Towards the Establishment of a Pan-African University: A Strategic Concept Paper

For a long time, Pan-Africanists have advocated the establishment of a Pan-African University. In spite of various efforts in this direction, the hope has failed to materialise. The challenge is that such a university must be a new university, not only in the approach to teaching and research, but more fun-damentally, in its strategic conception and its placement at the base of African and human emancipation and liberation. The establishment of the Pan-African University should have as its overall goal the provision of opportunities for higher and advanced education for students and adult learners in the context of a new African-based epistemology and methodol-ogy. The models of Western Universities which Africa adopted have proved completely unsuitable for Africa's needs. But for the Pan-African University to set a new path in the search for knowledge and truth, it must first and foremost be built on a sound spiri-tual basis that highlights those aspects of African spiritual life that has enabled the African people to survive as a human community throughout the centuries. It is time that such a task be embarked on headlong