Call for Afro-centric theory and practice in community based research and engagement closing remarks to African regional conference on university-community partnerships in Dakar, March 25-26, 2011

Abstract

In these closing remarks to the African Regional Conference on University-Community Partnerships, held in Dakar in March 2011, Budd L. Dr. Hall argues that community-based research and engagement have African roots. He opens with a poem, “Creation Song”, and then recalls African thinkers and activists, including Senghor, Cissé, Kane, Diop, Nyerere and Cabral, whose work laid the ground for participatory research. Hall also points to the damage done to African higher education by World Bank policies and by the recruitment of African students into northern universities. He calls for universities in Africa that rest on African history, knowledge and languages, and for an Afro-centric theory and practice of community-based research and engagement.