I was in Buea last week, visiting family. As the taxi zoomed past Molyko and the university gates, little bits of memories began to take shape in my mind, most of them fond memories from the 4 years I spent as a student there before ultimately giving it the middle finger and dropping out, to the utter dismay of my mother. I remembered the laughter, the friends, the parties, the girls and every other thing that makes student life so much fun.
You see, as all those memories flooded my mind, I began to realise that the most memorable of them were made outside the walls of the university.
I also realised that even the ones that were made inside the walls of the university were as a consequence of something that happened outside the walls. Frankly, all of it. Except for the strike and university games.
The university itself, in hindsight, seemed like some soulless edifice. We went there because we had to and not because we really wanted to. If you think critically and objectively, most of us went there because it was the only Anglo-saxon university and our elders had made it seemed cool. After all, we were told Soa and Ngoa-Ekelle were for rejects; those who couldn’t score above 5 points at the A-Levels.
The truth is, I never wanted to go there in the first place. I had successfully gained admission into Montclair State University and UB to me was just so I wouldn’t spend time at home while waiting for December to get a visa. (You must have inferred by now that I was denied one).
What struck me most at the time I sat in a rundown cyber café in Bamenda while trying to download my admission, was that on the website of Montclair State University, they basically shouted from the rooftop that Lucy Liu (the actress) was an alumnus. On the website, there were photos of students smiling, wearing MSU tee-shirts. One could immediately sense a feeling of home.
I remember my admission letter said, they were “proud” and “happy” that I chose their school and that they were looking forward to receiving me and they would do everything to make my stay at the University the most “amazing experience” they could give me. They attached the phone and email of someone I could reach if I had any trouble ahead of my stay in the U.S
Maaaan!
I remember my cousin who was in his 3rd year at the time, reading my admission letter and saying to me “wait till you read UB ei admission letter. You go laugh sotay fall inside gutter.”
So I ask again. Does the University of Buea have a brand? Is there anything aspirational as to being there except the half-baked education they give? Is there something there that is supposed to leave an imprint on our lives? Is there anything more to it than the soulless and uninspired strapline they proudly call “The Place To Be?” Ok Fine. Let’s take that one. So why is it the place to be?
What are the stories? Who are the heroes?
What are the things, the life, the moments, and instances that make it the place to be in?
Does the public know these stories? Why not?
The thing is, this goes beyond the University of Buea. It points to a wider problem within our educational system. It points to the fact that our school system is going through a major existential crisis. Some kind of “aspiration-deficiency syndrome” if you will.
It seems to hinge on a get-in/get-out path rather than a “this-is-how-I-would-mould-you.” The system seems to be aimed at passing us through an assembly line with a certificate in hand rather than giving us something deeper that we can take with us and can keep us coming back to make that same institution better.
I read an article recently by a certain Kathleen Ndongmo. In it she was describing how the public nursery, primary and secondary schools she attended, during a 30-year timeline, have not evolved but have rather crumbled with time - Both physically and from an institutional point of view.
In the article, she writes “Education is more than just the acquisition of knowledge, it is the shaping of culture and the strengthening of character. Today, the knowledge economy is everything and we need progressive foundational systems to implement and sustain it.” And I totally get her.
I was fortunate enough to attend one of the best schools in the county (at least according to GCE results). I spent 7 years there in what could be considered a close-knit family and one of the cultural references that even the walls of the classrooms seemed to whisper to us was that of excellence. That we needed to be the best. And to be the best, you had to work the hardest possible.
I remember the Economics teacher giving us a one hour test and walking off to the staff room only to come back to collect the scripts. In that time, no student turned around to ask another student to help them with a question. No one reached into their lockers to pull out a book. Everyone wanted to pass the test by their sheer effort only. We knew there were no shortcuts to success. It was part of what made us, us; our brand. The teachers and principals always told us about those who had sat in those very classrooms before us and had succeeded in life by the strength of their own efforts only; our own Lucy Lius. Some even came back from time to time to tell us about their life experiences and bear witness to the institution’s brand.
Today, I am more attached to that place than any school I have been to. I’ve never even bothered to know if UB has an ex-student or alumni association. I just don’t care. Yet it was my home for 4 years.
My uncle who studied in Harvard in the early 90s, till today, owns a Harvard tee shirt and a little banner, which he hangs in his office. And it’s not to show off that he went to Harvard. It’s just a symbol of the mind-transforming and moulding that the Harvard brand thrust upon him.
I went through UB’s website and it is just another soulless and colourless gateway into the institution. Apart from a few sections of its bio, there is nothing aspirational about it. Nothing that seems to wrap you with its umbilical cord and attach you to it.
The “Campus Life” section of its website, the one place where they could have shown students living and breathing the DNA of UB is a poor video that seems to have been filmed with a Nokia 3310. To think that the video was published on its YouTube channel on September 2017, in the era of video content, is enough to know how bad the whole thing is. In that same video, two students being filmed as they walk past the Central Administration building can be seen covering their faces with paper files, almost as if they were ashamed to be part of that institution.
Wayayouille!
You could argue and say that Harvard University was founded in 1636 and has had hundreds of years to build its brand. The University of Buea was founded in 1992. Amazon was founded in 1994. Go figure.
And no, I am not comparing a tech company to a university. I’m showing you how one has been able to build and manage its brand over basically the same period of time, while the other has not.
So does UB have a brand? Yes, it does, just like every other institution and business. But that brand needs some serious polishing and some deep transformational change.
- Wandji Wilfred
***This article was originally published in May 2018