African Voices in Education

African Voices in Education P. Higgs N.C.G. Vakalisa

T.V. Mda N.T. Assie-Lumumba

JUTA

First published 2000 © Juta & Co. Ltd 2000 PO Box 24309, Lansdowne 7779 ISBN 070215199 8 This book is copyright under the Berne Convention. In terms of the Copyright Act 98 of 19 78, no part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Publisher.

Editor: Carol Balchin Proofreader: Christa Biittner-Rohwer Indexer: Ethne Clarke Book design and DTP: Claudine Willatt-Bate, Cape Town Cover design: Malick, Cape Town Printed and bound in South Africa by The Rustica Press, Ndabeni, Western Cape D8580

Contents Contributors Preface

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African Voices in Education: Retrieving the Past, Engaging the Present, and Shaping the Future Catherine A Odora Hoppers

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The Nature of Learning, Teaching and Research in Higher Education in Africa Narciso Matos

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Manufacturing Unemployment: The Crisis of Education in Africa Paulin J Hountondji

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Educational Research in the African Development Context: Rediscovery, Reconstruction and Prospects Mokubung Nkomo

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African/Indigenous Philosophies: Legitimizing Spiritually Centred Wisdoms within the Academy Ivy N Goduka

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African Education: Mirror of Humanity Babacar Diop

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Africanist Thinking: An Invitation to Authenticity LesibaJTeffo

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Africanization of Knowledge: Exploring Mathematical and Scientific Knowledge Embedded in African Cultural Practices Sipho Seepe

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Rethinking Educational Paradigms in Africa: Imperatives for Social Progress in the New Millennium Tukumbi Lumumba-Kasongo

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Indigenous African Philosophies and Socioeducational Transformation in 'Post-Apartheid' Azania Julian Kunnie

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African Philosophy and Educational Discourse Moeketsi Letseka

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The Problem of Education in Africa Herbert W Vilakazi

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Index

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Contributors N'Dri Thérèse Assié-Lumumba is a historian, sociologist and education specialist from Cote d'lvoire, and is currently an Associate Professor in the African Studies and Research Center at Cornell University in the USA. Babacar Diop is Professor in the Faculty of Letters at the University of Cheikh Anta Diop in Dakar, Senegal. Ivy Goduka is an indigenous Xhosa scholar from the Eastern Cape in South Africa and currently teaches in the Department of Human Environmental Studies at the Central Michigan University in the USA. Philip Higgs is Professor in the Department of Educational Studies at the University of South Africa. Catherine Odora Hoppers is an expert for UNESCO, adviser to the UNESCO Institute for Education and a Distinguished Professional at the Human Sciences Research Council in South Africa. Paulin Hountondji is Professor at the National University of Benin. Julian Kunnie is Acting Director of Africana Studies at the University of Arizona in the USA. Moeketsi Letseka lectures in the Faculty of Education at the University of Fort Hare in South Africa. Tukumbi Lumumba-Kasongo is Chair of the Department of International Studies and Herbert J. Charles and Florence Faegre Professor of Political Science at Wells College in the USA. Narciso Matos is Secretary General of the Association of African Universities. Thobeka Mda is Associate Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Education at the University of South Africa. Mokubung Nkomo is President of the Human Sciences Research Council in South Africa. Sipho Seepe is Campus Principal at Vista University in South Africa. Lesiba Joseph Teffo serves on the Executive Management Committee at the University of the North in South Africa. Ntombizolile Vakalisa is Professor and Vice Dean in the Faculty of Education at the University of South Africa. Herbert Vilakazi is Vice-Chairperson of the Independent Electoral Commission in South Africa. iv

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Preface With the ending of apartheid in South Africa and two consecutive democratic elections that, since 1994, have confirmed black majority rule, Africa will enter the next century free of any formal colonial domination by the Europeans. However, the systems and structures of education inherited in many countries throughout the continent, including those which acquired their independence four decades earlier, particularly at the levels of higher education, reflect the predominance of Western traditions. These institutions of learning educate the intelligentsia, who as either educators or decision-makers shape development policy design. Unfortunately, the mechanisms and processes of selection that policy-makers use have in general terms left out the majority. Political nominal independence has not been translated into an African autonomous space of knowledge production. Philosophical questions as to what kind of education is required for what type of society, and the formulation of epistemological questions that should guide learning and knowledge production, remain as pressing at the dawn of the twenty-first century as they were in the twentieth-century when arguments of human capital theory were appropriated in educational analysis and policy-making. Specialists in different disciplines, in being confronted with more complex problems that education is expected to resolve, are once again raising these questions in their attempt to uncover the reasons behind Africa's persistent inability to produce relevant systems of education needed for social and economic development. The volume African Voices in Education gives us an opportunity to have a constructive dialogue with scholars who have Africa in their heart and who have, with great insight, produced extremely valuable materials to be used by researchers, educators and policy-makers in the process of rethinking African educational systems. Despite its focus on education, the volume is interdisciplinary in scope, and represents a forum for raising pertinent questions regarding the nature of knowledge through African voices. In the context of the failure of the majority of the African countries to construct even a policy of universal and relevant primary education, the African voices in the volume focus on epistemological issues and offer elements of response and possible paths for rethinking and reconstructing a relevant education for Africa. This volume is, therefore, timely and offers a context for specialists and the layperson to debate issues relating to the wellbeing of Africa, and in so doing to be inspired to take action. As a resource, it will be a useful reference for those in the field of education, philosophy, political economy, developmental studies and gender issues. The volume addresses a diverse audience that might well include politicians, policy-makers, academics, researchers, educationists and students. In short, the volume can be regarded as a powerful instrument in preparing for the transition between the end of this century and the beginning of the new millennium in the context of Africa and its quest for an authentic African voice. Editors: N'Dri Assie Lumumba, Philip Higgs, Thobeka Mda, Ntombizolile Vakalisa

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1 African Voices in Education: Retrieving the Past, Engaging the Present and Shaping the Future Catherine A Odora Hoppers

INTRODUCTION The African voice in education at the end of the twentieth century is the voice of the radical witness of the pain and inhumanity of history, the arrogance of modernization and the conspiracy of silence in academic disciplines towards what is organic and alive in Africa. It is the voice of 'wounded healers' (Richards 1995) struggling against many odds to remember the past, engage with the present, and determine a future built on new foundations. It invokes the democratic ideal of the right of all to 'be', to 'exist', to grow and live without coercion, and from that to find a point of convergence with the numerous others. It exposes the established hegemony of Western thought, and beseeches it to feel a measure of shame and vulgarity at espousing modes of development that build on the silencing of all other views and perceptions of reality. It also seeks to make a contribution to the momentum for a return of humanism to the centre of the educational agenda, and dares educators to see the African child-learner not as a bundle of Pavlovian reflexes, but as a human being culturally and cosmologically located in authentic value systems. But the African voice emerging at the turn of the new millennium is no longer a pure voice. It is coming into being at a time when the concept of African society' itself has been literally expunged from mainstream discourses. It is entering 'adulthood' when new orthodoxies of structural adjustment, the market and globalization have become far more pernicious than the overt colonialism of the past, are barely deciphered by African nationalists, and are routinely posited as new eras of human freedom. The African voice is coming through at a time when education has firmly ensconced itself as the fourth pillar of Northern governments' © Juta & Co Ltd

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1 foreign policy, with the native's hunger for the same having become part of a democratic demand, even a 'human right'. Thus while the African voice seeks to dig deep in the project of retrieving its philosophies, its major challenge lies as much within that project as without, for it must simultaneously seek clear space for the products of that excavation to be laid out and assimilated in real time. The project of making quality space available within which the emerging philosophies-in-articulation are to be positioned in a grossly distorted globalized world entails a high-precision re-examination of the techniques that have led to such successful stultification of an entire people's cognition. It also requires the development of counterpenetration techniques deep enough into the mainstream to enable strategic negotiations for that space to be undertaken. The focus of this paper is therefore to draw attention to the challenges that will confront the newly retrieved African philosophy as it shall seek to embed itself in real time at the turn of this century. THE AFRICAN AND THE THIRD WORLD 'VOICE' IN INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT THEORY African voices have been rising in ebbs and tides in the nearly four decades of African postindependence. The call for African voices was most strongly felt in the 1960s when the centre of the universe was moving from Europe, as the countries of Africa and Asia demanded and asserted their right to define themselves and their relationship to the universe from their own centres in Africa or Asia. Independence, after all, was about people's struggle to claim their own space, and their right to name the world for themselves, rather than be named through the colour-tinted glass of the Europeans (Wa Thiongo 1993). The process of decolonization that unfolded during this period saw the freeing from colonial rule of hundreds of millions of people, representing over half of humankind occupying the great landmasses of Asia, Africa and sundry territories elsewhere, and their constitution into independent states. The African voice, at the time, appropriately blended into the collective voice of the Third World and sought to bring about changes in the make-up of the global political economy in such a manner that would guarantee the inadmissibility of colonial rule on the one hand, and the economic betterment of all humankind on the other (Adams 1993). In terms of development theory, the African voice' was to be heard in scattered jingles in the debate on the crisis in development theory and development thinking. The emergence of social science as a field responding to the transition of European societies from 'traditional' to 'modern' had given a distinct mark to classical nineteenth-century political economists and the founders of sociology and anthropology. As the industrial system consolidated and colonialism and imperialism broadly defined these specifically European experiences as 'universal', an evolutionist perspective common to all the classics gave way to functionalism 2

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1 equilibrium theories with their focus on specialization, compartmentalization and positivism. A renewed interest in the so-called 'backward areas' gave rise to theoretical and methodological concerns which sought to develop 'corrective' strategies to an otherwise ethnocentric (Eurocentric) bias in the mainstream social sciences. 'Development' as an interdisciplinary field grew out of the assumption that the conditions in these underdeveloped areas ought to be changed (Hettne 1990). The revolution in development thinking and theory in the mid-1960s originated not in Africa, but in Latin America. It was the dependecia approach that challenged the evolutionary Eurocentric perspective in development thinking and practice, and introduced an endogenistic orientation. At core in this new approach was the idea that intellectual understanding of what development was about had been distorted by academic colonialism. An endogenistic perspective therefore also implied self-reliance (Prebisch 1950, 1980). The dependency perspective found swift resonance among the countries of the Third World, the Non-aligned Movement, and influenced the discussion on development strategies at both national (in Chile under Allende, in Jamaica under Manley, and in Tanzania under Nyerere) and international levels (under the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development — UNCTAD; the New International Economic Order — NIEO). The indigenization of development thinking questioned the capacity of mainstream social sciences to correctly describe peripheral reality and generate feasible strategies for change. Octavio Paz, the Mexican poet, pointed to the existence, in each civilization, of 'certain complexes, presuppositions and mental structures that are generally unconscious and that stubbornly resist the erosions of history and its changes' (Paz 1972:75, in Hettne 1990). Another Mexican intellectual, Vasconcelos, talked of the emergence of a cosmic race, 'a new cultural being' that combined the Indian, African, and even European elements (Vasconcelos 1970:216, in Hettne 1990). In India, lively debates on the Indian situation, the effects of neocolonialism and of capitalistic extraction led to calls for a new sociology. Africa, with its history of deep intellectual penetration by colonialism, and a comparatively weak academic infrastructure, took on the indigenization idea with diverse emphases. In the period of 'original political ideas' (Hettne 1990:108), a strong thrust of noninstitutionalized, politically oriented social science was developed — take for instance the contributions of Kwame Nkrumah, Sekou Toure, Julius Nyerere, Leopold Senghor, Jomo Kenyatta, Patrice Lumumba, Frantz Fanon and Amilcar Cabral (Hettne 1990). These perspectives had in mind the issues of colonialism, African identity and alternative strategies for liberation. Later on, new trends such as the 'Dar es Salaam School' developed, which sought to bring about intellectual emancipation, not only in the broader cultural sense, but more specifically in the social sciences. But elsewhere, the criticism of the status quo usually took the form of Africanization in terms of personnel rather than in terms of fundamental © Tuta & Co Ltd

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1 reconstruction of concepts and theories governing the construction of social reality itself. Africanization, as a change of colour of face rather than a change of total mind-set, became the end of the emancipation process in a manner that was blissfully oblivious of the changing nature of the violences of neocolonialism and global hegemony in the real world order. INITIATIVES AND ISSUES IN ENDOGENIZATION IN AFRICAN UNIVERSITIES Within the effort to endogenize African institutions, fundamental omissions were made when underdevelopment continued to be taken as a form of backwardness rather than as a result of the subsumption in the material framework of modernism. Many African countries still miss the point that the history of the advanced countries does not contain the future of poor countries (Kabede 1994). Moreover, while Africanization' of the disciplines has occurred within subjects like history and other nationally oriented programmes, no deep debate on approaches to the study fields has ever emerged (Grossman 1999). Modern and urban sociology predominates everywhere. Political models dominating the postcolonial or postapartheid African scene, and democratic capitalism and Marxism have neglected with equal force the awareness of ethnic and cultural aspects of social life. In the meantime, what African political schools of thought have emerged have favoured the building of the nation-state, or even Pan-African consciousness that is usually devoid of any empirical content either in terms of indigenous philosophy or knowledge systems. Where scatterlings of inspired scholars have emerged over time, the absence of a meta-framework for modifying academic agendas has hung like a yoke around the necks of potential innovators. The consequence of this has been that among Africans themselves there is great eagerness to dismiss outright any notion of a return to 'our pure fantastic cultures of long ago'. Others recognize the importance, but are preoccupied with life-level survival issues, leaving only a few to engage in any genuine campaign at all (Crossman 1999). In the middle of all this, Africanization of personnel has been mistaken for endogenization, and African scholars have found it easier to refer to the 'golden past' without contemplating opposing actively the current curricula and/or pedagogical structures. PRECISION IDENTIFICATION OF VIOLENCE IN A CONTEXT OF HEGEMONY To begin with, it has been all too easy for African politicians, academics and other progressive educators to forget the Bourdieu and Passeron (1977) injunction that the attack on organic relations and the systematic devaluation of culturally determined behaviour that was encapsulated in colonialism was no matter of 4

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1 accident, but an act of symbolic violence. It was, and is, part and parcel of the objective of the project Galtung (1996) refers to as cultural violence. Cultural violence works by changing the moral colour of an act from wrong to right or to some other intermediate meaning palatable to the status quo. Another way it works is by making reality opaque, so that we do not see the violent act or fact, or that when we see it, we see it not as violent (Galtung 1996). Symbolic violence (Bourdieu & Passeron 1977), for its part, is epitomized genesis amnesia which finds expression in the naive a-historical illusion that things have always been as they are. Systematic misrecognition of reality and truths is imposed on the dominated group/classes by positing the ideology of the dominant culture (in this case the Western culture) as the only authentic or universal culture. Looked at in retrospect, the success of this objective in a neocolonial context is seen in the way in which dominated groups (in this case — Africans) have internalized the world-view of the West, its disciplines and censorships, including its false acclamation to the status of 'universal'. At great cost to societal development, most analysts have ignored precisely the inverse nature in which the increased internalization of the conquering reality simultaneously imposes on the dominated, by inculcation or exclusion, the recognition of the illegitimacy of their own cultural situation. What is poorly problematized (if at all) is the fact that in order to successfully get the dominated to proactively recognize the illegitimacy of their own cultural situation, they must be induced to recognize the new definition of legitimate knowledge', and devalue the knowledge and know-how they and their societies effectively command (such as complex indigenous social relations and laws, technology, art and language). Bourdieu and Passeron (1977) state quite appropriately that the power of symbolic violence operates and succeeds in reproducing itself only because the arbitrary power which makes imposition possible is never seen in its full truth. The legitimacy of a domination always strengthens the established balance of power because by preventing apprehension of power relations as power relations, it also tends to prevent dominated groups or classes from securing all the strength that realization of their strength would give them. In such instances, the essence of the violence is harder to perceive because the techniques employed conceal the social significance of the pedagogic relations under the guise of some altruistic or purely psychological relationship (Bourdieu & Passeron 1977). Politicians and educators have too easily forgotten that in a context of hegemony, creativity and attempts to regain 'one's mind' are often immediately constituted as subjects for therapy, a pathology positing demonic possession (Berger & Luckman 1971). Thus Africa and African culture must be posited as devoid of epistemology. Africa must remain a place in which to travel and test one's theories and hypotheses and get promotion quickly to the status of expert on African societies. It is the 'field' full of rats in the social scientist's cage. The moment Africa begins to be taken seriously, a serious disjuncture occurs. Resources get thinner and soon disappear altogether, and legitimacy is gradually © Juta & Co Ltd

