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Edited by
Muna B. Ndulo · N’Dri T. Assié-Lumumba

Education and
Development
Outcomes for Equality
and Governance
in Africa
 Education and Development

“This book makes an important contribution to research on education in relation

to inequality, marginality and governance in Africa in the aftermath of the struc-
tural adjustment programs of the 1990s. The chapters are enriched by country
case studies which delve into empirical evidence between educational policies and
outcomes. Scholars and policy makers will benefit from the practical suggestions
that come out of this work.”
—Marja Hinfelaar, Director of Research and Programs, Southern African Institute
for Policy and Research (SAIPAR)

“This book is both insightful and provocative. Written by economists, educators

and policy analysts, the book argues that in an unequal society, education, on its
own, cannot bring about good governance and equality. To transform society,
education must be used more strategically as a tool of public policy. Marginalized
groups will require targeted support to benefit from education policy initiatives for
raising productivity, and/or enhancing skills. I recommend the book for its breadth
of coverage and lucidity of argument.”
—Steve Kayizzi-Mugerwa, Former Acting Vice President, Africa
Development Bank

“Anyone involved in the development of human capital in Africa will treasure this
book. The volume brings together three essential elements for the continent’s trans-
formation in the 21 century—policies prioritizing education for skills development
over ownership of natural resources; taking advantage of the continent’s youthful
population to reap the demographic dividend for efficient management of economic
and social resources to increase competitiveness in the world economy; participation
in governance for eradicating poverty, promoting human rights, and securing peace
and stability. The chapters challenge us to think critically about the iron triangle of
education—access, quality and cost. And if you are in any way concerned with the
future of Africa’s development trajectory, you owe it to yourself to read this book.”
—Yaw Oheneba-Sakyi, Founding Dean, School of Continuing
Education at the University of Ghana

“This book represents a significant contribution to the study of education in Africa.

It convincingly connects education to economic development and growth. The
book takes a multidisciplinary approach to the issues and touches on political econ-
omy, governance, economic development, vulnerability and equity. It has a cross
generational take on education spanning early childhood to tertiary education. It
gives voice to very important segments of society such as girls, youth and teachers.”
—Malak Zaalouk, Professor of Practice, American University in Cairo
Muna B. Ndulo • N’Dri T. Assié-Lumumba
Editors

Education and
Development
Outcomes for Equality and Governance in Africa
Editors
Muna B. Ndulo N’Dri T. Assié-Lumumba
Cornell Law School Africana Studies and Research Center
Cornell University Cornell University
Ithaca, NY, USA Ithaca, NY, USA

ISBN 978-3-030-40565-6    ISBN 978-3-030-40566-3 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-40566-3

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer
Nature Switzerland AG 2020
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of
translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on
microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval,
electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now
known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are
exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information
in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the
­publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to
the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The
publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and
­institutional affiliations.

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature
Switzerland AG.
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
 Institute for African Development
Editorial Board

Muna B. Ndulo William Nelson Cromwell Professor of International and

Comparative Law, and Elizabeth and Arthur Reich Director of
Leo and Arvilla Berger International Legal Studies Program,
Cornell Law School and Director of the Institute for African
Development, Cornell University
Christopher Barrett Stephen B. and Janice G. Ashley Professor of Applied Economics
and Management, Professor of International Agriculture, Charles
H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management,
Cornell University
Sandra E. Green Professor of History, Cornell University
David R. Lee Professor, Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and
Management, Cornell University
Alice Pell Professor of Animal Science (Emeritus), Cornell University
Erik Thorbecke H.E Babcock Professor of Economics and Food Economics
(Emeritus), Cornell University
Nicholas van de Walle Maxwell M. Upson Professor of Government, Cornell University

v
 Acknowledgments

This book is the result of a symposium entitled, “Education and the

Development of Human Capital: Outcomes for Equality and Governance
in Africa,” held at Cornell University, April 17–18, 2015, and sponsored by
the Institute for African Development, Cornell University, in collaboration
with the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies and Department
of Development Sociology, Cornell University. The symposium was aimed
at examining education and development of human capital in Africa, with
emphasis on outcomes that promote equality and good governance. It
hoped to contribute to policymaking by those involved in education in
Africa. The book is a collection of the papers presented at the conference.
Each chapter is written by a person with considerable knowledge of the
area on which they are writing. The symposium attracted academics in vari-
ous disciplines including economists, educators, and policy analysts. The
varied backgrounds of the authors reflects the symposium’s interdisciplin-
ary approach.
The symposium could not have been held and the book published
without the help of many people. In particular, I would like to thank
Jackie Sayegh and Evangeline Ray, who did excellent work in organizing
the symposium and worked tirelessly to prepare the manuscript for publi-
cation. I also thank Cosmas Emeziem and Leah Marx for helping with the
preparation of the manuscript for publication, and the copy editors, Mike
Sola and Patricia Mason for working diligently to give the manuscript its
final shape.

vii
 Contents

1 Introduction: Education and Human Capital, Current

Debates, and Policy Imperatives  1
Muna B. Ndulo and N’Dri T. Assié-Lumumba

2 Unpacking the Rhetorical Equity for Development: Is

Equity Achievable in an Unequal Society? 13
Teboho Moja

3 Educational Expansion in Africa (1965–2010):

Implications for Economic Inequality between Countries 25
Parfait M. Eloundou-Enyegue, Sarah S. Giroux, and
Michel Tenikue

4 Free Education, Schooling Outcomes, and Wages: An

Inequality Analysis in Benin after the 2006 Free Tuition
Policy 47
Gbetonmasse B. Somasse

5 Education Driving Agriculture-Led Economic and Social

Transformation in Africa 79
Frans Swanepoel, Aldo Stroebel, and Melody Mentz-Coetzee

ix
x Contents

6 Science as a Development Tool in Ghana:

Challenges, Outcomes, and Possibilities for Women
Academic Scientists109
Josephine Beoku-Betts

7 Education and Human Capital Development among

Geographically Isolated Regions and Marginalized
Groups in Kenya131
Serah Shani

8 The Education, Inclusion, and Development of Orphans

and Vulnerable Children: Crucial Aspects for Governance
in Africa155
Jace Pillay

9 The Impracticalities of Pragmatic Education: The

Disconnect Between Top-Down Human Capital Building
Policies and Processes of Schooling173
Jennifer Riggan

10 The Significance of Doctoral Education and Training for

Development in Sub-­Saharan Africa199
Melody Mentz-Coetzee, Aldo Stroebel, and Frans Swanepoel

11 What Kenyan Youth Want and Why It Matters for Peace223

Elisabeth King

Index253
 Notes on Contributors

N’Dri T. Assié-Lumumba is Professor at the Africana Studies and Research

Center, Cornell University, USA. She has served as Director of Cornell’s
Program on Gender and Global Change and Africana Studies Director of
Graduate Studies. She has held visiting positions in many universities around
the world, including at Université Félix Houphouët-­Boigny, Abidjan and the
University of Johannesburg, South Africa, and has been a research affiliate in
the Institute for Higher Education, Law and Governance of the University
of Houston. She is a fellow of the World Academy of Art and Sciences and
the President of the World Council of Comparative Education Societies
(WCCES). She has published extensively in the field of education—especially
on higher education and gender equity. She holds two Master’s degrees
(History and Sociology) from Université Lyon II and a PhD in Comparative
Education (Economics and Sociology) from the University of Chicago.
Josephine Beoku-Betts is Professor of Women, Gender, and Sexuality
Studies and Sociology at Florida Atlantic University. Her research focuses
on women’s political activism in postwar Sierra Leone and African women
in academic scientific careers. She co-edited Women and Education in Sub-­
Saharan Africa: Power, Opportunities, and Constraints (1998) and has
published book chapters and articles in various feminist and other schol-
arly journals. She is the current President of Sociologists for Women in
Society (SWS) and former Co-President for Research Committee 32
(Women, Gender, and Society) of the International Sociological Association.
Dr. Beoku-Betts was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Sierra Leone
(2011–2012, 2018–2019).

xi
xii Notes on Contributors

Parfait M. Eloundou-Enyegue is Professor of Development Sociology

at Cornell University, USA. He holds a PhD in Demography and Rural
Sociology from Pennsylvania State University. Prior to joining Cornell, he
was a Research Consultant with RAND Corporation. His research focuses
on three areas: Sociology of Education, Social Change, and Demography
of Inequality. He has studied the social and economic consequences of
demographic transitions in sub-Saharan Africa—especially how these tran-
sitions impact schooling, gender inequality, and social economic inequal-
ity. He has published numerous articles in academic journals including the
Journal of Children and Poverty, Demography, Demographic Research, and
Comparative Education Research.
Sarah S. Giroux is Lecturer and Research Associate in the Department
of Sociology at Cornell University. Her research interests lie in the inter-
section of demography and inequality in the modern world, with a focus
on sub-Saharan Africa. Working largely with existing secondary data, she
uses a range of analytic approaches to understand these issues, including
work at both the micro and macro levels, as well as using descriptive,
causal, and accounting techniques. She examines how formal demographic
processes both shape, and are shaped, by broader socioeconomic inequali-
ties. Her outreach focus is on capacity building and engaged research in
francophone Africa. She holds Master’s and PhD degrees from Cornell
University.
Elisabeth King is Associate Professor of International Education and
Politics, Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development
at New York University, USA. She works on issues relating to conflict,
peacebuilding, and development in sub-Saharan Africa. Her publications
include a book entitled, From Classrooms to Conflict in Rwanda (Cambridge
University Press, 2014), which earned her the outstanding Canadians
Leadership Award from Ontario History and Social Sciences Teacher’s
Association. She earned her PhD from the University of Toronto and was
previously a postdoctoral research fellow at Columbia University’s Center
for the Study of Development Strategies, as well as a fellow at the Balsillie
School of International Affairs at the University of Waterloo (Ontario,
Canada).
Melody Mentz-Coetzee is a Senior Researcher at the Centre for the
Advancement of Scholarship (CAS), University of Pretoria, working on the
Peer Learning for Emerging Researchers’ Knowledge and Advancement
 Notes on Contributors  xiii

