The capacity to generate or adapt relevant knowledge is part of development. The social sciences came with the modern state, and the modern university, both being, in Sub-Saharan Africa, post-colonial phenomena. From being barely ten in 1960, there are now 175 universities. Knowledge production sites now include private universities, distance learning institutions, virtual universities, independent research centres, councils and knowledge networks. The first generation of scholars is replaced by younger scholars trained in Africa. Scientific communities and knowledge systems have begun to emerge. The question is how strong they are, and to what extent they have been capable of
producing a body of literature that has contributed to the expansion of the frontiers of knowledge, democracy and development in a context of crises, conflicts and rapid social and technological transformations.
