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Articles · Vol. 16 No. 1-2 (2018): Journal of Higher Education in Africa: Special Issue on Scholars on the Move: Reclaiming the African Diaspora to Support African Higher Education · Pages 95 - 114

Moving beyond Poststructural Paralysis: Articulating an Ethic of Diaspora Collaboration

  • Nelson Masanche Nkhoma
    Nelson Masanche Nkhoma
    University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa. Email: nnkhoma@uwc.ac.za
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Vol. 16 · 2018 No. 1-2 Journal of Higher Education in Africa: Special Issue on Scholars on the Move: Reclaiming the African Diaspora to Support African Higher Education JHEA

Abstract

Scholars in African higher education agree on the importance of collaboration with scholars in the diaspora. Despite this agreement, two major obstacles affect the implementation of collaboration: the politics of identity and difference and the common view of ethics as power. Literature on diaspora and collaborations tends to gloss over fundamental issues on the ethics of collaborations. In this article I reflect on how these two points of paralysis can be overcome by adopting an African humanist ethic that can drive the building of functional institutions to foster collaboration between and among scholars in Africa and those in diaspora. The article argues that in order to contribute to meaningful development in Africa, scholars need to move beyond the politics of identity and ethics as oppressive power.

Moving beyond Poststructural Paralysis: Articulating an Ethic of Diaspora Collaboration

Les savants dans l’enseignement supérieur africain, conviennent de l’importance de la collaboration avec les savants de la diaspora. Malgré cet accord, deux grands obstacles affectent la mise en œuvre de la collaboration : les politiques de l’identité et de la différence et la conception commune de l’éthique en tant que pouvoir. La littérature sur la diaspora et la collaboration a tendance à minimiser les questions fondamentales sur l’éthique de la collaboration. Dans cet article, je réfléchis à la façon dont ces deux entraves peuvent être surmontées en adoptant une éthique humaniste africaine qui peut motiver l’établissement d’institutions fonctionnelles pour encourager la collaboration entre les savants en Afrique et ceux de la diaspora. Cet article fait valoir que pour contribuer au développement véritable de l’Afrique, les savants doivent dépasser la politique de l’identité et de l’éthique en tant que pouvoir oppressif.

Keywords

diaspora Africa higher education poststructuralism collaboration ethics

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Author Biography

  • Nelson Masanche Nkhoma

    University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa. Email: nnkhoma@uwc.ac.za

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Vol. 16 No. 1-2 (2018): Journal of Higher Education in Africa: Special Issue on Scholars on the Move: Reclaiming the African Diaspora to Support African Higher Education →