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I withdrawn. For those who would dare to think that Africa is part of the heritage of humankind, and deserving of similar attention, guilt or panic is created to get one to become convinced that it was a mistake to have even contemplated such a thought. The conceptual machinery of modernization and the institution of science have been particularly effective in arousing this guilt and a state of panic or inadequacy in the non-modern (read un-Western) at a deep structural level. Under the pressure of this guilt, and the fear of being called primitive, the education industry has also functioned well, oiling its fossilized wheels which have flattened to unrecognizable shapes, the cosmology of African societies. Formal education has placed itself on a peculiarly empty ethical pedestal, hoping that somehow the subjugated groups will forever continue to accept supinely the conceptualization of their own condition which the colonial therapeutic practitioners have bestowed upon them. It is for this reason that education practitioners have no qualms whatsoever in not relating to the round huts that surround the square building of the school. Even the square shape does not bother them, or if it does, the fear of contradicting the hegemony is sufficient to keep mute even the most outspoken of politicians and progressive educators. How are we to view the current democratic demand for education? How are we to view the assertion that Africa is now politically free'? 'AFRICAN VOICES IN EDUCATION': SIGNIFICANCE IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY To begin with, an education system is the repository, carrier and transmitter of a society's myth, the institutionalization centre for that myth's contradictions, and the locus of the ritual which reproduces and veils the disparities between myth and reality (Illich 1970). African Voices in Education would have as its objective the goal of transcending the present eschewed and partially constituted educational thinking and practice which thrives on the hope that African cosmology and indigenous systems have been successfully decimated and do not deserve a place in the universal heritage of societies. It would constitute an attempt to recover the ethical and humanistic principles so lacking in education thinking today. It can also be seen as part of an effort to help develop both a vision and practice of education that goes beyond schooling. Knowledge and minds, after all, are not commodities — that is to say, they are not just human resources to be developed, exploited, and then cast aside, but treasures to be cultivated to improve the quality of life of both individuals and societies (Power 1997). It is about empowerment, laying the basis for African people to participate in mastering and directing the course of change and fulfilling the vision of learning to know, learning to do, learning to be, and learning to live together as equals with others (Unesco 1996). Learning to know is not just about acquiring a specific body of knowledge, but an approach, an attitude to knowledge and the process of generating it. Learning to live together is not just about tolerating otherness, it 6

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1 means wishing to understand others, and to be understood. The way in which the education system operates, and especially its relationship with the surrounding community in Africa, influences the pupils more than any combined content. Curricula only pay lip service to the issue of relevance and adaptability, and the ability to work with each other, focusing instead on more easily evaluated cognitive achievements. Learning to be remains a running challenge in the context of the Western hegemony, especially how to prepare an African child to accept fully his/her own identity, cosmology and indigenous forms of knowledge as part of a universal heritage and universal resource. African Voices in Education reminds us that there is also work still to be done in expanding the purpose and process of education beyond its immediate functionality, ascribing to it a major contribution in the formation of the whole human being. Moreover, increasingly, the 'community' and 'society' are fast slipping away from present discourses in education (Odora Hoppers 1998). The new stories about education now hinge on controversies about financing, equity, quality and effectiveness, punctuated with various accounts of indiscipline or violence and pass rates at terminal points. For its part, discussions about reform remain too technical and avoid the issue of defining the word 'public' first before one can talk of 'public schools'. That 'public', moreover, is a varied audience consisting in large part of populations and communities with suppressed cosmologies and identities, but with a deep interest in seeing their children grow to become full adults capable of responding to various problems in society. This response is not just in terms of 'jobs', but also as transmitters of values of the different cultures and societies. Furthermore, in order to participate in the global community, we have to know that which we bring to the global community from our roots, our pasts. If, for some reason, that possibility is pre-empted or prevented, then it is a violation of a right to 'be', and thereby a violence. What is needed is a critical appraisal of the methods and tactics by which particular values in education are constantly upheld, and of the silent and unobtrusive ways in which an entire range of areas in policy visions in education hardly ever receive any scientific attention or financial support. Such an investigation would extend into the phenomenon in which high-level cognitive resources embodied in African graduates returning from overseas training consistently define and delimit solutions to problems in terms of the particular understanding of development, or economics, or education to which they have been intensively exposed while abroad. On this issue, Samoff (1993) has argued that neither the explicit, nor the more subtle insertion of specified agendas into policy-making in African education is primarily a consequence of external ignorance or insensitivity to African values, philosophies of education or policy preferences. 'Rather, what is most powerful and most insidious in this relationship is the internalization within Africa, of world views, research approaches, and procedures for validating knowledge that effectively perpetuate Africa's dependence and poverty' (Samoff 1993:186-7). © Juta & Co Ltd

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1 The above constitute what this volume hopes at least to trigger and at most to achieve. What may need to be addressed further, then, is the way to get there and, to this task, I shall apply insights from Dias' theses of the democratization of education as an operational strategy in transforming the deep structures of the education system towards acceptance of greater diversity and plurality. THE CHALLENGE OF DEMOCRATIZING EDUCATION Dias (1993) has put forward a strong Third World case for the democratization of education, starting from the premise that in the context of imperialism, colonialism and now neocolonialism, Africa (and the Third World) came by force under the influence and determination of a militarily and technically powerful civilization. This situation has had the consequence that the defeated ones (the colonized) have not only lost their life space, but also their world (Dias 1993). It is this fact, he argues, that makes the struggle for reconstitution of the 'self in the African sense and the search for a 'true universal' become a struggle for truth. It is this struggle for truth that can enable us to link the search for democratic and egalitarian ideals with the rejection of a Eurocentric perspective of history in relation to which the seemingly idyllic but autonomous and self-sustaining African (read: Third World) societies have become personifications of inhumanity, despotism, superstition, and essentially all evils. The call to find and locate African voices in an education to which all the young children in Africa, as is the case in many parts of the Third World, are to be exposed and entrusted, therefore becomes more than just 'an interest'. It becomes part of a process of deliberate scrutiny of the apparently innocent and emancipatory Western discourse in the area of education, that handmaiden and supplement of power, that'... serves to uphold power and knowledge upon dominated societies by monopolizing the parameters for interpretation, by marginalizing whatever has not been determined by western conquest, and by domesticating other subject positions as historically obsolete and self-defeating otherness — pre-colonial, pre-capitalist, ir-rational, pre-modern, non-modern, non-literate, un-democratic ... etc (Dias 1993:230). Democratization, in this instance, would mean the process aiming to achieve, theoretically and practically, through a radical transformation of all social aspects, the goals and principles of democracy. It implies, among other things, a fundamental new thinking regarding effective participation of all citizens as subjects of an auto-determined historical process of control over the modes of production and upon the cultural foundations of society (Dias 1993). For its part, 'education' would mean those intentional processes and devices for the transmission of attitudes, knowledge, norms, skills, techniques and values in accordance with the diversity of educational realities and socioeconomic needs existing in all plural societies. According to Dias, if we want to have a socially useful and relevant education with greater social impact, then we have to rediscover, by a participatory method, the practical value of education. We have to 8

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1 rediscover the subjects of this education within specific historical conditions and give them a real say in the process of production of the appropriate network of social relations. This implies that in the process of restructuring education, we should place increasing value on the diversity of educational realities, and thereby on the multiplicity of learning situations and the realization of different types of formalization. Democratization of education as a political project to build up a democratic society very much depends on the degree of participation of the members of the society in the decision-making process. Between education as a functional undertaking, and education as a political project (nation-building, creation of a new society, modernization or formation of human capital), the myth of school education as a major force of development, social mobility and equity has been kept alive through the careful strategy of individualizing success or failure. If democratization of education is not going to blindly become part of this myth, it has to face the real challenge of defining and implementing its aims under specific conditions of continuing authoritarianism and hegemony of Western forms, structures — and even content. The challenge of democratizing education is therefore that of fostering genuine rebirth of the African voice and identity, serious intercultural exchange with those numerous 'others' that the process of colonialism and scientism have unilaterally excluded, and to ease the strangeness between the native, now recognized as an active 'knower', and the figurative 'Englishman', henceforth only one among many others (Dias 1993:237). The case for democratization implies moving the centre from its location in Europe towards a pluralism of centres, themselves being equally legitimate locations of human imagination. The challenge is not in recognizing the mutual exclusion between Africa and Europe, but the basis and the new starting point for their interaction. It has been acknowledged that knowing oneself and one's environment is the correct basis for absorbing the world and that a pluralism of languages is the legitimate vehicle of human imagination. Is it so difficult to imagine the possibility of redemption arising from the energy of the oppressed (Wa Thiongo 1993)? CONCLUSION It is only with a heightened consciousness as to the nature of the violences that have been inflicted upon African societies, the violations that have followed in their wake, and the techniques that continue to be applied to keep the diverse realities mute that a volume on the articulation of African voices in education can find its requisite strategic value. It is the hope of this paper that the rediscovery of African philosophies at the turn of the twentieth century is part of an effort to create a coordinate, reflexive, bicultural or multicultural generation of African children and youth ready to take on the complex world in which they find themselves. The 'coordinate' bilingual, © Juta & Co Ltd

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1 according to Mazrui (1998), operates in two or more languages, and controls two cultures — two world-views. In other words, taken to a cultural level, the project of retrieving African philosophies would not be tenable if its objectives were extremism and cultural determinism. It is hoped that this volume will represent a beginning to the process of deconstruction and reconstruction of distorted meanings, a reconnection with reality checks where this has been disrupted, an interrogation of the totalitarian meta-narratives, and a genuine initiative to give legitimacy to marginalized voices. This volume should give strength to the marginalized and the silenced and dispel their fears, self-doubts as well as their self-loathing. It should play a major role in laying the foundation for the integration through dialogue of knowledge systems, and in addressing issues of cognitive justice in Africa. References Adams, NA. 1993. Worlds Apart The North-South Divide and the International System. London: Zed Books. Apple, M. 1978. Ideology, reproduction and educational reform. Comparative Education Review, 22(3). Berger, P & Luckman, T. 1971. The Social Construction of Reality. London: Penguin. Bourdieu, P & Passeron, I-C. 1977. Reproduction in Education, Society and Culture. London: Sage Publications. Brock, Utne B. 1989. Feminist Perspectives on Peace and Peace Education. Oxford: Pergamon Press. Grossman, P. 1999. Endogenization and African Universities. Initiatives and Issues in the Quest for Plurality in the Human Sciences. Catholic University of Leuven. Daun, H. 1992. Childhood Learning and Adult Life: The Functions of Islamic and Western Education in an African Context. Stockholm: Institute of International Education, Stockholm University.

Dias, P. 1993. Democratization and education as a political challenge to social authoritarianism in India. Nord-Sud Aktuell — Themen, 2. Quartal 1993. Galtung, J. 1996. Peace By Peaceful Means: Peace and Conflict, Development and Civilization. London: Sage Publications. Hettne, B. 1990. Development Theory and the Three Worlds. London: Longman Group. Illich, I. 1970. Deschooling Society. London: Harrow Books. Kabede, Messay. 1994. Meaning and Development. Value Inquiry Book Series 18. Amsterdam: Rodopi.

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1 Mazrui, AM. 1998. Language and the quest for liberation: The legacy of Frantz Fanon. In Mazrui, AA & Mazrui, AM. The Power of Babel Language & Governance in the African Experience. Oxford: James Currey. Ndoye, M. 1997. Globalization, endogenous development and education. Africa. Prospects, XXVII(l), March 1997. Odora Hoppers, CA. 1998. Structural Violence as a Constraint to African Policy Formation in the 1990s: Repositioning Education in International Relations. Stockholm: Institute of International Education, Stockholm University. Power, CN. 1997. Learning: A means or an end? Prospects, XXVII(2), June 1997. Prebisch, R. 1950. The Economic Development of Latin America and its Principal Problems. New York: United Nations. Prebisch, R. 1980. Towards a theory of change. CEPAL Review No. 9, 1980. Richards, H. 1995. Education for Constructive Development. The Nehru Lectures given at the University of Baroda, Gujarat State, India, August/September 1995. Sachs, W. 1992. Introduction. In Sachs, W (ed). 1992. The Development Dictionary. A Guide to Knowledge as Power. London: Zed Books. Samoff, J. 1993. The reconstruction of schooling in Africa. In Comparative Education Review, 37(2), May 1993. Unesco. 1996. Learning: The Treasure Within. Report to Unesco of the International Commission on Education for the Twenty-First Century. Paris: Unesco. Wa Thiongo, N. 1993. Moving the Centre. The Struggle for Cultural Freedoms. London: James Currey; Nairobi: EAPH; Portsmouth NH: Heinemann.

