The International University of Africa (Arabic: جامعة افريقيا العالمية) is a private university in Khartoum, Sudan. It is a member of the Federation of the Universities of the Islamic World. The university has faculties of Education and Humanities, Shariah and Islamic Studies, of Pure and Applied Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.[2]
The university has its origins in the Islamic African Centre, established in Khartoum in 1977 with financial help from Saudi Arabia[3] and other Arab States of the Persian Gulf[4] to train preachers and educate young African Muslims and "imbue them with the Salafist view of Islam."[4] In 1992, the military government of Colonel Omar Al-Bashir upgraded the institute to a university. Although the word "Islamic" was dropped from the title, Islamic studies are an important part of the curriculum.[5] The university has been active in Islamic higher education in sub-Saharan Africa since it was created.[6]
Due to its geographic location and cultural history, Sudan has been hosting a steady flow of people from neighbouring countries, who were either in pursuit of religious knowledge or were on their way to perform the hajj pilgrimage. (Port Sudan lies directly across the Red Sea from Mecca's port city of Jeddah.) Some pilgrims stayed behind, either with a sheikh (religious leader) or fleeing from religious persecution, which set in as a result of European colonization. Others were forced by incessant wars to seek refuge and education in Sudan. As of 2010, the university had almost 6000 students. Its 93-acre campus is located in the South-Eastern part of Khartoum State.[7]
History
African Islamic Center
The forerunner of the university, known as the African Islamic Center[8] (also Islamic African Center[9] or Islamic African Institute[10]), was founded in 1977[3] or 1978[10] to train young Africans (particularly South Sudanese) in Salafist or fundamentalist interpretations of Islam. According to the university's website, it was set up by "a number of scholars ... with popular effort",[10] while outside sources credit funding to Saudi Arabia and other Arab States of the Persian Gulf, and management by the Islamist National Islamic Front of Sudan.
According to the Oxford Islamic Studies Online, the Sudanese Islamist group National Islamic Front founded the AIC "to undertake missionary work among the non-Muslim majority in southern Sudan".[8]
Other sources indicate the training was not exclusively for Sudanese. Political scientist Gilles Kepel has described it as having been created "to train preachers and young elites from French and English-speaking African countries" and to "imbue them with the Salafist view of Islam." Kepel describes the center as "richly endowed by the Gulf States" and "headed" by a National Islamic Front party member "from 1979 on".[4] Rachel Bronson states that starting in 1977, Saudi Arabia "poured significant resources"[3] into the center.
According to the university's website, the Institute/Centre began by "accepting African students at the intermediate and secondary levels" from 1977-1979 onwards, before "this project was stopped". Later on, the Institute/Centre was revived "on a wider basis and with greater facilities" by the "Government of the Sudan". It "invited a number of Arab countries" to contribute and six responded—Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, The United Arab Emirates and Morocco. Their representatives "formed the Centre’s board of trustees" (the institute's highest authority) and "drew a statute which was approved by the Government of the Sudan and ratified by the founding states".[10]
The Government of the Sudan granted the centre a "big plot of land and the president of the Republic gave it diplomatic immunities and privileges" which helped it to develop and progress quickly. The National Salvation Government ratified the previous statute.[10]
Between 1977 and 1986 the Institute/Centre was established and "its administration and systems were settled". 800 students could be accommodated and "hundreds" of students graduated. Teaching was expanded from intermediate and secondary levels to include two university colleges. "Social and cultural activities" included "youth cultural mission and graduates associations". In one African country, "more than 500 applicants competed for ten scholarship awards" to AIC.[10]
But in 1405 AH (1984-5) the Centre’s activity was curtailed after some member states "failed to pay their [promised] contributions", and the budget had to be cut at the same time that the two colleges were being established.[10]
International University of Africa
In 1411 AH (1990–91), and due to the great demand of African students for higher education, the Government of the Sudan issued the following decree (according to the university website):[10]
Elevating the Islamic African Centre to University statute with the name: International University of Africa.
Inviting interested countries and charitable institutions to become members of the Board of Trustees.
Ratifying the official seat agreement between the Government of the Sudan and the University and allowing it to retain the immunities and privileges granted to the Islamic African Centre.
The University was established with almost the full support of the Government of the Sudan, new faculties, institutes and centers were set up and study programmes became diversified including studies at applied science faculties. Programmes of post-graduate studies were introduced. The number of students multiplied greatly; and the University’s internal and external relations were extended resulting in a unique international African university.[11]
So in 1992 the institute was "upgraded" to a university and its name was changed to Africa University,[12] or International University of Africa.
In 1995, during the civil war in Southern Sudan, Spin magazine reported that there was military training on campus.[13]Human Rights Watch notes that among other activities it provided "religious and cultural orientation programs" for prisoners of war in Sudan.[12]
Officially, the chancellor of the university is the President of the country. In effect, the head of the university is the Vice-Chancellor. In November 2020, Prof. Dr. Hunud Abia Kadouf, an internationally renowned law expert, was appointed as Vice-Chancellor.[16]
The university is legally independent from the Sudanese state, but the government is the largest financial supporter. Classes are mostly held in Arabic except the medical and Health Sciences, but most of the students come from more than 90 countries, mostly non-Arabic-speaking African nations and from other countries, such as Malaysia and Indonesia.[17]
In 1993 and in cooperation with other organizations, the university established an institute for Disaster Management and Refugees Studies. This institute was inaugurated in 1994 at a ceremony attended by Salim Ahmed Salim, Secretary General of the Organization of African Unity. It undertakes training and development of approaches to disaster management in the Horn of Africa.[18] In April 2011, the Vice-Chancellor of the university at that time, Professor Hassan Mekki, met the Islamic Relief Agency Secretary General, Adnan Bin Khalil Al-Basha in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The two signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in charity and relief work.[19]
The University follows the academic semester system and credit hours. The academic degree is awarded for successful completion of the prescribed courses during the academic semesters.
These courses include:
University Requirements courses: "These are the compulsory courses for all university students. They include Islamic Studies, languages, and social subjects".
Faculty requirements: compulsory courses for all the students of the particular faculty.
Specialization Requirements: courses prescribed by the faculty for all the students of the same specialization.
Language used in instruction
Arabic is the medium of instruction in the faculties of economics, arts, law, education and shariah, and centres of the university on the bachelor degree level. It is also the medium of instruction and dissertation writing for post-graduate studies. English is the language of instruction in the faculties of engineering, Medicine, pharmacy, dentistry, nursing and faculties of laboratory sciences.[20]
University Facilities
The University has
Huge Press
University Clinic
A large number of apartments for students
Playgrounds for football, basketball, volleyball and other games
Africa Conference Hall
3 mosques and now in the process of establishing a large mosque, at a cost of about $2 million (Turkish design)
Students
As of 2010, about half of the students have come from Sudan, and most of the others from the Horn of Africa. Almost all have come from Africa, but other countries are represented, too:[21]
There are also bilateral agreements for scientific and cultural cooperation with the following Islamic and international universities and academic institutions:
University College of Education Zanzibar (academically affiliated with the International University of Africa which awards the bachelor's degree to its graduates).
Thika College for Shari‘a and Islamic Studies –Kenny (academically affiliated with the International University of Africa which awards the bachelor's degree to its graduates).
^Eva Evers Rosander, David Westerlund (1997). African Islam and Islam in Africa: encounters between Sufis and Islamists. Ohio University Press. p. 43. ISBN0-8214-1213-2.
