I am very imprsssed by the reflections of the founding Executive Secretary of CODESRIA: The major worry (of African scholars) was over academic freedom and prospect of a legitimising rather than influencing role of social scientists. The second reason was to counter the influence of former colonial powers in universities and rsearch institutes, and the third reason was the strong belief of AFrican scholars at the time that (a) the government has rightly the rsponsbility for developing their countries and (b) that the scholars had the responsibility of informing and influencng the government to carry out relelvant and approapriate development politicies. The scholars at the time sincerely believed that the government would listen to them or that they would be able to infusence critical personalities and forces in the government - espcially if the scholar's voice came from a Pan-African body of scholars. Bujra, A., 'Whither Social Science Institutions in Africa: A Prognosis,' in Africa Development XIX:1: 138-142. Dakar: CODESRIA, 1994, p.143.