MAL56:23 | Page 96

LAST WORD

On Sovereignty

A bemused Ochieng had just emerged from the vice chancellor ’ s office where he had had to wait for three hours to see the boss in response to an urgent message that he immediately reports to his office delivered by the deputy vice chancellor - academic affairs .

The fact that the message had interrupted a class that was just about to commence made the delay to see the boss even more strange since he would have finished the lecture and still have enough time to see the boss .

The interview or the conversation was interesting , since Ochieng was initially baffled as to why he had been called urgently yet the nature of the questions mainly alluded to whether he liked his job and his extracurricular activities at the college .

Ochieng soon surmised that the whole interview was a veiled warning that his tenure at the university was in jeopardy if he 96 MAL56 / 23 ISSUE

“

Too many Africans who have dared to dream the sovereign dream have been assassinated for that noble ideal . In all those cases the killer of the African dreamer was the west aided by collaborating locals serving the interests of foreign masters . insisted in radicalizing the students which was strange since he taught political science and as such all his lessons were political .

What was peculiar was the insinuation that the interview had been provoked by instructions from above which could only point to the chancellor . In those days the president was the chancellor of all universities .

Or did he mean the president , who in his capacity as the chancellor also appointed vice chancellors . Vice chancellors were also then intimately aligned to the government of the day and many seamlessly transitioned into political positions .

So , a threat from the vice chancellor meant that it was government functionaries that were speaking as they had their ears everywhere to suss out and crush dissenting ideas and even the tiniest grain of political free thinking .