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  • Student Power in Africa's Higher Education: A Case of Makerere University
  • Peter Moyi
Frederick Kamuhanda Byaruhanga . Student Power in Africa's Higher Education: A Case of Makerere University. New York: Routledge, 2006. xxii + 180 pp. Charts. Appendix. Notes. Bibliography. Index. $65.00. Cloth.

Frederick Byaruhanga's book, Student Power in Africa's Higher Education: A Case of Makerere University, is a significant contribution to the literature on student activism. Using historical analysis, Byaruhanga examines the role of student activism in shaping Uganda's higher education; he focuses on the critical incidents of student protest, using eyewitness accounts drawn from past and present student leaders. To put the study in context, the author provides a brief history of Uganda from precolonial times to the present, a short (and selective) overview of education in Uganda, and a consideration of certain theoretical debates on student activism in higher education.

Byaruhanga defines student power as "the impact of student activism" (xix). He indicates that although student activism has brought change to higher education in Africa and has had a significant impact on national politics in the region, few studies of the subject have been conducted in Africa. With no unifying framework on student activism available in the literature, what we have, he argues, is "a fragmentary tapestry of theoretical threads, based primarily on western experience"(32).

In general, as Byaruhanga shows, African governments have been heavy handed in their response to student activism; students and professors have been imprisoned, detained, raped, and killed. And yet student activism has been a significant social force. In South Africa, for example, student activism played an important role in ending apartheid and moving the country toward democracy. Student activists at Makerere University have seen themselves as the conscience of Ugandan society, especially on issues of social justice, and have represented a powerful voice for change in Uganda. During Idi Amin's rule in the 1970s they focused on democracy and the overthrow of the military dictatorship, and the impact of their activism has been significant up to the present. Students are now represented at all levels of university governance, including the university council. A significant number of former student activists also hold positions of leadership in East Africa.

The book examines student activism in six periods, beginning in the 1950s. For each period, there is a commentary on the political events followed by a chronicle of the critical incidents of student protest and their aftermath, with the author's interpretative reflection on the events. Student eyewitness accounts of the critical incidents help us understand their grievances as well as the response of the university administrators and the government, although a clearer description of the author's methodology for reporting the student accounts would have been useful. This book makes a contribution to the literature on student activism in Africa. I concur [End Page 282] with the author on the critical need for more research to revitalize higher education in Africa. To reduce poverty and intellectual and economic dependency, the tertiary institutions of the region must be able to turn out skilled graduates capable of managing national affairs in the years ahead.

Peter Moyi
Amherst College
Amherst, Massachusetts
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