Historically Black colleges and universities: a think tank resource for Africa

• Published in: The Journal of Pan African studies 2006-12, Vol.1 (6), p.43
• Main Authors: Ngambi, Marcel, Katembo, Baruti I.M
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: African American universities and colleges; African Americans; Black students; Civil society; Collaboration; Cooperation; Diaspora; Dictionaries; Economic aspects; Economic development; Education; Historically Black Colleges & Universities; Infrastructure; International organizations; Management; Natural resources; Pan-Africanism; Poverty; Technological change; Technology transfer; Think tanks; United States
• ISSN: 0888-6601; 1942-6569

In this second scenario, the economic programs imposed by the IMF and the World Bank, particularly throughout Africa, require drastic internal reductions in spending on health, education and development amongst recipient nations in order to repay the loan debt owned to donor nations; thus, as financial resources are drained in loan payback and associated high interest rates, no money is available to tackle issues of socioeconomics and health such as poverty and a declining life expectancy. [...]per capita GDP that grew 30% in the last two decades following 1960s-independence fell by 15% in the next two decades after intervention of the IMF and the World Bank which involved imposed drastic measures for African recipient nations, e.g. employment salaries cut in half; no more financial assistance to students to pay for school; devaluation of the national currency and associated corollaries, i.e. price inflation on necessity goods and the erosion of the national healthcare system infrastructure. Numbering 105, they are institutions of higher learning erected in the United States with the specific, historical purpose of educating African American students (Department of the Interior, 2006) that must be maintained as living repositories of Pan-African culture, thought, and intellect actively engaged in the education and training of African American students and others of the African Diaspora. Since technology infrastructure supports industrial/economic development and progress in any country, HBCUs, in the Pan-African sense, can provide economic/policy management advice and technology transfer to African nations and other Black countries; furthermore, with the proper tooling and a focused emphasis on critical thinking, these institutions can operate as research centers in providing industry and nations (particularly African and Caribbean) with customized technical expertise and problem-specific consulting assistance on multiple fronts via the use of their graduates, faculty, and/or facilities/physical resources. [...]HBCUs can serve as multi-regional think tanks for designing and implementing strategies for the economic and technology uplift for Africa's nations and other Black countries (MSN Encarta: 2005). The ability and resources with which to invest in equipment, machines and tools needed to produce goods and services are keys to increasing productivity; thusly, accumulated wealth is the backbone of economic growth. [...]an arrangement in which Black busine