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2 The Nature of Learning, Teaching and Research in Higher Education in Africa Narciso Matos

INTRODUCTION The Origin of Higher Education in Africa Historical rigor requires us to state that 'the roots of the university as a community of scholars, with an international outlook but also with responsibilities within particular cultures, can be traced back to two institutions that developed in Egypt in the last two or three centuries BC and AD One is the Alexandria Museum and Library, and the other is the monastic system' (Ajayi, Goma & Johnson 1996). These institutions, together with the University of Al-Karawiyyin, established in the year AD 559 in the Old City of Fez in present-day Morocco, and the Al-Azhar University of Cairo, founded in AD 970, as well as the University of Timbuktu, in present-day Mali, which flourished in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, are the oldest higher education institutions in Africa — and arguably among the oldest universities in the world. Important as it is to remind ourselves of this golden era of human civilization, during which Africa led the way in scientific scholarship, the purpose of this work is to focus on the origins and current state of contemporary higher education institutions. Colonial Higher Education Initiatives taken in postsecondary education in South Africa are among the oldest in sub-Saharan Africa and date back to 1829 with the creation of the South African College at Cape Town and the Victoria College at Stellenbosch. By 1858 the Board of Public Examination in Literature and Science was founded as a degree-granting institution only. This was followed with the creation of the 12

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2 University of the Cape of Good Hope (1873), later renamed the University of South Africa (1916), the University of Cape Town (1829) and the University of Fort Hare (1951), which evolved from the University College of Fort Hare (1916), and the South African Native College (1923), founded as an institution providing secondary education and preparatory courses for university entrance. In other parts of the continent, among the oldest universities are the Fourah Bay College in Sierra Leone (1826, started university training in 1876), the Sheik Anta Diop University in Dakar (1918), the University of Makerere in Uganda (1922), and the Universities of Ibadan in Nigeria and of Ghana-Legon (1948) (International Association of Universities (IAU) 1996). In the wave of national emancipation which followed the end of World War II, several other universities were established as overseas campuses affiliated to universities in Europe. In these universities, the leadership, the curricula and study programmes, the research agenda and the academic and technical staff were transplanted with little or no adaptation, or simply copied from the European parent institutions. Indeed, most postgraduate training was offered only in the metropolitan parent institutions, and campuses in Africa trained undergraduates only. As a result, research was limited to very few areas and advanced research was seldom undertaken in Africa. The mission of these earlier universities in Africa was to train personnel to fill the 'European positions' and serve the colonial system. They trained students from the settlers' communities and small minorities of indigenous students, preparing them to undertake responsibilities in the colonial administration and in the economic exploitation of the countries' resources, to the benefit of the colonizing power. Thotigh physically located in Africa, the colonial university did not respond to the needs of the country: this was not the objective for which it was founded. It was not until after independence and the deliberate efforts of the newly established African governments that universities began to be redirected to serve local needs. As we shall discuss later, the process of Africanizing the university proved to be a difficult one and at the present time is still far from complete. The Developmental University In the years following political independence, higher education in Africa was considered one of the first priorities and pillars in the development of the new nation states and, as such, received full support from national governments. The challenge for the 'developmental university' was to train the cadres needed to replace the colonial administrators and to create indigenous capacity. Higher education, like other sectors of education, was considered a public good, and governments considered it their duty and responsibility to provide free higher education. Governments were also the main and often the only major employer of university graduates. © Juta & Co Ltd

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2 With economic stagnation and the failure of the state to provide jobs, there followed not only a scarcity of resources but also a measure of doubt regarding the relevance of developing higher education. A combination of factors determined a downturn in academic performance. Firstly, the diminished financial resources were no longer sufficient to equip libraries, provide laboratories and classrooms with adequate equipment, support research and publication, pay adequate salaries, provide acceptable scholarships to needy students and maintain facilities. In brief, the financial allocations to higher education were no longer sufficient to support an environment conducive to academic development. Secondly, the explosion in the number of students seeking admission to higher education by far surpassed the capacity available. Poor diversification of tertiary education systems and low regard for other forms of training (for example, for teacher training and other forms of vocational training offered in specialized institutions), as well as poor employment prospects for university graduates, provoked a demand for places in universities that could not be met. Thirdly, university-government relations deteriorated to a situation of mistrust and confrontation which was further aggravated by political pronouncements and activism within university circles, and the trend in government spheres to curtail academic freedom and other forms of 'dissent'. Fourthly, student demands relating to poor conditions in students' residences frequently led to campus violence and university closures. Fifthly, university leadership often lost a sense of direction and lacked the necessary initiative to lead the institutions through these crisis periods. Last but not least, and particularly after the 1990 Jomtien World Conference on Education for All, theories about higher rates of social return on investments in basic education as compared to higher education led to a total neglect of tertiary education, thus aggravating the financial crisis of the system. This, by and large, is still the situation facing universities in Africa today. HIGHER EDUCATION IN AFRICA TODAY The Global Picture

Before the decade of the 1960s there were approximately 42 universities in Africa, many of which were in North Africa and in South Africa. With independence, this number increased rapidly to approximately 90 by the 1970s, 150 by the 1990s, and an estimated 300 universities today. Despite all efforts and the remarkable increase in the number of universities and overall student enrolments, higher education in Africa is far from able to respond to the increasing demand for access, while at the same time providing quality higher education and research. With about 788 million inhabitants in 53 countries, of which about 510 million are in sub-Saharan Africa, Africa's 300 universities and other institutions of higher learning fall far below current needs. Moreover, 488 million people 14

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2 (61,2 %) live in the ten most populated countries of Africa, and these ten countries account for about 133 universities and 220 other institutions of higher education, which constitutes about 44 % of the total number of existing institutions. By 1991 the continent's gross enrolment ratio in tertiary education was 4,6 million (2,5 for sub-Saharan Africa ), compared to 6,9 for Asia, 17,6 for Latin America and the Caribbean, 29,5 for Europe and 73,6 for North America. The enrolment ratio per 100 000 inhabitants is the world's lowest. While the world's scientific and technical human resources per million inhabitants was 23,4 in 1998, it was 3,4 for Africa (Unesco 1998; International Association of Universities (IAU) 1996, 1997). What these few statistics illustrate is that higher education in Africa — at least in the number and geographical distribution of institutions — compares poorly with higher education in other regions of the world. These figures also suggest that an imbalanced distribution of population and of institutions of higher education across the continent contributes to making the situation even more complex than the statistics show. For example, linguistic differences and poor transportation and communication systems on the continent (among other reasons which will be discussed later) severely restrict the possibility of sharing the few resources available to tertiary education.1

Access and Equity Access to higher and particularly to university education has become a major problem in virtually every African country. The number of students completing secondary education and applying to universities has increased to such an extent that university systems can no longer cope. In the most popular areas of study the number of qualified students who are denied access owing to lack of capacity of the institutions increases every year. This is often compounded by the absence of alternative training programmes regarded by parents and students as equally conducive to better opportunities and higher standards of living after graduation. Access is also more difficult for students from poorer households, from rural areas, and most particularly for girls. The latter is shown by the percentage of girls enrolling, which is normally situated around 20 %. In science and technology the participation of female students is even smaller. To counter the situation, some countries have been adopting strategies which include the creation of new universities or of new campuses in remote areas to improve geographical coverage, providing student hostels, loans and scholarships for needy students and for girls, encouraging girls at lower levels of education to pursue university studies, especially in areas traditionally 'reserved' through complex sociocultural values and taboos for their male colleagues, and experimenting with distance education and open universities. These measures are certainly helping to improve the situation, which, however, is far from ideal. © Juta & Co Ltd

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2 Relevance and Quality Financial shortcomings and derived consequences in the operation of higher education institutions lead to the unquestioned conclusion that the quality of education and research (and, as a consequence, the quality of graduates) has deteriorated. The research output has also decreased. It can be argued that there is an element of injustice in such a sweeping generalization — that there is no established assessment system and therefore no scientific evidence on which to base such conclusions. But the perceptions of society, and even of African governments, attest to the mistrust in the quality of university delivery in Africa. Today, a growing number of students from affluent households and ruling political classes opt to study overseas. Government and other institutions, rather than giving priority to local professionals, prefer the services of foreign experts to carry out studies and consultancies. Lack of relevance is another perception associated with African universities. Trapped in their internal problems and exhausted by their survival strategies, universities show little capacity to adapt to change and to respond to the demands posed by society and by economic trends. For example, training in business administration, in information and communication sciences, and other modern fields most demanded in growing economies, is being undertaken by new and small private universities or by franchised campuses of overseas institutions. With the exception of faculties of medicine — which are usually deeply involved in, and form an integral part of, national health systems — universities are seen as marginal players in the development agendas of many nations. The Nature of Educational Policy It has now been accepted that an educated population is the primary resource that every nation must strive to build, and that this in turn is a prerequisite for socioeconomic and cultural development. Unlike the situation in the past, when natural resources counted most, today only an educated population can contribute meaningfully to development and participate significantly in the international distribution of labour and wealth. Only such a population is equipped to use effectively and in a sustainable manner the resources available in the country, without exhausting or degrading the environment and ultimately jeopardizing long-term development. It is today also widely accepted that to achieve such a high level of education in society, there is a need for national educational policies which address education in a holistic way. Policies that accept that all types and levels of education build a unit, need to be harmoniously planned and developed; such policies must also take into account the fact that achievement at any given level depends upon the quality of education at the previous level, and that this in turn determines success at subsequent levels. This is increasingly becoming the line adopted by those African countries that have in the recent past overhauled their education systems. 16

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2 Higher education, for its part, is gradually recovering from the neglect and deterioration resulting from past economic hardships and from misconceptions such as the belief that it would be possible to achieve the goal of education for all by the year 2000 without the contribution of higher education. University education is slowly emerging from the decade-long perception that it is both irrelevant and expensive. Higher education institutions are also recognizing that they have an indispensable role to play in support of other systems and levels of education. The role of the university in the educational sector has recently been the theme of several major university conferences in Africa, including a Joint Association of African Universities-World Bank Colloquium in Maseru, Lesotho (1995), a General Conference of the AAU in Lusaka, Zambia (1997), and more recently an African Regional Consultation organized by Unesco in Dakar, Senegal (1998) in preparation for the World Conference on Higher Education held in Paris, France (1998) (Association of African Universities (AAU) 1995; Goma 1997; Matos 1997). At these and other events, the responsibility of higher education institutions to contribute to the advancement of the whole education system in areas such as educational research, curriculum development, production of study materials, training of teachers, school administrators and other educational personnel, as well as in highlighting the uses of computers and associated technologies of information and communication which make education more friendly and effective, has been reaffirmed. Lacking both a sound research base complete and reliable educational statistics (a problem discussed in another part of this chapter), and facing economic and budgetary constraints which fall far short of actual requirements, national education policies are in general poorly formulated and poorly translated into concrete action plans. The Functions of Higher Education and the Nature of Teaching and Learning The main functions of university education are the development of high-level human capacity, the advancement and application of new knowledge, and the generation and transmission of ideology, with the concomitant provision of intellectual leadership. At the centre of higher education activity is therefore the development of minds and the transmission of skills. The challenge is to stimulate further development of inquisitive minds, to help students to develop their capacity to understand natural and social phenomena, to interact critically with the environment, and to make informed choices. The ultimate goal of higher education is the betterment of society and the attainment of ever higher standards of living. To discharge these functions adequately, a higher education system must be firmly anchored in the cultural and intellectual environment of the community and of the country where it is located. The agents of education and research enterprise, the © Juta & Co Ltd

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2 academic staff, must continuously seek to understand the local environment and culture, transmit this to their students, and stimulate and guide them in the search for an ever deeper and more comprehensive understanding of reality. Setting and training the mind and creating this kind of tutor and learner is a process which needs to be developed from the early stages of basic education, by encouraging schoolchildren to ask questions and to expect clear answers. Rethinking the content of higher education in Africa must therefore begin with valorizing, seeking to understand and transmitting to students and to the community at large the knowledge base on which African societies are organised. It requires an understanding of the mathematical and geometrical concepts involved in building houses and granaries, in weaving baskets or painting walls, in designing elaborate patterns on pottery and cloth. It involves a willingness to further the current understanding of the pharmacological and medicinal properties of the plants and other materials used in traditional African medicine. It challenges academicians to study the traditional processes of land irrigation and the biological foundations on which the common popular practices of crop rotation and the selection and combination of certain types of crops are based. Modern African higher education needs to recognize the value and the wisdom informing the provision of local justice, the laws governing land tenure and inheritance, as well as the systems of government and succession of leadership. In sum, science, education — and particularly higher education — need to acknowledge African traditions and practices, and work towards eliciting and understanding their fundamentals, so as to include these in the education provided to new generations of children, students and thinkers. The major 'disease' of education in Africa is the systematic attempt to ignore and dismiss the intrinsic value of African culture, customs and practices. Indeed, there is a tendency to treat the African learners and society as if they were tabula rasa, void of any knowledge or value systems, on which foreign cultures and knowledge could be imprinted without resistance.

The Nature of Curricula in Higher Education Conceptually there are hardly any fundamental differences in the methods used in, and the results expected from, higher education and research in Africa and elsewhere in the world, with the exception of the human and material resources put at the disposal of higher education and research institutions. Very often, and because a significant number of African scholars are themselves the product of Northern schools, the content of education and research in Africa and in the industrialized world is essentially the same. What is fundamentally different is the subject of the academic enterprise: the student. This is also true of the ultimate objective of the activity: to produce a positive impact on African society, which is in every aspect — culturally, socially, economically and politically — different from Western societies. 18

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2 The underlying objective of academic activity in Africa has been to bring out 'civilized' African elites. Since the period of colonization of the continent, and even over the past three decades since the political independence of most African countries, the aim has been to transform African into Western societies. Not surprisingly, universities in most of Africa have so far failed to produce human resources that bring about the much-needed changes and the betterment of the social conditions of communities. The average African university trains elites which are more like the old colonial settlers than average African citizens. Education uproots and alienates the 'educated' from society. Language is the most dramatic example of this alienation. A typical 'educated' African cannot articulate his/her knowledge in his/her mother tongue, or share and transmit such knowledge to the community. The more specialized the scientific knowledge, the more alien it becomes to society. Though generally accepted that instruction is more effective in the mother tongue, virtually not a single African language is used today as a medium of instruction at university level. And very few are taught even as subjects — this notwithstanding the acknowledged fact that 'to a poor child or adult, school or literacy class may seem to be an alien place, part of a richer, more powerful world that is difficult to enter and in which it is even more difficult to succeed. If the people in this world also communicate in a strange language, then the difficulties seem overwhelming' (Haggis 1990). The command of foreign languages by students at university level is less than sufficient to ensure participation in scientific discourse and discovery. As stated earlier, university education refuses to acknowledge the knowledge present in African society. Literature, poetry, art in all forms and manifestations, history, religion, cosmogony, and in general culture2 represent other extreme cases where African philosophy has been ignored and at best tolerated within the content of the educational systems. These disciplines are as exotic and absent from the curricula in Africa as anywhere else in the world (as a matter of fact, sometimes they are even more absent in Africa than in some schools in the West — except that they continue present in the minds of students and teachers, where they constitute a world separate and different from the world of science and education). In short, the curricula in Africa ignore African literature (oral or otherwise), history, poetry, religion and in general the African reading of the universe. Science and education in Africa do not seek to understand and improve local knowledge systems. These have deliberately been replaced with Western systems and paradigms. In the same vein, learning is not conceived to adapt to the African learner. The very concept of school as we know it from Western civilization (as a place where students of well-defined age groups come together at well-defined times and periods and acquire well-defined sequences of skills and a body of information) is unlike learning systems in the homes, villages and countries of average African © Juta & Co Ltd

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2 students. Even today, an overwhelming majority of university students in Africa are the first of their kin to have access to a university. Most are part of the tiny minority amidst their kin who can read and write, who have had access to school. And yet, society in Africa does have its artists, healers, artisans, mechanics, musicians, hunters, rain-makers, midwives, priests, fishermen, sages and others. Their skills and knowledge are neither acquired from, nor preserved in, books. Their school and education, except for occasional 'rites of passage', is life in its entirety, their education takes place at all times, at all ages, in all places. Knowledge is transmitted to selected people, from master to apprentice. Mass education is not part of the local educational paradigm. The African learning system seems therefore fundamentally different from what the student faces at school and later at university. It is small wonder then that academics are often heard to remark on the tendency of students to learn by rote; on students who do not value books as they are expected to; on students who read very little and mostly from notes taken during classes, rather than from books (as a matter of fact, books are not available at school or university libraries; they are also not a common commodity in the households or communities). Sooner or later, almost every school-leaver who completes basic education in rural Africa abandons his/her 'society' and emigrates to an urban centre. Also, a significant number of African university graduates emigrate to 'greener pastures'.3 Notwithstanding the significance of political, economic, security and other reasons (which are discussed later), this might be a reflection of the problem of the relevance and adequacy of the education curricula and learning systems in Africa. The great challenge facing educators in Africa is therefore to understand African societies and minds, learning systems, and to design schools, universities, study programmes and curricula which seek to adapt students to society and make them agents of a gradual but sustained improvement of the standard of living. And this requires a deep understanding of and respect for African societies. It takes a profound re-evaluation of the objectives of education and a long-term commitment to change for the better.

