As political strife is a constant around the globe, the Institute of International Education’s Scholar Rescue Fund assists scholars whose academic freedom is threatened in their home countries.
Dr. Felix Kaputu’s quiet life as an English and Biblical scholar researching comparative religions belies the disquiet of his life a few years ago.
In 2005, living in his native Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kaputu was arrested and accused of participating in a separatist movement outlawed by the government — charges he denies. He and other political detainees were incarcerated for several months, enduring beatings and torture. Amnesty International and other human rights groups pressed for the release of Kaputu and other prisoners, and after four months Kaputu was set free.
His experiences qualified him for support from the Scholar Rescue Fund, a project of the nonprofit Institute of International Education, perhaps best known for administering the Fulbright Student and Scholars program. He spent a year teaching and writing at an East Coast university in the United States. A year after his release, with the Scholar Rescue Fund’s support, Kaputu relocated to Japan where he has continued his comparative project on Shamanism as practiced in Northern Japan (Itako) and in Central Africa (Bikishi).
“If I did not leave at that time, anything could happen to me. I could be found dead on the road, in my house or I could be arrested again,” Kaputu says.
He is one of hundreds of men and women seeking exile because of their academic status or expressed views and ideas in nations where freedom of expression is suppressed.
“Many such scholars live in countries led by dictators and are forced to forget any understanding of human democracy, freedom, especially freedom of expression,” Kaputu continues. “Here and there, they are even forced into unacceptable positions or into giving statements that contradict their profession, their faith and whatever they stand for.”
