Makerere, Mamdani: Perils of knowledge

In a society replete with intellectuals, the un-intellectual diatribe by an intellectual, one assistant professor Moses Khisa, on another intellectual, Prof Mahmood Mamdani cannot be left to pass. The tirade titled ‘Makerere, Mamdani one man vision perils’ in the Saturday Monitor of January 19 by Dr Khisa, is a discredit to intellectualism.
In the intellectual tradition, this response is on the said article and not on the person of Assistant Professor Khisa. Prof Mamdani, who is demeaned in the said article, has severally published on the crisis at Makerere University and bigger places; never on individuals, but addressing issues more critical than petty rules and transient situations as in the article.
The article asserts that ‘rules’ are the hallmark of modern society and must always apply’ and that Makerere is imperiled by Mamdani violation of rules. This ‘rules’ are trivial, false and un-intellectual. It is a crisis of knowledge to conceive rules as the problem of Makerere. Rules can be drawn, adjusted and discarded even three times a day. It is on record that Makerere sought for Mamdani for more fundamental issues than internal rules.
The centering of ‘rule of law’ in the crisis of modern Uganda institutions is simplistic. Complex social constructs are defined and informed by higher philosophies, not internal rules. This article thus fails on constructivism. Further, Uganda is not a modern society; it apes modernity. So the article lacks axis and is dead on arrival.
The crux of the matter is that Prof Mamdani violates rules that tune Makerere successes and failures. But Makerere is essentially a university; a substrate of knowledge, not a set of rules. It is identified and defined by knowledge, not by a list of rules.

Prof Mamdani task is to make Makerere a distinctive university; this is also the mission of Makerere. There have been many changes of the internal rules at Makerere, but none on its being a university. The significant crisis of Makerere is thus not on internal rules, but failing to be a distinct university. Makerere may not fail on university status to succeed on internal rules.
A university identifies, qualifies, collects and collates typologies and levels of knowledge. It also produces, advances, exercises, stores, champions, accesses, imparts and teaches knowledge. Every university positions and defines specifically on each of these essential functions as per its genealogy, location and context. Mamdani is positioning Makerere on knowledge generation, scholarly researchers and access to knowledge.
Prof Mamdani introduced into Makerere a scholarly PhD for researchers at meta-knowledge levels; this is to generate knowledge about knowledge. Prior, Makerere research had declined to consultancy; a degenerative knowledge. Trivial issues of internal rules, collecting garbage, etc, at Makerere are not for Mamdani. He is setting a university knowledge niche and raising Makerere to higher intellectual spaces.
The article accuses Mamdani of being past retirement for Makerere and sparing time to teach at Columbia University in USA; a greater university than Makerere. Can Mamdani be expired and problematic for small Makerere on full time, but very useful on part-time for greater Columbia? This article is illogical.
Prof Mamdani was born in 1946 and to the article, he should retire from Makerere. But until very recently and some even now, older professors are serving - Prof Banage born 1933, Prof Nsibambi born 1941, Prof Luboobi born 1945, Prof Kagonyera born 1942, etc. After clocking ‘retirement age’, Prof Kirumira narrowly missed becoming Makerere Vice Chancellor. Past Makerere retirement age, Prof Luboobi is lecturing at DSM. On age rule, this article lacks factual substance.
The article attacks MISR PhD of uniquely US/Canada and not used elsewhere; but MISR PhD is not US/Canada type. It merges Western and non-Western universalities. My thesis, for example, is on African knowledge; it applies Western epistemology and Afrikology to establish ontology of African thought and consequently an African knowledge construct. Anyway, Mamdani designed the MISR PhD; he did not Xerox it from USA/Canada.
Further, the article accuses Mamdani of blackmailing for his contract renewal. But being a leading thinker in the world, benefits for his retention were for Makerere. Specifically, Mamdani conceived in ‘Citizen and Subject’ (1996), a landmark theorem for analysing domination and despotism in modern society. If he is retained to conclude his illustrious career, Makerere will host the global centre for his scholarly legacy.
Finally, by placing ‘rules’ before the greater goal, the article confuses inductive and deductive reasoning. The rules, as in any complex institution, are to serve the essentials of Makerere and not Makerere to serve its rules. It is true Mamdani has a plan to save Makerere, to deliver it to the status of a research university.

Mr Guweddeko is a PhD Fellow at MISR, Makerere University.
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