The Nature of Educational Research Research on education, and particularly on higher education, is a new discipline, and most publications in this and related areas are authored not by scholars specially devoted to the matter, but by academics working in other disciplines, or by members of national and international institutions engaged in education. Often the content of such publications is based on observations and lessons of experience, and only in exceptional cases on systematic and disciplined research. This underlies the fact that until very recently, it was uncommon to provide training to members of the academic staff, other than in their discipline of 20

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2 specialization. Didactics, pedagogics, psychology of education and other sciences have long been accepted as important elements for good teaching at all levels of pre-university education. Yet, to the present day, they have not been accepted or widely introduced as important knowledge and skills capable of improving the performance of teaching and research at university level. For the same reason, it is still exceptional to find leadership, administration or management training opportunities for university leaders. The assumption and following practice has been that it does not take special skills to be an effective university manager, and the sole condition for appointment to a leadership position was and still is of academic nature. Surprising as it may sound, quality assessment and evaluation is another novelty in academic activity. Peer review and scientific publication are still the governing principles and rules of assessment. Self-evaluation of whole university systems, faculties or schools, with the assistance of external evaluators, is only now slowly becoming accepted. Less widespread is the evaluation of programmes or of single disciplines. In Africa, it was not until as recently as 1993 that a Study Programme on Higher Education Management in Africa (Association of African Universities (AAU) 1999) started to build a cadre of human resources and a body of knowledge on Higher Education Management Issues in the continent. Experiences of national systems of evaluation and assessment at university level are also a new phenomenon being developed in very few African countries.4 Preparation for Higher Education It seems that every generation believes that 'education in our times was undisputably better than today'. This claim seems to apply also to students applying for university admission. Today, however, students seem undoubtedly less prepared than in the past. A number of factors seem to confirm — or rather to make more easily acceptable — this assumption. Massification of primary and secondary education was undertaken without correspondent investment in the system. As a result, fewer resources had to be stretched over ever-increasing demands for more and better trained teachers, school administrators and other personnel; for more and adequately equipped schools; for resources to produce more textbooks and other didactic tools; and for resources to extend school systems to further and once isolated regions in the countries. As stated before, the economies and even the national education policies of most African countries did not respond to these demands, and deterioration of the learning environment was the result. Efforts to extend access to rural and once remote and inaccessible areas, while contributing to reduce national imbalances and promote equity, were not without problems. Everywhere in Africa quality of education decreases, the further away © Juta & Co Ltd

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2 one moves from urban centres, and particularly the further away one moves from national capital cities. Students originating from these areas are handicapped, not as a result of lower Intelligence coefficients' (on the contrary, as survivors of these often much more competitive processes, most must be above average), but simply because they have fewer opportunities. Before coming to university they have less opportunity to use the language of instruction in daily interactions, to get access to all kinds of information, to libraries or to personal books, to properly trained teachers — and often they go without teachers in some key disciplines. National education systems are also not sufficiently diversified to offer different and equally attractive outlets to students. University training seems to be the ultimate goal of every student and parent. Massification and increased equity therefore comes with a high price. For the first time the claim about an ever poorer quality of student enrolment seems to be grounded on easily observable facts. To counter the problem posed by poor pre-university preparation of students, particularly by students coming from poorer school environments, higher education institutions adopted quota systems and other forms of 'positive discriminatory strategies' such as remedial courses designed to cater for needy students. Some institutions have created pre-entry courses, in which selected subjects such as science and mathematics are offered. Others have experimented with periods of adaptation and upgrading going well within the traditional university curricula. Others have strengthened tutorial and other measures to assist students, mainly during the first years of higher education training. Still others have extended the duration of studies, thus allowing more time for students to recoup deficiencies. Incidentally, similar strategies are used to increase the participation of girls in higher education, as well as to cater for students from underprivileged groups. The results achieved through these and similar strategies are varied, and their 'correctness' and success is always a debatable matter. Coordination of Higher Education Policy The need for the coordination of policies and initiatives on education, science and technology at the level of the continent or within the framework of regional economic groups such as ECOWAS, SADC, COMESA, etc, is widely accepted. Long before the current world trends towards globalization and regional integration, numerous international conferences such as the conference in 1964 in Lagos, which culminated in the approval of the 'Lagos Plan of Action', had been held in Africa and had approved resolutions and recommendations which are up to date and relevant even by today's standards. The weakness in Africa has often been the failure to follow up the decisions of the conferences with concrete action. More recently, in 1996 in Cameroon, African heads of state declared the period 1997-2006 the Decade of Education.5 In the wake of the declaration, African 22

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2 ministers of education are currently debating implementation strategies, including the establishment of a permanent secretariat in Addis Ababa, which should be adequately endowed with human resources and means to successfully undertake the task. Ministers of education also coordinate their policies within the framework of other organizations such as the Unesco-sponsored MINEDAF6 conferences, the last of which was held in 1998 in South Africa, and which also has as an implementing agency, a permanent secretariat hosted by the Unesco regional office in Pretoria. Coordination of policies also takes place under the auspices of ADEA,7 which has an executive secretariat hosted by the International Institute for Educational Planning in Paris. At subregional level, there are also conferences of ministers and other government officers responsible for educational policy. Higher education and research are also the object of several coordinating bodies such as the AAU, CODESRIA, SAPES, AAS,8 as well as language- or subregionally inspired associations. Despite this clarity of purpose and the existence of a constellation of organizations devoted to promoting cooperation, much is left to be desired. The degree of comparability and compatibility of educational systems across national boundaries — for example, the duration and form of studies, the core contents of programmes, the nature of certificates awarded — are only very seldom coordinated. This is also reflected by the virtual non-existence of multicountry systems of accreditation or recognition of studies and degrees. As a matter of fact, educational systems have been traditionally designed upon the model of the former colonies, and such links have been maintained to the extent that there are more similarities between African countries and their former colonizer-nations than between African countries who share common borders and maintain significant movements of persons and goods between them. Coordination at national level, particularly between different subsystems and levels of education, is often very weak. This is especially true of vertical coordination between general basic education — normally compulsory education — and postsecondary education. It is also evident in horizontal coordination such as that which takes place between vocational training and adult education, or between different types of tertiary education, such as education offered in research universities and other types of professional-oriented institutions such as the polytechnic institutes. At the level of higher education coordination is often provided by ministries and national commissions in charge of higher education, and by committees of vice chancellors or their equivalent. The emergence in the higher education arena of private universities, of franchised campuses of overseas institutions, as well as of distance learning possibilities such as the African virtual universities,9 raises possibilities and problems of coordination, accreditation and equivalences which African countries are still to address.

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2 Private Universities in Africa Private institutions of higher education are a very recent development in Africa. They are mostly associated with religious denominations, account for a still limited enrolment of students, offer degrees mainly in social sciences and humanities (for example, religious studies, law, government studies, business administration), and conduct virtually no or very limited research. In the majority of cases most of their best-qualified staff are employed on a part-time basis and belong to public institutions. Private universities increase training opportunities for students, reinforce the capacity for training in fields where demand is usually high, introduce a degree of academic competition by giving students more options for choice, and contribute to supplement the income of the academic staff recruited from public institutions. As such they are a very welcome development for the continent. At the same time, it needs to be acknowledged that their contribution is limited by their very small size, the array of courses they offer (capital-intensive courses like engineering and medicine are rarely offered in private universities), and by the poverty of the average African household, which cannot afford the costs of education in private institutions (unlike public institutions, private institutions seek to recover the full costs of their operations, even when they do not seek a profit). Like distance education, private universities in Africa should not be regarded as alternative solutions, but rather as complementary to the backbone provided by a well-functioning and dynamic public sector. The Brain Drain and its Impact on Higher Education Africa continues to lose thousands of highly trained experts to the developed countries, mainly to North America, but also to the Gulf States, and even to Southeast Asia and Australia. The causes and extent of emigration vary from one country to another, but the following rate among the most common causes: poor economic performance and failure to create sufficient new jobs; negative side effects of structural adjustment programmes, with their associated measures to eliminate or reduce budget deficits and public expenditure; downsizing or retreat of government from economic activity and the liquidation or privatization of parastatal enterprises; political and social instability and insecurity; inadequate or undefined national policies for training, employing, rewarding adequately and giving incentives to personnel; long graduate and postgraduate programmes in developed countries, often in areas unrelated to developmental needs, or not coupled with strategies for reintegrating the trainees in their home countries and communities of origin; and the absence of national policies for or investments in science and technology. 24

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2 Some developed countries have put in place emigration policies and laws which actively seek to attract and retain qualified personnel from other parts of the world, with priority given to foreign graduate and research students studying in those countries. These causes, associated with retarded development in Africa, explain the massive exodus of qualified personnel who have left the continent in their thousands and have settled mostly in North America and Europe over the past ten to twenty years. Some accounts claim that the rate of the brain drain is diminishing, but it is generally accepted that the process has not stopped and, indeed, in some countries has even worsened. The brain drain has had a profound impact on higher education and research in the continent. In most African countries south of the Sahara universities are home to the largest number of experts and, in some cases, they are the only national institutions with the structure and skills to undertake research or provide informed advice on various aspects of development. With the deterioration of the situation universities have started to lose personnel who have simply left their countries of origin in search of 'greener pastures'. Unattractive conditions of service also do not facilitate the process of recruiting new staff to replace those who have left or have reached retirement age. Structural adjustment programmes and measures taken to revive the countries' economies in the initial stages also aggravate the loss of staff, either as a result of salaries being frozen (to reduce public expenditure) or because the emerging markets attract staff by offering better conditions of service in the private sector. Increasing demand for studies and for private consultancies also contributes to a reduction in real terms of the time devoted by staff to higher education and research. For these reasons, higher education is a net loser of staff and thus of quality in both the phase of decline and at the beginning of the process of economic recovery. REVITALIZATION OF THE UNIVERSITY IN AFRICA Concept and Strategies for Revitalizing Higher Education in Africa

A joint publication (World Bank 1997) by the World Bank, the AAU and nine major international and regional scientific institutions in Africa, as well as several funding agencies, advocates strategic planning as the first most important step that African universities must take to regain initiative and reshape their future. Strategic planning is predicated as an inclusive process of consultation involving the university leadership, representatives of the academic staff, students and the entire academic community, as well as representatives of the state, the government and other constituencies in society. As a process of consultation, strategic planning should generate understanding and consensus among the most relevant stakeholders, and as such it constitutes an indispensable step in the university's efforts to adjust its role to the expectations of society and to ensure the support needed for the implementation of the approved plans. © Juta & Co Ltd

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2 To lead to real revitalization of the institution, the implementation of the strategic plan requires that key higher education and university policy matters be addressed, and calls upon the university and government authorities, as well as the funding community, to revise their policies and practices and to play active roles. The priority matters to be addressed include issues such as the expansion of access to higher education, diversification of tertiary education opportunities, the financing of the system, the improvement of the quality and relevance of university education, the management of human, financial and physical resources, the access to scientific information and technology, and the strengthening of research activity. The need to strengthen regional and institutional cooperation (particularly at the level of graduate training and research), to enrol an equitable number of female students and to create an environment conducive to their academic success, the imperative to embrace new information and communication technologies, to internationalize curricula and study programmes, to strengthen involvement with and support given to other levels and subsystems of education, are some of the challenges brought about by revitalization. A failure to meet these challenges can only result in the exclusion of the university from the process of renaissance in Africa. Expansion of Access Universities have to cope with an increasing demand for higher education without compromising the quality of training and research. In most cases a diversification of the nature and duration of studies and degrees is required. The contribution of private institutions of higher education in complementing the public sector must be recognized and supported. No less important is the issue of the geographical location of the institutions, which should foster equitable access by students originating from all parts of national territories. Financing Higher Education Since the independence of most countries in Africa, the financing of higher education has been based on the idea that education, including higher education, is a public good and that, as such, it is the responsibility of government to provide education to all citizens. Today this paradigm needs to be challenged and it deserves revision, if only for the fact that no African country is in a position to sustain it financially. Universities are called to discuss and propose new policies which encourage the direct beneficiaries of higher education — the students and their families — to contribute to the cost of higher education. This was indeed the spirit of the recommendation adopted unanimously by about 200 university leaders and policy-makers assembled in Arusha, Tanzania, in February 1999: 26

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2 namely that 'cost sharing by students and their parents should be adopted as a contribution to financing higher education and research'.10 At the same time, universities need to take into consideration the fact that most students originate from low income groups and need support in the form of grants, scholarships or loans. In addition, universities ought to explore very actively other sources of income such as undertaking studies for government departments or private concerns, consultancy work, contract research and other forms of incomegenerating activities, to complement their resources without jeopardizing their primary role. In this exercise, the role and prime responsibility of government to provide resources to universities should not be diminished, and the notion of higher education and research as strategic investments in the future of the nation must be retained. Quality and Relevance Regardless of the existence or otherwise of scientific evidence on which to base such an assumption, there is a general public perception that the quality of higher education and research in the continent has deteriorated and, in some cases, reached unacceptably low levels. This in turn serves to lower the level of confidence in the system, as is reflected, inter alia, in the fact that more and more students are opting to study abroad in the developed countries rather than at their home universities. To address this matter universities need to consider quality as a key dimension of their work, and to establish systems and processes to deal with quality assessment and enhancement. The challenge for institutions of higher education is to define concepts of quality based upon their institutional missions, and the quality or qualities expected of every activity or product — the quality of graduates, of research and of community services. Higher education institutions need to learn and benefit from the experiences of monitoring and self-evaluation adopted by those institutions which have been dealing with quality issues for longer periods of time. They need to develop systems for upgrading the quality of academic and support staff, including their research capacity and their pedagogical and didactic knowledge and skills. New methods of delivering education must be embraced and the environmental and human factors that determine the quality of work and the ultimate quality of the education enterprise must be addressed. Human and Material Resources One of the consequences of the financial difficulties facing universities is their diminished ability to train and retain staff. Well known and equally well documented are the causes of poor motivation of staff; the causes of moonlighting and other forms of absenteeism and low productivity; as well as the causes of the 'brain drain'. What remains for universities is to address the problem, to engage in © Juta & Co Ltd

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2 constructive dialogue with governments to determine the possible levels of financial assistance that they can provide, and to agree on alternative strategies for financing higher education. Internally, higher education institutions need to establish reward systems related to the performance of individual academic units and personnel. Universities also need to show more creativity in their efforts to complement government funding with innovative institutional policies which encourage the generation of income. Higher education institutions need to provide incentives to increase the dynamism and creativity of their staff.

