In this reflection we use a meta-theory perspective, that is, we focus reflectively on the discipline of Public Administration on the African continent. Obviously, undertaking this task is not simple and general observations might not be applicable in all cases on the continent. For this study, a visit to the offices of the African Association for Public Administration and Management (AAPAM) was undertaken to enhance the critique of the discipline of Public Administration in Africa. This is because, more than any other organisation in the field of Public Administration in Africa, AAPAM (2003: 4) boasts a wealth of scholarship resources, library, information and research. The purpose of this reflection is to describe the role of Public Administration scholars and the state of this discipline with a focus on the African continent. A conceptual clarification of key concepts is made and the milieu of the Public Administration discipline is discussed. Several key aspects are taken into consideration for this purpose, including the modalities of teaching in Africa, reflective research activities and community engagement by Public Administration scholars in Africa. The issues of professional bodies, their activities and the challenges of the discipline are outlined.

Clarification of key concepts

In order to provide contextual clarity of the concepts and terms in this reflection, we explain their meanings below. There are four key concepts that will probably be familiar to the reader, namely:

Public Administration, public administration, new public management, and Public Administration scholarship.

• (1) Public Administration (PA)

• Rhodes (2002) refers to Public Administration (PA upper case) as an academic subject and its study. Marini (2000: 7) defines PA as an ‘academic field which seeks to understand, develop, criticise and improve that professional practice’. This reflects that PA refers to the ‘what’ of the study. This simply means the field itself and the knowledge building of the field. In this regard, the role of the scholar is to engage both primary and secondary data on the developments of certain phenomena that are of particular interest in the field of study (in this case, public administration).