(PERKA) Initiative, which aims to identify, document, and share implemen-

tation models and partnership approaches for postdoctoral fellowships in
Africa. Dr. Mentz-Coetzee is an experienced monitoring and evaluation
practitioner, focusing on theory-based mixed-­methods approaches and the
evaluation of research and capacity development initiatives in Africa, with an
emphasis on gender. Dr. Mentz-Coetzee is a co-author on national and
international publications on the engagement patterns of undergraduate
students and has contributed several chapters to a social sciences research
methodology textbook for developing contexts. Most recently, she contrib-
uted several papers in a multi-volume special journal edition of Gender and
Development on Catalyzing and Evaluating Gender, Women’s Leadership
and Empowerment in Agricultural Research and Development in Africa.
Teboho Moja is Clinical Professor of Higher Education at the Steinhardt
School of Culture, Education and Human Development, New York
University, USA. Dr. Moja has held key positions at several South African
universities, including chair of the Board of Trustees, University of South
Africa. She has been a Visiting Professor at the University of Oslo and the
University of Tampere. She was instrumental in setting up the Center for
Higher Education Transformation (CHET) in South Africa to monitor
and stimulate debate on change in the education sector. She serves on the
boards of the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO), the Institute for International Education, and
the World Education Market. She was appointed by Nelson Mandela as
Executive Director and Commissioner to the National Commission on
Higher Education in South Africa. She also served as a Special Advisor to
the Minister of Education in South Africa.
Muna B. Ndulo is William Nelson Cromwell Professor of International
and Comparative Law at Cornell Law School, USA. He is also the Elizabeth
and Arthur Reich Director of the Leo and Arvilla Berger International
Legal Studies Program, Cornell Law School and Director of the Institute
for African Development, Cornell University. He is an international recog-
nized scholar in the fields of constitution making, governance, human
rights, and foreign direct investment. He has consulted in constitution
making in Kenya, Zimbabwe, and Somalia. He is a graduate of the
University of Zambia (LLB), Harvard University, (LLM) and Trinity
College, Oxford, (DPhil).
xiv Notes on Contributors

Jace Pillay is Professor and South African Research Chair of Education

and Care in Childhood at the University of Johannesburg. He was previ-
ously the Vice-Dean, Faculty of Education at the University of Johannesburg.
He served as head of school psychological services in the Ministry of
Education. He has a Master’s Degree in Educational Psychology from the
University of Witwatersrand, degree in Counselling Psychology from Rand
Afrikaans University (RAU), and a Master’s degree in Human Resource
Management from the Damelin School of Management. He previously was
Associate Professor and Chair of Education Psychology at RAU.
Jennifer Riggan is Associate Professor of International Studies in the
Department of Historical and Political Studies at Arcadia University,
USA. She is a political anthropologist whose research addresses issues,
including nationalism, citizenship, state formation, militarism, develop-
ment, and education in Africa. She has published widely in this field. Her
research has been funded by fellowships from Fulbright; Social Science
Research Council International; and the Spencer/National Academy of
Education School of Eritrea.
Serah Shani is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Westmont College
USA. She holds a PhD from Columbia University and was previously
Visiting Lecturer in African Studies at the Center for International and
Area Studies at Yale University.
Gbetonmasse B. Somasse is Assistant Teaching Professor of Social Science
and Policy Studies at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute, USA. Previously,
he was a senior economist statistician at the Central Bank of West African
States. He has also acted as a consultant for the UN Economic Commission
for Africa, the United Nations Development Programme, and MicroFinance
Transparency. He holds a PhD in Economics from Clark University and a
Master’s in Statistics from the National School of Statistics and Applied
Economics in Côte d’Ivoire. His research interests are in applied economet-
rics and development with topics such as education, environment, interna-
tional trade, and microfinance.
Aldo Stroebel is Executive Director of International Relations and
Collaboration at the National Research Foundation, South Africa, and
Affiliated Associate Professor at the Center for Sustainable Agriculture,
Rural Development and Extension, University of the Free State, South
Africa. He is a former Director of International Academic Programs at
 Notes on Contributors  xv

University of the Free State. He holds a PhD from Cornell University.

He was previously Program Coordinator of the Integrated Rural
Development Program (IRDP) at the University of Pretoria, directing the
establishment of economic development models in Botswana, Lesotho,
Mozambique, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. He is one of the 20 founding
members of the South African Young Academy of Sciences (SAYAS).
Frans Swanepoel is Professor of Agricultural Transformation in Africa
(ATA) and Director of Strategic International Partnerships at the
University of Pretoria (UP), South Africa. Previously, he held the posi-
tions of Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Professor at the Institute for Poverty,
Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) at the University of the Western
Cape, South Africa. He holds Fellowships at the Institute for African
Development (IAD), Cornell University, and the Institute for Advanced
Study (IAS) at the University of Western Australia. He serves on the
boards of a number of high-level African bodies, including the Food
Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN),
the African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD)
Program, the Regional University Forum for Capacity Development in
Agriculture (RUFORUM) Technical Committee, and the Science
Granting Councils Initiative for Sub-Saharan Africa (SGCI). He has served
as a member of the team for the development of the Science Agenda for
African Agriculture (S3A), coordinated by the Forum for Agricultural
Research in Africa (FARA). He is a member of the Academy of Science of
South Africa (ASSAf), a foreign member of the Ugandan National
Academy of Sciences (UNAS) and was a Senior Fulbright Fellow at Cornell
University (2008–2009), focusing on food systems transformation in
Africa. He researched at Texas A&M University and University of the Free
State, South Africa, for his PhD. His research interests include sustainable
agriculture, African food systems, and capacity development for Africa’s
sustainable development. He was recently recognized by RUFORUM as
one of four individuals for creating impact for Africa’s agricultural
development.
Michel Tenikue is Senior Research Fellow at the Luxembourg Institute
of Socio-Economic Research (LISER), Belgium. He holds a PhD in
Economics from the University of Namur. His research focuses on
Development Economics, with an emphasis on the economics of educa-
tion and informal institutions, such as savings and insurance groups.
 Acronyms and Abbreviations

AATF Africa Agriculture Technology Foundation

ACUP Catalan Association of Public Universities
ADB African Development Bank
AERC African Economic Research Consortium
AESIF Agricultural Education and Skills Improvement Framework
AET Agricultural Education Training
AFAAS African Forum for Agricultural Advisory Services
AfDB African Development Bank
AGRA Association for Green Revolution in Africa
AHC-STAFF Africa Human Capital in Science, Technology and
Agripreneurship for Food Security Framework
AIDS Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome
AIS Agricultural Innovation Systems
ANAFE African Network for Agriculture, Agroforestry and Natural
Resources Education
ARUA African Research Universities Alliance
ASSAf Academy of Sciences of South Africa
ATVET Agricultural Technical and Vocational Education and Training
AU African Union
AUC Africa Union Commission
AWARD African Women in Agricultural Research and Development
BECA Biosciences Eastern and Central Africa
BL Barro & Lee
BRICS Brazil Russia India China and South Africa
CAADP Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program
CARTA Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa

xvii
xviii ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS

CEP Certificat d’Etudes Primaires, (The Primary-School Exit

National Exam)
CFA franc Communauté Financière Africaine (African Financial
Community)
CGIAR Formerly, Consultative Group on International Agricultural
Research
CHEA Conference on Higher Education in Agriculture in Africa
CMAAE Collaborative Masters of Agricultural and Applied Economics
CODESRIA Council for the Development of Social Science Research
in Africa
CPA Consolidated Plan of Action
CSIR Council for Scientific and Industrial Research
DFID Department of Foreign and International Development
DHS Demographic and Health Survey
DIME Development Impact Evaluation
DRC Democratic Republic of Congo
DST Department of Science and Technology,
EACI Education for African Crop Improvement
EARTH Escuela de Agricultura de la Region Tropical Humeda
EFA Education for All
EMICoV Integrated Modular Survey of Household Living Conditions
ESDA Japan’s Education for Sustainable Development of Africa
FAAP Forum for Agricultural Research and Productivity
FAO Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations
FPE Free Primary Education
GCHERA Global Confederation of Higher Education Associations for
Agricultural and Life Sciences
GDP Gross Domestic Product
GER Gross Enrolment Rate
GFAR Global Forum for Agricultural Research
HERANA Higher Education Research and Advocacy Network in Africa
HIV Human Immune Virus
IAU International Association of Universities
ILO International Labour Organization
IMF International Monetary Fund
INSAE National Institute of Statistics and Economic Analysis in Benin
LDCs Least Developed Countries
MDGs Millennium Development Goals
NARS National Agricultural Research Systems
NEPAD New Economic Partnership for Africa
NGOs Nongovernmental Organizations
NRF National Research Foundation
 ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS xix

