ABSTRACT
One of the most painful and truculent aspects of postcolonial Africa’s descent into tyranny, mass violations of human rights and mal-development was the silence and complicity of Africa’s best and brightest—professors, scholars, and intellectuals—especially those in the diaspora. They acquiesced and even supported the imposition of non-democratic political systems, such as the one-party state systems and military regimes across Africa. Some even acted like intellectual prostitutes who brazenly sold off their conscience, principles, and integrity to serve the dictates of despicable regimes. Then after being used, they were discarded like rags or worse tossed into jail or killed. Only a handful of Africa’s intellectuals—such as Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Alemayehu Mariam, and Ngugi wa Thiong’o—distinguished themselves and stood up against despotic regimes. For 30 years after independence (1960–1990) the number of democracies in the continent was a pitiful four. This number rose to 17 in 2018 but at that rate, it would take Africa more than 83 years to become fully democratic. The irony is that democracy was part of the logic of the liberation struggle for independence in the 1950s. Evidently, the cause of freedom has perfidiously been betrayed. This chapter argues that African professors, intellectuals and scholars let Africa down ignominiously by failing to speak out against flagrant human rights violations, tyrannical excesses of African dictators. This intellectual class must become a more proactive and effective agent of reform or change for the second liberation of Africa. Change cannot be expected from leaders whose sole preoccupation is longevity in office and accumulation of personal wealth. None of Africa’s billionaire presidents made their wealth in the private sector, creating or producing something. As such, they cannot teach the youth about wealth creation. To help play a more proactive role, this chapter also suggests the adoption of an intellectual code for Africa’s academics and scholars. When this code is violated, the intellectual class must be willing to sanction its own members.