Addressing the Brain Drain Africa does not desire isolation and recognizes that international contacts and mobility of persons, ideas and goods are integral elements of today's development. The problem facing countries in Africa and the rest of the developing world is the fact that people's migration takes place in one single direction, from developing to developed countries. This deprives developing countries of the human resources they so desparately need for their own development. Experience in some countries in Southeast Asia (for example South Korea) and even in Africa (South Africa, Botswana) suggests that the solution to the flight of qualified personnel — and for that matter also of financial capital — is political stability and economic development. As a matter of fact, past experience (for example in some countries in the Pacific) suggests that even less democratic and tolerant societies (at least by Western standards) succeed to reverse migration trends and to attract back some of their nationals once clear development policies have been put in place and sustained over long periods of time. Environments and resources that stimulate entrepreneurship and creative work and guarantee the possibility of maintaining links with peers internationally further reduce the brain drain. In this context, the processes of economic recovery and social development taking place in some African countries provide the best remedies and offer justified hope for a solution of the problem of the brain drain. Various other measures have been adopted to mitigate the problem. Though they do not address the root causes, they do offer some relief. Examples of such measures are institutional development and capacity-building strategies, which combine the training of personnel, the improvement of working conditions and facilities, and the renovation of management structures with sectorial and national development policies. Training human resources primarily in the developing countries themselves, rather than through long courses in advanced centres in the North, and at the same time creating work teams with satisfactory working conditions further addresses some of the causes of emigration. Attempts have also been made by some countries, for example Eritrea, to build networks and organize their nationals in the diaspora to contribute to the development of their nation without necessarily returning home. The success and effective impact of such initiatives is still to be evaluated. 28

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2 The combination of human development strategies with initiatives to promote regional cooperation and integration provide an additional avenue. Access to Information A strategy to develop a university information system is a fundamental component of the plan to revitalize the institution. Obviously 'management decisions are only as good as the information on which they are based* (World Bank 1997). The increasing dimensions and growing complexity of university management require a sound system of access, storage, flow and dissemination of information, and the existence of a motivated and well-trained cadre of managers equipped to make good use of the information available. It goes without saying that access to up-to-date scientific information is a prerequisite for quality education and research. The central role of university libraries as repositories of scientific literature and as internal and external institutional communication hubs should not be overshadowed by the current emphasis on new information and communication technologies. Such technologies will only help universities and African scientists keep pace with and contribute to development of science if at the same time libraries are well equipped and endowed with books and scientific journals. To ensure that sufficient resources are devoted to equipping university libraries adequately, coordination with national policies is essential. Furthermore, the design and implementation of the national communication infrastructure must take into consideration the requirements of universities and other research and scientific institutions in the country. Research Capacity When resources are scarce, the pressure to pay salaries, to provide food and accommodation for students, and to meet utilities bills takes precedence over all other key areas which constitute the raison d'etre of the university institution. For one thing, the former are served by strong and vocal pressure groups, and funds for libraries and for research are the first to suffer. This means that universities are no longer capable of performing one of their key functions: to sustain first-class research, to generate and apply the knowledge needed to meet Africa's challenges. Without research universities lose also the capacity to offer first-class graduate studies, they lose the capacity to motivate and retain their best brains, and they lose the capacity to train the new generation of research fellows and scientists. The best school of research is research itself. Without good libraries and laboratories, universities lose the capacity to offer quality undergraduate courses, which are in turn the foundation for research and graduate studies. In their programmes for revitalization, universities face the challenge of addressing the components of research capacity (Sawyerr 1997), namely the environment component and the active component. OJuta&CoLtd

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2 As Sawyerr (1997) asserts, to re-establish a research environment, universities ought to cooperate with other levels of education to support the provision of 'a sound educational system which encourages and equips people to be curious about nature and society, and to develop an interest in the pursuit of knowledge and ideas'. They ought to foster 'broad social policies and practices that reward innovation and inquiry, and encourage and facilitate the flow of information. In the specific institutional context universities need to put in place management systems and policies that are sufficiently flexible and geared to the support of the research enterprise; a minimum of research infrastructure, such as laboratories, equipment, libraries, and an effective system of information storage, retrieval and utilization; an overall culture supportive of research and inquiry' (Sawyerr 1997). The human resources, the active component of research, require adequate curricula and study programmes and a system that makes research attractive and rewards achievements. It requires the assembling of a critical mass of researchers and the cultivation of a positive research culture. As stated before, universities are in most cases the only institutions in the country with the capacity to undertake research. The importance of this activity is therefore paramount: only research can provide the country with a cadre of personnel with the necessary analytical skills to contribute to the formulation of plans for national development. Research also generates the capacity for dialogue and negotiation with international partners, a component which has become even more important with the opening of African societies to the global markets. Regional Cooperation

There are a number of compelling reasons why university leaders in the continent have come to the realization that they all face similar problems and that regional cooperation in graduate training and research could contribute to addressing existing challenges. Some of these are: the shortage of human and financial resources available to most of the institutions, and the resulting lack of capacity to undertake quality training and research in many areas of knowledge on their own; the need to build synergies through cooperation; the fact that Africa may not be able to overcome its problems in the various areas of development in the twenty-first century unless it works towards building substantial capacity for training and research; and the fact that Africa needs to remain in touch with modern developments worldwide. Universities now need to work towards initiating cooperation or strengthening existing cooperation arrangements in certain priority areas of training and research, with the voluntary participation of universities within a particular 30

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2 region. Such arrangements need the active support of and a deep sense of ownership by the participating institutions. In the process some obstacles will need to be removed, including, inter alia, emigration laws which discourage cross-border contacts (ironically it is often easier for a non-African than for a foreign African to be allowed into an African country), the absence of institutional policies that encourage cooperation with partners in the continent, a perceived lack of quality of education and research offered in other institutions (Ekhaguere 1998). Regional cooperation will also require the support of national governments and international agencies. Institutions need to identify the areas that will respond most directly to the development needs of their countries and communities, the areas in which they have some strength and comparative advantages, and match them with the definitions and interests of regional partners. Institutions like the AAU can play a supportive and catalytic role firstly by sensitizing member universities to the need, under current circumstances, to embrace regional cooperation as part of their strategies, and to assess the lessons learned from past and current networks as described, for example, in the reports prepared by Nwa/Houenou (1990) and by Aboderin (1995); secondly, by formulating and initiating the framework for regional cooperation among its members; thirdly, by liaising with funding agencies with a view to obtaining necessary funding; and finally by coordinating and monitoring the initial stages of the cooperation. Government-University Relations The flip side of the privilege of being unique are the high expectations and hence the delicate relationships between the universities and the different stakeholders in society. Academic liberty and university autonomy acquire a very particular meaning in Africa and present permanent challenges. With very few exceptions, universities in the continent are public institutions and receive most (if not all) of their funding from public funds, except for grants provided by funding agencies for very specific activities, frequently for research and for postgraduate training. Governments for their part see themselves as the 'elected' representatives of the people and thus as mandated to ensure that universities fulfil their obligations and that the right value is obtained in return for the money which taxpayers have invested in higher education. These two conditions are often compounded by factors like poor accountability of the university leadership or by political activism and alignment with one or other political stream by leaders or members of the academic community (students or staff). As a result, governments feel justified in violating the sacred liberty and autonomy that academic staff and universities must enjoy if they are to discharge their duties properly. Further, in countries with poor democratic track records, where respect for the rule of law and for basic civic liberties has been violated and where governments fail to appreciate the fundamental role to be played by © Juta & Co Ltd

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2 universities and to acknowledge the imperative of freedom and liberty in the pursuit of knowledge, universities are subject to all forms of interference. In the most extreme cases leaders and staff members are appointed and dismissed at will by government, if not imprisoned. The challenge to be responsive to public demands; to be fully accountable and to maintain transparency in all acts and expenditures; to remain faithful to the pursuit and diffusion of truth and the respect for the rights of all citizens; to maintain independence of judgement and to be politically non-aligned; to establish a principled relationship with the government — these are the biggest challenges facing the leadership of many African universities. Civil Society-University Relations The majority of African countries are undergoing very dramatic changes. By some counts over thirty-five African countries have carried out multiparty elections since 1990 (twenty-one for the first time), which were monitored by neutral and international observers; these countries are now implementing reforms which tend to strengthen democratic principles and structures, and the respect for constitutional law. As a result, in thirty-one countries opposition has been legalized, the roles of parliaments, of the judiciary, of professional organizations, of non-governmental associations and organizations, of the private sector in the economy have gained increased importance. The interests of these groups in society are now voiced in more articulated and influential ways. As with other spheres of life, access to university and, more generally, to university policies are being monitored and scrutinized more closely. The challenge for university leadership is to welcome these developments, to start a dialogue and work in partnership with representatives of civil society. The new developments must be viewed not as threats but as opportunities to widen the university's influence and role in society, to ensure a more diversified and broader basis of support, and eventually to gain additional and more sustainable sources of funding. The challenge is to strengthen the mechanisms and systems of reporting and to improve accountability, to mobilize public as well as government support. Universities are called upon to make information about their work accessible to the general public and to organize forums for the discussion of long- and medium-term development plans, of annual reports, of financial statements, as forms of improving their visibility and harnessing more support. External Donors-University Relations The stagnation and decline of socioeconomic conditions in Africa during the late 1970s, throughout the 1980s and the early part of the 1990s impacted negatively on each and every university in the continent. The structural adjustment programmes and associated policies justified by the need to contain 32

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2 and reduce public expenditure and to reduce fiscal deficits resulted in further reductions in the share of higher education in national budgets. In most cases government allocations to universities became insufficient and totally unrelated to their real financial needs. Despite the constantly decreasing salaries, government allocations could now hardly pay these on a regular basis, neither could they meet other minimum requirements of the institutions, such as the provision of funds for libraries, the renewal of equipment and the replenishment of laboratory stock, the maintenance of the physical infrastructure, etc. In this context donor agencies played a determinant role by providing much-needed funds to continue with some basic programmes. Regrettably, however, very often donor grants were earmarked for specific projects, with strict conditions for disbursement, reporting and financial statements, and very seldom were these conditions coordinated with institutional policies. Through their grants, funding agencies obtained increased influence over the institutions. They now determined activities, reporting cycles and procedures, negotiated and controlled projects or individual units directly, and in general interfered and limited the autonomy of the institutions and their capacity to establish priorities and approve their plans and priorities. It became a major challenge for university leaders to attract the much-needed grants and at the same time to maintain institutional autonomy, while satisfying the funding agencies and remaining faithful to institutional plans and to the country's needs. Experience has shown that healthier and more effective relationships with funding agencies are achieved if the beneficiary institution takes the initiative to devise its own development plans. Funding agencies, as well as other stakeholders, are kept informed and are consulted right through the planning process. In addition, they are invited to relevant meetings in which the institution undertakes self-assessment and charts the direction for future actions. Relations with funding agencies are therefore based more on institutional plans and less on loose and ad hoc initiatives. Funding agencies are given the opportunity not only to understand institutional priorities and to outline their possible contributions (which may include their past experiences with similar programmes), but also the opportunity to learn about what other funding agencies are contributing. Donor coordination becomes a natural process guided and nurtured by the institution which is to be supported, and is based on local priorities. International Cooperation As recognized by the participants at a conference held in Uganda in 1998,n in order to be successful, scientific cooperation must aim at promoting better understanding and generating mutual knowledge about the culture and fundamental values of the parties involved. It must also provide a framework which can facilitate joint efforts and initiatives to address global problems facing the planet and mankind, an undertaking to which partners should bring together © Juta & Co Ltd

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2 their knowledge and resources. It must create and strengthen the capacity for sustained and independent development. Scientific cooperation must benefit from the strength and synergies derived from regional and international cooperation and promote a well-balanced division of tasks and more efficient use of resources. Furthermore, scientific cooperation must make a meaningful contribution towards improving the quality and relevance of higher education and research by accelerating the emergence of scientific communities in developing countries, as well as by increasing the number and quality of professionals and improving scientific production. It must also lead the institutions involved to higher levels of national and international competitiveness and attractiveness, particularly in areas of their comparative advantage. For such goals and objectives to be achieved, the partners must jointly assess the needs and identify the priority areas for cooperation. By acting together they must develop a sense of shared responsibility and ownership of the programmes as a fundamental condition for real commitment and support and for long-term sustainability. The right frameworks for institutional rather than individualized cooperation schemes need to be devised and efforts be made to avoid isolation and to provide opportunities for establishing links with other institutions worldwide. Universities and research centres tend to restrict their links to institutions of their own kind. To counter this, initiatives must be taken to identify and cooperate with networks and individual players, such as professional associations and NGOs which are engaged in similar or complementary work. The cooperating partners need to ensure flexible and decentralized management procedures and negotiate a sufficient degree of autonomy within the institutional framework in which they operate. Whenever possible, training activities should be carried out mainly, but not exclusively, in the developing countries themselves. This will help to develop local environments which are conducive to creative scientific work and will also facilitate the training of larger groups of individuals and eventually of whole research teams. By improving local conditions for continued postprogramme work, one of the many causes of the brain drain will also be addressed. Recognizing that access to scientific information is a precondition for the development of scientific work, international cooperation should strengthen the capacity for collecting and actively disseminating information, including information about the profiles of relevant scientific institutions and networks. In this regard libraries deserve special attention, and need to be encouraged to evolve from the position of mere owners and custodians to providers of information. The success of a partnership depends in no small measure on the goals set at the outset; these must be both achievable and realistic, and must take into account national policies and institutional objectives. Monitoring and assessment procedures should be put in place to ensure that the programme remains focused on the stated goals and that corrective measures are 34

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2 taken timeously, whenever necessary. A combination of internal periodic monitoring, punctuated by external evaluation at different and well-defined stages of a programme, should be encouraged.

A 'Charter' for International Cooperation In a sense each cooperating partnership is unique in its origins, goals and form. It is therefore impossible to establish rules which could be universally applied. Nevertheless, collective experience12 allows us at least to list some of the ingredients that have helped institutions to achieve good results in the past. Project proposals should be prepared jointly and each partner should be associated as much as possible with the decisions that need to be taken at every stage of a programme. This might include decisions about budget allocations and applications, construction, adaptation or refurbishing of physical facilities, acquisition and maintenance of equipment and other resources. A partnership must be clearly imbedded within an institutional framework and the active and direct cooperating parties should include a substantial number of members (in this case scholars or researchers). The building of capacity should be an explicit and well-articulated goal, and should include all important aspects of the scientific process. That is to say, as far as is possible any training provided under the cooperation programme should be part of formal and accredited undergraduate, graduate or postgraduate programmes. The creation of other capacities such as comprehensive institutional and programme management and dissemination of results need to be considered. The programme's budgets should provide resources for supplementing the income of the persons involved (for example, honoraria linked to research output, generous allowances for field work and travel to conferences, etc.) so as to ensure their full-time commitment. The programme should also create skills and explore opportunities for income generation through the provision of consultancies and other services to the community. Channels of communication should be improved by budgeting for the acquisition of fax and electronic mail facilities and for training users to operate them effectively. Intellectual property rights need to be discussed and made part of the understanding between the parties. This includes the recognition of all persons involved in the scientific process leading up to academic publication. Regular meetings should be held to assess progress and plan future activities, and monitoring should focus primarily on the results achieved and on their quality, rather than on the inputs made to the programme. Measures should be taken and mechanisms established and progressively improved to ensure both the sustainability of the programme and the long-term continuity of the partnership, which should gradually evolve from the provision of support to an academic partnership between equal partners. © Juta & Co Ltd

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2 Endnotes 1 Tertiary education is used here deliberately to emphasize the need not only for more (and, above all, stronger) universities, but equally for polytechnics and other forms of postsecondary and vocational institutions. 2 'Culture' is taken as 'all those arts, beliefs, modes of behavior and social institutions which characterize a community or an ethnic group'. 'The culture of a people is expressed through a whole range of activities — language, ceremonial behavior and ritual, songs, poetry, dance, dress, eating habits, sculpture, and other artistic works, mannerisms, etc. Culture gives a society or a nation its identity' (Haggis 1990). 3 By some counts 23 000 emigrate every year (World Bank 1995). 4 In Africa south of the Sahara, only Nigeria's National University's Commission undertook an evaluation and accreditation of programmes in 1989, and in 1998 South Africa's SAUVCA initiated an experience in external evaluation which so far has included four institutions in the country, as well as the University of Namibia. (Personal communication of Prof COS Ekhaguere, Senior Programme Officer, AAU, March 1999.) 5 1997-2006 was declared 'Decade of Education' at the 32nd Session of the African Heads of State and Governments in Yaounde, Cameroon, in July 1996. 6 MINEDAF: Pan-African Conference of Ministers of Education. 7 ADEA: Association for the Development of Education in Africa, an informal organization assembling policy-makers and educationalists from Africa and other continents, which came into being to coordinate efforts to advance education on the continent. 8 AAU: Association of African Universities; CODESRIA: Council for the Developmen of Social Science Research in Africa; SAPES: Southern Africa Political and Economic Series Trust; AAS: African Academy of Sciences. 9 The African Virtual University is a World Bank initiative which was inaugurated around 1995 to establish a university using new communication and information technologies (e-mail, Internet and teleconferencing) to connect universities in Africa with universities in North America. Its francophone equivalent will be established in the near future under the sponsorship of France. 10 Conference of Vice Chancellors, Rectors and Presidents of African Universities (COREVIP '99), Arusha, Tanzania, February 1999. 11 'Challenges and Perspectives of Universities in Africa', a conference organized by German organizations involved in university cooperation in Africa, Kampala, Uganda, March 1998.

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2 12 Personal notes presented by the author at a conference of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada, Ottawa, 1997, and notes from the abovementioned Kampala conference.

