Voices Magazine-Vol2-Issue-1-WEB

VOICES Bi-Monthly Magazine of the University of Technology, Jamaica | April 2018 26 J amaican-born Professor Horace Campbell, who holds the Kwame Nkrumah Chair at the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, Western Africa delivered the University of Technology, Jamaica Distinguished Public Lecture on the topic, “From the Engineer’s dream to the Pan African Reality: A Canal system for the reconstruction and regeneration of Africa” on Wednesday, April 4, 2018. Professor Campbell is a noted international peace and justice scholar and a distinguished voice in the struggles for freedom and justice of African people. He has been involved in Africa’s Liberation Struggles and in the struggles for peace and justice globally for more than four decades. His lecture addressed the urgency of a canal system renewal for Africa within the context of Nigeria’s dying Lake Chad which has lost 95 per cent of its water over the past 60 years as a result of extended drought, the impacts of the climate crisis and lower levels of rainfall in the region. With the aid of photographs taken on his recent visits, and pictures from NASA, Professor Campbell painted a vivid picture of the catastrophic outcomes of the drying up of Lake Chad. The Lake has shrunk from over 25,000 square kilometres (sq. km.) to less than 2000 sq. km. He explained that this reality currently threatens the livelihood of 370 million citizens living in the countries of the Lake Chad Basin shared by Algeria, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, Libya, Nigeria, Niger and Sudan. The climate crisis has negatively impacted the livelihood of the over 13 million people living immediately around the lake, resulting in conditions of low levels of water, the shrinking of land for grazing cattle, the receding of fishing grounds, famine and raging forest fires. He asserted that to make the replenishing of Lake Chad transfer from an engineer’s dream to a Pan African reality will require international cooperation, but ultimately will need “the political will of the Global African Family.” Prof. Campbell called on Caribbean engineers and environmentalists to engage in the process of the Pan African project of renewal for Africa. President, UTech, Jamaica, Professor Stephen Vasciannie who chaired the lecture, was in support of that call, in noting that “as global citizens, we have an obligation to take positions in international affairs to influence discourse for political and social change for the benefit of human welfare and progress.” Distinguished Lecture by Professor Horace Campbell Posing for a group photograph following the lecture, from left are, Professor Colin Gyles, Deputy President, Mr. Benjamin Asamoah, Club Overseer, African Cultural Renaissance Movement (ACRM) UTech, Ja. student club, Mr. Christopher Udeagha, Senior Lecturer, School of Computing and Information Technology (SCIT), Her Excellency Janet Olisa, Nigerian High Commissioner to Jamaica, Professor Horace Campbell, Kwame Nkrumah Chair at the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, Western Africa, Professor Stephen Vasciannie, President, UTech, Jamaica, Mrs. Mercedes Deane, University Registrar and Mr. Noel Whyte, member of the University’s Council who introduced Professor Campbell at the Distinguished Lecture. Mr. Whyte recommended Professor Campbell for the lecture following his visit to Ghana with the Kwame Nkrumah Chair Professor. Professor Horace Campbell delivering the UTech, Jamaica Distinguished Lecture on Wednesday, April 4, 2018 at the Shared Facilities Building, Papine Campus.