Friends,
We have completed three days of exhaustive discussions on social sciences. We
have discussed the teaching of economics, sociology, anthropology, history,
philosophy, agriculture. We have also examined some of these disciplines specifically
from the standpoint of Africa and South America.
Today we have done some brainstorming. We have also taken up some commitments at the individual level.
For the first time, a group of scholars from Asia, Africa and South America has come together to discuss, and work out, a practical programme to tackle the ghost of Eurocentricism haunting social science teaching in our universities.
Our ship, "the Ghost Buster", is now due to set sail from Penang.
Every time we have a conference like this, we make new and lasting friends. We find that all over the world, there are people like us who are troubled by the crippling phenomenon of intellectual dependence. We find scholars yearning to be free. We discover kindred spirits waiting to join battle, but are unable to do so, because they lack an army or the company of other soldiers.
These meetings enable us to size our strengths. Weaknesses we know about, but we need to know our strengths. In the past three days, I have been witness to some scintillating discourses from scholars who can hold their own anywhere. There are also several scholars who are solidly part of this group but who could not attend due to prior commitments.
The Multiversity working group on busting the ghost of Eurocentricism in the social sciences may be small in numbers, but I feel it contains the best and the brightest people on the planet. It is a happy achievement that we have been able to get together such a group over the past couple of years, and come to agree on a common minimum programme.
In the months to come, we hope that position papers, drafts, outlines and model curricula for some of these social sciences will emerge from the concerns and work of this group (and others it is able to recruit). Multiversity will provide all the logistics for such work to be done speedily and will circulate the output as well in appropriate quarters.
No group can survive without continuous interaction and affection. I therefore request you to ensure that Multiversity is safely packed in your baggage as you depart from Penang, so that when you open your baggage at home, it tumbles out with all the other memories and mementoes you are taking back from this island city. We crave for your affection, so once in a while, send us a love note.
Friends, Multiversity is everybody's baby. As individuals, we may (and we should) have our own ideological positions on principal issues. But on casting aside the ghost of Eurocentricism we are all agreed and determined that a major start will come from here, from us, from this group, from others we can recruit to this cause, and that a significant initiative will emerge.
From its inception, in fact, we have kept Multiversity as an open source and as an open platform for persons exclusively from the developing societies. We welcome you to make the idea your own and to initiate activities in your own domains when you return. As Ashis said, all of us are already doing some Multiversity work in our own countries back home in any case.
But we also need to make the objectives and activities of Multiversity better known everywhere and for this we seek your collaboration and help. When we send you brochures, please have these circulated among your colleagues. Get subscriptions to Kamiriithu. Write about this meeting or the issues raised here. Please do spread information about our website (www.multiworld.org). Or, like Vinay and Progler, set up your own Multiversity website on these issues. You are welcome to link up your site with ours and we shall reciprocate as well.
But above all, as far as this meeting is concerned, we seek your earnest assistance and collaboration in the months ahead in the practical task of thinking about ways and means to redesign our curricula, so that, when we teach our younger generations, we endow them with the capacity to respond in a creative way to the problems of their societies.
I thank each and every one of you for taking the trouble to come to Penang. International travel is not exactly pleasant all the time. It can be quite tiring and exhausting, especially for those who have come from places as far away as Zimbabwe, Peru, the US. We appreciate the efforts you have put in for this meeting as well. Some of you have come with written presentations. We will ensure that your contributions to this meeting are circulated on the Net and in various fora, and to those who could not attend.
Once again, a pleasant journey back home. This island and its concerns will keep beckoning you from time to time. And we hope you will come back for more Multiversity meetings in future.
Thank you.