It has always been a long debate to differentiate the pros and cons of science and Art academic fields.

In order for one to figure out which one of this fields is best for future studies and availability of career opportunities, one needs to make self- evaluation, research and try to explore their interest and capabilities towards specific subject.

This is the thinking of lecturers of Makerere University College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHUSS) when airing their views during a public lecture about the subject “Living the humanities and humanistic social sciences in the 21^st century”

The public lectures are part of activities to be implemented by the college where its management received $5m from US based Andrew Mellon Foundation to conduct topical lectures in various areas affecting humanities running for 7 years till 2027.

Choosing between arts and sciences as a profession for good governance

Professor Julius Kiiza from CHUSS while debating on the topic Humanities and Governance argued that tension between people pursuing science and art careers means the two work interchangeably meaning they must coexist.

“The world of governance rotates around applied science employed by scientists and social sciences where the humanities aspect is applied. As the social science becomes scientific, the applied science must become humanistic, that is the correct theory,” he noted.

Giving ample example of how science works hand in hand with arts, Prof Kiiza noted how the ancient Egyptians built the pyramid in the year 2,600BC which still stands today as a sign of the first civilisation with its origin in Africa.

To him there were people who designed how the Pyramids must look like and these are people who had the wisdom of fine art and those who involved in the construction had the mind set of civil engineering.

It is his contention that the story of the construction of the Egyptian pyramid construction reveal architectural sciences which contains aspects of humanities in it.

This further reveals that the notion that African governance do not contribute to the world economy is not true and this calls for decolonisation of the world mind set because the African origin of science and humanities is seen in students who began pursuing courses in applied Robotics, mathematics and engineering among others from long time ago. This is documented by various senior scholars.

The president of the Democratic Party Nobert Mao noted that courses that tackle aspects of humanities address a number of issues ranging from technology and innovations, climate change, public health, environment including making political decisions.

“There are humanities subjects such as history which is so wide and this includes documenting Covid-19 findings by the medical profession. Then there comes the media which is connecting all the professionals in the globe. This therefore calls the academia to come to the forefront to open up the debate so that information can flow to the media which politicians can take up for good governance, “ he noted

The Voice of development partners in tackling the humanities agenda

Charity Ahimbisimbwe who works with Sustainable Economic Development Unit (SEDU) notes that when applying humanities in governance, it is important to highlight challenges that affect communities directly.

To her it is important for the academia to build capacity of the public in order for them to be part of the day to day governance activities.

She contends that if civil society organizations team up with the academia, researchers, and scientists to understand how each is performing when perfoming their duties, then good governance target will be achieved because each of the disciplines depend on one another.

Ms Patience who heads a local NGO SHAGIKA dealing in documenting unique African traditional values pointed out that when employing aspects of humanities in the new decade, the Ugandan society must not abandon teaching our traditional languages to the young generation.

She notes that there are families who have now opted to inculcate the English language as a mother tongue to their children which is wrong because they will get lost in embracing their traditional values.

This is where professionals who pursued Music Dance and Drama course can be of importance because they can play a big role in telling tales to organized groups of children using documentaries and acting drama series.

Makerere University Principal of CHUSS Prof Josephine Ahikiire assured stakeholders a continuity of the conversations on topical issues with more involvement of students pursuing courses in Humanities for purposes of articulating the issues directly affecting communities once they are out of campus.

“We are trying to revive the past glory of Makerere University where debates of topical issues used to take centre stage. Those governing the country would be challenged directly and incase of any faults made they would be corrected there and then.  In this debates political leaders, researchers, scholars where called upon to come and answer questions affecting the society and this was very well perceived. We want this to happen in 21^st century,” she noted

To her the current system where English has colonized our local languages in families can be addressed by ensuring that the English languages is an academic one but our traditional languages must prevail in the communities.