‘Self-Censorship Now A Major Barrier to Academic Freedom’
Wachira Kigotho | 16 April 2026 | University World News
Self-censorship, fear of surveillance and apathy have become significant barriers to academic freedom in universities across most countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, according to scholars participating in a recent webinar hosted by the Global Observatory on Academic Freedom at King’s College, London.
Focusing on how academic freedom is framed, institutionally governed, and experienced in practice in various countries in the region, Dr Muhidin Shangwe, a lecturer of political science at the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, Dr Robert Kakuru, a lecturer in human rights at Uganda’s Makerere University, and Nelson Casimiro Zavale, an associate professor of education at Eduardo Mondlane University in Mozambique, said radical and critical scholarship was in jeopardy at most universities…