The Creative Lives of African Universities: Pedagogies of Hope and Despair

In the last three decades, during Africa’s industrialisation, higher education has made big steps in development. Life in academia and the diverse cultural production within its context have multiple influences on the external perception of education. The EU-funded AFRIUNI project is studying the cases of universities in Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, Benin and Cameroon to explore the cultural representations and lived experiences of university life on the African continent. The project will focus on the forms that structural and epistemic violence, physical discomfort and individual and collective self-realisation obtain within these contested institutions in material, affective and aesthetic terms.