Africanizing HBCUs: Problems and Prospects of International Education in Historically Black Institutions

Abstract

Every projection indicates that minorities will represent a significant portion of the American labor force in the nearest future. Yet minority groups have historically represented segments of the population least capable of competing in the national and international marketplace. This is precisely why historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) need to rise to the challenge through an implicit mandate to internationalize their member institutions and the surrounding communities. This paper takes a critical look at how HBCUs ran the two most predominant components of international education, namely, the overseas and area studies programs. The main focus of the paper is Africa. It is indeed an attempt to assess the status of international education at HBCUs, particularly the problems they encounter as they struggle to internationalize. Although in the last few years, study abroad in Africa has become increasingly popular among HBCUs, the road ahead is still very long and sometimes tortuous. In the area of African studies, most of these institutions have a much bigger challenge to meet. The basic premise of my assumption is that despite all the good intentions of the government and private donor organizations, the fact remains that sustainable and qualitative international education in the area of African studies is in large part unaffordable and thus inaccessible to most HBCUs. Numerous factors are responsible for this phenomenon.