NYU New York University

OECD Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development
OLS Ordinary Least Squares
OVC Orphans and Vulnerable Children
PAFO Pan-African Farmers’ Organization
PEARL Program for Emerging Agricultural Research Leaders
RISE Regional Initiative in Science and Education
RUFORUM Regional Universities–Forum for Capacity Building in
Agriculture
S3A Science Agenda for African Agriculture
SAALSDA South African Agricultural and Life Sciences Deans Association
SADC Southern African Development Community
SAP Structural Adjustment Programs
SARUA Southern African Regional Universities Association
SASAC Southern African Systems Analysis Centre
SAU State Agricultural University
SDGs Sustainable Development Goals
SHF Smallholder Farmer
SPL Social Protection and Labour
SROs Subregional Agricultural Research Organizations
STI Science Technology and Innovation
STISA Science Technology and Innovation Strategy for Africa
TAE Tertiary Agricultural Education
TEAM-Africa Tertiary Education for Agriculture Mechanism in Africa
UN United Nations
UNCRC United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child
UNCTAD United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
UNDP United Nations Development Program
UNECA United Nations Economic Commission for Africa
UNESCO United Nations Educational and Scientific Organization
UNFPA United Nation Population Fund
UNICEF United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund
USAID United States Agency for International Development
WB World Bank
WDI World Development Indicators
WEF World Economic Forum
WERK Women Educational Researchers of Kenya
 List of Figures

Fig. 3.1 Trends in between inequality in education. (Source: Authors’

construction)27
Fig. 3.2 Trends in African income inequality (1964–2010). (Source:
Authors’ construction; Note: CV = GE(2) is the generalized
entropy single parameter class of inequality index. It is thus
half the square of the coefficient of variation) 28
Fig. 5.1 Critical forces and influences that affect the potential for
transformation in the AET system. (Source: Authors’
construction based on Swanepoel, Ofir, and Stroebel (2014a,
Fig. 17.2, 466)) 93
Fig. 5.2 Ideal AET system. (Source: Authors’ construction based on
Swanepoel, Ofir, and Stroebel (2014a, Fig. 17.6, 474)) 95
Fig. 5.3 AET system: critical areas for investment. (Source: Authors’
construction based on Fig. 5.2) 95
Fig. 10.1 PhD enrollments: Flagship universities (HERANA study),
2001–2011. (Source: Bunting, Cloete, and van
Schalkwyk (2014)) 205
Fig. 10.2 PhD graduations: Flagship universities, HERANA study,
2001–2011. (Source: Bunting, Cloete, and van
Schalkwyk (2014)) 206

xxi
 List of Tables

Table 3.1 Country contribution to change in income inequality

(1965–2010)35
Table 3.2 Decomposition results for the contributions of education and
other factors to the changes in between country inequality
(Africa, 1965–2010) 37
Table 4.1 Evolution in enrollment indicators in primary education
(2004–2011)49
Table 4.2 Summary statistics of passing the CEP 56
Table 4.3 Summary statistics for paid-work participants 57
Table 4.4 Attendance rates for girls and boys by quintile of the per
capita income for families of 6–11-year-old students (2006
and 2011) 59
Table 4.5 School attendance among 6–18-year-old children
(2006 and 2011) 60
Table 4.6 Determinants of net enrollment rate in Benin (municipal level) 61
Table 4.7 Determinants of child enrollment in primary school
(individual level) 63
Table 4.8 Effects of FPE on municipality CEP passing rate 64
Table 4.9 Effects of FPE on determinants of municipality CEP
passing rate 65
Table 4.10 OLS and Heckman Method 68
Table 4.11 Simulations of inequality of wages assuming constant return
to education by educational attainment 71
Table 4.12 Simulations of inequality of wages assuming variable return
to education by education attainment 72

xxiii
xxiv List of Tables

Table 4.13 Simulations of inequality of wages, assuming a general

equilibrium decrease of the average return to education
(10% and 20%) 74
Table 4.14 Simulations of inequality of wages, assuming a general
equilibrium decrease of the average return to education
(5% and 10%) 75
Table 5.1 International examples of AET contributions to agricultural
development86
Table 5.2 Challenges to the AET system 90
Table 11.1 Schools in sample 227
Table 11.2 Descriptive statistics of in-school youth sample for interviews 228
Table 11.3 Descriptive statistics for out-of-school youth sample 229
 List of Boxes

Box 10.1 Illustrative Profile of Higher Education Systems in Africa:

Ethiopia204
Box 10.2 Illustrative Profile of Higher Education Systems in Africa:
South Africa 207
Box 10.3 Illustrative Profile of Higher Education Systems in Africa: Kenya 208

xxv
 CHAPTER 1

Introduction: Education and Human Capital,

Current Debates, and Policy Imperatives

Muna B. Ndulo and N’Dri T. Assié-Lumumba

The genesis of this book is a symposium, organized by the Institute for

African Development (IAD) and held at Cornell University from April
17–18, 2015. The symposium had as its theme: Education and Development
of Human Capital: Outcomes for Equality and Governance in Africa. The
symposium examined education and development of human capital in
Africa, with emphasis on outcomes that promote equality and good gov-
ernance. Presenters at the symposium sought to identify challenges facing
the education sector in Africa, and those policies which support inclusive
and sustainable development. Education, in every sense, is one of the fun-
damental factors of development and growth. No country can achieve
sustainable economic development without substantial investment in
human capital. It enriches peoples’ understanding of themselves and the

M. B. Ndulo (*)
Cornell Law School, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA
e-mail: mbn5@cornell.edu
N’Dri T. Assié-Lumumba
Africana Studies and Research Center, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA
e-mail: n.assie-lumumba@cornell.edu

© The Author(s) 2020 1

M. B. Ndulo, N’Dri T. Assié-Lumumba (eds.), Education and
Development, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-40566-3_1
2 M. B. NDULO AND N’DRI T. ASSIÉ-LUMUMBA

world, and it improves the quality of their lives and leads to broad social
benefits for individuals as well as society.
The title of the 2000 World Bank Report asked the question, Can
Africa Claim the 21st Century? (World Bank 2000). Contrary to general
perceptions in many African states that if only “we had oil,” we would be
well on the road to development, the answer to this question is not predi-
cated on the ownership of natural resources, rather on such factors as
education and skills development. Owning natural resources has not
yielded positive transformation of an African economy. Instead, many
resource-rich countries have been negatively impacted by what is termed
the “resource curse.” The critical factor in development of Africa is the
development of education and skills. The perceived African demographic
dividend is predicated on developing a competitive skilled work force. It is
estimated that Africa will, in 2050, have more people of working age than
in China. For the population dividend to be an effective asset for Africa, it
will have to be well educated, healthy, and skilled. If the population is not
educated and skilled, the demographic dividend could turn out to be a
mirage and could very well become a huge disaster, resulting in increased
poverty, hunger, and disease.
Whatever misgivings Africans might have had about European education
introduced in the context of colonial rule, by the time African countries
started to acquire their independence in the 1950s and 1960s, there was a
consensus across the continent about the merit of human capital theory. It
stipulated a positive and linear correlation between education and socioeco-
nomic attainment of individuals, as well as between the aggregate levels of
education of nations and broader societal/national development. In May
1961, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa
(UNECA) convened a historic conference of African states. The theme of
the conference, which was held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in May 1961, was
“The Development of Education in Africa” (UNESCO and UNECA
1961). The overwhelming recognition of formal education at that confer-
ence as “the priority of all priorities” led to the commitment of African
governments, policymakers, and education decision-makers to support the
policy of achieving universal primary education by 1980, and to increasing
transition rates between the primary and secondary levels, on the one hand,
and between the secondary and higher education levels, on the other. The
conference, therefore, had set the tone of education in independent Africa
in line with the self-reliant and capacity development dreams of the pre-
independence struggles.
 1 INTRODUCTION: EDUCATION AND HUMAN CAPITAL, CURRENT… 3

Although substantial gains were made, in quantitative terms, during

the post-independence era, the optimistic outlook of socioeconomic
development of the 1960s and 1970s and the Addis Ababa goals were not
reached when severe economic problems and the debt crisis of the 1980s
was experienced by many African countries. To emerge from debt, the
African countries adopted debt management policies, including debt for-
giveness agreements with the Paris Club, which were conditioned on the
implementation of Structural Adjustment Programs (SAP) designed by
the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.
Of particular significance to education is that some of the debt manage-
ment conditions required reduced funding for education and other social
services, resulting in a need for the introduction of user fees for accessing
educational and health services. Consequently, the structural adjustment
era reversed many of the gains that were made in the immediate post-­
independence era. By that same token, the severe economic crisis, debt
burden, and the introduction of user fees—even at the basic levels of edu-
cation—led to stagnation and decline of enrollment at all levels of educa-
tion (Lumumba-Kasongo and Kennett 1992; Assié-Lumumba and
Lumumba-Kasongo 1996; Mkandawire and Soludo 1999).
Seeing that the era of structural adjustment reversed development and
undermined the achievements of the post-independence era, there were
renewed calls for the restoration of funding for education. These renewed
calls were to restore education to its classical position, as the ultimate
means for individual socioeconomic attainment and for national develop-
ment. The calls were reinforced by the assessments about the immediate-,
medium- and long-term consequences of the policies of the SAPs carried
throughout Africa. Assessments revealed that the cost of curtailing fund-
ing to education was much higher than the actual cost of the supply of
education. Subsequently, a series of meetings and global engagements,
sponsored by several international institutions, including the World Bank,
United Nations Development Program (UNDP), UNESCO, and the
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) took place. In particular, the
1990 International Congress on Educational Management and
Development, held in Mexico City, and the World Education Forum of
2000, in Dakar, reaffirmed the role of education in development globally.
This role was again reiterated in the Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs). It is interesting that even the World Bank, which played a critical
part in the previous policies, reversed its position, and in collaboration
with UNESCO, commissioned the Task Force that produced a report in
4 M. B. NDULO AND N’DRI T. ASSIÉ-LUMUMBA

