Paper short abstract:

This paper is about the investment of the African diaspora in the development of African universities. It aims to analyze the levels, forms and rationale thereof.

Paper long abstract:

This paper examines the investment of North America-based African academics in the development of African universities. Its relevance is grounded in two facts. First, since independence, socioeconomic development of Africa has been subjected to the production of academic knowledge, hence African leaders' unanimous decision to multiply the number of universities. Second, as from the 1960s, an influential literature contends the relation between high education and development. For decades, this literature was dominated by a Marxist-inspired theory, which disparages the expatriation of highly educated arguing that it dooms Africa's prospect of development. In the 1990s, a new theory labelled « diaspora option » emerged. Contrary to the previous one, this theory posits that the presence of an African diaspora could become a chance for Africa, if this diaspora mobilizes for the development of the continent. Although fertile, this theory still remains mostly ungrounded and needs to be tested empirically.

This paper intends to do so. It results from a four-year research project carried out in Canada, US, Nigeria, South Africa, Niger and Ghana. 174 interviews were conducted with African academics in North America as well as with their peers and university administrators in the aforementioned African countries. The paper addresses decisive questions: What ideological factors and professional criteria draw expatriate academics to specific universities or colleagues and persuade them to help the latter thrive? To what extent nationality, research interest, the existence of local institutional support for research excellence determine expatriated academics' relations with colleagues and academic institutions in Africa?