When Academia Protest - a podcast by ALC Pan-African Radio

Academic freedom protects the right to ask sensitive and even dangerous questions that matter to society. Academic freedom is not just for scholars and students to ask questions but the freedom for everyone to think and ask questions that really matter to them and society today. Questions about the environment, questions about security, questions about poverty and development, questions about justice, questions about truth.

In 2011 academic freedom in Malawi came under threat when Dr Blessings Chinsinga, a lecturer at the University of Malawi was summoned by the Inspector General of the Police. Dr Chinsinga was questioned, because, during a lecture he had drawn parallels between the foreign currency and fuel shortage in Malawi at the time, and the causes of the 2011 Arab Spring that was underway in Egypt and Tunisia. But the summon and questioning was contrary to the constitution of Malawi. The constitution of Malawi spells out that academic freedom cannot be constrained even in an officially declared state of emergency.


Fearing regression into the dark days of a past regime when many scholars were detained, the academic staff union petitioned the University of Malawi Council authorities and the Inspector General of the Police. In response, the Inspector General argued that academic freedom should be balanced with national security; and the President supported the Inspector General’s statement. Dr Edge Kanyongolo a renowned professor of Law in Malawi made this observation:
To protest the restraint on academic freedom, the academic staff union boycotted classes. In response the University Council dismissed four of the lecturers which included Dr Edge Kanyongolo, the professor of law and the chairperson of the academic staff union, Dr Jessie Kabwila Kapasula. They were dismissed for misconduct, insubordination and embarking on industrial action.




The academia led protests which lasted eight months were later joined by students, citizens and the civil society culminating in nationwide protests. The civil society and citizens petitioned government with twenty demands. These demands included the re-assurance of academic freedom and the cancellation of newly introduced protest fees.

After eight months of protests, the President conceded and re-affirmed academic freedom as is it is spelled-out in the constitution. Academic freedom must not and cannot be constrained. Ultimately the protests were successful, and perhaps fostered a transient guard against any threat to the democratic governance of Malawi across class and other societal divides. Dr Jessie Kabwila Kapasula, captured the experience as follows:


This is the year the academia showed Malawi and the world that we are public intellectuals who can network with villagers, taxi drivers, market vendors and help the nation articulate how much it values academic freedom and other constitutional rights.”
“This year we demonstrated that one can be educated but not be elitist, the space between the university and village can be narrowed. Academic freedom is something that is understood and valued not just by ‘educated’ people but even those who are educated in the non-formal, rural and so called ‘illiterate’ ways.


Academic freedom protects the right to ask sensitive and even dangerous questions that matter to society. Academic freedom is not just for scholars and students to ask questions but the freedom for everyone to think and ask questions that really matter to them and society today. As Dr Edge Kanyongolo observed, a threat to academic freedom anywhere is a threat to academic freedom everywhere. It must be guarded jealously.

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