2000: Higher Education in Developing Countries: Peril or Promise (Task

Force on Higher Education and Society 2000). Thus, there is once more
a buildup of consensus on the importance of education in the global
development agenda (Hallak 1990; UNESCO 1998).
This may well explain why the African Development Bank (AfDB) in its
2014 Africa Economic Outlook Report, observed that, generally, Africa had
made substantial progress in human development, as poverty levels had
been falling, incomes are rising, and educational and health indicators
were showing considerable improvement. The report also pointed out
that the Human Development Index was showing a 1.5 percent annual
growth. Indeed, the report indicated that 15 African countries were con-
sidered to have attained medium-to-very-high human development levels.
Despite these data, it must be noted that there exists a significant number
of countries in which income inequality is widening, and educational and
health indicators are deteriorating. Thus, it is critical that there is more
progress to be made with respect to gender inclusion and equality, access
to education, health care, and environmental sustainability.
Therefore, there is no denying that since Africa lacks human capital and
the requisite skills for rapid development, it needs to invest more in educa-
tion and human capital development. This is the surest way to guarantee
growth and enhance the living standards for its entire people. Moreso,
investment in education and human capital is essential to ensuring the
improvements necessary to make African countries competitive in the
world economy, and thereby, create jobs for Africans. Thus, the role of
education in reducing and eventually eradicating poverty, increasing eco-
nomic competitiveness, and securing peace and stability cannot be over-
emphasized. Inadequate education also has a negative impact on citizens’
ability to participate in the country’s governance. The World Bank defines
good governance as “the manner in which power is exercised in the man-
agement of a country’s economic and social resources for development, is
an important factor in eradicating poverty, creating employment, promot-
ing equality, and in the adoption of policies that foster inclusiveness,
human rights, and improved livelihoods” (World Bank 1992, 1).
Pursuant to the foregoing, the symposium deliberated on how educa-
tion, the development of skills and human capital—for both men and
women—could be enhanced. It also focused on improving the outcomes
of governance, as a necessary corollary to economic development and
human capital advancement. The subthemes of the symposium explored
the quality of education in Africa, the implications of the skills gap, the
 1 INTRODUCTION: EDUCATION AND HUMAN CAPITAL, CURRENT… 5

