The Vice-Chancellor (V-C), Kaduna State University (KASU), Prof. Abdullahi Musa, on Monday said that humanities and social sciences were not only concerned about human welfare, but also improve human lives.
Musa, who said this while declaring open the 3rd International Conference of KASU’s Faculty of Arts, said that humanities were the mothers of all sciences, and their relevance could not be overemphasized.
The conference has as its theme “The humanities, Social Sciences and Education in Africa: Challenges and Prospects in Changing Contexts”.
Musa said the conference was expected to generate new ideas and insights on the role of humanities and social sciences in shaping Africa’s future.
He also said that the conference would provide a platform for scholars to engage with each other and share their research findings, with the ultimate goal of contributing to the development of the continent.
The vice-chancellor urged the participants to engage in fruitful discussions and share their ideas on how to harness the potential of humanities and social sciences to address the challenges facing Africa.
Similarly, Prof. Tanimu Abubakar of the Department of English and Literary Studies, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, said that the epistemic and ideological value of the human sciences had always been inspired, provoked or even opposed by the modernisation process.
Abubakar said that this was due to their location at the intersection of the vested interests of Euro-capitalist expansionism and its opposition by the Third World.
His presentation was titled “The humanities and Social Sciences at the Intersections of the Modernization Process and National Development in the Third World”.
Abubakar explained that in this context, the challenge-prospects of the human sciences would, as it had been, be mediated by historical, technological and epistemological changes at national, continental and global levels.
He, however, said that the successes which the humanities and the social sciences in Postcolonial societies made the yearning for sovereign national development and modernisation and its obstruction by imperialism could be replicated by the commitment of scholars.
Abubakar explained that this was with a view to reversing the stagnation of postcolonial societies.
“The task of producing enlightened manpower through the generation and dissemination of transformative knowledge, academic freedom, intellectual activism or the politics of knowledge-production were not and cannot now be natural, neutral and matter-of-fact.
“On the contrary, they have been and will remain outcomes of deliberate efforts by committed scholars who Antonio Gramsci describes in his Hegemony Theory as organic intellectuals’,’ he said.
Abubakar expressed optimism that insights gained at the conference would pave way for the evolution of reformative transdisciplinary humanities and social sciences.\
This, he said, would help in unraveling and combating the complicity of the globalist recolonisation agenda.
“The globalist recolonisation agenda is driven by neoliberalism, corporate capitalism and postmodernism in collaboration with the docile and pliant ruling classes of postcolonial societies,” he also said.
Earlier, the Dean, Faculty of Arts, KASU, Prof. Audee Giwa, said the intellectual contributions of the disciplines in the Humanities, Social Sciences, and Education with their focus on man and society as subjects of study in Nigeria and Africa were vast.
Giwa added that their impact on the continent has been immense in the face of challenges.
According to him, in the 21st century, the prospects and what role the disciplines will continue to play will be interrogated by the conference.
Also, Prof. A.K. Babajo, KASU’s Provost, College of Humanities, Education and Law, commended the vice-chancellor for his insightful remarks, saying that humanities and social sciences were indeed essential for improving human lives.
He emphasised that the conference would provide a platform for scholars to engage in meaningful discussions and share their research findings, which would contribute to the development of Africa.
Babajo further stressed that humanities and social sciences were not only concerned with human welfare but also play a critical role in shaping Africa’s future.
He encouraged participants to explore the challenges and prospects of humanities and social sciences in Africa, including the impact of colonialism, globalisation, and technology on African cultures and societies.
Babajo expressed optimism that the conference would generate new ideas and insights that would pave the way for the evolution of reformative transdisciplinary humanities and social sciences in Africa.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the two-day conference will feature panel discussions and paper presentations on various topics, including the role of humanities in education, sustainable development, among others.(NAN)
