated, demoralised, impoverished and destituted academically. Consider this post my act of ventilation. I would love to conduct research, read my novels, engage in literary discourses, and banter with my students about emergent trends in the world of academia. But this appears to be the least concern of the TORs at work.

            I am ceaselessly engaged in non-academic tasks that are slowly taking a toll on me. If I choose to publish and not perish then, the assumption of my employer is that, I choose to abscond on a lot of the duties before me administratively. On the contrary, I believe that if my energies are channelled into my academics, my students will be a happy lot. Why? I will be a self-actualised scholar, knowledgeable and able to disseminate requisite information to my students. I will be able to attend conferences, to write research papers, to skilfully mentor my students and to inspire them to become better than me. Or even to blog/tweet.

However, now you definitely understand that my choices are limited. If I choose to be faithful to the nature of my work, I will become grumpy, disappointed/frustrated with my work, I will not publish, I will probably never attend a conference and I will be the worst lecturer to my students – an unknowledgeably dejected one. I will be unable to challenge them, I will recycle information/notes, and I will not keep up with emerging trends in my area of specialisation. In a nut shell, education will die a natural death.

Therefore, mine is the cry of a lone academician. No one wants to support me, not unless I am willing to compromise and adhere to the demands of the nature of my work. I feel stunted, malnourished and suffocated as a scholar. I am venting out because I am worried of the consequences of the choices that I have to make. Now that you are in the know could you please tell be if I should be a scholar and an enemy of my duties or I should be a good employee and an enemy of academic growth? What would you suggest I should choose?

Social Issues Facing Institutions of Higher Learning

The raging debate emanating from institutions of higher learning in relation to the quality of contemporary graduates is evidence of the malaise afflicting our universities. Either we are in a transitory period and hence are confused about where we are headed or we have long lost the objectives for which the Kenyan education system was intended in the first place. At least the majority of academicians are in agreement that something urgently needs to be done. This is owing to the rising concern that it’s not only the lack of thinking skills but the emptiness of the knowledge pre-supposedly learnt in our institutions.

I underpin the problem of education because it appears to be the focal point towards which daggers are thrown in lieu to academic institutional social issues. I have consistently engaged in endless banter with my students concerning their life on campus. Reiterating on the need to have fun, I have always buttressed the fact that university life cannot be exchanged for any other rite of passage in the human cycle. My idea is that the students should learn and do so in an enjoyable manner as opposed to lower levels of learning where knowledge generation is fixated with a linear/vertical approach. In colleges/universities, learning is interactive, cross-sectional, diametrically interlinked and so on. This provides favourable environment for the students to “flout” traditionally entrenched modes of learning like the myth that the teacher is the alpha and omega of all knowledge. Here, a lecturer’s opinions can be quashed, a venue for learning can be transposed, and even the learning methodology can be altered depending on the occasion.

It is thus tragic to note that the inverse of learning in our institutions is true. Our students appear like zombies and the lecturers or mentors come across as apoplectic individuals who decry demotivation as the source of their indifference towards their mandate. Consequently, the students lack the requisite mentoring or parenting because even their parents have sacrificed the much needed parental care for economic gains or pursuits. Caught at the end of their wits, the parents continuously impress it upon their children the need to pursue a career oriented course. On their end, the students enroll for courses they care less about, thus retreating into exclusive clandestine activities on Facebook, iPods, tweeter, Whatsapp and other not so constructive technologically alluring activities.

No one thinks about skills, talents, creativity or imagination. Hence, in this progressively selfish society whose vision and economic development is hinged on technological advancement, we have sacrificed social and human needs for the sake of ‘professions’. As a result the students lack proper mentorship and they find themselves floundering aimlessly and eventually end up frustrated. The irate lecturer, frustrated by the lack of institutional support and increased economic challenges, is the last fortress the students can turn to. This renders our institutions as fertile ground for verbal tirades and jests between lecturers and students, lecturers letting off steam, or both students and lecturers spewing out vitriol directed at the administration and the government at large. 

Feeling cornered and caged by an uncaring society, it is no wonder that the students turn into abusing and discriminating against each other. Therefore, instead of the university acting as a better world for the excitable young adults, it turns into culture shock when some of them discover the underworld activities of their peers. Everything that is illicit raging from alcohol, premarital sex, to drugs and other criminal activities begin to abound as the students seek for avenues to hit back at the negligent society. It is the resultant effects of abortions and at times suicide that eventually reveal the underbelly of our institutions of higher learning.

It is not surprising to hear some students reporting cases of bullying and other forms of abuse. For international students or lecturers, it is the language barrier and the attendant communication problems that becomes a nightmare. For the economically disadvantaged ones, it is the gaping disparities of affluence that ultimately lead to giving in when it comes to problems of peer pressure: prostitution, drug-peddling, violent demonstrations, recruitment into criminal and political gangs amongst others. The need for affirmation, identification, and the sweet feeling of the sense of belonging eventually prevails on some of the students to comprise on morality. At the end of it all, everyone stands to be indicted for the shortfalls of the social issues that pervade the corridors of higher learning in Kenya. (This article was 1st published in the DaystarConnect Magazine during the June 2013 Graduation)