Africa University Partners with Chevron, Angolan University

Jan. 12, 2006
By Lara Langlois and Andra Stevens*

MUTARE, Zimbabwe (UMNS) - United Methodist-related Africa University is joining forces with Chevron Corp. in an initiative to help with the reconstruction and development of Angola.

The $1 million capacity-strengthening effort focuses on revitalizing a once-thriving agricultural zone, Huambo Province in Central Angola, by encouraging entrepreneurship to boost incomes and improve livelihoods. Its nucleus is Agostinho Neto University, Angola's oldest and largest higher-education institution, and that school's Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, based in Huambo.

Beginning in February or March, Africa University will offer professional training for students and staff of Agostinho Neto University's Faculty of Agricultural Science. Africa University will also help its Angolan counterpart establish English language instruction centers and livestock and crop production units in Angola.

"Each year, we see the dream of this institution coming into fuller realization," said Rukudzo Murapa, Africa University's vice chancellor. "This project is a huge challenge for Africa University. … It goes to the heart of what this institution is all about: looking for skills gaps wherever they are on the continent, offering relevant training, research and service, and equipping African communities to prosper. That's what we're set to do in Angola."

Chevron brought the two universities together. Officials exchanged visits last fall, and talks began around replicating successful Africa University programs and projects - including English as Second Language training as well as mushroom, dairy and poultry production - at the Huambo campus.

According to Mamadou Beye, project coordinator for Chevron's Angola Partnership Initiative, management from the Angolan school toured several universities in America and Europe before opting for Africa University.

"The decision to partner with Africa University was based on the quality of the university, the quality of its staff, the integrity, and the ingenuity the staff is using to make every dollar highly productive," Beye said.

Chevron is underwriting the collaboration between the two institutions. The effort is part of the company's ongoing Angola Partnership Initiative, launched in November 2002. It has raised more than US$50 million in public and private financing, with US$25 million from Chevron alone. The initiative aims to build Angola's human capacity so that communities enjoy greater economic stability and improved quality of life.

Three years after the end of a lengthy civil war, Angola is poised to exploit its rich potential, but it faces critical challenges. The revitalization effort centered at Agostinho Neto University represents much of the nation's struggle in microcosm.

The school's Faculty of Agricultural Sciences shut down operations in 1992 due to the ravages of war and only reopened in May 2003. Bullet-ridden and roofless buildings are still the norm. At night, students can be seen coming out of buildings to study by the light of street lamps.

A formerly prosperous 2,000-hectare university farm, with its impressive glass greenhouses, is significantly underused.

Nonetheless, the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences' potential for contributing to prosperity in Huambo is evident, says Ernest Muzorewa, who led an Africa University assessment team on a visit to the project site last November.

Arable land is abundant, and before Angola's 27-year civil war, the area was considered the country's breadbasket. The climate supports a range of commercial crops, and the people display "a spirit to achieve," according to members of the Africa University assessment team.

But war drove local farmers from the fields. Three-quarters of the province's population fled in search of refuge. The agriculture that once fed wealth in Huambo died because of landmines and displacement.

Africa University can provide what the school lacks: access to highly developed and successful agricultural operations, first-rate training of technical staff, as well as programs that will teach the most essential English skills to students.

A twofold approach is envisioned for the agriculture-related training. First, staff and students from operations in Huambo will get field exposure in Zimbabwe. Then they will "learn by doing" in new production units that Africa University will assist the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences at Huambo in setting up and managing over the course of the next two years.

In a country where the main investors are Western, English-language skills enhance job opportunities. Africa University will begin offering English as a Second Language courses for Faculty of Agricultural Sciences graduates and others in February, first in Huambo and later in Angola's capital, Luanda.

"If this partnership succeeds, Angolan professionals will emerge from its various activities better equipped to meet the new and evolving needs of their nation," said Jennifer Muzamindo, coordinator of the English Unit in Africa University's Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and a member of the assessment team that visited the Huambo university.

Expertise to deliver collaborative activities will be drawn from across Africa University's academic units. Crucial input will come from the agriculture faculty and Africa University's Entrepreneurial Business Development Centre, set up with assistance from Kalamazoo (Mich.) College in the United States. In addition, roles have been identified for the business school, peace and governance institute, and humanities faculty.

Chevron expects to see tangible improvement in the overall capacity and capability of Africa University and Agostinho Neto University as well as enhanced knowledge, skills and experience for students and staff through cross-cultural learning, research, exchange and attachment programs.

"I believe that this public private partnership can yield tremendous benefit and make the South-South cooperation even more meaningful and Africa Renaissance more tangible," Beye said.

United Methodist-related Africa University is a pan-African institution based in Mutare. It offers undergraduate and post-graduate training in agriculture, business, education, health sciences, humanities and social sciences, peace, leadership and governance and theology. Launched as the first private university in Zimbabwe in 1992, it has a student body of more than 1,200 students from 16 African countries.

*Langlois is volunteer staff and Stevens is director of the Information & Public Affairs Office at United Methodist-related Africa University.