relationship between economic conditions and violence; and the relation-

ship between education and electoral behavior—among other topics.
Inequality and ineffective policies are often blamed for the poor relation-
ship between economic growth and human development, but data shows
that links between economic growth, inequality, and human development
are less robust than often assumed. A pattern of inclusive growth is essen-
tial to poverty reduction in sub-Saharan Africa. The design and implemen-
tation of policies and institutions conducive to inclusive growth require a
better understanding of the relationships linking growth, inequality, and
poverty. The symposium critically examined a variety of issues, such as
identifying strategies to ensure that growth translated into improved liveli-
hoods for people, transformative policies that empower the poor and land-
less, and educational policies that build the capacity of youth and other
disadvantaged communities, thereby equipping them with a set of tools
and skills to effectively partake in the economy. Going further, the sympo-
sium highlighted topics such as the eradication of poverty and acknowl-
edged that a poverty eradication project involves not only the government,
but civil society and the private sector as well.
The chapters in this volume challenge us to think critically about access
to education, education curricula, education policies, and quality of edu-
cation in Africa. As noted here, over the past 25 years, countries in Africa
have made substantive progress in primary school access. Despite these
gains, many young people who attend school are not acquiring the basic
skills necessary to thrive in a diverse and changing labor market. The vast
majority of public educational institutions are overcrowded due to limited
facilities. African countries have been rapidly setting up universities with-
out adequate infrastructure. They have been upgrading polytechnics and
technical colleges to the detriment of educational standards. Because
growth, development, and poverty reduction depend on the knowledge
and skills that people acquire, and not the number of years that they sit in
a classroom, Africa must seek to transform its education system from edu-
cation for all to learning for all. Quality needs to be the focus of education
investments, with learning as the true test of an effective education system.
The human mind makes possible all development achievements, from
health advances and agricultural innovations to efficient public administra-
tion and private sector growth.
In Chap. 2, Teboho Moja discusses a broad range of issues around
education in Africa. She focuses on education capacity and skills as deter-
minants in economic development and draws attention to the differences
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beginning with Frederick II., and ends with a proud assertion that he
will speak the whole truth in spite of the powerful barons whom he
may offend. So here, in the Valley of the Princes, where those are
detained who neglected some peculiarly lofty mission, or postponed
their spiritual welfare to worldly and political care, Sordello,
beginning with the Emperor-elect, Rudolph of Hapsburg (Purg. vii.
94), points out the descendants or successors of those whom he had
rebuked in the other life. Here, singing together to the Queen of
Mercy, the deadliest foes sit side by side, consoling each other;
Rudolph of Hapsburg with Ottocar of Bohemia, Charles of Anjou with
Peter of Aragon; a motive found previously in the vision of Tundal,
where, however, the kings are naturally Irish. On Henry of England
Sordello had been more severe when he lived. After sunset, in the
light of three brighter stars, that symbolise the three theological
virtues, Dante has pleasant talk with Nino Visconti and Currado
Malaspina (Purg. viii.). And, as evening closes in, two golden-haired
Angels, green-clad and green-winged, the Angels of Hope with the
flaming but blunted swords of justice tempered with mercy, defend
the noble souls from the assault of an evil serpent. In the literal
sense, this episode (which seems a relic from earlier mediaeval
visions) may imply that souls in Purgatory have not the intrinsic
impossibility of sinning that is possessed by the blessed of Paradise,
but are kept absolutely free from any sin by the Divine Providence. In
the allegorical sense, the meaning clearly is that the way to moral
and intellectual freedom is a hard one, and temptations to fall back in
despair are many. The tempter would draw man back from regaining
the Earthly Paradise, from which he has once caused his expulsion.
The Mystic Eagle and the Gate of Purgatory.—Just before
the dawn Dante dreams of a golden eagle snatching him up to the
sphere of fire, and, waking when the sun is more than two hours
high, finds that Lucia has brought him to the Gate of Purgatory.
Mystically, the eagle seems to represent the poet’s own spirit,
dreaming that he can soar unaided to the very outskirts of Paradise;
but he wakes to realise that Divine grace indicates the preliminary
stage of purification. The gate of St. Peter with its three steps, of
white marble, exactly mirroring the whole man, of darkest purple
cracked in the figure of the Cross, of flaming red porphyry,
represents the Sacrament of Penance with its three parts: Contrition,
Confession, Satisfaction based upon the love of God. The mournfully
robed Angel of Obedience seated on the rock of diamond, with
dazzling face and flashing sword, is the confessor. His silver and
gold keys, of judgment and absolution, open the gate to Dante; the
seven P’s traced by his sword on the poet’s forehead are to be
effaced one by one in his ascent (Purg. ix.).
Moral Topography.—Within the gate is Purgatory proper with its
seven terraces, each devoted to the purgation of one of the seven
capital sins, “out of which other vices spring, especially in the way of
final causation” (Aquinas). Whereas in the Inferno sin was
considered in its manifold and multiform effects, in the Purgatorio it is
regarded in its causes, and all referred to disordered love. The
formal element, the aversion from the imperishable good, which is
the essence of Hell, has been forgiven; the material element, the
conversion to the good that perishes, the disordered love, is now to
be purged from the soul. In the allegorical or moral sense, since
love, as Aquinas says, is “the ultimate cause of the true activities of
every agent,” it is clear that man’s first duty in life is to set love in
order; and, indeed, the whole moral basis of Dante’s Purgatory rests
upon the definition of St. Augustine that virtue is ordo amoris, “the
ordering of love.” In the first three terraces, sins of the spirit are
expiated; in the fourth terrace, sloth, which is both spiritual and
carnal; in the fifth, sixth, seventh terraces, sins of the flesh. This
purgation, which involves both pain of loss for a time and
punishment of sense, is effected by turning with fervent love to God
and detesting what hinders union with Him. Therefore, at the
beginning of each terrace, examples are seen or heard of virtue
contrary to the sin, in order to excite the suffering souls to extirpate
its very roots; and, at the end, examples of its result or punishment
(the “bit and bridle”). These examples are chosen with characteristic
Dantesque impartiality alike from Scripture and legend or mythology;
but, in each case, an example from the life of the Blessed Virgin is
opposed to each capital sin. At the end of each terrace stands an
Angel—personification of one of the virtues opposed to the sins or
vices. These seven Angels in their successive apparitions are
among the divinest things of beauty in the sacred poem. It is only
when sin is completely purged away that man can contemplate the
exceeding beauty, the “awful loveliness” of the contrary virtue.
First Terrace.—Steep and narrow is the path up to the first
terrace, where Pride is purged away (Purg. x). Carved upon the
mountain side are fair white marble images of wondrous beauty,
setting forth great examples of Humility, alike in “them of low degree”
(Mary at the Annunciation) and in “the mighty” (David and Trajan,
rulers respectively of the chosen people of the two dispensations,
the Jews and the Romans). Wearily and painfully the souls of the
proud pass round, pressed down by terrible weights, reciting a
paraphrase of the Lord’s Prayer, for themselves and those they have
left on earth. And seldom has the Catholic doctrine of prayer for the
dead been more winningly set forth than in Dante’s comment (xi. 31-
36). A partaker in some degree of their punishment, Dante, all
bowed down, goes with these souls; he speaks with Omberto
Aldobrandesco, who is expiating pride of birth, and Oderisi of
Gubbio, the miniaturist, who is purifying his soul from pride of
intellect. The latter points out the great Ghibelline burgher statesman
of Siena, Provenzano Salvani, expiating pride of dominion—the sin
which turned so many an Italian patriot of the Middle Ages into a
tyrant. Figured upon the pavement below their feet are examples of
Pride’s punishment, like the designs on the pavement of the Duomo
of Siena (Purg. xii.). Noon has passed when the Angel of Humility
shows the way up to the next terrace, and with the waving of his
wing removes the first P from Dante’s forehead. “Blessed are the
poor in spirit,” celestial voices sing, as, with almost all weariness
gone since Pride is expiated, Dante ascends the steep way.
Second Terrace.—In the second and narrower circle Envy is
purged. Examples of charity, “courteous invitations to the table of
Love,” are cited by invisible spirits flying past. The envious, clothed
in haircloth, lean helplessly shoulder to shoulder against the rock,
their eyelids sewn up with iron stitching. Sapia of Siena, the
kinswoman of Provenzano Salvani, at whose fall and the defeat of
her countrymen she rejoiced, tells her history in lines of singular
beauty (Purg. xiii.). Guido del Duca denounces the evil dispositions
of the inhabitants of Tuscany, and bewails the degeneracy of the
noble houses with the consequent decay of chivalry in his own
province of Romagna; envious on earth of prosperity of others, these
souls mourn now for its decline (xiv.). Like peals of thunder the cries
of spirits follow each other in citing Envy’s punishment. As they go
towards the sunset, the dazzling Angel of Fraternal Love removes
the mark of Envy. “Blessed are the merciful,” “Rejoice thou that
conquerest.” As they mount Virgil expounds the difference between
material goods, which are diminished by sharing and beget envy,
and the infinite good of Paradise, where love increases with every
soul that enters into the joy of the Lord, and its communication is
measured only by the charity of each soul that is made its mirror
(Purg. xv.).
Third Terrace.—On reaching the third terrace where Anger is
purged, Dante sees examples of meekness and forgiveness in
vision. From the black, pungent, and tormenting smoke which
envelopes the souls of the once wrathful, who now call upon the
Lamb of God for peace and mercy, the Lombard Marco reconciles
Free Will with stellar influence, and ascribes the evil condition of Italy
and the world to the neglect of law, the confusion of the spiritual and
temporal power, and the papal usurpation of imperial rights (Purg.
xvi.). In this terrace Dante again partakes of the pains of the penitent
souls. As the sun is setting, he issues from the dark mist. A most
significant passage on the power of the imagination to form images
not derived from the senses (xvii. 13-18) introduces the visions of
Anger’s punishment, from which the poet is roused by the dazzling
splendour of the Angel of Peace or Meekness, who fans away the
third P and shows the way up: “Blessed are the peacemakers who
are without evil wrath.”
Fourth Terrace.—The stars are appearing as they reach the
fourth terrace, where souls are purged from Sloth. We saw that, in
the Inferno, the Aristotelian division of things to be morally shunned
was discussed, and the ethical structure of the first canticle
