The de-intellectualization of African universities marks a profound and troubling departure from their historically established role as sanctuaries for critical thought. Traditionally, universities have been spaces designed to cultivate knowledge, foster leadership, and drive social change. These institutions have, however, succumbed to external pressures undermining their core intellectual mission. They have been reduced to instruments of corporatization and commodification. Once envisioned as spaces for deepening understanding and nurturing intellectual autonomy, universities have become intricately intertwined with market forces and corporate-driven metrics. Priorities have shifted to rankings and superficial achievements over the engagement with complex, systemic challenges facing society. This reductionist view of education, which treats it as a marketable commodity or an auction for labour, fundamentally undermines its transformative potential and intellectual purpose. African universities are evolving into mechanisms perpetuating global inequalities and reinforcing neo-colonial structures. Rather than nurturing intellectuals with historical awareness and the depth of knowledge to reimagine Africa’s future, universities increasingly focus on market-driven skills. This shift privileges immediate employability over the cultivation of intellectual rigour and a clear understanding of the continent's socio-political and historical complexities. Fatic (2024) astutely critiques Western education, warning African institutions against falling into similar patterns, Western universities now operate like shoe- or furniture-making companies or oil traders. Corporatization has become the norm in their organization and aspirations. This alarming trend must be resisted in the Global South, where universities must reject a colonial mindset and instead strive to create a new paradigm of wisdom and scholarship that refuses to replicate the hollow model of Western education. Colonial Legacies and De-Intellectualization in Africa In my Master's thesis on the Political Economy of Educational Reforms at the Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance (University of Cape Town), I critically engaged Kanyongo’s decolonial work. He argues that education in colonial Africa emerged primarily as an economic tool. An education system was created to give Africans the labour skills needed to sustain the colonial economy. This distanced Africans from meaningful engagement with their societies and intellectual traditions, reinforcing a dichotomy. Black Africans were relegated to labour roles, whilst white colonizers were empowered as intellectuals, analyzing society. This detachment from the intellectual work of thinking, writing, planning, and actualizing their society lies at the core of coloniality. As the saying goes, The colonized cannot do anything for themselves without the supervision of the colonizer, and if they can, mimicking the colonizer is considered their greatest achievement. Prioritizing 21st-century education focused solely on skill development at the expense of intellectual autonomy perpetuates a self-colonizing cycle, continuing the subjugation of African thought and neo-colonization of its future. Scholars like Gatheni Ndlovu and Carlos Lopes highlight how colonial domination persists as a mental structure, with Ndlovu’s concept of “cognitive empires” and Lopes’ “empires of the mind” illustrating how internalized narratives of inferiority sustain colonial subjugation long after formal decolonization. Within this framework, education is designed to stifle intellectual independence, fostering dependency rather than self-determination. Therefore, there is nothing inherently new about trend-based, skill-centric education; Africans have long been labour providers to the rest of the world, exploited day and night. Trends may come and go, but the ability to redefine and revolutionize the purpose of education will determine who shapes Africa's future. The transformation will come when education empowers us to confront our realities, reimagine our roles, and claim ownership over our intellectual and economic futures. The University: A Space for Intellectual Rigor and Transformation In its ideal form, the university should be a bastion of intellectual rigour and knowledge production. Unlike technical or vocational training centres, which focus on equipping individuals with specific, immediately applicable skills, universities cultivate deep, abstract thinking and a capacity to question and transform. Within these spaces, scholars engage in empirical and conceptual inquiry, pushing the boundaries of knowledge to address complex societal issues. The university's function, therefore, is not limited to preparing individuals for the workforce but to shaping society's intellectual and cultural advancement. It is a space for the free exchange of ideas, where paradigms are deconstructed, new ideas emerge, and critical discourse thrives. However, contemporary trends in higher education reveal a troubling shift from this foundational purpose. Knowledge production is increasingly commodified as universities align with corporate interests and market-driven imperatives. The value of education becomes measured in terms of economic output rather than intellectual depth. We have prioritized the research that generates market value, the growing emphasis on employability, and the rise of rankings and superficial achievements, all of which have fundamentally altered the role of universities. Education has become a product packaged to meet the economy's needs rather than a pursuit of knowledge and truth to shape society. This trend represents a form of intellectual colonization, where universities, by adopting corporate models, suppress critical thinking and innovation. They transformed into factories for producing labour rather than centres for scholarly freedom. Like the colonial process, which imposed the values and systems of colonizers on the colonized, corporatized universities perpetuate a system that stifles intellectual autonomy and curtails the knowledge necessary for societal transformation. Africa, in particular, faces a unique challenge in this regard—not simply producing more workers for the global economy but fostering scholars and critical thinkers capable of reimagining and transforming their underdeveloped societies. This requires intellectuals who can navigate the intricate intersections of history, culture, politics, and economics and confront and dismantle the hegemonic systems that continue to marginalize the continent. The task at hand is not merely to replicate foreign models but to develop new paradigms of governance, education, and economic systems that are African and grounded in the continent's historical and cultural context. To address Africa's vast and deeply interconnected challenges, we need scholars who understand history and systems and appreciate their complexity and depth—something that mere skilling and market-based ratings cannot provide. These challenges are not just the result of economic underdevelopment but are deeply rooted in colonial legacies, structural inequalities, and post-colonial exploitation. To resolve these issues, we need more than technical expertise; we need intellectuals who can engage with the historical, political, and social complexities that shape Africa's current landscape. The focus on vocational training and skill acquisition risks perpetuating what Levy refers to as proximate change, or superficial adjustments that fail to address the underlying systemic and ideological problems. Education must go beyond preparing graduates for the job market; it must cultivate critical thinkers who can challenge and reimagine Africa’s development. Universities must reclaim their role as spaces for deep intellectual engagement—spaces where ideas are questioned, not merely accepted, and where the market is interrogated rather than imitated. Without this intellectual rigour, Africa will remain stuck in a cycle of surface-level reforms, perpetuating the issues it seeks to overcome. This is not just academic work but the foundation for the transformative change Africa urgently needs. The writer is a fellow of the Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance (University of Cape Town)
