Intellectual Capital is Key to East Africa’s Progress

The journey to a cohesive and economically vibrant East African Community has been long and eventful. Enormous resources have been committed to this pursuit. 

However, the intellectual capital available to the region has not been fully harnessed to deliver a stronger, wealthier and more unified regional bloc.

The term “intellectual capital” refers to the resources available to humankind that, once properly harnessed, determine the extent and speed of the transformation of societies.

Since its emergence in the 20th century, intellectualism as a notion has been widely debated. Noam Chomsky, in his seminal 1967 essay titled “The Responsibility of Intellectuals,” paints intellectuals in not very flattering terms. He described them as pawns, apologists and propagandists of state power.

More positive commentators, however, categorise intellectual capital in terms of its influence on society. One such liberal view identifies three categories of intellectuals: Loyalist intellectuals, who are primarily committed to maintaining the status quo; reformist intellectuals, keen on egging on change; and radical intellectuals, who do not fear making proposals that rub authorities the wrong way.

It can prove worthwhile to listen to the views of reformist and radical intellectuals if through them the public imagination may be nudged into action that presages change.

Integration of communities and interests, meanwhile, is imperative to progress, besides being crucial in perpetuating the survival of the human race itself.

Ironically, the tendency to pull apart among communities is as old as humankind. This tendency worsens in the face of weak institutions that cannot protect markets or provide them room to grow.

Globally, the rationale behind the creation of synergies among participating states is the search for the greater common good of humankind. Indeed, nothing can better refute the misguided mentality that “island nations” have more potential for prosperity than a smoothly functioning regional community. 

Naturally, universities, Makerere included, are abodes of excellence in which ideas germinate, in the process of creating possibilities for prosperity.

In the meantime, winnowing the available body of ideas and trawling the sea of options for the transformation of East Africa is squarely in the province of intellectuals. Between Mwalimu Nyerere, Jomo Kenyatta and Milton Obote and Prof Ali Mazrui, Prof Wangari Maathai, Okot P’Bitek, Prof Mahmood Mamdani and Ngugi wa Thiong’o, we have a lot of precedents to enthuse our imagination.

In 1921, while Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda were under colonial rule, the East African Association, formerly the Young Buganda Association, was formed. Its mission was to push for Independence for all three states.

As it happened, between 1921 and 1969, the three original East African nations shared a common currency — the East African shilling. And in 1963, Makerere University became the University of East Africa, with the University of Nairobi and University of Dar es Salaam as constituent colleges. Given this history, the integration of East Africa is an intuitive process that needs little urging along.

Elsewhere, herds of wildebeest and zebras engage in an annual pilgrimage to Kenya and back to Tanzania unconstrained by travel rules or documents. The Maasai, the Kuria and the Teso crisscross Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda unperturbed by the boundaries that exist. 

Thankfully, the East African Legislative Assembly is now an entity patronised by able representatives from the five member states capable of mobilising sufficient intellectual capital to foster wealth creation across the region.

The East African Community Customs Management Act, 2004, has been in place for a decade now. Surely there must be gifted persons who can now guide the automation of the remittance of revenues collected at ports of entry directly to the revenue authorities of the countries cleared goods are destined for. 

Perhaps the Inter-University Council for East Africa, itself, an instrument of the East African Community, can assist in creating a reservoir of our region’s intellectual capital. At this point I am compelled to inquire: Do any of our universities in the region have a multidisciplinary course by the name of “East African Studies”?

Lest we forget, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda and Kenya were a colonial idea, each of them intended to benefit other parties, not us.

Our intellectual capital should lead the way to East Africa’s industrial development. Culture and the arts are a pet subject of intellectuals. Nevertheless, we have not repackaged our cultural resources and exploited their full potential. 

It is time our intellectuals dealt conclusively with the dissonance that presently exists between ideas and action. Ignoring our intellectual capital is, in effect, locking out the dividends of full regional integration.

Though the creation of narratives that can temper thought processes at the mass level and open new vistas of possibility and action is the work of intellectuals, intellectualism for its own sake is a luxury Africa cannot afford right now.

Our intellectuals should help our region overcome artificial barriers that encourage the confinement of individual East African states in sterile pigeonholes.

This commentary derives from the keynote lecture delivered by Mwai Kibaki, the third president of Kenya and an alumnus of Makerere University, on the occasion of the launch of the Mwai Kibaki Presidential Library, the Mwai Kibaki Endowed Chair in Economics and the East African Mwai Kibaki Centre for Leadership, Public Finance and Policy, on Friday, February 13 at Makerere University grounds