Professor Pius Adesanmi, a visiting University of Ghana Diasporan Linkagages (UG-DLP) fellow from Carleton University, Canada has urged African Academics in the Diaspora to reconnect with the continent. He said there are critical knowledge gaps to be filled and it is a good thing to have a programme like the (UG-DLP) bringing in African professors in the diaspora to reconnect and share their knowledge and experiences.
Prof. Adesami made the call at the just ended UG Pan African Doctoral Academy (UG-PADA) July 2015 Doctoral school. The two week workshop saw over 150 PhD candidates from Ghanaian and Nigerian Universities participate in modules designed to help them through their course work and research.
The UG-DLP seeks to promote partnerships with African Professors in the diaspora in order to draw on their expertise to enhance UG's faculty strength for post-graduate teaching, supervision and thesis examination, with particular emphasis on PhD training. It is expected that such partnerships will lead also to collaborative research that will enhance research productivity.
He said that there was a degree of fear among the diaspora about conditions back home and how they would be able to cope after being away for so long.
“Africans in the diaspora have been subjected to negative media depictions of the continent and this leads to a fear of conditions of work and conditions of service”, he said.
Prof. Adesanmi said African academics in the diaspora should appreciate in a very deep and fundamental sense the opportunity that the UG-DLP is offering to reconnect with the knowledge institutions on the continent.
“If you’re teaching African studies for example in North America and you have no organic linkages and exchanges with institutions, colleagues and students on the continent then what sort of Africa are you preaching”, he said.
He said the UG-DLP fellowship was a very rewarding experience and urged colleagues in the diaspora to seek further information about this laudable programme and respond to this occasion to support the transformation of post-graduate education in Africa.