adminRunesu Gwidi Herald Correspondent
Students at institutions of higher learning have been exhorted to set up writing clubs and publish books that tell Zimbabwe’s full story and help ward off cultural imperialism.
Zanu-PF Secretary for Youth Affairs in the Politburo Cde Pupurai Togarepi last week said it was the duty of students at the country’s universities and colleges to lead the fight to end the domination of foreign cultures within the country’s learning system.
Addressing students drawn from universities and colleges in and around Masvingo during a public lecture organised by the Zimbabwe Congress of Students Unions, Cde Togarepi said a lot still needed to be done for the country to win the battle against cultural imperialism.
He said the end of Rhodesian colonial rule in 1980 had ushered in political independence and challenged college and university students to be the bulwark against cultural imperialism.
“Look at the current situation, be it Geography, Agriculture or any other faculty, most of the scholars that students make reference to in their essays or projects are from the West. Why don’t you form writing syndicates and publish books on a variety of academic disciplines but related to our own cultural set-up?” Cde Togarepi said.
He said youths, especially students, were an important segment of the country’s population with a duty to promote local heritage and culture through literary works based on indigenous information systems.
The Zanu-PF Youth League secretary said it was also possible for local students to write books that can also influence curricula at Western colleges and universities.
“Cultural imperialism is one of the biggest drawbacks to national development in the country.
‘’The scholarly references in learning programmes for our students are dominated by information that does not match the domestic situation in which they will either get employed or be self-employed. Publication of textual knowledge or books on the country’s history and culture provides a home-grown solution to national economic problems,” Cde Togarepi said.
The public lecture ran under the theme “Utilising higher education to stimulate economic growth”.
Online Reporter