Reimagining the Future of Higher Education Institutions in Peace
and Conflict Management Processes in Africa

Assoc. Prof. William Hermann ARREY

doi:10.56201/jpslr.v10.no4.2024.pg1.24

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Reimagining the Future of Higher Education Institutions in Peace and Conflict Management Processes in Africa

Assoc. Prof. William Hermann ARREY

Abstract

Today’s predominant pattern of conflicts (including protest actions) is proving more complex for African governments to manage constructively. This paper attempts to reimagine the future of higher education institutions in peace and conflict management processes in African countries through a retrospective and prospective analysis of the management of State University students’ protests in Cameroon. In order to do so adequately, it uses selected episodes of the management of students’ protests in state universities in Cameroon with an analytical focus on the case of the University of Buea, in the South-West Region of Cameroon. The fundamental question addressed is: how can higher education institutions change the course of conflict events so as to produce a better and brighter future for African Universities in particular and the African continent at large? To generate the necessary data for analysis, the paper adopts an exploratory qualitative research design, organized around a critical review of relevant literature and empirically grounded in primary data (involving the use of interviews and observations) collected periodically within a ten (10) year interval (2006 and 2016) and secondary data (from newspaper articles, books and internet reports). Data is analyzed by way of content analysis, thematically and the use of word verbatim. The paper finds out that higher education institutions in Africa in general and Cameroon in particular, without peace and conflict management capacities are vulnerable and exposed to the possibilities of important damages and losses (both in human and material terms). As such, the paper concludes that reimagining a positive future for higher education institutions in peace and conflict management processes in Africa must begin by advocating for a shift of paradigm, from a culture of building “peace by violent means” to building “peace by peaceful means” through inclusionary democratic governance practices in Afri

Keywords

Capacities for PeaceConflict ManagementHigher Education InstitutionsStudents’ ProtestsPeaceUniversities

References

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Reimagining the Future of Higher Education Institutions in Peace and Conflict Management Processes in Africa

Abstract

Keywords

References

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