References Aboderin, A. 1995. Regional Cooperation in Graduate Training and Research. Accra: Association of African Universities. Ajayi, JFA, Goma, LKH & Johnson, GA. 1996. The African Experience with Higher Education. Association of African Universities/James Currey Ltd. Association of African Universities (AAU). 1995. The University in Africa in the 1990s and Beyond—Summary Report. AAU, Lesotho Colloquium, Lesotho, 16-20 January 1995. Association of African Universities (AAU). 1999. Annual Report Accra: Association of African Universities.

1997/98.

Ekhaguere, GOS. 1998. 'Africanization or Internationalization: The Challenges for African Tertiary Institutions.' Annual Conference of the International Association of South Africa. The Internationalization of Education in Southern Africa: Building Bridges. Pretoria, September 1998. Goma, L. 1997. The Role of the University in the Education Sector. Association of African Universities, 9th General Conference, Lusaka, 13-17 January 1997. Haggis, Sheila M. 1990. Understanding Culture: A Precondition for Effective Learning. Unesco, World Conference on Higher Education for All, Jomtein, Thailand. Roundtable Themes I, Monograph I. International Association of Universities (IAU). 1996. International Handbook of Universities, 14th edn. New York: IAU. International Association of Universities (IAU). 1997. World List of Universities and other Institutions of Higher Education, 21st edn. New York: IAU. Matos, N. 1997. Contribution of Higher Education to the Renovation of the Whole Education System. Unesco/BREDA, African Regional Consultation Preparatory to the World Conference on Higher Education, Dakar, 1-4 April 1997. Nwa, EU & Houenou, P. 1990. Graduate Education andR&D in African Universities. Accra: Association of African Universities. Sawyerr, A. 1997. 'Bottlenecks to Research Capacity Building at African Universities/ Keynote address, Seminar on NIRP Research in West Africa, Accra, 1997. Tcha, Moussa. 1997. The implementation of the Abuja Treaty establishing the Africa Economic Community, 1997. In Asante, 8KB (ed). Meeting the Challenges of Regionalism in Africa. Accra: AAU.

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2 Unesco. 1998. Development of Education in Africa: A Statistical Review, 1998. Seventh Conference of Education Ministers of African Member States, MINED AF VII, Durban, South Africa, 20-24 April 1998. World Bank. 1995. Findings, Africa Region. No. 39, World Bank, May 1995. World Bank. 1997. Revitalising Universities in Africa. Accra: World Bank/Association of African Universities.

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3 Manufacturing Unemployment: The Crisis of Education in Africa Paulin J Hountondji

THE UNIVERSITY AS A TEACHING INSTITUTION In most African countries, the present educational systems were set up at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century. The primary goal was clear: formal education was intended first and foremost to train young people for civil service. Colonial administration needed civil servants. In many countries, especially in French colonies, young people were offered scholarships both in secondary school and the university. In exchange for this, they used to sign a tenyear commitment (engagement decennal) by which they promised to accept jobs in the administration once they had completed their university training. Scholarships and study grants were, in this context, ways of anticipating the salaries of future civil servants by prefinancing the education and training that would fit them for the jobs for which they were needed. Understood in this way, the system was logical and coherent. However, at a certain point the civil service came to be saturated. This happened in most countries during the 1980s. The former colonies, which had meanwhile become independent states, came to realize that the system could no longer work as it used to. This new awareness developed in most cases under the pressure of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. The old system still continued nevertheless, relying on its own momentum. Scholarships are still being paid today in countries where such payment has been a tradition for decades, though it would be nonsense to ask the beneficiaries for a ten-year commitment when the state can no longer commit itself to employing them. So deeply rooted is this tradition in the minds of some people that they almost consider it the state's duty to finance higher education for anyone who meets the academic requirements to enrol as a student. For them, the statement in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that 'everyone has the right to education' ©Juta&CoLtd

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3 advocates not only equal accessibility on the basis of merit and the rejection of discrimination but also the right to demand financial support of the state for all levels of education including the highest, no matter how efficient the system is. On the other hand, the state itself thinks it has to meet this demand at least under certain conditions. Nowhere do these conditions include the adequacy between the training programme and the job opportunities available on the market. Nowhere is it realized that the socioprofessional insertion of the youth is an objective far more important and urgent than higher education per se. Most student strikes and riots in African countries, especially in the francophone area, have to do with the problem of scholarships. A very common reason is that the state does not meet, or does not meet in due time, its own commitments to scholarship holders. One month delay is a lot, two is too much, three is intolerable, four, five, six or more is perceived as a declaration of war. Another demand of students is that the conditions of eligibility for scholarships should be lowered in order to fit the greatest possible number. Thus scholarships are perceived as a right, almost a human right, instead of being a way of a potential employer prefinancing a future employee. Most universities in Africa today have become huge factories of a product unknown fifteen years ago: the unemployment of cadres of learned people. There is an increasing gap between the curricula and the level of knowledge and knowhow required by the new job market. Given the saturation of the civil service, new jobs can today only be found in the private sector, a sector which also has to be developed. Both curricula and the teaching methods should have been reformed, therefore, to meet this new situation. Nowhere unfortunately, to my knowledge, have such reforms been achieved. The university ceased long ago to prepare the youth for professional life. Instead, enrolling as a student has become more and more often a way to put oneself on the sidelines and postpone the time when one is considered an unemployed graduate. Not so long ago in Benin, people used to enrol again and again, migrating from one department to another up to the age of thirty and more, just because they didn't know what else to do. To get out of this situation, higher education should be assigned new objectives and goals. Instead of enrolling students into departments formed exclusively along the classical subdivisions of learning (philosophy, linguistics, literature, history, geography, anthropology, sociology and other such departments in the faculties of arts, science, law, economics, political science, agriculture, medicine, etc) and then seeking what jobs can fit them, the economic prospects of the country and its implications for the job market should be examined first and the whole education system, including higher education, restructured along these lines.1 Curricula should be entirely readjusted from this perspective. Course schedules and timetables should consequently be reshuffled in order to allow workers to enrol for whatever courses they want. 40

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3 THE RESEARCH SYSTEM Preparing the youth for the job market is not the only objective of university education.2 Another goal is, or should be, to promote and/or perpetuate a tradition of scientific and academic excellence, something which is as much needed in developing as in developed countries, and perhaps, paradoxically more in the former than in the latter. In order to move forward, poor countries should not be satisfied with just applying the results of scientific research conducted in the North; they should rather, first and foremost, comprehend and appropriate, develop for their own sake and for a responsible resolution of their economic and social problems, the available legacy in the field of science and technology. Research activity in the university is part of a research system which also includes other institutions. This system, as much as the educational one, should be viewed in a historical perspective. It should be recalled, namely, that 'modern' science was introduced, just like formal education, in the wake of colonization, and its primary goal was to facilitate the economic exploitation of local resources for the benefit of the European metropoles. It is not mere chance, therefore, that the discipline most frequently developed in early times was agricultural research. In French colonies at least, the modern research process began with the creation of experimental parks (jardins d'essai), aimed at experimenting with different varieties of local plants with a view to improving and exporting them in significant quantities for the use of metropolitan industries. These experimental parks were managed from Paris.3 In this sense, agricultural research in our countries was — and still is to a large extent — in the service of an extroverted economy, that is, an economy externally oriented, aiming primarily at meeting the needs of the metropolitan, say, the French or the British economies. So far we have not gone much beyond this stage. From a strategic point of view, our research policies still give priority to the improvement of such export products as palm oil, coconut oil, peanuts, cotton, etc., due to feed European industries. Research on subsistence crops necessary for local consumption is much more recent and less developed. Not only was research in the service of an extroverted economy, but the research process itself was and still is extroverted in a variety of ways.4 Let me draw your attention to just a few of them. Thus far we have been using research tools and material made in Europe, America or Japan. We have never in Africa designed a microscope. The paper we use has to be imported, as well as the computers and other equipment necessary for our laboratories. We do not even master, therefore, the first end of the chain, that is the production of the means of scientific production. We have to rely, for this, on Western industry (Japan being also in this perspective, as is well known, part and parcel of the West). Secondly, most academic and scientific publishers, significant journals, libraries and even bookstores and book distributors are located in Europe and North ©Juta&CoLtd

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3 America. I do not want to undervalue the scientific and other research facilities now existing in Africa and in other parts of the world. These infrastructures, however, still lag far behind those existing in the North. Whatever the discipline, the amount of scientific and technological information stored in African libraries and documentation centres is much poorer than the information they can get from Northern facilities. This is not only true for general disciplines, but also for the so-called area studies, including African studies. The West has been for centuries accumulating all kinds of information items from and about other parts of the world. As a result, there are today many more documents about, say, the history, cultures, religions, political systems, social organizations, legal usages, economies or even about the geology of Africa in some libraries in Paris and Bordeaux, at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands, at Northwestern University in Evanston near Chicago, at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., than anywhere in Africa. Thirdly, it should be recalled that the immediate outcome of any research activity is usually in written form, whether published or not. This material is intended for various groups of readers with varying degrees of expertise or specialization. It so happens that this readership is also massively concentrated in the North. Therefore the African researcher as well as the African writer knows that his/her work will be judged first and foremost by a public alien to his/her own country and region. It depends on this public whether he/she becomes known worldwide or not. The African intellectual will be tempted, therefore, to work on such topics as can be of interest to potential readers in the West, in preference to topics related to African issues'.5 Given that the mainstream readership is located in the North, the African intellectual will have to use European instead of African languages to address them — the more so as he or she has him/herself been educated in the European languages and is therefore far more proficient in them than in his/her mother tongue. For similar reasons, the Southern scholar has to travel thousands of miles away from home to access the intellectual and scientific treasures stored in Western libraries, documentation and research centres. The European or American scholar does not travel or expatriate before doing research. Or if he or she does, it is not for the purpose of accessing the available documents and scientific information. Instead, the African at home can only do field work, collect new data and process them to a limited extent. If such a scholar wants to go further, then he or she has to,go to those parts of the world where the maximum of scientific information and documentation has been capitalized through centuries. The African scholar is, so to speak, an institutional nomad.

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3 WAYS FORWARD

We could elaborate further on the description above and show the many ways in which research activity in Africa can be said to be extroverted, that is, externally oriented, intended first and foremost to complement the research activity in the West and to meet Western economic and social needs rather than the needs expressed in Africa. The final question, however, is: what is to be done? There is little to do about at least two of the points mentioned above. The massive concentration in developed countries of the potential readership available for scholarly publications is, as a matter of fact, a product of history which cannot be directly changed. On the other hand, what has been described above as the institutional nomadism of the Southern scholar is the consequence of this unbalanced distribution of the scientific public. There is nothing to do about it as long as this imbalance remains. However, it is possible to work on other factors, including the remaining three points, in such a way as to bring about a few changes and, in the long term, a more balanced world scientific order. Thus, the dependence on research tools and material manufactured in the North is but an aspect of the underindustrialization of Southern countries. Though it cannot be overcome as a specific and separate issue, it can certainly and must be solved as part of the overall problem of economic dependence and underdevelopment. In the same way, it is up to the African elites and decision-makers to initiate new language policies that promote African languages as means for scientific expression and communication, instead of the exclusive use of their former colonizers' languages. It so happens that English, French and Portuguese are more appropriate today for international communication than are African languages. This, however, is not sufficient reason to decree the slow death of the latter, including the most widespread ones which are spoken today by millions, tens of millions, hundreds of millions of people in Africa and sometimes outside Africa. Needless to say, the idea that some languages are too poor to express the subtleties of modern science and thought is but a prejudice which, like many commonplace prejudices, has also been unfortunately defended and elaborated on by some well-known scholars and theoreticians. This prejudice does not resist the slightest scrutiny. It is not enough, however, to denounce it as such. The point is to develop effective policies that allow the rehabilitation and development of these languages in the education and research systems, with a view to extending education and scientific awareness in Africa, no matter if European languages still have to be taught as a means for easy communication on a world scale in the present-day context. Special emphasis has to be put on the issue of documentation. The new technologies of information and communication (NTIC) today serve to minimize to some extent the necessity for the Southern scholar to travel to the North in order to take advantage of the scientific information stored in libraries, archives and documentation centres. Attempts have been made to help African universities and © Juta & Co Ltd

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? research communities in this area. Some results have been achieved thus far. An increasing number of universities on the continent have been gaining access to the Internet during the 1990s. This move will hopefully continue to gain momentum at an increasingly accelerated rate. What I wish to point out, however, is that in order to contribute significantly to a qualitative change in the present situation, the ongoing efforts towards greater Internet connectivity should be part of a wider, deliberate, self-conscious move in the current science and culture policies. Internet connectivity is not an end in itself but a tool that can be used in many ways, good or bad. This tool has developed in recent years within Western cultures. It has considerably accelerated a process of knowledge accumulation which in fact had begun much earlier. Therefore, what is needed today in Africa is not just an additional technique intended to ease the flow of information, including scientific information, along the paths it has taken so far. What is needed is a reordering and redirecting of the current flows in such a way as to favour accumulation in the South and a responsible application by poor countries of all the knowledge and know-how now available in the world to the solution of their own problems. The responsibility for this cultural move rests first and foremost on Southern countries themselves and especially on their intellectual and scientific communities. To me it is obvious that our universities and research centres, as presently constituted, will never be able to foster the necessary changes, no more than any other state institution. The state in our countries is more often an inertial force than a moving wheel. For it to move forward, a collective pressure is needed from all those members of civil society who realize how urgent it is, first, to promote a new world order in the field of knowledge production and management and, second, to foster in Africa itself, a new process of knowledge accumulation and capitalization. It should also be noted that national boundaries as constituted today are not the most appropriate framework for scientific and technological development. Few countries in Africa today have top-level scholars, scientists and experts in sufficient numbers to form critical masses, though thousands of young scholars and scientists have graduated so far in the existing universities. Collective mobilization of the African intelligentsia as a whole is therefore necessary to promote a new awareness. Everyone should realize that the intellectual work by African scholars and scientists has so far hardly been used for the benefit of Africa. If everyone agrees and if the states are made to agree on this point, things can change very quickly. New science and culture policies can be designed to correct the current state of affairs. If these policies are made to complement coherent economic policies intended to achieve self-reliance in a democratic context, then things will change even faster. Some of the tens of thousands of unemployed graduates now available on the job market will have the opportunity to switch to new jobs after additional training when necessary. Some of them can serve as an intellectual labour force for the promotion of scientific and technological excellence. 44

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3 Endnotes 1 To take an example: Benin is a country still lucky enough to have up to six million hectares of uncultivated land. A good prospect for the economic and social policy could have been to encourage the development of small and middle-size farms or rural enterprises. The educational system would in this case have to be reoriented according to this goal. Unfortunately there are still so far no more than 350 students in the few agricultural schools of the country, out of a total number of over 80 000 students in public high schools. 2 The following paragraphs are adapted from a speech delivered at a symposium organized by the Centre for Development Studies, University of Groningen, the Netherlands, in June 1998. The original is due to be published in the Proceedings of the symposium. 3 In a PhD dissertation presented in June 1998 at the University of Bielefeld, Germany, Maxime Dahoun gives details on, and a good analysis of this early phase of agronomic research in francophone Africa. See Dahoun (1998). Comparative studies should be made in other areas to allow better understanding of the history, the strengths and weaknesses of scientific research in Africa, with a view to bringing about the necessary corrections and reorientations. 4 I have drawn attention to this issue in a number of articles and conference papers. See Hountondji (1987), (1988), (1990), (1993), (1995), (1997) in References. 5 'African issues' are issues of interest for Africa, not necessarily issues about what African realities look like. I do not believe that African scholars have to be Africanists, or should limit their theoretical concerns to so-called African studies. Though a critical appropriation and development of the Africanist heritage is today necessary in Africa, other disciplines such as mathematics, physics, the hard sciences as a whole, as well as engineering and the humanities and social sciences, have also to be appropriated and developed as a means for self-reliant development. However, I assume there should be specific ways of making these 'universal' issues meaningful in Africa and for the African people. See Ukoli (1985).

