BRUSSELS, Belgium
Professors at
Howard and Fisk universities are
proposing that an institute without walls
be established by America’s historically Black
colleges and universities (HBCUs) to assist
developing nations in Africa, the Caribbean
and the Pacific islands.
Drawing on the strengths of HBCUs, the
institute would provide technical assistance
on economic, social and educational
programs in the former European colonies.
The help is needed to assist the sixty-nine
nations that make up the African, Caribbean
and Pacific Group of States (ACP) redefine
its relationship with the fifteen-member
European Union (EU), according to Dr.
Robert Cummings, chairman of the
Department of African Studies at Howard
University in Washington, D.C.
“If we put together this kind of
relationship, it will allow us to recognize our
own strengths and share that knowledge with
our brothers in Africa, the Caribbean and
Asia,” Cummings said.
In the coming weeks, Cummings will he
working along with Dr. Raymond A.
Winbush, director of the Fisk University
Race Relations Institute in Nashville,
Tennessee, to write a broad plan for the
institute.
“The expertise at the Black colleges is
already there,” said Winbush, “so why can’t
we look at joint projects with international
businesses to train people for the global
transition that is going on right now.”
Cummings said that he has wanted to
create an institute to link HBCUs with
foreign universities, but not necessarily in
developing nations. The idea, however, can he
easily adapted to assist poorer countries, he
said, adding that he and Winbush will solicit
input from the 116 HBCUs to develop a name
and structure for the institute.
The duo recently discussed the institute
with leading EU officials here at the Lome IV
Convention, named after the capital of Togo.
They were among a small group of American
scholars who attended the conference
organized by the England-based group, Focus
Consultance Ltd.
Issues raised at the conference will he used to
form a new ACP-EU relationship, which will
be up for review in the year 2000. The Lome’
Conventions provide development aid and
privileged access to the EU’s market for ACP
countries.
According to Cummings, the Lome
conventions were designed to help
industrialize ACP countries, hut in reality,
they maintain a neo-colonial relationship that
prohibits ACP countries from trading among
themselves and keeps them in a beggar
relationship with the EU.
