Joel Ogwang
20 October 2008
Kampala — INTERNAL affairs minister Dr. Ruhakana Rugunda has rapped African scholars for seeking 'greener pastures' in Europe instead of using their expertise to develop their continent.
He said their countries invest a lot of resources in educating them, but they repay them by moving to work abroad.
Rugunda was opening a CODESRIA workshop on writing for scholarly publishing at Colline Hotel in Mukono district on Wednesday.
CODESRIA is an NGO championing the development of social sciences in Africa universities.
Rugunda also criticised African universities for their part in the brain drain, saying they frustrate the scholars by glorifying their European counterparts.
"An African scholar will spend a year researching on culture, but his work will be disregarded for that of a European who flies in and spends two weeks doing the same research," he said.
Rugunda blamed the colonial style of education that serves the interests of the metropolitan countries, adding that it was the basis for Africa's inferiority complex.
The minister said whilst African states commemorate independence anniversaries, colonialists still used neo-colonialism to exert their control.
As a result, he said, Africa has been rendered a 'sick' continent in need of urgent 'treatment'.
"But we don't need treatment from Europe because their 'doctors' continue sucking and weakening Africa," he added.
Prof. Edward Kirumira, the Makerere University dean of the faculty of social sciences, said African universities still found it hard to attract professors.
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