Sustainability, Emerging Technologies, and Pan-Africanism by Thierno Thiam & Gilbert Rochon

Author:Thierno Thiam & Gilbert Rochon
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783030221805
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

3 The African Diaspora and the Rise of Institutions of Higher Education in Africa

One of the most significant manifestations of the Pan-African ideal can be seen in the relentless efforts of Historical Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) to reach out to Africa in an effort to replicate the ideal of using knowledge and science to improve the living conditions of Africans everywhere including in Africa. The relationship between HBCUs and Africa should be understood within this context. One such relationship is perhaps captured best by the relationship between Tuskegee University, an HBCU, located in the heart of the Southern Black Belt of the U.S. and a variety of African nations. This relationship is multidimensional and incorporates a variety of sectors including African governments and African Institutions of Higher education. There are indeed perhaps no better countries in Africa that exemplify such relationship than the Republic of Liberia and the Republic of Togo.

First, with respect to the Republic of Liberia, Tuskegee University’s links to the West African nation go back to the late 1920s and early 1930s. However, the conversation started much earlier when Joseph Jenkins Roberts, Liberia’s first President expressed his interest in transplanting the Tuskegee Institute model in Liberia. Such interest would be reiterated in a more forceful way by President Charles Dunbar Burgess King, a successor to President Roberts during his 1924 official visit to the U.S. On that occasion, when a reporter asked President King to name any thing of significance that he would like to take back to Liberia. His reply was one that was long thought out. “If it were possible,” he said, “I would like to take Tuskegee Institute with me to Liberia” (Kollie 2012).

The response of Booker T. Washington, founder and first President of Tuskegee Institute now Tuskegee University, to the earlier request of President Joseph J. Roberts came in no uncertain terms as he expressed his wish to “help towards starting a school that will really be a fine school following Tuskegee’s methods … so that as the years go by Tuskegee will be a bond of union between the colored people here and in the state of Liberia” (Washington 1909). Booker T. Washington’s wish would be matched by Olivia Phelps-Stokes, an American philanthropist, who expressed her desire to finance an educational institution somewhere in Africa. Robert Russa Moton’s succession of Booker T. Washington after the death of the latter did not change the plan. The three parties—Tuskegee Institute, the Phelps Stokes Foundation and the Republic of Liberia—went to work to turn what seemed like a mere wish into reality. The chartering of the Booker T. Washington Agricultural and Industrial Institute (BWI), Liberia’s first vocational and agricultural school, by the Liberian legislature on November 29, 1928, named after Tuskegee University’s first President, is the product of this vision and is rooted in a history of mutual engagement. Located in Kakata, 41 miles away from Monrovia, Liberia’s capital, the Booker T. Washington Agricultural and Industrial Institute has, since its creation, continuously strived to embrace the educational philosophy of Booker T.

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