In a committed column, Viviane Ondoa Biwole challenges the silence of academics in the face of social and political drifts. She calls for a surge of responsibility and intellectual engagement.
“Several serious and important social events are taking place before our eyes without academics making their voices heard.” With these words, Viviane Ondoa Biwole sets the scene for a deep malaise: the progressive erasure of intellectuals in public debate.
Extreme violence, heinous crimes, abuse of the most vulnerable, social tensions… so many realities that, according to the author, should provoke clear stances. Yet, she notes, “we remain spectators.” A finding all the more worrying as it occurs in a context marked by sensitive debates, particularly around the modification of the Constitution.
For Viviane Ondoa Biwole, this reserve borders on abdication. “Is the fear of reprisals such that we are losing our reason for being?” she asks, pointing to a climate where caution and self-censorship seem to prevail over the duty of expression.
The academic, she reminds us, is not just a transmitter of knowledge. He is also a critical conscience. “The role of academics is also to show the limits and to act when the situation is so critical,” she asserts, pleading for a more visible and assumed commitment.
At the heart of her argument is a strong notion: that of the “intellectual watchdog.” A mission which, according to her, requires denouncing injustices, fighting discrimination, and getting involved in major social projects.
Faced with what she describes as a form of collective avoidance, Viviane Ondoa Biwole calls for an awakening of consciences. “Our conscience should challenge us,” she insists, before concluding with a clear invitation: to give meaning back to academic commitment and “live for a goal, for a cause, for a purpose.”
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