Understanding academics and intellectuals

By

Jacob Waiswa Buganga

IMI Recreation and Wellness Facility

Email: info@integratedmentalhealthinitiative.org

Academics and intellectuals are not necessarily two in one.  An academic may not be an intellectual and an intellectual may not be an academic. Many intellectuals have never been academics. 

Historically humanity has had intellectuals who never were in the confines of classrooms. Such intellectuals predominated traditional cultural societies of humanity.  Unfortunately, colonial domination largely crashed such intellectuals out of existence. This was the case in Africa. 

We may define academics as products of the education system who spend their time and energy writing, teaching and researching in confines called disciplines,  often with rigid walls to separate them from each other to prevent "contamination" of their "knowledges" by other knowledges. They interact amongst themselves and communicate to one another in their confines with confidence that their ideas,  views, opinions or thinking will not be contested by others in other disciplines or in the public realm. They hardly venture in the public realm to defend their ideas, views, opinions and thinking,  but some people in the publics outside the academia almost worship them. Otherwise they are uncomfortable opening themselves up to public challenge of their on their ideas,  views, opinions or thinking that may impact society negatively. They tend to use jargon only meaningful to themselves and making them a different category of humans serrated from others. They will not come out to clarify or articulate issues for society, and will choose conspiracy of silence when society expects them to lead it out of imposed, difficult fixes, which they will readily simplify to earn academic papers. They are more likely to withdraw into their academic cocoons than come out to face the real world of injustice,  oppression, domination and exploitation. If you want them to join you in confronting the wrongs in society they will be firmly behind the rigid walls of their disciplines. Silence, frequently total silence, will be their daily menu. It is not unusual to find total silence in the academia when society is threatened by extinction,  conquest or domination by the mediocre and hypocrites. 

That is not to say that there are no academics with well-developed intellectual dimensions of their minds.  We have had many academics who have used their intellectual dimensions effectively to engage in public reasoning and to articulate and clarify issues for society. These academic intellectuals are today found in many stations in society: in universities, in many institutions.  Many of them are joining politics for money,  not service, but unfortunately are becoming de-intellectualised,  mediocre and hypocrites and difficult to reason with.  Critical thinking and analysis have become alien to them.  Many have been either  paid to be silent or have chosen to be silent in the face many ills of society or excesses of rulers. Their intellectual dimension is diminishing. 

Without courageous, unselfish intellectuals to articulate and clarify issues our society has never been so vulnerable since Independence in 1962 as it is today. It occasionally tragedy.  Our society is confronted with problems,  issues and challenges of globalisation and highhandedness of our rulers,  but the majority of our intellectuals have chosen to hide their heads in the sand like ostriches or to good their tails rather than guide both society and the rulers. We are now at the mercy of factors beyond our control. 

A country without a dynamic,  effective intelligentsia is a dead one.  Such country is likely to be fully at the mercy of its rulers in concert with sterile external forces.  Without intellectuals standing up to guide citizens, the country will end up having the blind ruling the blind. People from elsewhere will exploit the situation and take even the little that our ancestors had died protecting for future generations, which included ourselves. Dynamic,  courageous intellectuals would stand between the clash of civilisations and the clash of minds and help contain the deleterious impacts of bad governance and exploitative globalisation forces and préserve thé pride of our people. 

As our intellectuals chose conspiracy of silence, our people are being denied political dévelopment,  intellectual development, environmental development, social development,  and ecological development, and instead are being converted into internal and external refugees and internal and external slaves. Effectively we are losing our independence and sovereignty to foreigners. The quality of life for the majority of Ugandans has never been worse than it is today. Because of our declining intellectual space there aren't enough intellectual to challenge the myths and claims of the rulers that Uganda is doing much better today than yesterday. Many myths and untruths are passing and being perpetuated as real and true,  to the detriment of our country, generation and future generations.