​Professor Castells, along with co-authors Professors Johan Muller and Nico Cloete will talk to the concluding paragraph in the Afterword of their book 'Castells in Africa: Universities and Development' Universities cannot simply mobilise against destructive politics; they also have to protect their mission as beacons of innovation, ideas and equality, without surrendering everything to activism.  Ulimately, the convergence between the shift to a new form of economic organisation, the acceleration of the technological revolution and the legitimation of political institutions has a  site in society: higher education.  This is why the University is simultaneously a decisive battlefield and our hope for a better future in the midst of the current darkness.