References Dahoun, Maxime. 1998. Le Statut de la Science et de la Recherche an Benin: Contribution a une Sociologie de la Science dans les Pays en Developpement PhD dissertation, University of Bielefeld, Germany, June 1998. Hountondji, Paulin J. 1987. On the universality of science and technology. In Lutz, Burkart (ed). Technik und sozialer Wandel: Verhandlungen des 23. Deutschen Soziologentages in Hamburg 1986, 382-389. Frankfurt/New York: Campus Verlag.

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J Hountondji, Paulin J. 1988. L'appropriation collective du savoir: taches nouvelles pour une politique scientifique. Geneve-Afrique, 26(1). Hountondji, Paulin J. 1990. Scientific dependence in Africa today. Research in African Literatures, 21(3), 5-15. Hountondji, Paulin J. 1993. Situation de 1'anthropologue africain: note critique sur une forme d'extraversion scientifique. In Gosselin, Gabriel (ed). Les Nouveaux Enjeux de I'Anthropologie: Autour de Georges Balandier, Paris: L'Harmattan. Hountondji, Paulin J. 1995. Producing knowledge in Africa today. African Studies Review, 38(3), 1-10. Hountondji, Paulin J. 1997. Recentring Africa. In Hountondji, P (ed). Endogenous Knowledge: Research Trails. Dakar: Codesria. Ukoli, FMA (ed). 1985. What Science? Problems of Teaching and Research in Science in Nigerian Universities. Ibadan: Heinemann and Ibadan University Press.

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4 Educational Research in the African Development Context Rediscovery, Reconstruction and Prospects Mokubung Nkomo Knowledge is power. And power is what rules the world, currently divided between the center and the periphery nations. Africa belongs to the periphery. (Forje 1989:16)

INTRODUCTION The daunting challenge facing Africa in the third millennium is that of managing a self-transformation process of epic proportions. Internal exigencies around issues having to do with the fulfilment of basic human needs and the urgent development of human resources on the one hand, and the external imperatives imposed by the relentless logic of the currently dominant global market economy on the other, require drastic and quite fundamental alterations in the socioeconomic, political and cultural systems of the continent. At the global level, we have witnessed in the last fifty years a quantum leap in knowledge production, especially in the areas of science and technology. The 'old order' which was characterized by low interest rates, limited competition, slow changing technology, relatively stable markets, and mass production processes operating in a sheltered economic environment (Guthrie & Pierce 1990:3) has all but disappeared. Emerging from the ashes of the 'old order' are mutant economies of the twenty-first century characterized by such traits as 'high cost money, extensive internal and external competition, rapidly shifting markets, and new technologies which affect both the development of products and the processes by which they are produced and disseminated' (Guthrie & Pierce 1990:3). New knowledge frontiers are in such areas as electrical superconductivity, ceramic and graphite materials, nuclear fusion, fibre optics, genetic engineering, and biotechnology (Guthrie & Pierce 1990:7). ©Juta&CoLtd

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4 Much of this knowledge production, particularly in the science and technology domains, has largely been confined to the Western industrialized countries. For example, Unesco data indicate that while the industrialized countries comprise one third of the world population, they command 'more than 93 % of the world's Science and Technology (S&T) potential, 95 % of the material resources for the development of the S&T information' (Forje 1998:34). The knowledge gap between the Western countries and Africa is immense and appears to be widening. For the last 500-odd years Africa has been on the periphery of world development, a condition it has been subjected to by colonial subjugation with profound structural and psychological consequences. While the knowledge gap is indeed wide, it remains a challenge that only Africans can — in fact they must — confront in a systematic way, as the alternatives are too ghastly to contemplate. There are elements such as the material resources with which the continent is so abundantly endowed, combined with the systematic and strategic development of human resources, the appropriate selection and adaptation of imported technology, the effective integration of exogenous with indigenous knowledge systems that offer reason to be optimistic about future development prospects. But these prospects will only materialize with the emergence of democratic polities which also draw from African experience in social institutions and a leadership across the spectrum (politics, economy, education, culture, science, technology, etc) with the requisite vision and will to create the enabling conditions for effective and sustainable development. Parenthetically, let us hasten to point out that the optimism is based partly on the emerging signs of renewal even in the midst of contradictory tendencies and partly on the review of the historical experiences of the Western industrial countries. Briefly, it is worth noting that Europe's development was achieved despite the devastating Hundred Years' War, the Civil War in the United States that tore apart the fabric of the young republic, World Wars I and II that edged humanity to near self-annihilation, or the contemporary 'ethnic cleansing' carnage in Bosnia and Yugoslavia. This is not to condone these events nor to accept them as natural and, therefore, inevitable human predilections. Rather, it is to suggest that their occurrence does not mean that development cannot take place; in fact development has taken place in spite of conflict. To be sure, conflict and instability diminish the full effect of growth and development. To postulate otherwise, as is often the case with Africa, would suggest an exceptionalism that is not justified by known human experience but instead by prejudices deriving from questionable motivations. Moreover, in the last half a century there have emerged a group of countries that, the recent economic difficulties notwithstanding, are claiming a noteworthy slice of the global marketplace. This means that possibilities and prospects are dependent on the purposefulness and determination of states. And there is no reason to believe that these characteristics are the exclusive properties of certain nationalities. 48

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4 PURPOSE In view of the current marginal role of Africa in the global scheme of things, it is the purpose of this contribution to consider the crucial role that education research can play in the project of effectively repositioning the continent in world affairs. The relevancy of research education in Africa in terms of its relation to the cultural context and the significance of science and technology in the modern world system will be addressed. It will be argued that prospects for success in the project of repositioning Africa can only be achieved if appropriate elements of the African context are taken into account in curriculum reconstruction and development. Rediscovery, Reconstruction and Prospects The centuries-old subjugation of Africa to colonial exploitation, ranging from slavery which siphoned young men and women in their thousands to labour in the New World plantations, to the creation of socioeconomic structures during the colonial era which were singularly designed to achieve maximum extraction and exportation of raw materials, wreaked serious damage that remain palpable years after the demise of colonial rule. Throughout this period the colonizing powers saw fit to instil a sense of inferiority and inadequacy in Africans. This was accomplished by a whole range of arrangements including education philosophies, curricula and practices whose context corresponded with that of the respective colonial powers. Like the economic infrastructure created for the extraction and exportation of raw or semi-finished commodities, colonial education was never intended to produce independent thinkers but rather an administrative corps that would collaborate in the management of the colonial regime (Rodney 1974). In the process deep psychological impairments, which manifest themselves in most dramatic ways generations later, were inflicted in the psyches of the colonized Africans (Fanon 1963). But there is no reason to believe, despite the current turbulence across the continent, that a rediscovery and restorative project accompanied by reconstructive efforts cannot be achieved in the same way that other states have managed to overcome their own internal conflicts. A pragmatic African renaissance which inspires the rediscovery and restoration of the African identity while simultaneously adapting in appropriate ways and becoming an active and respected player in the modern world system is practicable. Educational research that is informed by these general tenets will substantially raise the prospects for success in the next millennium.

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:4 EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT In our view, education is one of the principal instruments by which a multidimensional development process can be achieved and social transformation effectuated. It is a view that defines education as a process seeking to genuinely unleash the full potential of the individual, and, as a corollary, of society, in the effort to achieve socioeconomic advancement. Such advancement aimed at upgrading the quality of life of the citizenry and rendering the concerned society viable in the global economy cannot be achieved if access to quality educational opportunities is limited and discriminatory on the basis of location (rural or urban), gender, ethnicity, religion or socioeconomic background. It cannot be achieved if the general quality of education in Africa is less than that in other countries, in other words non-competitive. Education that is geared to the development challenges in Africa must seek to raise the general social consciousness of the human and environmental conditions and a sense of confidence in the capacity of knowledge invested in individuals to transform their existential reality. It is increasingly recognized that at the centre of the development process is the human being and thus 'human potential [can be seen] as the basis, the means, and the ultimate purpose of the development effort' (Soedjatmoko, quoted in Todaro 1989:62). INSTITUTIONAL BASES AND STRUCTURES FOR THE PROMOTION OF RESEARCH It was noted earlier that the development challenges confronting Africa are of epic proportions. To tackle these challenges effectively, it is imperative not only to value research but to give substance to the declared value by investing substantial resources in educational and other strategic research areas. The nature and the magnitude of the problems and challenges require the: • initiation of drives to promote the public's appreciation of the value of research in both the social and technological areas; • development of a corps of critical social science researchers who can address the root psychosocial issues that may be impediments to the cultivation of a scientific research culture and/or identify positive aspects that can advance a scientific culture; and • development of a corps of science and technology researchers in strategic science and technology areas with a developmental temperament and the ability to integrate exogenous and indigenous knowledge systems and technologies in innovative ways suitable to Africa's needs. There is, furthermore, the need to develop, at a general level, a critical pedagogy (critical, analytic and problem-solving skills) through schools, tertiary institutions, 50

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4 research institutes and other organs of civil society. Critical pedagogy within a development paradigm specific to the needs of African realities informed by universal experiences is an approach that should yield optimal benefits. In this regard, Forje (1998:35) recommends 'the advancement of science through a new educational policy based on de-acculturation of current values, while incorporating Western values relevant to development' in the same way that Japan acquired 'Western technological modernisation without apparently great disruptions in cultural cohesion'. This section will attempt to outline the broad parameters of the project. The Role of Schools There is no doubt that numerous school reform initiatives have been adopted in many African countries since independence. However, most of these have been of a physical nature as evidenced by the provision of expansion in enrolment, declarations of goals to achieve universal education and, to a limited degree, capital expansion. It is becoming increasingly clear that it is necessary to adopt a deeper qualitative and multifaceted approach to school reforms embracing a broad spectrum of components including governance and management, curriculum, instructional practice, etc. The cultural context: Underlying any efforts at reforming the qualitative aspects of education in Africa is the recognition of culture as a fundamental point of departure if alienation, psychological dislocation, or apathy are to be minimized, if not avoided. Jugessur (1998:1-2) has observed that African culture is not static' and that 'African culture is not devoid of science'; indeed it has positive aspects that can be identified and used in developing a science culture (an integral aspect of critical pedagogy) which is congruent with African culture and which can inspire sustained interest to the greatest number and promote innovation for development purposes. This can be achieved if a critical mass of science teachers trained in critical pedagogy with a keen African development orientation is developed. This approach will address the crucial issue of identity, and is the path to discovery. The language context; Parallel to and a logical extension of the issue of the primacy of the cultural context is the 'recognition of the language factor' in development (Chumbow 1998:52). Chumbow observes that language is the means by which cognition is developed and expressed; the means by which all knowledge is acquired and expressed. When children in the developed world start school they are taught in the medium of their mother tongue (English, French, Japanese, etc) and proceed to learn and acquire scientific concepts in their own language. There is no dissonance or cognitive difficulty encountered, thus making acquisition more effective and efficient. The opposite is the case for African children. They encounter as early as the ages of five or six the hurdle of having to ©Juta&CoLtd

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4 learn a foreign language, while at the same time trying to grasp scientific knowledge. This practice, more often than not, creates serious problems in the academic progression of the majority of African learners. Greater efficiency could be achieved if scientific concepts were introduced in the mother tongue first and progressively a transition was made to, say, English, once a firm foundation had been established. There is research that demonstrates the efficacy of this approach. For example, children who have been taught in their mother tongue and a foreign language introduced progressively perform better than learners who are taught uniquely in a foreign language (Chumbow 1990; Afolayan 1976; Tadadjeu 1990; Chomsky 1968). Such an approach was adopted by the Japanese at the turn of the century. Thus, 'the miracle of the Japanese industrial revolution is explained, in part at least, by a resolution of the language question in S&T in favour of the codification and development of the Japanese language to enable it to become the vector of S&T for the Japanese people' (Chumbow 1990:57). Social science education: If the aim of critical pedagogy is to foster a reasoned engagement with contemporary social reality (both African and Western), it must first seek entry through the medium of the human (that is, social) sciences. The human sciences in a development context should be informed by a critical and analytical disposition consistent with the scientific method employed in the physical and biological sciences. Relevant human problems and development needs identified in human science course discussions and exploratory ageappropriate projects can then become the objects of further study in science courses using the applicable techniques of scientific inquiry. A critical pedagogy culture integrates well with a scientific culture leading to a 'technological culture' which 'is the material expression of an abstract scientific concept' (Jugessur 1998:3). The foundations of critical and analytical thinking can be established as early as the primary school where, for instance, 'the curricula should have a good component of environmental science which can give pupils an appreciation of elementary scientific concepts to understand their environment' (Jugessur 1998:3). Pupils can benefit greatly when ways are found to relate concrete problems within their environments to problem-solving social science methodologies and scientific methods of investigation. Critical pedagogy, even at this early stage in the development of the pupil, offers opportunities to critique beliefs such as 'traditions are to be followed without question', or 'religious and superstitious beliefs ... dominate the thinking of most Africans' (Forje 1998:35), which result in fatalism or regard of Western knowledge as sacrosanct. As pupils ascend the academic ladder stretching into secondary school, the culture of critical pedagogy and the scientific method should be reflected in appropriately challenging curricula using higher levels of analysis, synthesis and evaluation of sociocultural and scientific data that will capitalize on 52

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4 adolescent curiosity. Gradual, systematic, vertically integrated knowledge links from primary school to tertiary institutions are necessary to entrench and sustain a research culture. A variety of strategies have been proposed and are actually being used, to varying degrees, in the dissemination and popularization of a science culture. Print and electronic media are immediate tools that can and, indeed, are being used in some African countries to reach the public, especially the youth (see, for example, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa 1993; Mschini 1998:197-208). One example of an effort to popularize in particular science and technology is the EXPO for Young Scientists. This organization, which promotes scientific creativity and innovation, critical thinking, planning and organizational skills amongst the youth, is now established in Namibia, Swaziland and South Africa. Its ideals and methodologies are 'compatible with the shifts in thinking about teaching and learning ... world wide' (Hughes 1999). Tertiary institutions: Universities and other tertiary institutions have throughout history played a critical role in development. Certainly this has been the case in developed countries where they are in tune with national or societal goals, but not so in dependent colonies where such institutions tend to emulate the philosophies, paradigms, epistemologies, curricula and practices of their counterparts in the metropole (Mazrui 1978). In the context of the challenges facing contemporary Africa there should be appropriate alteration of the orientation in order to address issues relevant to African development. Tertiary institutions that are supported by the public treasury must engage in research that will benefit the public in ways that will elevate the general quality of life of the populace and thus increase Africa's competitiveness in the global arena. Given that the majority of Africans live in rural settings where entrenched traditions prevail, a great deal of the research should be devoted to addressing the conditions in this sector and the recommendation of appropriate policy options. Among other things, research in tertiary institutions devoted to or having Rural Studies departments 'can also contribute to the development of a science culture if this research helps to demystify traditional practices. Ethnomedicine, ethnopsychiatry, ethnobotany and ethnozoology can all be subject to advanced research, the results of which can be disseminated through the popular media' (Jugessur 1998:4; see also Jugessur 1991:1-13). Tertiary students should be encouraged through credit incentives to engage in community-based research. With the growing awareness among many universities in Africa today of the value of specialization and centres of excellence (South African Development Community 1999) it should be possible to give greater attention to rural and urban integrated development. The intelligentsia and African education institutions at all levels have to address a set of questions which focus on which effective policy instruments, resources and institutions can be established. The task of scholars and practitioners in Africa is to ©Juta&CoLtd