expounded, in the circle intermediate between Incontinence and
Malice (Inf. xi.); so, in the Purgatorio, a compulsory pause in the
terrace intermediate between sins of spirit and sins of flesh is
selected by Virgil for his great discourse upon Love, on which is
based the moral system of the second realm (Purg. xvii. 91-139,
xviii. 13-75). It is practically a sermon on the text of Jacopone da
Todi, Ordena questo amore, tu che m’ami, “Set this love in order,
thou that lovest me”; since in rational beings disordered love
produces the seven capital vices. Pride, Envy, Anger are regarded
as distorted love; Sloth as defective love; Avarice, Gluttony, Luxury
as excessive love. Love is the golden net whereby God draws back
to Himself all creatures that He has made, whether inanimate,
sensitive, or rational—by the tendencies or inclinations He has given
them to make them seek the end for which they are ordered and
disposed, according to the Eternal Law. Rational beings alone have
Free Will, by which man merits or demerits from the Divine Justice,
according as he inclines to good or evil loves. Love’s tendency to
good is the precious material upon which Free Will acts like the
craftsman’s hand, to fashion a satyr’s mask or a crucifix.
At the end of this discourse, the slothful rush by at full speed in the
moonlight, so full of longing to lose no time through too little love,
that the Abbot of San Zeno cannot stop while he answers Virgil’s
question; those in front cry out examples of alacrity in Mary and
Caesar; those behind chant Sloth’s punishment in the chosen people
of the Old Testament and the Trojan ancestors of the Romans.
The Siren and the Angel of Zeal.—Before the dawn of the third
day in Purgatory, Dante has in his sleep a marvellous dream of the
Siren (sensual seduction, concupiscence of the flesh), from which he
is delivered by a holy and alert lady who calls upon Virgil (prevenient
grace, or the wisdom and prudence of Proverbs vii.). The Siren is the
dream-prelude to the purgation of sins of the flesh, as the Eagle had
been to that of sins of the spirit. The sun has risen; and the Angel of
Zeal (or of Spiritual Joy) cancels the fourth P and shows the way up
to the next terrace. “Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall have
their souls wed to consolation.” Sloth is a heaviness and sadness
which weighs down the soul, a sadness at spiritual good, to be
fought by thinking on spiritual things. Most fitly then do the wings of
the Angel of Zeal point upwards, and his words tell of a nobler
sorrow, a mourning which shall be followed by Divine consolation
(Purg. xix.).
 Fifth Terrace.—In the fifth terrace, the avaricious and prodigal,
whose souls on earth cleaved to the dust, lie face downwards to
earth; unable to move hand or foot until the sin of Covetousness is
purged away, the sin which, according to Aquinas, “although not
absolutely the greatest of sins, yet has in some sense a greater
deformity than the rest, since by it the human heart is subjected even
to external things.” Pope Adrian V. tells the story of his tardy
conversion, and has tender words for his niece Alagia, the wife of
Moroello Malaspina (Purg. xix.). It is a companion episode to that of
Nicholas III. in the corresponding canto of the Inferno. In this circle
the souls themselves cry out the examples and warnings, by day and
night respectively. The soul of Hugh Capet, “the root of the evil plant
which overshadows all the Christian earth,” pours forth bitter
sarcasm and scathing invective upon all the royal house of France,
the great Guelf power that opposed the Empire, oppressed Italy, and
wrought scandal in the Church. A monument of poetic infamy is
especially raised to Philip the Fair and the three Carlos; and there
are few more glorious examples of Christian magnanimity than the
burning words in which Dante, distinguishing the man from the office,
brands the sacrilege of Anagni, the outrage committed upon him
whom the poet held as his own deadliest foe, and yet the unworthy
Vicar of Christ. Nowhere else, save in the reference to the Jubilee
(Purg. ii. 98, 99), does Dante treat Boniface as lawful pope (cf. Inf.
xix. 52-57; Par. ix. 142, xxvii. 22-24). It has been thought that Canto
xx. was composed while the Church was ostensibly supporting the
policy of Henry VII.; before attacking the Templars, the French king
had endeavoured to renew the outrage of Anagni by inducing Pope
Clement to condemn the memory of Boniface. With a mighty
earthquake, a universal chorus of Gloria in excelsis from the
suffering souls, the poet Statius is liberated, and joins Dante and
Virgil (Purg. xxi.). He explains how the pains of Purgatory are
voluntarily endured, since, against the hypothetic or absolute will
with which they desire the bliss of Paradise, the souls suffer these
purifying pains with the conditional or actual will, the same inclination
or impulse or desire (talento) which they formerly had to sin. Thus it
is free will itself that imposes the purgatorial process, and that alone
shows the soul when purification is complete. The delicious scene of
the recognition of Virgil by Statius is full of that peculiarly tender
Dantesque playfulness that informs the two Eclogues; Dante’s
affectionate humour in dealing with those he loved is one of the most
attractive aspects of his character, and one perhaps too often
missed.
Sixth Terrace.—The Angel of Justice has removed the fifth P
from Dante’s forehead, opposing in his song the thirst of justice to
that of gain. As they mount, Statius explains to Virgil how he was
converted from prodigality by a line in the Aeneid, and led to
Christianity by the fourth Eclogue (Purg. xxii.). The conversion of a
pagan to Christianity through reading Virgil occurs in a story told by
Vincent of Beauvais; Dante was probably influenced in applying this
to Statius, representing him as a secret convert to the true faith, by
his study of the Thebaid; for there, in the last book, Statius describes
the Altar of Mercy at Athens in language which harmonises with the
words of Christ in the Gospels and the address of his own
contemporary, St. Paul, to the Athenians in the Acts. The poets
pursue their way with greater confidence now that Statius is with
them, and reach the sixth terrace, where unseen spirits cry out
examples of temperance from the tree beneath which drunkenness
and gluttony are purged. The spirits, terribly wasted, suffer intense
torments of hunger and thirst in the presence of most tempting food
and drink; but the sanctifying pain is a solace, desired even as Christ
willed to die for man. With the soul of Forese Donati, Dante holds
loving converse; the memory of their dissolute lives together is still
grievous; the poet makes amends for his old slander of Forese’s wife
Nella, by the tender lines now placed upon her husband’s lips (Purg.
xxiii. 85-93). Forese darkly foretells the death of Corso Donati, which
appears to be the latest event in Florentine history mentioned in the
poem (xxiv. 82-90). Whatever the friendship of these two had been
on earth, it was fair and lovely indeed on the Mount of Purgation.
Amongst many others are Pope Martin IV. and the poet
Bonagiunta of Lucca, whose talk with Dante upon the dolce stil
nuovo, the “sweet new style,” is one of the landmarks for the student
of poetry (Purg. xxiv. 49-60). Dante’s famous definition of his own
position expresses, in another form, the truth that all great poetry is
the “transfigured life” of its author:[35] “I am one who, when Love
inspires me, note, and give utterance in that fashion which he
dictates within.” It is already anticipated in the prose passage
prefixed to the Donne che avete in the Vita Nuova (xix.), and
completes the conception of poetry set forth in the De Vulgari
Eloquentia.
The Seventh Terrace.—Passing another tree, a shoot from the
tree of knowledge, beneath which the purging pangs are renewed,
and from whose branches spirit voices proclaim examples of
gluttony’s punishment, they are summoned upwards by the glowing
and dazzling Angel of Abstinence, fragrant with grass and flowers as
the air of May. As they ascend the narrow stairs towards the last
terrace, Statius explains the generation of the body and the infusion
of the rational soul, which exists, after the body’s death, invested
with an aerial body as a shade (Purg. xxv. 31 et seq.). Apparently it
is because revelation has some voice in these high matters that the
Christian Statius gives Dante this exposition, instead of Virgil, and at
the latter’s request; until the seventh terrace is reached, where
sensual passion is expiated in the bosom of the great burning.
Singing to the God of Supreme Clemency, crying aloud examples of
chastity or of lust’s punishment, two bands of souls, divided
according to the nature of their sin, pass through the fire in opposite
ways (Purg. xxvi.). Here is Guido Guinizelli of Bologna, father of the
poets of the dolce stil nuovo, whom Dante gazes upon in rapt
admiration, and addresses with impassioned love and worship. But
Guinizelli—with that humility which is so characteristically Dante’s
own—indicates as miglior fabbro del parlar materno, a “better
craftsman of his mother-tongue,” Arnaut Daniel, the cunning
Provençal song-smith, who invented the sestina, and whose metrical
skill and originality won for him a higher place in the estimation of the
poet of the rime pietrose than modern students of the troubadours
are usually disposed to concede.
The Purging Fire.—At sunset the Angel of Purity, singing
“Blessed are the clean of heart,” bids the poets pass through the
flames that lie between them and the last stairway—the purging fire
that is the wall between Dante and Beatrice. Dante endures the
“burning without measure”; and they reach the ascent, greeted by
dazzling light and celestial strains of Venite benedicti Patris mei. The
Cherubims with the flaming sword, “turning every way to keep the
way of the tree of life” (Gen. iii. 24), are thus welcoming man’s
restoration to the Garden of Eden, as the serpent had endeavoured
to impede it in the Valley of the Princes. Now it is a delight to mount;
but night comes on, and Dante, watched over by Statius and Virgil,
falls asleep on the stairs (Purg. xxvii.).
Leah and Liberty.—Just before dawn, prelude to the new day, he
dreams of Leah, a young and lovely lady gathering flowers in a
meadow. The theologians took Leah as type of the active life, and
Rachel, her sister, of the contemplative; a symbolism to which
Richard of St. Victor gave a more mystical colour, by interpreting
Leah as “affection inflamed by divine inspiration, composing itself to
the norm of justice.” Leah may then represent the affection, thus
inflamed and ordered, which is the perfection of the active life. At
sunrise the topmost stair of Purgatory is reached, and Virgil, who can
himself discern no further, resigns his guidance at the entrance to
the Garden of Eden. Dante’s judgment has been made free, right,
and whole; per ch’ io te sovra te corono e mitrio, “wherefore I crown
and mitre thee over thyself” (xxvii. 142). It has been supposed that
Virgil is here resigning to Dante the crown and mitre of the Emperor;
mitratus et coronatus was the expression used for the coronation of
an Emperor when the Pope placed upon his head a mitre and a
crown, which afterwards were united in the mitred crown, as seen in
the great fresco at Santa Maria Novella. Others refer the crown to
temporal or imperial authority, and the mitre to spiritual or
ecclesiastical; for (Mon. iii. 4) “if man had remained in the state of
innocence in which he was made by God, he would have had no
need of such directive regimens,” which are “remedial against the
infirmity of sin.” Dante, purified from sin, has regained this state of
innocence, and has attained that liberty through which “we have our
felicity here as men and our felicity elsewhere as Gods” (Mon. i. 12).
In any case, Virgil is confirming the freedom which Dante has sought
and gained by the passage through Purgatory.
 The Earthly Paradise and Matelda.—The Earthly Paradise
