Why, as an African, I took a Rhodes scholarship
by Guest Contributor Nanjala Nyabola, originally published at Comment Is Free
Cecil Rhodes is a name that has and will perhaps continue to inflame passions around the world. It was therefore interesting to me that some of the recurring comments following an Rhodes scholarships speaks to the heart of the legacy of empire in general, and the short answer to all the questions raised above is: it’s complicated. For many Africans, accepting any perceived largesse derived directly from the proceeds of colonialism is an agonising process. I very nearly didn’t. I genuinely believe that the legacy of colonialism is to blame for so many of the woes facing the African continent today, and that former colonising countries can and should do more to address the global inequality that was built on the backs of slavery and colonialism.
Nevertheless, what’s the alternative? When I graduated, I had planned to take 10 years off – and this was the optimistic estimate – to work and save up to do a master’s degree. There is no other way on this earth that I would ever have been able to afford to come to Oxford without this scholarship. Would it have served Kenya better if I hadn’t accepted this scholarship? In the one year that I’ve been here, I’ve met and talked with Nobel prize winner Amartya Sen about his position on entitlements and how this relates to development policy in Africa; discussed the quantification of fear in the planning of organisations working in conflict regions with former UN special representative to Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi; I’ve questioned the chief financial officer at Google, Patrick Pichette, about his company’s policy in Africa. Would any of these things have been possible if I hadn’t been at Oxford?
As an education activist myself, I recognise that the monopoly universities in the west have on quality of education is, in part, derived from perpetuating inequalities in access to information, cornering the market on high-quality facilities and pricing universities in the developing world out of the market for quality educators. Would my turning down this scholarship have done anything to address these structural issues? Or am I better placed to understand these issues more and work towards addressing them now that I know first-hand how the system works?
This relates the question of what being a Rhodes scholar really involves. I assure you that it is not the same as receiving a blank cheque at the end of every month. Many of us arrive in Oxford with the expectations of families, friends and some even entire countries piled upon our shoulders. That level of expectation can be all at once enthralling and frustrating.
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