A Compendium of Response to Student Unrest in Africa Universities. Axiom Academic Publishers, South Africa

Student activism has been a crucial force for social change in universities. To this end, students around the world have been at the forefront of movements to promote democracy and human rights. In recent years, student activism has been used to fight social inequality, funding problems, balancing political ideologies, promises and quest for identity, especially among the subalterns, people of colour formerly colonised and those facing systematic, epistemic, cognitive, and structural exclusion. While the fight at first value appears noble, desirable, and doable, the praxis of student activism in the 21st century among some countries in the Global South, most especially in Africa, presents ambivalence marked with thuggery, arson, and criminality. Universities in Africa have become unsafe sites for students, academics, and other stakeholders. It is against this background that the book was conceptualised with the intention to problematise destructive student activism. The book documents various case studies in the African continent on how students have practised, re-imagined and reconstructed to ensure the relevance of universities in peace-making initiatives. Thus, this research-based book argues that in the midst of student unrest within universities, alternative situational responses are available, doable and achievable, underpinned with critical consciousness, geared to make universities relevant to meet the demands of the 21st century’s sustainability needs. In conclusion, this book provides a comprehensive overview of the problem of student unrest in universities. It offers some practical solutions that can be implemented to help prevent, manage and quell such social unrest."We need a new lens to understand student activism in the 21st century. Failure to do so will produce graduates that believe that destructive confrontation is the language of engagement." Bekithemba Dub