represents “blessedness of this life, which consists in the exercise of
man’s natural powers” (Mon. iii. 16). This blessedness is found in the
twofold exercise of the mind: the practical, which “consists in
ourselves working virtuously, that is, in integrity, with prudence, with
temperance, with fortitude, and with justice”; and the speculative,
which consists “in considering the works of God and of nature”
(Conv. iv. 22). In this Earthly Paradise, the music of whose birds and
trees has surely passed into the wonderful six cantos that close the
Purgatorio, Dante meets, amidst the flowers on Lethe’s banks, the
glorified realisation of the Leah of his dream (Purg. xxviii.). She has
been taken as symbolising the glorified active life in the state of
recovered Eden, realising in the Church of Christ what Leah had
dimly prefigured in the Old Testament; the active Christian life;
innocentia bonorum operum, the virtuous use of earthly things,
directly ordered to the love of our neighbour; the temporal felicity of
the Earthly Paradise. Since the purgatorial process is the freeing of
the soul from disordered love, we may follow Richard’s interpretation
of Leah, and take her as representing love rightly ordered and
inflamed by divine inspiration. Presently she is called Matelda (xxxiii.
119), and it is probable that she is the idealised presentment of a
real person. All the earliest commentators, excepting the Ottimo,
identify her with the great Countess of Tuscany, in support of which
view might be urged the historical work of the Countess in the revival
of the study of Roman Law at Bologna—Roman Law being, for
Dante, the secular counterpart of the “perfect law of liberty.” Some
modern commentators prefer to seek her prototype in one or other of
the ladies of Vita Nuova; for instance, in that lady of very sweet
speech who had rebuked Dante at the crisis of his “new life.” Others
have attempted to identify her with Mechthild of Magdeburg or
Mechthild of Hackeborn, two German mystical writers of the latter
part of the thirteenth century whose works show occasional
analogies with the Commedia. It may be observed that her
counterpart, as Rachel to Leah, is not Beatrice, as sometimes
supposed, but St. Bernard, in the closing cantos of the Paradiso.
Matelda explains her joyous aspect by referring Dante to the Psalm
Delectasti (Ps. 92, 91 Vulgate), and her discourse of Eden and its
rivers (realising the Golden Age sung by the classical poets)
communicates to Virgil and Statius her own celestial joy: “Thou has
given me, O Lord, a delight in what Thou hast made: in the works of
Thy hands I shall rejoice.” She points out to Dante’s gaze the
wondrous pageant, which astonishes Virgil as much as his pupil, the
mystical procession that represents the triumphal march of the
Church (Purg. xxix.).
The Pageant of the Church.—With brilliant light and ineffable
melody, the triumph advances: “I saw the holy city, the new
Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a
bride adorned for her husband” (Rev. xxi. 2). Headed by seven
candlesticks of gold as standards, followed by the twenty-four elders,
white-robed and crowned with lilies, singing Mary’s praises; between
the four living creatures of Ezekiel and St. John, crowned with green,
comes a triumphal chariot, more glorious than the sun, upon two
wheels; drawn by a Griffin, half lion and half eagle, whose golden
wings stretch up far out of sight, through the seven luminous bands
that form the processional canopy. By the right wheel dance three
maidens, symbolic of the theological virtues; by the left wheel dance
four, who represent the cardinal virtues, following the measure of
Prudence, as the others take their step from the song of Charity. The
seven candlesticks are the gifts of the Holy Spirit; the twenty-four
elders, either the patriarchs and prophets, or the books of the Old
Testament; the four living creatures, the four Evangelists, or their
four Gospels; the Griffin, Christ Himself in His Human and Divine
Natures. Lastly, follow seven more elders, white-robed but crowned
with flaming red flowers; a physician, and one with shining sword;
four of humble appearance; an old man “sleeping with face alert.”
According to Benvenuto da Imola, these represent St. Peter (who
had intrusted to him the power of healing souls) and St. Paul, the
four great Latin doctors, and St. Bernard. More usually they are
regarded as personifying the books of the New Testament—the Acts,
St. Paul’s Epistles, the Epistles of St. Peter, James, John, and Jude,
the Apocalypse or Revelation of St. John. Upon the chariot, amidst a
hundred Angels singing and scattering flowers, Beatrice appears,
clad in the mystical colours, red, white, green, crowned with the olive
of wisdom and of peace over her snow-white veil. And, at the advent
of the Wisdom divinely revealed to man, Virgil silently vanishes; he
has tasted of the delights of the Earthly Paradise, has witnessed the
triumph of the Church from which he is for ever cut off, the Faith he
never knew, and has gone back to his mournful dwelling-place (Purg.
xxx.).
Beatrice and Dante.—The precise significance of the
reproaches which Beatrice pours upon Dante for his mode of life
after her death, with the poet’s own bitter shame and intense
repentance (xxx., xxxi.), depends upon the view taken of his
character and the nature of the wanderings represented in the dark
wood. That these aberrations were mainly philosophical and
intellectual, as sometimes supposed, appears highly improbable. We
would regard Dante’s confession here as one of his most personal
utterances, and hold that the cherubically inspired singer of
righteousness is deliberately casting aside the allegorical veil which,
in the Convivio, he had attempted to throw over the things in the past
which still severed him from the ideal life when he wrote: “I fear the
infamy of having followed such great passion.” It is a personal
episode, in which Beatrice is the woman loved and to whose
memory the poet has been unfaithful, standing out clearly from the
allegorical mystery by which it is surrounded and in which it is set.
After Matelda has drawn Dante through Lethe, the four cardinal
virtues, which “perfect the intellect and appetite of man according to
the capacity of human nature,” lead him to the breast of the mystic
Griffin; and, in response to the song of the three theological virtues,
which perfect man supernaturally, Beatrice at last unveils her
countenance to his gaze: “O splendour of living light eternal.”
Concluding Allegories of the “Purgatorio.”—The allegory is
resumed. In the light of this revelation, now that he is purified and
free from sin, Dante beholds a vision of the Church and Empire
(Purg. xxxii.). That glorious procession had first presented an ideal of
the Church as Divine Providence intended it to be, before it became
the vessel that the serpent of simony broke; the Bride that the Divine
Spouse ordained for the guidance of the world. Such being the ideal,
Dante beholds in a series of allegorical visions its history, in
conjunction with the Empire, from the first coming to Rome down to
the transference of the papal chair to Avignon. The great procession
moves on through the divine forest, the Griffin still drawing the
chariot with Beatrice seated upon it; Matelda with Dante and Statius
following after the right wheel. Even as the divine origin of the
Church has been seen in the triumphal car, so now the divine origin
of the Empire is indicated in the desolate and despoiled tree which
they reach. The tree of knowledge of good and evil, since the
prohibition to eat of that tree was the beginning of law and the duty
of obedience, represents Natural Law or Natural Justice, what Dante
calls ius; which “in things is nought else than the similitude of the
divine will” (Mon. ii. 2). The expression of this natural justice and the
means for its effectuation in human society is Law, which Dante
identifies with the Empire, and thus the tree becomes the symbol of
the Empire and of the obedience due to it. The tree is destitute of
flowers and foliage till the Griffin comes to it, who plucks nothing
from it: “Thus is preserved the seed of all justice” (Purg. xxxii. 48; cf.
our Lord’s words to St. John, Matt. iii. 15). Justice can alone be
fulfilled when the Church follows this example of her Divine Founder,
and usurps none of the temporal rights of the Empire. After the
chariot has been bound to the tree, the previously bare plant breaks
out into purple leaves and flowers. The Griffin and his train return to
Heaven, leaving Beatrice to guard the chariot of the Church, seated
beneath the shadow of the Imperial Tree, upon its root, which is
Rome. In a new series of visions Dante beholds the sequel; he sees
the conflict of the past, contemplates the corruption of the present,
hearkens to the hope of the future. The persecution of the Church by
the early Roman Emperors is followed by the inroad of the first
heresies; and the donation of Constantine by the rising of the dragon
of schism or simony. By more assumption of secular power and
dignities, the chariot becomes monstrously transformed, and
shamelessly usurped by the harlot, who represents the corrupt
ecclesiastical authority enthroned in the place of Revelation, a false
and degraded theology based upon the Decretals instead of the true
divine science of the Scripture and the Fathers. By her side a giant
appears who, after alternate caressing and scourging of the usurper,
unbinds the transfigured chariot from the tree, and drags it away
through the forest—symbolical of the interference of the royal house
of France, ending in the transference of the Papacy from Rome to
Avignon.
A Deliverer Announced.—But to the mournful psalm that the
maidens around her raise, Deus venerunt gentes, Beatrice answers
in words of hope; “a little while,” and the spiritual guide shall rise
again from the black tomb of Avignon. And, as they move on, she
utters to Dante a further prophecy (Purg. xxxiii.). “The vessel that the
serpent broke was and is not,” so completely has corruption and
simony degraded the chariot of the Bride of Christ. But vengeance
shall fall upon the guilty parties, and the eagle shall not for ever be
without an heir; for already a favourable disposition of the stars is at
hand, under which a messenger of God shall come, who shall slay
the harlot and the giant. It is probably the same event as the coming
of the Veltro. Dante is to repeat her words “to those that live the life
which is a running to death,” and not to conceal what he has seen of
the tree. Apparently (Purg. xxxiii. 58-72) he is to make manifest that
the Empire is of divine origin, and to recognise that the precept given
by God to our first parents corresponds now with the duty and
obedience man owes to the Empire. The law under which Adam
lived was the prohibition to eat of the tree; the law under which his
descendants, the commonwealth of the human race, live is the
Empire. As Parodi puts it, it is not a new sense superimposed upon
the first; “it is simply the same single meaning, the historical
circumstances alone appearing changed.” The sin of Adam is
repeated when the Empire is usurped of its rights or its authority
attacked, for God created it holy for the purpose of leading man to
temporal felicity—the goal, here and now, of the human race.[36]
Lethe and Eunoë.—At noon they come to where the rivers of
Lethe and Eunoë issue from one mystical fountain, the fountain of
the grace of God. Here Beatrice refers Dante to Matelda, who leads
him and Statius to drink of Eunoë, which quickens dead virtue and
restores memory of every good deed in those who have first been
bathed in Lethe, which takes away the memory of sin. According to
St. Thomas Aquinas (Summa, iii. 89, 5), works done in charity,
although in a sense dead through sin, are brought to life through
penance. Through repentance they regain their efficacy of leading
him who did them into eternal life. Therefore Dante writes: “I returned
from the most holy stream, remade even as young trees renewed
with new foliage, pure and disposed to ascend to the stars.”

