Field Ruwe

Field Ruwe (born 8 August 1955) is a Zambian-American scholar, media practitioner, historian, and author based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S. In 2025, he received his United States Citizenship. Ruwe rose to prominence in 2012 after his article "Hunt for Successor 8: Zambian Intellectuals are lazy" was published in the UKZAMBIANS magazine of January 16, 2012. The article was part of the "Hunt of Successor" series initiated by Ruwe in 2011, following the election of Michael Chilufya Sata as the fifth president of Zambia in the September 2011 presidential election. Ruwe believed that Sata did not possess the tertiary education required to understand the modernisms needed for Zambia's advancement.

Two days later, on January 18, 2012, Ghanaian-American novelist and blogger Malaka Grant, featured the article on her blog "Mind of Malaka" under a new title "You lazy (Intellectual) African Scum!" Its confrontational tone, expressed through a character designed to embody Western viewpoints, sparked a substantial dialogue regarding the responsibility of the African intellectual class in sustaining poverty and underdevelopment within African countries. It urged the African intelligentsia to transcend mere rhetoric and utilize their expertise for tangible, positive transformation.

Ruwe's article gained viral traction on various online platforms and blogs, throughout Africa, its diaspora, and beyond, sparking a pan-African technology revolution. In Nigeria, the Centre for African Entrepreneurship Research and Training (CEART, Bayero University, Kano) and the leadership of the National Universities Commission (NUC) assembled renowned scholars and experts from various institutions and universities including University of Lagos, University of Benin, and University of Ibadan, to develop the first "Training Manual for Teaching of General Entrepreneurship Courses in Universities" with Ruwe's article as a case study and illustration.

The article's candid truthfulness served as the inspiration for the 2017 Kenyan short film "Intellectual Scum," which brought the viral article to the screen. This adaptation presented the debate to a new audience and rekindled conversations on the topic.

Ruwe triggered another viral reaction with his piece titled "University of Zambia Degrees are Inferior Says UK Home Office," published in the "Lusaka Times" on March 6, 2024.The article was prompted by the UK Home Office's decision to exclude graduates from African universities from the High Potential Individual (HPI) visa, owing to the perceived inferiority of their degrees.The HPI visa aims to attract highly skilled graduates from international universities outside the UK, allowing them to contribute to various sectors, including science and technology. Ruwe's allegation prompted a response in the form of a University of Zambia press statement to staff, academia and the public to “dismiss the contents of the article with the contempt it deserves.”

Ruwe directed his argument to Dr. Yonah Matemba, chair of the Further and Higher Education Forum, Scotland-Malawi Partnerhip at the University of West Scotland, who in his essay published in the "Malawian Nation" edition of 6th April, 2019, stated that Zambian degrees were downgraded to a grade lower in comparison with similar British qualifications, meaning that in accordance with the UK-NARIC National Academic Recognition Information Centre comparability, UNZA bachelor’s degrees in medicine, engineering, and law were comparable to the three-year British Bachelor (Ordinary) Degree standard.

In an attempt to clarify the issue further, Zambia's Higher Education Quality Assurance (HEQA) expert and UNZA Dean of Faculty Dr. Orleans Mfune admitted there was a technical hitch in the UK-NARIC that was already been addressed, stating; “Explicit in the new framework is the introduction of “A” level certificate as the requirement to University level education while “O” level certificate will be for college entry…this harmonizes our higher education system with both the UK and South Africa.”Following this incident, Ruwe has emerged as perhaps the most notable critic of the University of Zambia.

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