A Stanford degree cannot cure colonial consciousness

What the report says

The Observer published a viewpoint article responding to comments by Robert Kirunda, a Makerere University law lecturer, who reportedly argued that women’s empowerment is responsible for the weakening of marriage. According to the article, the remarks drew divided reactions online, with some supporters of traditional family values backing him and feminist critics challenging the claim.

The writer argues that the controversy is about more than gender or one academic’s opinion. The article frames Kirunda’s comments as evidence of a wider failure by African education systems to “decolonise” ways of thinking. Drawing on ideas attributed to political philosopher Lwaza Lushaba and educator Paulo Freire, the writer says universities often produce credentialed professionals without necessarily training them to question inherited assumptions, examine evidence, or place social change in historical and economic context.

The article disputes the idea that women’s independence itself damages marriage, suggesting instead that empowerment may reveal inequalities that previously held some marriages together. It also argues that explaining family change requires considering factors such as work, urbanisation, education, migration, delayed marriage and changing expectations, rather than relying on religious or traditional authority alone.

The Observer piece further notes that Kirunda’s Stanford background does not, in the writer’s view, guarantee freedom from colonial, patriarchal or religious assumptions. Its broader concern is that many educated Ugandans may accept simplistic explanations for complex social transformations. The article calls for deeper national discussion on whether Uganda’s education system, more than six decades after independence, is producing critical and intellectually independent citizens.