2023 CEC Annual Commonwealth Day Lecture. Political & academic freedom in Commonwealth Africa in the Year of the Youth.

Speaker: Professor Dr Stephen Chan OBE, Professor of World Politics at SOAS, University of London.

What goes on in African universities today shapes the future of countries tomorrow.

Commonwealth Africa now reflects the diversity of Africa as a whole – former Francophonic and Lusophonic colonies are now members alongside the Anglophonic ones. All cohere in a drive for education and an urge to make free choices. In parts of Africa, academics are a persecuted minority – informed criticism makes professors – and students – vulnerable to persecution and abuse. Academic freedom and political freedom coincide. In Europe, academic freedom was the very first civil liberty. It remains a key civil liberty in Africa today. And free expression in higher education helps form the next generation of leaders. But this next generation is frequently resisted by gerontocratic and technophobic existing leaders with vested economic interests in retaining power.

A clash of generations, a clash of views on freedom of expression. Academic freedom helps future leaders to support free expression in society at large. The education of young women leads to changes in views of gender roles.

Professor Stephen Chan has published 37 academic books, many of them in-depth studies of African Commonwealth countries. His OBE was awarded for ‘services to Higher Education and Africa’. He is a former member of staff at the Commonwealth Secretariat.

Attendance is by registration and invitation only. Reserve your place in advance on Eventbrite.

Download flyer here.