Trinity’s Panelist is a Rescue Scholar at the Center for Urban and Global Studies
 
The ongoing political crisis in the South African nation of Zimbabwe will be the focus of a Common Hour symposium featuring two Rescue Scholars on Thursday, March 5, sponsored by Trinity’s Center for Urban and Global Studies.

The program, entitled “Academic Freedom and the Political Crisis in Zimbabwe,” will take place from 12:15 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the Washington Room in Mather Hall. The event is made possible, in part, by a contribution to the Scholar Rescue Fund (SRF) from The Hite Foundation Chair for Communication. The SRF is run by the Institute of International Education in New York, and gives safe harbor to academics whose work puts them at risk in their home countries.

Zimbabwe is in the throes of a political crisis, one in which academic freedom is at risk largely because of the tyrannical rule of President Robert Mugabe. His regime has been dominated by human rights abuse, economic mismanagement, and staggering inflation The education and health sectors, as well as manufacturing and tourism have practically ground to a halt.
The three scholars will talk about the continuing political crisis, particularly focusing on its effect on higher education and the country’s once thriving university system. They will discuss their lives as academics in the South African nation, and also offer their suggestions for a political resolution to Zimbabwe’s ongoing strife.

One of the speakers is Tyanai Masiya, a visiting scholar at the Center for Urban and Global Studies and a Rescue Scholar. He is teaching two courses at Trinity this semester: “Comparative Local Government systems” and “Politics and Governance in Africa.”

“In the past eight years,” said Masiya, “Zimbabwe has been experiencing its worst socio-economic and political crisis since independence. It has seen a dramatic decline, social polarization and degeneration to deeply entrenched patterns of coercion and authoritarianism.”

Indeed, said Masiya, security forces have arbitrarily arrested and detained opposition figures and pro-democracy activists, subjecting them to grave human rights abuses. “In fact,” he added, “state-sponsored violence [has] reached barbaric levels.”

Masiya’s stay at Trinity is supported by the Scott M. Johnson Memorial Fund and the IIE. The Scott M. Johnson Memorial Fund is endowed by Tom Johnson ’62, Hon.’05, P’97, former chairman of Trinity’s Board of Trustees. The SRF gives safe harbor to academics whose work puts them at risk in their home countries.

Masiya is a lecturer in politics and governance at Midlands State University in Zimbabwe, and the chairman of the Center for Peace Research and Development, a human rights organization based in that country. He has written papers on democracy and elections in Southern Africa, urban governance, and smart sanctions as an instrument of international policy.

Masiya has been a consultant to the Kellogg Foundation, the European Union and the American Friends Service Committee. He is a member of the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa and the Organization for Social Science Research in Eastern and Southern Africa. Masiya received his B.S. and his master’s of public administration from the University of Zimbabwe.

The second Rescue Scholar is a professor of political science at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson in New York. He has extensive teaching and research experience in African politics, international studies and human rights. Because of concerns about his personal safety, he would prefer that his name not be used.

The third panelist is George Ayittey, an economist in residence at American University in Washington D.C. He established the Free Africa Foundation to promote development and democracy on the African continent, and is known for his expertise in economic development and democratization. His books include Africa Unchained; Africa in Chaos; The Blueprint for Ghana’s Economic Recovery; and Africa Betrayed, which won the 1992 H.L. Mencken Award for Best Book. Ayittey has consulted for The World Bank; the International Monetary Fund; the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Relations Committee; and the U.S. Information Agency.

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