A History of African Higher Education from Antiquity to the Present: A Critical Synthesis (Studies in Higher Education) [Hardcover]

Y. G-M Lulat (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0313320616 | ISBN-13: 978-0313320613 | Publication Date: August 30, 2005

This book surveys the history of higher education--principally universities--in Africa. Its geographical coverage encompasses the entire continent, from Afro-Arab Islamic Africa in the north to the former apartheid South Africa in the south, and the historical time span ranges from the Egyptian civilization to the present. Since little has been written on this topic, particularly its historical component, the work fills an important gap in the literature. The book delineates the broad contours of the history of higher education in Africa in exceptional historical breadth, voluminously documenting its subject in the text, detailed footnotes, and lengthy appendices. Its methodological approach is that of critical historiography in which the location of the African continent in world history, prior to the advent of European colonization, is an important dimension. In addition, the book incorporates a historical survey of foreign assistance to the development of higher education in Africa in the post-independence era, with a substantive focus on the role of the World Bank. It has been written with the following readership in mind: those pursuing courses or doing research in African studies, studies of the African Diaspora, and comparative/international education. It should also be of interest to those concerned with developing policies on African higher education inside and outside Africa, as well as those interested in African Islamic history, the development of higher education in medieval Europe, the contributions of African Americans to African higher education, and such controversial approaches to the reading of African history as Eurocentrism and Afrocentrism.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Lulat's purpose is not to find ways of overcoming what he calls the current awful predicament of African universities. Rather, he wishes to correct the errors of other writers, particularly those whom he sees as Eurocentric." -

Minerva Journal

Book Description

Fills the chasm in today's literature regarding the history of African higher education as examined from a non-Eurocentrist perspective.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 640 pages
• Publisher: Praeger (August 30, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0313320616
• ISBN-13: 978-0313320613
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.2 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,860,289 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Rather than anchoring himself in a narrowly defined disciplinary location, Dr. Lulat is by training and by research inclination a social scientist--in the sense that his entire academic career (education, research, and teaching) has been, and continues to be, fundamentally multidisciplinary--as attested by the principal area to which most of his work belongs: Africana Studies (which comprises both African Studies and studies of the African Diaspora throughout the world). It is not without reason that in addition to his doctorate, he holds three masters degrees and a postgraduate certificate across several disciplines. Moreover, his educational career spans universities in four countries on three continents. His work, therefore, comes out of a pioneering and now well-established scholarly tradition of multidisciplinary research that has been the hallmark of Africana Studies. In keeping with one of his mantra's that "the present is always historical," Dr Lulat's current research focus is the political economy of world history from an African perspective that seeks to locate Africa's place in that history.