Genuine Intellectuals

Academic and Social Responsibilities of Universities in Africa

Nsokika Fonlon

• Publisher: Langaa RPCIG
• Year: 2009
• Print ISBN: 9789956558599
• eBook ISBN: 9789956715541
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education Theory & Practice

This book, slim as it looks, took Bernard Nsokika Fonlon the best part of five laborious years to write 1965-9 inclusive. He writes: "I was penning away as students in France were up in arms against the academic Establishment, and their fury almost toppled a powerful, prestigious, political giant like General de Gaulle. In America students, arms in hand, besieged and stormed the buildings of the University Administration, others blew up lecture halls in Canada - the student revolt, a very saeva indignatio, was in paroxysm. But in England (save in the London School of Economics where students rioted for the lame reason that the College gate looked like that of a jail-house) all was calm..." Fonlon drew on these events to define the role of university education in this precious treasure of a book, which he dedicates to every African freshman and freshwoman. The book details his reflections and vision on the scientific and philosophical Nature, End and Purpose of university studies. He calls on African students to harness the Scientific Method in their quest for Truth, and to put the specialised knowledge they acquire to the benefit of the commonwealth first, then, to themselves. To do this effectively, universities must jealously protect academic freedom from all non-academic interferences. For any university that does not teach a student to think critically and in total freedom has taught him or her nothing of genuine worth. Universities are and must remain sacred places and spaces for the forging of genuine intellectuals imbued with skills and zeal to assume and promote social responsibilities with self abnegation.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• The Genuine Intellectual
• Prolegomena
• The Credo
• Preface to the First Edition
• Chapter One - The University: Birth and Growth
• Chapter Two - Conservation and Reorganisation
• Chapter Three - Nature of Studies
• Chapter Four - The Scientific Method
• Chapter Five - Approach to History and Literature
• Chapter Six - Philosophy: A Categorical Imperative
• Chapter Seven - The Genuine Intellectual
• Chapter Eight - Dedication to the Common Weal
• Chapter Nine - Tributes to Professor Dr. Bernard Fonlon
• Books and Articles by Bernard Fonlon
• Books and Articles on Fonlon
• Back Cover