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Preface to the First Edition
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Genuine Intellectuals: Academic and Social Responsibilities of Universities in Africa xxiii Preface to the First Edition F ifteen years ago, back in 1954, I began my university studies in Ireland, in the city of Cork where The Bells of Shandon Sound so grand on The pleasant, waters Of the river Lee.* As I look back, now, and memory brings to light the bright faces of the friendly youths and the charming colleens among whom I found myself then, I begin to wonder whether those youngsters, in their teen-agedness, had a keen, clear, and precise awareness of what they had come there for, of the sort of mind that university studies were meant to shape in them. As it would have been anywhere else, I met there some very highly intelligent boys and girls; but, as I see it, now, almost all of them, to a man, were bent, foremost, on getting a degree, as fast as possible, obtaining a job thereafter, somewhere, in Ireland, England, America, Canada or Australia, and making a career. But I do not think that they knew (or cared, for that matter) what was the genesis of this age-long institution on which their future so much depended, or that they had a precise concept of the real nature, end and purpose of higher studies; and, consequently, a clear idea of how they could set about to co-operate with the faculty to exploit their chances, methodically, fully, in order to get, for themselves, the right sort of university education – something more than just a skill to wield, to earn their keep in life. * ‘The Bells of Shandon by Francis O’Mahoney - nineteenth century Irish Priest-Poet; a native of the City of Cork. Bernard Nsokika Fonlon xxiv When I set foot in University College Cork, I was thirty years, of age, and had expended the larger share of those thirty years (in fact twenty-four all told) at school, at books. Just before going to Ireland, I had spent six years in an abortive bid for the Catholic Priesthood; three of which I had employed in an intensive course in Philosophy; the other three in Theology – courses which, rightly dispensed and tackled and assimilated, can give the mind a turn and bent and discipline which few other studies are able to instil. The professors told us that Philosophy was an Ancilla (a handmaid) to Theology, and was meant to prepare us for a more thorough-going study and grasp of that subject. But as to the relevance of Philosophy to the other disciplines and to the complex problems of life, in the world, they said not a word; and, I am inclined to the mind that, highly intelligent and highly educated as they were (indeed some of them have left an indelible imprint in my mind for their learning, scholarship and humaneness), they did not see that there was a burning need to inculcate into us that there is a philosophical approach to every human question. Thus, during a long university career, which took me from the National University of Ireland to the Sorbonne, in Paris, and to Oxford, my idea of the nature of university studies was not as clear and as precise as it ought to have been, considering my previous training and background. My predominant obsession, during those years abroad, was with the fact that, back home, Cameroonians were agitating for the reunification of the French and British sectors of the country, divided, between the Allies, since the rule of the Kaiser’s Reich was ousted; and I was Dent on getting, for myself, as good and as thorough a training as I could, in order to help in building the reunited country – if it came. My foremost concern and preoccupation, at that time, was, obviously, not with the psychological and historical genesis and growth of the University, nor with the intrinsic nature and end and purpose of university studies. During the last five or six years, however, I have given deep thought to this problem; I have communed with profound authorities on the subject, such as the eminent, [3.87.133.69] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 01:28 GMT) Genuine Intellectuals: Academic and Social Responsibilities of Universities in Africa xxv nineteenth-century English Churchman, the famous Cardinal Newman; I have read current literature on university problems, and on what is now going down as the University Revolution; and I have come to certain conclusions on the subject. It may...