Academic Freedom and the University

Using the University of Malawi as an example, this article analyzes the opportunities and constraints faced by African intellectuals. It argues that during the anticolonial struggle, young nationalists conceived the University of Malawi as a potential engine for the transformation and development of the state. After inde- pendence President Banda, who established a repressive one-party state, severely restricted the university's intellectual autonomy through modalities of censorship. Some academics and students went into exile; others conformed to the dominant ideology; others resisted it furtively. Global pressures on both the university and the entire political economy of Malawi contributed to the triumph of prodemocracy movements in overthrowing the Banda regime. After the victory of the United Democratic Front government in 1994, many restrictions on intellectual freedom were lifted. Global socioeconomic forces, however, in complicity with the new gov- ernment, continued to marginalize the university community. It is suggested that a productive regeneration of intellectuals' contributions to Malawi's development will be possible only through a major realignment of its intellectual capital.