Genuine Intellectuals. Academic and Social Responsibilities of Universities in Africa: Academic and Social Responsibilities of Universities in Africa

The Credo

Genuine Intellectuals: Academic and Social Responsibilities of Universities in Africa xxi The Credo I believe in John Henry Cardinal Newman, Fellow of Oriel and Trinity, Oxford, Founder and first Rector of the Catholic University, Dublin. I believe with him that the University should be an ideal land, a central Metropolis of Learning, where the True, the Good and the Sublime should be found in substantial-being. I believe with Newman, that in the University, there should be no sovereignty but that of mind, no nobility but that of genius. I believe that in the academy, rule should belong to Professors, and that, therein, princes should do homage. I believe that for Professors to merit this homage, for them to ward off the prince’s interference in acade-mics, their learning should be solid, their disinterested-ness, towards non-intellectual power, beyond all shade of doubt, their humility genuine, their heart over-flowing with the milk and honey of human kindness, their integrity unquestionable, their firmness in the right unshakable, their word and pledge absolutely inviolate, their sincerity transparent. I believe that it is Professors imbued with these qualities that can exert, with efficiency, that influence which is indispensable for the esse of the University, and can set up, with effectiveness, and run, with skill, that organization absolutely necessary for the bene esse of the University. I firmly believe and profess that thinking, even for its own sake, is the final end of Academic Enterprise. I believe that while provisions should be made for each rising citizen to develop whatever skill or talent, with which he is blest by birth, through the establish-ment of specialized schools, the University, con-secrated to scientific and philosophical studies, should be reserved for those who are capable of scientific and philosophical studies. I believe in God, as the fount and origin, the final end, the Alpha and the Omega, of all Truth and Goodness and Sublimeness, I believe that no right-minded makers of Bernard Nsokika Fonlon xxii Universities should ignore (not to speak of spurn) that Science which strives to make man’s knowledge of Him more profound; they would be omitting the vitalest link, in the chain of College Knowledge. I believe, therefore as Newman did, that the thought of God and nothing short of it, is the happiness of man. I believe that it is by holding firmly, fervently, unswervingly, to this corpus of essential principles, I believe that it is by inculcating them scientifically and philosophically that the University can instil genuine, sterling, steep, unalloyed Wisdom, in whatever place, in whatever period, it lives and moves, and has its being, in the total orbis terrarum. Yaounde, 19 November 1977 ...