My experience as a student of African Studies at the University of Toronto has been filled with
feelings of under-appreciation, confusion, and most importantly
disappointment. In attending this widely celebrated institution I was
led to believe that I was to receive a diverse and academically
rigorous stellar education. However, upon my arrival, the sad and
unfortunate reality of the program and administration hit me like a ton
of bricks as I realized that (amongst many other things) the course
offerings are slim, sessional, and inconsistently taught.
The issues relating to this program are numerous and we are by
no means unaware of them, therefore it is not my aim to address and
reiterate them all at this time. This short piece however is merely an
attempt to describe in very few words my feelings of frustration, despair
and anger toward a) the University of Toronto for its inadequate
maintenance and lack of improvement of the program (or ANY program for
that matter) as well as b) the resistance and disinterest of the
administration that we (the students, African Studies Initiative) have
faced in trying to improve the African Studies program.
It has been from the latter mentioned position that I have
become really aware of the degree to which the University has offended
and enraged me. As a student, I feel the University has neglected to
fulfill its duty in providing me with an adequate education equitable
to those offered in many other programs and departments. Nor has it
fostered an environment in which I have been able to achieve my
personal academic excellence. I am also very much appalled by the
disproportional distribution of resources with regards to African
Studies, the marginalization of all disciplines relating to
Non-European area studies, and the administration’s failure to
address these issues as they are brought forward by professors and
students alike. The University is sending out a message that these
people and/or disciplines are unimportant to them and the world at
large. Such racist and ethnocentric viewpoints are reiterated in the
world outside the university walls and thus internalized and reflected
by many of the graduates of this institution as they enter into
positions of power and influence thereafter (and the consequences of
this are immense). While such problems may get overlooked and
disregarded by many, I find it deplorable and intend to voice my
opinion demanding acknowledgement, progress and equity along with my
fellow members of the African Studies Initiative in addressing these
problems that have for far too long been neglected.
— Corey Bernard
I’m envious of those who can detach themselves from what
goes on inside university classrooms and lecture halls. For most,
university is an experience, an activity in which we study with
“academic rigor” differences and hypothetical situations,
pasts and possibilities. Supposedly we emerge from university with the
tools that will allow us to take on the world’s problems and
conquer. “Great minds for a
great future…” If only...
For me the past three and a half years of study at U of T have
been a demoralizing experience. The classroom for me, and many like me,
has become a site of conflict in which battles are waged against
students and professors, whose comments provoke disgust. What does it
mean to say that “illiterate people have no conception of freedom?”
Who are you, a first year international relations student, to assume
that you know enough about Africa to advise its leaders?
Where does this sense of authority come from? I can’t help but
wonder, if this is what they choose to say, what are these people
thinking?
These comments are rooted in ignorance, and the University of
Toronto fosters this ignorance by defending and sustaining an academic
environment that systematically limits to the point of preclusion the
study of an entire continent – almost one billion people, 54
countries, thousands of cultures and histories, and a layered,
contemporary reality that stretches through the African Diaspora to
every corner of the globe.
Some treat the things they study, the things they say and think,
like objects or abstract things that are to be mentally manipulated in
the production of “knowledge.” Really, these
‘things’ are lives, histories, and yes, futures, that we
are gaining a contrived position of authority over through our
participation in the Academy. This is why we are making our voices
heard. The people that come out of this institution will in many cases
go on to hold positions of influence over the lives of the very people
and places we study in our four, five or six years here, and it would
be devastating to see the continuation of such deluded mentalities and
think that we were complicit in this because we chose to be silent.
The administration likes to counter our requests for the
strengthening of the African studies program, and “area studies”
in general, with is the tired, old, unimaginative, “we
can’t study everything,” which is bullshit because we
aren’t asking for that. The problem we are faced with goes beyond
the African Studies program; it is a university-wide phenomenon. What
we are asking for is the initiation of a project that will see a major
and fundamental shift in the perspective from which this institution
studies the “Other,” starting with the correction of a
major oversight in programming – namely the African continent.
Great minds will be for a great future, but only if we build them, and this university does not have the
structure to help us with this feat. Corny as it sounds, we need
change. Hard as it is to actualize, we NEED change.
— Allix Thompson
The African Studies program is in a sad state of affairs. The
program is under-funded and does not receive much attention from the
department headed by the placid Sean Hawkins. It’s frustrating to
know that U of T students are paying to sit in lectures taught by
part-time professors, who with the limited resources are forced to
teach sub-standard courses. If a university is going to pride itself in
producing “Great minds…” for the future, then
it’s about time that something is done to improve the level of
teaching offered in this program.
It should be a crime to expect students to get anything out of a
program when there aren’t many thorough core courses to build a
foundation on, and throwing a new language course into the mix is just
pointless. The department is trying to save face and act like they
care, so we should expose them. Sean Hawkins and everyone that tacitly
supports his cause should be called out and exposed for their roles in
creating the program that exists today.
— Guled Abdi
I was very enthusiastic in my first year at the University of Toronto. As a newcomer to Canada, my initial thoughts
navigated towards an Aboriginal Studies major. Understanding the
history, cultures and struggles of the First Peoples of this land
seemed most appropriate if I wanted a real insight on this
country’s formation. As a student in the Aboriginal Studies
program, I realized that there were political, social and economic
connections that could be drawn between Aboriginal People’s
history and their social conditions with that of African people. Both
people shared similar histories of oppression, colonialism, resistance
etc. And so adding an African Studies major looked like the next best
move. To my big surprise, however, a glance at the program description
almost crushed my dreams of learning about those parallels.
The program is weak and deceiving. Many courses are listed but
only offered in alternate years and some have even been cancelled.
Still, I took a chance with an introductory course. I was disappointed.
The content was highly generalized. “It’s just an
introductory class,” I rationalized. Relentless, I tried once
more and took a history and a philosophy course. Both courses were
taught during a three month period. History and systems of thought of
an entire continent summarized in three months? This time I was
personally offended. I gave up!
Little did I know that my frustrations were not just some
capricious condemnation by a dissatisfied and irritated student. Many other students, both in and outside of
the program also felt cheated and neglected. And still, years later,
the University chooses to have deaf ears? What kind of
message/education is the University of Toronto sending/teaching? What kind
of message is the University of Toronto – an institution of
higher learning – conveying to Canadian society?
— Natacha Nsabimana
Contact all authors via natacha.nsabimana@utoronto.ca
