Those are the words of Dean Brackley who says that a university or any institution of higher learning should be a centre of knowledge and reflection on those who live in poverty and powerlessness. It is like saying that the reason for its existence resides outside the university, in the lives of the poor and powerless.
Brackley said those words in the context of the University of Central America, in El Salvador, Central America (UCA), where in 1989, six senior leaders of the university were murdered at midnight by a group of army officials who did not like the message that was being given to the students in that university.
The six Jesuit Priests were ruthlessly murdered because they uncovered the truth of the rich and powerful who exploited the poor and threatened to silence any voice that fought for the rights of the poor.
At that time, as it was for many countries in Central America and is indeed so in many parts of the world today, the gap between the haves and the have-nots was widening. Hunger was as common as the common cold, exploitation of the poor increasing from day to day. When the university students of the UCA criticized this inhuman situation, they came under attack. Their leaders were murdered.
When I reflect on these facts, I do agree that the university should be a place that spends its time and resources thinking and strategising on how to improve the lives of its society and particularly the lives of the poor and downtrodden. I do agree with Brackley, who writes:
“Ethically therefore, the university must commit itself to changing this dehumanising situation. As such the university is not a political party, nor does it seek power. Rather, it dedicates itself to the service of social transformation of its country. This is indeed the meaning of a university with its centre outside itself.”
I am reminded of Mwalimu Nyerere who said:
Poor villages give their tax money to educate their daughter or son at the university so that after graduation, he or she goes back to fight poverty alongside those villagers.
This is the kind of graduate we should strive for—a graduate who has the guts to fight poverty in all its ugliness and to expose the lies of those who pretend to use their power and might to serve the poor, while in fact they are fighting for their own good.
As we strive to improve the education system in our country, we should remember the experience of the UCA.
