Looking Towards the Motherland The Roles of the African Academic Diaspora in Knowledge Production in Africa

Abstract

In the past 20 or so years, the African diaspora’s engagement in universities in Africa has inspired numerous studies. This article contributes to this literature both empirically and theoretically. Questioning the nationalism paradigm, which chiefly attributes African diaspora academics’ interventions in African higher education institutions to patriotism, it argues that any explanation of the privileged forms of this engagement ought to consider two major factors. The first is that African diaspora scholars have been socialised in a strong colonial-era ideological imperative, which values engagement in Africa; their socio-professional relevance on their continent of origin should thus be assessed in this light. The second factor is that African diaspora academics are integrated into professional foreign academic institutions with their own rules and high stakes. While they are urged to serve in Africa, they are also required to excel in their local institution and at the global academic level. Given the time constraints this imposes, diaspora academics’ engagement in Africa is confined to roles that are compatible with the expectations imposed by Western academia.