4. The “Paradiso”
Structure.—Dante’s Paradise consists of the nine moving
heavens, according to Ptolemaic astronomy, crowned by the tenth
motionless and divinest Empyrean heaven, “according to what Holy
Church teacheth, who cannot lie” (Conv. ii. 3, 4). The nine moving
spheres revolve round our globe, the fixed centre of the Universe,
each of the lower eight being enclosed in the sphere above itself.
The seven lowest are the heavens of the planets: the Moon,
Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn. The eighth or stellar
heaven, the sphere of the Fixed Stars or Firmament, is the highest
visible region of the celestial world, and to some extent corresponds
to the Earthly Paradise in the lower realms. Above this visible
firmament, the ninth or Crystalline heaven, the Primum Mobile,
directs with its movements the daily revolution of all the others. In it
nature starts; from it proceed time and motion, with all celestial
influence for the government of the world (Par. xxvii. 106-120). It is
“the royal mantle of all the volumes of the world, which is most
fervent and most living in God’s breath, and in His ways” (Par. xxiii.
112-114); and it communicates in different degrees some
participation in this quickening breath of God to the other sphere
which it encloses, and to all the Universe. It moves swiftest of all,
from the fervent desire of all its parts to be united to the Empyrean,
the spaceless and motionless ocean of Divine love, where God
beatifies the saints and Angels in the vision of His Essence. This
Empyrean is the true intellectual Paradise, for which the lower
heavens are merely sensible preparations. “This is the sovereign
edifice of the world, in which all the world is included, and outside of
which is nothing; and it is not in space, but was formed only in the
First Mind” (Conv. ii. 4); “The heaven that is pure light; light
intellectual full of love, love of true good full of joy, joy that
transcendeth every sweetness” (Par. xxx. 39-42).
 Gradations.—Each of the nine lower spheres represents a step
higher in knowledge, in love, in blessedness, until in the true
Paradise the soul attains to perfect knowledge, supreme love, and
infinite blessedness in union with the First Cause, in the Beatific
Vision of the Divine Essence. The ascent is marked by the increased
loveliness of Beatrice, as she guides Dante upwards from heaven to
heaven; it is marked, too, by gradations in the brilliancy of the
blessed spirits themselves, by their ever increasing ardour of charity
towards the poet, and by the growing spirituality of the matters
discussed in each sphere—veil after veil being drawn aside from the
mysteries of the Divine treasure-house.
The Saints.—“To show forth the glory of beatitude in those souls,”
says the letter to Can Grande, “from them, as from those who see all
truth, many things will be sought which have great utility and delight”
(Epist. x. 33). All the saints without exception have their home and
glorious seats with Mary and the Angels in that Empyrean heaven,
where they are finally seen as glorified spirit likenesses of what they
were on earth. But into each preparatory sphere, excepting the ninth,
these citizens of eternal life descend to meet Dante as, with
Beatrice, he approaches the gates of the celestial city—like the
noble soul returning home to God in the fourth and last part of life:
“And even as its citizens come forth to meet him who returns from
a long journey, before he enters the gate of the city, so to the noble
soul come forth, as is fitting, those citizens of eternal life. And thus
they do because of her good works and contemplations; for, being
now rendered to God and abstracted from worldly things and
thoughts, she seems to see those whom she believes to be with
God” (Conv. iv. 28).
In all these spheres, excepting the first, and to some extent the
second, the spirits of the blessed appear clothed in dazzling light,
which hides their proper semblances from Dante’s gaze, making
them appear as brilliant stars or flaming splendours. In the tenth
Heaven of Heavens he is supernaturally illumined, and enabled
thereby to behold them in their glorified spirit forms “with
countenance unveiled” (Par. xxii. 60, xxx. 96, xxxi. 49).
 In the three lower heavens, to which earth’s shadow was
supposed to extend (Par. ix. 118, 119), appear the souls whose lives
were marred by inconstancy in their vows, who were moved by vain
glory, or yielded to sensual love. They descend into these lower
spheres to give Dante a sensible sign of the lesser degree of the
perfection of their beatitude in the Empyrean. Domus est una, sed
diversitas est ibi mansionum; “The house is one, but there is a
diversity of mansions there.” There are different mansions of
beatitude in God’s house, proceeding from inequality in the soul’s
capacity of the Divine Charity; but in that house all are fulfilled with
the Vision of the Divine Essence, and each perfectly beatified
according to his own capacity of love and knowledge. In the spheres
of the four higher planets appear the souls of great teachers and
doctors, of Jewish warriors and Christian knights, of just rulers, of
ascetic monks and hermits; they appear as types of lives perfected
in action or in contemplation, as a sign of the different ways in which
perfection may be reached on earth and beatitude attained in
Paradise. These successive manifestations in the seven spheres of
the planets obviate what might otherwise have proved the monotony
of a single heaven, and suggest that, although each soul partakes
supremely according to its individual capacity of the Beatific Vision,
which is essentially one and the same in all, yet there are not only
grades but subtle differences in the possession of it, in which the life
on earth was a factor. In the eighth, the Stellar Heaven, still under
sensible figures and allegorical veils, Dante sees “the host of the
triumph of Christ, and all the fruit gathered by the circling of these
spheres” (Par. xxiii. 19-21), representing the Church in which these
various modes and degrees of life are brought into unison. In the
ninth, the Crystalline, the angelic hierarchies are manifested with
imagery symbolical of their office towards God and man,
representing the principle of Divine Order, the overruling and
disposition of Divine Providence in which the celestial intelligences
are the agents and instruments. The Empyrean Heaven depicts the
soul in patria, with all the capacities of love and knowledge
actualised in the fruition of the Ultimate Reality, the supreme and
universal truth which is the object of the understanding, the supreme
and universal good which is the object of the will.
 The Angels.—Each of the nine moving spheres is assigned to the
care of one of the nine angelic orders: Angels, Archangels,
Principalities; Powers, Virtues, Dominations; Thrones, Cherubim,
Seraphim. And the character of the blessed spirits that appear to
Dante in each heaven, and the subjects discussed, seem in almost
every case to correspond more or less closely with the functions
assigned by mystical theologians, especially Dionysius, St. Gregory
and St. Bernard, to the special angelic order which presides over the
sphere in question. There are two fundamental principles in the life
of the soul: nature and grace. The one is represented in the Paradiso
by the astronomical order of the heavens and their influence upon
individual disposition, furnishing man with a natural aptitude for the
moral and intellectual virtues; the other by the bounty of Divine
Grace, which reveals itself in the perfecting of the natural and the
infusion of the supernatural virtues, whereby souls become
assimilated to the angelic orders.[37] It is through these Angels (the
name is applied generally to all, as well as to the lowest order) that
God disposes the visible world; in the hands of the celestial
intelligences the heavens are as hammers, to stamp the Divine ideas
upon material creation and carry out the Divine plan in the
government of the Universe (cf. Par. ii. 127-129). And, by means of
the influence of the stars, these Angels have impressed certain men
with their own characteristics; perhaps to fill up the vacant places in
their ranks left by the fall of Lucifer’s followers, certainly to co-
operate on earth in their work. Dante himself was born beneath the
constellation of the Gemini, the glorious stars impregnated with the
virtue of the Cherubim who rule the eighth sphere (Par. xxii. 112-
123). The Cherubim represent the Divine Wisdom; their name
signifies plenitude of knowledge. According to St. Bernard, they
“draw from the very fountain of wisdom, the mouth of the Most High,
and pour out the streams of knowledge upon all His citizens.” Their
special prerogatives are fullness of Divine light, and contemplation of
the beauty of the Divine order of things; they see most into the
profound mysteries of the hidden things of God, and spread the
knowledge of Him upon all beneath them. By their inspiration Dante
co-operated in this cherubical work by writing the Divina Commedia.
The Seraphim especially represent the Divine Love. No soul appears
in the ninth heaven which they guide and in which the angelic
hierarchies are manifested; Beatrice is the sole interpreter between
the poet and the Angels, as she had been the revealer to him on
earth of Love’s “possible divinities and celestial prophecies.”
Time in Paradise.—The action of the Paradiso begins at noon,
immediately after Dante’s return from Eunoë; that is, noon on
Wednesday in Easter week in the Earthly Paradise and (the
following) midnight at Jerusalem (Par. i. 37-45). The time-references
in this third Cantica are rather doubtful (Par. xxii. 151-153, xxvii. 77-
87), but it seems probable that Dante takes twenty-four hours to
ascend through the nine material heavens to the Empyrean, which is
beyond time and space, where “the natural law in nought is relevant”
(Par. xxx. 123). When Dante woke from his “mighty trance” to the
“sound of the importunate earth,” it was perhaps about dawn on the
morning of Friday in Easter week in our world, thus completing the
seven days of his ecstatic pilgrimage, which had begun at about the
same hour on Good Friday.
Canto I.—In a lyrical prologue of stately music (Par. i. 1-36), the
poet sings of the glory of the First Mover, and prays for light and
inspiration to complete this third most arduous portion of his divine
poem. Then, in the noblest season of the year and noblest hour of
the day, as Beatrice gazes upon the sun and Dante upon her, his
mind becomes godlike, and he ascends to Heaven swifter than
lightning. To explain his ascent, Beatrice discourses upon the form
and order of God’s visible image, the Universe; and on His Eternal
Law, the sovereign plan of government existing in the Divine Mind, to
which all movements and actions of nature are subject (ibid. 103-
141). To all created things God has given an instinct, or principle of
inclination, by which, in different ways according to their nature, He
draws them all back to Himself over the great sea of being. Rational
beings alone can resist the order of the Universe and defeat the
Eternal Law by sin, which is expiated by temporary or eternal
suffering, as Dante has seen in the lower realms; but the purified
soul, in accordance with this order and law, inevitably mounts up to
find its rest in union with the First Cause. It is the doctrine of spiritual
gravitation (derived from St. Augustine), according to which the soul
is moved by love as bodies are by their weight, and all things find
their rest in order.
The Heaven of the Moon.—They are received into the eternal
pearl of the Moon (Par. ii.); where Beatrice first confutes Dante’s
former theory concerning the luminous substance of the celestial
bodies, and, by explaining how everything in the visible world
depends upon the angelic movers of the sphere, gives a mystical
interpretation of a natural phenomenon, on this first step of his
ascent to the suprasensible. Within this eternal pearl appear faint but
divinely beautiful forms of women; the souls of those who had
yielded to violence and broken their solemn vow (Par. iii.). Piccarda
Donati, sister of Corso and Forese, sets forth the perfection of
celestial charity, where all wills are made absolutely one with the will
of God, who has awarded different degrees or mansions of beatitude
to all His chosen ones:

E la sua volontade è nostra pace,

“And His will is our peace.”[38] Transfigured now with ineffable joy,
Piccarda tells the pathetic story of her frustrated life on earth; and
points out to Dante the Empress Constance, mother of Frederick II.,
torn, like her, from the convent’s shelter. Beatrice explains to the
poet the place of all the saints in the Empyrean—the “heaven of
humility where Mary is,” as Dante had sung long before of Beatrice
herself in the Vita Nuova—and the reason of this temporary
apparition in the moon (Par. iv.). The other questions solved in this
sphere are all connected with Free Will. Rectitude of will is
necessary for the gaining of Paradise, and nothing whatever can
take away that freedom of the will. “As regards the proper act of the
will, no violence can be done to the will”; and, since Piccarda and
Constance yielded through fear of greater evil, they fell voluntarily
from the state of perfection to which they were called. Freedom of
the will is God’s greatest gift to man (Par. v. 19-24); hence the
sanctity of an accepted vow, wherein this supreme gift is offered to
God as victim, although Holy Church has power to commute, save,