This satirical novel puts Africa's new universities squarely in the dock. While the ordinary people of Africa fight the harsh elements of their ruthless colonial oppressors in order to survive, the University élite, both students and lecturers, appear to fritter away the nation's time and money.
Austin Bukenya remorselessly pillories 'The University' as an irrelevance, a terrible waste of time and opportunity. Neither paper Socialism nor paper bachelors can solve the problems of Africa. The author, brilliantly humorous and bitingly frank, attacks the artificial pretentiousness of African campus life and at the same time grimly forces the reader to compare this with the harsh African realities just beyond the cloisters.