The Mpambo Afrikan Multiversity is in Kampala, Uganda...or as Paolo Wangoola described, at the source of the Nile River, on the banks of the Lake of the Goddesses. The Multiversity is different than a university because it acknowledges that there are many (multi) truths to knowledge, not one (uni), Western truth. It is an institution of higher learning that is conducted solely in the mothertongue of the people it serves, Luganda. The professors are those in the community who are deemed the most knowledgeable about one of the areas of study...they may never have been "educated" in the Western sense, but are the premier experts in their field...as decided by the community. The focus is on engaging people in the language that they use everyday, that they think in and dream in. How can someone contribute to an intellectual dialogue when they do not know the words they need? How can a society, so battered and beaten as Africa, ever hope to pull themselves up if they are continually excluded? And how can they be INCLUDED if no one is allowed to be educated in their own language? English has become the dominant language around the world, but it is based on a vertical hierarchy: English is at the top, and every other language is below it...is inferior. What the multiversity does is puts learning on a horizontal scale, where all languages, all types of learning and teaching are equal and different.
The multiversity isn't just about learning in your mothertongue, it is about learning what is applicable to where you are, namely Africa. They have four main programs: Afrikan Spirituality and Philosophy; Medicine; Food and Agriculture and; Black Awareness. These are programs that will empower the learners, not underline their differences. The multiversity is raising funds to build a new "cave," the House of Indigenous Cultures and Spirituality. It will be the centre-piece of one of the campuses, that will be used for meeting spaces, residences, a library and a bookstore.
The multiversity has huge implications for sustainability, not only in Africa but the rest of the World as well. Even in the most basic definitions of sustainability, from the Brundtland Report, future generations need access to the same things we have access to now, including language and culture. There is nothing sustainable about homogenizing the world; we know it doesn't work with crops, why experiment on people? Is Canada sustainable enough to start a multiversity? Royal Roads prides itself on being an institution that is doing things differently than the rest...but really, are we all that different? There has been no paradigm shift, just a general difference in styles. The multiversity is a paradigm shift, and that seems to be the key to a sustainable future.
The multiversity isn't just about learning in your mothertongue, it is about learning what is applicable to where you are, namely Africa. They have four main programs: Afrikan Spirituality and Philosophy; Medicine; Food and Agriculture and; Black Awareness. These are programs that will empower the learners, not underline their differences. The multiversity is raising funds to build a new "cave," the House of Indigenous Cultures and Spirituality. It will be the centre-piece of one of the campuses, that will be used for meeting spaces, residences, a library and a bookstore.
The multiversity has huge implications for sustainability, not only in Africa but the rest of the World as well. Even in the most basic definitions of sustainability, from the Brundtland Report, future generations need access to the same things we have access to now, including language and culture. There is nothing sustainable about homogenizing the world; we know it doesn't work with crops, why experiment on people? Is Canada sustainable enough to start a multiversity? Royal Roads prides itself on being an institution that is doing things differently than the rest...but really, are we all that different? There has been no paradigm shift, just a general difference in styles. The multiversity is a paradigm shift, and that seems to be the key to a sustainable future.
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