It is the intellectuals’ duty to denounce injustice

We hosted Dr Jimmy Spire Ssentongo who is with Makerere University and Uganda Martyrs University, Nkozi. Jimmy and I go a long time, nearly two decades now, since we were both students at Makerere.  Over the past decade, Jimmy (more popularly known as Spire) has maintained a consistent public presence as a columnist and editorial cartoonist for The Observer, a paper we both previously wrote for. While his scholarly work is in philosophy, his newspaper and social media work has taken the genre of satire.

During the online zoom discussion, I asked Jimmy to speak to the role of the scholar, and indeed of the university in a country like ours where there is so much injustice, abuse and endemic socioeconomic and political problems. He was blunt in calling out the complicity of silence by members of the academic guild.

My contribution to this question underscored what I have written about in these pages many times and which I would like to reiterate.

If there is one section and class of society that bears the sole duty of speaking out against injustice and especially the excesses of the powerful, it is the members of the academic community. Why? Because being in academia means one inhabits a place and platform quite unique and distinct.  Academia is built on the core principle of academic freedom, which bestows on us the privilege to determine not only what we teach, and how to teach it, but also the unfettered right to express ourselves through what we research, write and disseminate.

This also means that the academic practitioner has the latitude to speak to the pressing issues of the day, unencumbered by fears of job security or possible reprisals from powerful interests. The voice of the academic must not pander to populist sentiments, but it must nevertheless address societal issues in a progressive and constructive manner as to cause a positive impact.

Most universities around the world grant permanent appointments to scholars (Uganda’s public universities do the same), which is critical to guaranteeing academic freedom. However, at Makerere, and especially over the last few years, matters of promotion from one academic rank to another and issues of post-retirement contracts have become fraught and quite scandalous.  The current leadership has weaponised these otherwise standard and straightforward processes against individuals known to express views critical to the status quo at the university and the Museveni government. Makerere has worryingly taken on a fundamentally authoritarian tenor that tracks with our national governing regime.

Our rulers in charge of the state have historically flirted with open and critical debate but they often also display an anti-intellectual streak and hostility toward independent thought that questions their uses and abuses of power. Thus, given the extensive patronage networks and informal connections that rule over our society, the average academic at Makerere, for example, is wary of running afoul of the system, concerned about being unable to secure a research consultancy, thinking about their promotion getting frustrated or missing out on a post-retirement contract.

The default modus operandi is to tread carefully and refrain from public comments that speak truth to power, that casts the spotlight on abuse of power and the injustices of the state that have become bewilderingly pervasive.

But a society is treading dangerous when the intellectual class, particularly members of the academic guild, withdraw from public engagement or are afraid to speak out forcefully in defence of the public good and against the actions of the powerful. This is not just social abdication that is morally indefensible, it is an appalling sign of the overall poor health of a nation when intellectual vitality is constricted and free thought is imperilled. Yet, even with the anti-intellectualism of our rulers and the hostile environment of state repression, to play safe and refrain from participating in the public square and avoid civic engagement is a fairly convenient choice many in the academic guild have taken.  The few who stick out their necks no doubt do so at potential grave personal danger, both directly from the state and indirectly from other actors including university administrators. But this is precisely part of the occupational hazard that comes with the profession. One must be prepared to deal with it because the choice of silence or withdraw does not sit well with the conscience of an academic.

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