Thursday, 19 June 1986: A Visit to the University of Zimbabwe Geography Department

Monday, August 4, 2:00PM, Hillcrest Community, Halfway House, South Africa 

I spent an afternoon at the University of Zimbabwe campus close to where I was staying.  In the Geography Department, I met Richard Whitlow, a Brit who is currently finishing up his Ph.D.  Whitlow is of the opinion that the quality of high school education for blacks in Zimbabwe is far superior to what blacks receive in South Africa.  He said this was true even prior to black independence in Zimbabwe.  As an example, he spoke about students at the University of Bophuthatswana in a South African “homeland”.  He had an acquaintance who had taught there, and Whitlow claimed that much of the university work there consisted in bringing the students up to a high school graduation level.  It reminded me of what I had learned about the poor preparation of black students when I visited Vista University in the Orange Free State the previous month.  Whitlow claimed that the African students who come to the University of Zimbabwe are much better prepared.  

Whitlow is conducting a government-funded erosion study for Zimbabwe.  Using aerial photos, he has produced a map of areas which have the greatest potential for erosion problems in the country.  According to Whitlow, the Zim government is very interested in funding these sorts of projects or encouraging researchers who can get outside funding.  

Richard Whitlow’s 1988 study, Land Degradation in Zimbabwe: A Geographical Study was prepared on behalf of the Zimbabwe Department of Natural Resources.  Map on the right shows areas (darkest shading) that have experienced the greatest impacts from soil erosion.  These are concentrated in the hilly and mountainous communal lands in the eastern part of Zimbabwe. 

Most of the geography majors at this university go into high school teaching although an increasing number are finding employment in city/regional planning and government agencies.  It was interesting to me that Whitlow slammed the poor quality of academic research that is coming out of the USA as part of the “publish or perish” syndrome.  I’ll leave it to the ivory tower academics to slug this one out.

The geography department seemed well-equipped with maps and lab paraphernalia.  And the campus is quite nice – modern buildings in a sprawling tree- and grass-covered landscape with plenty of room for expansion.  It did feel a bit weird, however, being on a campus with uniformed guards carrying around semi-automatic rifles.  It brought back old, unpleasant memories of my time as an Ohio National Guardsman carrying a loaded M-1 rifle on the Ohio State University campus during the riots of May 1970 at the time of the Kent State University shootings.  What made that experience exceptionally weird was that I had graduated from OSU less than a year earlier.  Fortunately, no one was shot.

The U of Z student body, based on the dozens of students I saw, is almost entirely black.  With five million blacks and only 100,000 whites in the country, I suppose that’s to be expected.  But I also think that many young whites are leaving the country assuming their family has foreign funds socked away somewhere to get them started abroad.