Kenyan connection to the South African higher education sector

The recent death of Prof Rok Ajulu has once again turned focus on why so many Kenyan academics are based in South Africa. Prof Ajulu, who was the husband of Human Settlements minister Lindiwe Sisulu, lived most of his productive life outside Kenya and not only in various South African universities but also consulted for international organisations.

The 1990s were interesting years for both Kenya and South Africa, mainly for political reasons. South Africa was emerging from apartheid. Kenya was re-entering more accommodative politics with the return of political pluralism from 1991.

But prior to the 1990s, the Kanu rule in Kenya had progressively created an anti-intellectual culture, which had led to many academics going into forced or self-imposed exile. Apart from America and Europe, the southern African countries of Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Swaziland, Botswana, Namibia and eventually South Africa hosted many of the migrating scholars, professionals and students who sought higher education in the region. South Africa became the preferred destination after 1994, when Nelson Mandela was elected in the first post-apartheid elections.

South Africa appealed to the migrating Kenyan scholars and professionals for many reasons. First, the political climate made it easy for Africans to settle down there. For those running away from political repression, South Africa’s liberal politics offered hope.

The pan-Africanist ideals of the African National Congress rekindled the dreams of the 1960s and 1970s decolonising Africa when academics were close to the political elite. These conditions made it easy for many scholars running away from countries such as Kenya, whose ruling elite had become quite intolerant and had jailed the academics before, to settle in South Africa. This is how individuals such as Prof Korwa Adar ended up teaching and researching at Rhodes University and at the Africa Institute of South Africa, in Pretoria.

Secondly, the South African economy was more advanced and offered better opportunities compared to many African economies that had been battered by the economic structural adjustment programmes that had seen the “real earnings” of civil and public servants collapse. Universities couldn’t pay lecturers living wages.

South African institutions of higher learning offered much better salaries and easily recruited from elsewhere on the continent because they needed to satisfy the new employment rules in South Africa that demanded that a certain percentage of staff in an institution be black. Considering that the apartheid system had disadvantaged black South Africans in education, qualified and skilled Africans filled the gap in the immediate.

Many Kenyans teaching in South African universities got employed in this way. But more also got employed because they were offering “special skills and knowledge”, which was in short supply at the time of their employment.

Thirdly, and probably most important, and which explains the large number of Kenyan academics in South African universities today – compared to say Uganda and Tanzania – is that hundreds of Kenyans registered at South African universities for their Master’s and Doctorate degrees from the 1990s.

South African universities offered then and still do higher education comparable to any in Asia, Europe and America, more affordably. These institutions had a more established research culture than Kenyan universities and, therefore, attracted students who wanted to pursue postgraduate studies who couldn’t be absorbed locally.

Many of those Kenyan students found lecturers who were eager to teach, supervise and mentor them; some of the professors were Kenyan. The South African professors found such students handy research assistants, which meant that the professors’ research output increased. Kenyan students were always seen as hardworking and able to finish their degrees within the prescribed duration.

Also, given that the Department of Education, through the National Research Foundation, recognises and supports innovation through direct funding, the universities, the professors and the students, all benefitted.

The result was a faster graduation rate and further registration for a higher degree or pursuit of post-doctoral research. This system partly explains the large number of Kenyan academics teaching and researching at South African universities, research foundations and independent organisations today.

There are at least three categories of Kenyan academics in South Africa. First, there are the exiles forced to migrate and travelled either directly to South Africa or via Zimbabwe, Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho or Swaziland. Some also transited through Europe, Asia or America, back to South Africa.

Second is the first batch of individuals who voluntarily left for studies, graduated and got employed. The third group is made up of individuals who were supported, taught and mentored by the earlier generation.

For instance, many in what one can call the Prof Adar generation “returned” home, got back to teaching, settled down into other work, retired or migrated to Europe and America, to teach. But the second and third cohort has a fair number teaching and working in South Africa.

A few names – not representative but illustrative of the three groups – include Prof Shadrack Gutto (Director, Centre for African Renaissance Studies, University of South Africa); Prof James Ogude (Senior Research Fellow and Deputy Director, Centre for Advancement of Scholarship, University of Pretoria); Prof Nixon Kariithi (CEO Tangaza Africa Media, who previously taught journalism at Rhodes University and University of the Witwatersrand); Prof Sam Kariuki ( University of the Witwatersrand); Prof Dan Ojwang’ (University of the Witwatersrand); Prof Grace Musila (Stellenbosch University); Prof Collins Oguto Miruka (Vaal University of Technology); Dr Job Kibii (archeologist/paleontologist, University of the Witwatersrand); Prof John Ogony Odiyo (University of Venda).

Thus, the South Africa-Kenya academic linkages that were established in the colonial era when Mr Charles Njonjo and Mr Eliud Mathu went to study at Fort Hare University survived the isolationist years of the apartheid era and were firmly re-established post-1990. South African institutions of higher learning have contributed immensely to postgraduate training of teaching and research staff from several Kenyan universities.

For instance, the University of the Witwatersrand has produced tens of Kenyan PhDs in fields such as literature, media, medicine, law, engineering, history etc in the past three decades. Stellenbosch University is currently the lead partner in a postgraduate programme known as PANGeA – Partnership for the Next Generation of African Academics that involves Makerere University, University of Dar es Salaam, University of Malawi and the University of Nairobi. This truly multinational world of scholarship is the community to which Prof Ajulu belonged.

The writer teaches literature at the University of Nairobi.