Zimbabwe is on the brink of a major crisis. The university can play a crucial role in averting or at least remodifying it. The very long-term perspective of precolonial history offers a view of the situation that involves every faculty and department in the university. Consequently, this lecture will take a rather different form from the usual. The first part summarizes a recent book that is itself a partial summary of my entire career's research. The second shows how the precolonial perspective highlights the coming crisis in Zimbabwe, that threatens every aspect of society. The third examines the university as an entity that ought to be able to play a major role in averting this crisis, and then goes on to show how it has itself taken a wrong course that makes such a role impossible, unless major changes occur on the campus.
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