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4 develop an epistemology that, while seeking to ground itself in its specific African cultural habitat, will also aspire to be truly universal and scientific — universal in its inclusion of all humanity and not just a fragment thereof (and therein lies the inexorable logic of the democratic impulse) and scientific in its pursuit of knowledge that will improve the human condition in toto. An earnest effort to deconstruct the prevailing Eurocentric epistemology must be a priority project. The African reality should be at the centre of a new democratic epistemology, if only for the compelling logic of restoring the humanity of those who for centuries have been alienated by the racially inspired colonial, exclusionary models embedded in the prevailing epistemological order, and for the healthy advancement of a wholesome human knowledge system (for further discussion see Odora Hoppers 1999). The centrality of the African reality would not negate other realities that enrich the human corpus of knowledge. For instance, Western civilization is a dominant contemporary reality with many positive contributions to the present stock of human knowledge. However, Western civilization as we know it today is the synthesis and product of relevant artefacts and epistemologies of antecedent knowledge systems. (Other civilizations were subordinated during the period of imperialism but not entirely extinguished.) The cyclical nature of human affairs contains a multitude of possibilities that can only be forfeited by wilful resignation. The advance of emergent civilizations in the twenty-first century will spring from the integration of positive and relevant aspects of contemporary Western civilization and relevant aspects of indigenous knowledge systems. (Disregard of this will be the same as the criticized parochial, exclusionary present predilection of Western civilization.) The contemporary period offers opportunities, for example, of scientific and technological developments outside Europe and North America (Japan or the new industrializing countries) that will engender self-fulfilment of those who had been disenfranchised by Western civilization. These formerly silenced indigenous knowledge systems should be brought back to life through a renewed African research in education process informed by the scientific method of inquiry. History is full of examples of how civilizations rise and fall (Kennedy 1987). And the present dominant Western civilization is not 'the end of history' (Fukuyama 1992). The compelling challenge facing African scholars presently and in the future is that of the rediscovery and reconstruction of African education through research guided by a set of fundamental questions, the most pertinent which are outlined below. How to promote relevant education systems for genuine African development. How to appropriate the available knowledge of global science and technology and harness it in further development of indigenous knowledge systems. How to improve intellectual capacity, knowledge production, management and reconfiguration, and innovation. How to identify and establish comparative advantage niches that can ensure Africa's competitiveness in the global economy. 54

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4 How to utilize knowledge and technology to improve the material conditions of the vast majority of Africans. How to create job opportunities for the burgeoning African youth graduates. How to develop and unlock the productive capacity of the rural sector for selfsustenance and greater value addition in the development process. How to creatively address the challenges of the global economy by mobilizing the natural and human resources with which Africa is so richly endowed. How to promote effective inter-African cooperation in order to maximize the general social welfare of the African populace. How to create a sense of enterprise, ownership and commitment to self-reliance and a diminution of the entitlement ethos. The Power of the Partnership Nexus The complex contemporary global arena requires equally the forging of complex research collaborative initiatives that join research institutions, universities, government/non-government organizations and the private business sector. Some of the reasons for collaboration are the following. Problems in the social and industrial sciences and technology are becoming increasingly interrelated, requiring a team approach for maximum effect. Research problems themselves are becoming more complex and often require an interdisciplinary approach. The very nature of interrelated and complex problems requires coordination of the efforts of highly specialized research scientists (involving tertiary students in such cooperative research projects will add significant and relevant value to their experience). There is a sharing of costs which makes especially large-scale research affordable and rendered feasible by the support system inherent in the collaboration (Ural 1999). Research in Africa must address urgent developmental needs as Africa is an integral part of an increasingly integrating world from which it cannot be isolated. Development has to be two-pronged: it has to be both internally as well as externally directed. There is no contradiction between the imperative towards solving national problems and the international orientation as Africa cannot develop in isolation' (Forje 1998:22). The two are complementary to one another. According to Forje (1989:16), International orientation helps to strengthen Africa's capability and capacity by keeping the region abreast of changes and advances made in science and technology. It helps to give new impetus and directions to the development of indigenous science and technology/ The same holds with equal force for the social sciences. To be competitive and maintain an equal footing in the global arena, Africa must produce first-class researchers and give them the critical support they need Juta & Co Ltdd

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4 in order to thrive and contribute to a system of innovation. In the contemporary world of greater interdependence 'there is a profound interaction between international and national factors in the development process* (Soedjatmoko, quoted in Todaro 1989:62). For example, new frontiers of knowledge have seen the emergence of a new layer of researchers and professionals. Robert Reich in his The Work of Nations (1991) refers to these professionals as the 'symbolic analysts', whose expertise is based on problem-solving, problem-identifying, and strategic brokering skills. According to Reich, possession of these skills is almost exclusively found among, to give a few examples, research scientists, design engineers, software engineers, civil engineers, biotechnology engineers, public relations executives, investment bankers, lawyers, real estate developers, a few creative accountants, management consultants, financial consultants, tax consultants, management information specialists, organization development specialists, strategic planners, systems analysts, architects, cinematographers, television and film producers, and even university professors. Consider for a moment, if you will, the occupational status of the vast majority of Africans on the continent. Most Africans are illiterate, perform unskilled or semi-skilled jobs and do not have the vaguest idea of the rarefied work of symbolic analysis. African children, the majority of whom are in schools where career and guidance counselling is virtually non-existent, cannot even imagine, let alone dream, of such occupational possibilities. Research institutes: Research institutions in the public and private sectors (outside of those in the academy) have, obviously, an equally crucial role to play in the promotion of a research and development culture and science and technology for African development. There are 200 research institutions in Africa, with a high percentage located in South Africa.1 It is also noted that 'there has been, since the 1960s, a formidable increase in the number and quality of scientific personnel and institutions' in Africa (Forje 1998:10). However, due to the lack of sufficient support, proper management and coordination systems, inadequate institutional infrastructure, and inappropriate policies (such as an inordinate reliance on exogenous knowledge and technology, for instance) these advances have not been optimized. A comprehensive, integrated science policy framework can promote active collaboration between research institutions and schools through twinning arrangements; between research institutions and tertiary education research institutions through collaboration and internship arrangements for students; and, between research institutions, the private business sector and government (by means of science parks). Horizontal cooperation of this kind that can come through the initiatives of the various partners can also be encouraged by committed government allocations for R&D and S&T, tax incentives, etc.2 These arrangements can also be made within the context of regional cooperation. 56

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4 PROSPECTS Africa today is an exciting place to live in; African development is an exciting challenge, and we have the opportunity to shape and to lead the response to that challenge. (Nyerere 1974)

Despite the widespread conflicts that define much of Africa's contemporary condition, there is reason to be optimistic if democratic governance gains ground, political will to implement the existing policy frameworks on R&D and S&T is strengthened, creative ways to integrate endogenous and exogenous knowledge systems are developed, resources are firmly committed and subregional, regional or Pan-African and global cooperative research ventures are established. Macroeconomic indicators in several African countries have shown an upward trend in recent years. For example, the average annual growth in the gross domestic product (GDP) for 1996 -1997 has been 4,5-5 % compared to 1,9 % in the 1990-1995 period (Conference of African Ministers of Education 1999). Since the Lagos Plan (1964) approximately a dozen action plans have been designed to encourage African growth and development (Forje 1998:17). A concerted and coordinated effort to implement these deserves serious attention. Many African countries have established their own tertiary institutions which have increased in number since independence. Even though they may suffer from a lack of institutional capacity in critical or strategic areas such as research, mechanisms are being planned that will pool resources of Southern African Development Committee (SADC) member states 'to efficiently and effectively produce the required professional, technical, research and managerial personnel to plan and manage the development process in general and across all sectors in the Region' (emphasis added) (SADC 1999:6). It is worth noting the following provisions of the protocol that, if carried out, augur well for the future. Member states recognize that research, especially in science and technology, is expensive and that not every country can enable its institutions to develop excellent research capacity in all fields, hence the need to allow access and to jointly develop and share research facilities. Member states shall strengthen research capacities in their countries by allocating adequate resources to universities and research institutes to enable them to pursue socioeconomic and technological research. Member states agree to urge universities and non-university research institutes to cooperate in the area of research and to forge links with industry/private sector and other relevant sectors, including the SADC sectors, for the purpose of determining priority areas of research and conducting research for those sectors (SADC 1999:15). The SADC protocol is thus creating an enabling environment that will foster greater horizontal and intersectoral research collaboration among African organizations. Further subregional cooperative strategies within the SADC such as © Juta & Co Ltd

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4 the Human Resource Development and Information and Communication Technologies programmes are being developed (Moja 1999). There is also a growing awareness among African scholars across the continent about the critical role of knowledge and the research function as evidenced by a proliferation of conferences and seminars in recent years (see, for example, Naidoo & Savage 1998; Bates, Mudimba & O'Barr 1993). However, there is one major bottleneck to African development: the lack of a critical mass of qualified African research personnel to encourage an R&D and S&T culture among the young and manage the institutional infrastructure efficiently and effectively. The irony is that there are thousands of Africans in the diaspora who have critical expertise and who can help 'elevate Africa's place within the universe of research, the formation of new knowledge, education and information' (Mbeki 1998:299; Carrington & Detragiache 1998). Many of them can be encouraged to return and make a contribution to development if conditions inimical to development are removed. The situation can be reversed with the creation of 'a congenial political and social environment and ... attractive working conditions for scientists which will arrest the large-scale, destabilizing brain drain' (Forje 1998:24). CONCLUSION Effective and sustainable development cannot be realized without genuine democracy; democracy cannot be fully realized unless it is informed by a deep sense of justice and equity. The triumph of all depends on the jealous protection of these constituent elements of democracy. Endangerment of one endangers the other. Common destiny and prosperity in a highly competitive global market economy dictate that a social contract be adopted. African education systems should play an increasingly catalytic role by systematically and unrelentingly encouraging and promoting a vigorous research culture that is rooted in the African condition but open to critical interaction with exogenous knowledge systems. Only maximum mobilization of the entire spectrum of human resources, the optimum investment of resources in the development of a robust research culture that will respond to basic human needs, and the development of appropriate S&T innovation systems will ensure a future in which Africa is a continent of consequence in global economic, scientific, cultural and educational activities, thereby securing internal stability and prosperity for the continent. Faced with the immense challenges of the twenty-first century, it is both the responsibility and the obligation of present authorities to begin to lay a firm research foundation in primary schools, strengthen it at tertiary institutions, promote collaboration with and among non-university research institutes and the private sector. Vertical as well as horizontal linkages should be encouraged. 58

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4 The following considerations should be central to a developmental strategy motivated by a strong democratic ethos. Each individual must be afforded full access to educational opportunities that increase his or her critical and analytical skills. At the core of this is the recognition that education empowers the individual and increases the chances of self-actualization which has a social value. It must be recognized that high-quality education promotes a research culture and innovative approaches to production will increase high performance; in other words, high productivity will render the continent more competitive in the global economy. A populace that has a high-quality general education and has unhindered access to employment opportunities can contribute immensely to economic growth and social development. These conditions will not come about spontaneously. They require catalytic agents to ignite the process. It will take commitment on the part of schools, tertiary institutions, research institutes and the private sector, and political will on the part of political players to initiate this 'multidimensional process involving major changes in social structures, popular attitudes, and national institutions, as well as the acceleration of economic growth, the reduction of and the eradication of absolute poverty' (Todaro 1989:62). Furthermore, fractured mini-states cannot possibly maintain a dignified and meaningful existence in the dominant world of giant economies and regional alliances. Regional peace and cooperation are crucial. Such an arrangement is imperative and should be pursued with urgency in order to secure future peace and prosperity for the continent. Failure to grasp this vision will ensure relegation to the performance of parcelled-out functions at the behest of the bigger polities and economies. African development is indeed an exciting challenge and can be achieved by acknowledging the power of knowledge. Innovative and relevant research methods can transform the continent in a fundamental way. It has been observed, and rightly so, that 'although education cannot transform the world, the world cannot be transformed without education' (Nasson 1990:103). This truism holds firmly for Africa as well. Endnotes 1 An incomplete listing of science councils in Africa, currently being compiled by the Centre for Science Development of the HSRC, records 40 institutions, not includin. South Africa. In 1984 South Africa had 166 research institutes (Gill & Kruzas 1984). See also Nkomo 1993:159-168. 2 Although African governments pledged themselves through the Lagos Plan (1964) to allocate 0,5 % of their GNP to R&D and to increase it to 1,0 % by 1980, that goal is far from being realized. See Forje 1998:14. @Juta&CoLtd

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4 References Afolayan, A. 1976. The six year primary project in Nigeria. In Bamgose, A (ed). Mother Education: The West African Experience. London: Hodder and Stoughton. Bates, RH, Mudimba, VY & O'Barr, J (eds). 1993. Africa and the Disciplines: The Contributions of Research in Africa to the Social Sciences and Humanities. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press. Carrington, William J & Detragiache, Enrica. 1998. How Big is the Brain Drain? Working paper of the International Monetary Fund. IMF Research Department, July 1998. Chomsky, NA. 1968. Language and the Mind. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanavich, Inc. Chumbow, BS. 1990. The place of the mother tongue in the (Nigerian) national policy in education. In Emananjo, N (ed). Multi-lingualism, Minority Languages and Language Policy in Nigeria. Nigeria: Agbor. Chumbow, BS. 1998. The language factor in the development of science and technology. In Pillay, N & Prinsloo, CH (eds). Science and Technology in Africa. Pretoria: Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC). Conference of African Ministers of Education (COMEDAF I). 1999. Draft Programme of Action of the Decade of Education in Africa. Harare, Zimbabwe, 15-19 March 1999. Fanon, Frantz. 1963. The Wretched of the Earth. New York: Grove Press. Forje, John W. 1989. Science and Technology in Africa. Essex, UK: Longman. Forje, John W. 1998. Developing a science culture in Africa. In Pillay, N & Prinsloo, CH (eds). Science and Technology in Africa. Pretoria: Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC). Fukuyama, Francis. 1992. The End of History and the Last Man. New York: The Free Press. Gill, K & Kruzas, A (eds). 1984. International Research Centres Directory 1984, 2nd edn. Detroit: Gale Research. Guthrie, James W & Pierce, Lawrence C. 1990. The international economy and national education reform: A comparison of education reforms in the United States and Great Britain. OxfordRevie wo/ Education, 16(2), 3. Hughes, CA. 1999. EXPO for Young Scientists: A Reflection. Pretoria: Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC). Jugessur, S. 1991. Approaches to the integration of the modern science and technology. In Prah, KK (ed). Culture, Gender, Science and Technology in Africa. Windhoek: Harp.

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4 Jugessur, S. 1998. The creation and development of a science culture in South Africa. In Pillay, N & Prinsloo, CH (eds). Science and Technology in Africa. Pretoria: Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC). Kennedy, Paul. 1987. The Rise and Fall of Nations. New York: Random House. Mazrui, Ali. 1978. The African university as a multinational corporation: Problems of penetration and dependency. In Altback, P & Kelly, Gail P (eds). Education and Colonialism, 331-354. New York: Longman. Mbeki, Thabo. 1998. Africa: The Time Has Come. Cape Town: Tafelberg Publishers Ltd and Mafube Publishing (Pty) Ltd. Moja, Teboho. 1999. Strategies of Education in Different Cultural Contexts. Paper presented at the 7th World Business Dialogue's 'Rethinking Knowledge' Conference at the University of Cologne, 3-4 March, 1999. Mschindi, Tom. 1998. The mass media and science and technology education. In Naidoo, P & Savage, M (eds). African Science and Technology Education into the New Millennium: Practice, Policy and Priorities. Cape Town: Juta. Naidoo, Prem & Savage, Mike (eds). 1998. African Science and Technology Education into the New Millennium: Practice, Policy and Priorities. Cape Town: Juta. Nasson, Bill. 1990. Education and poverty. In Nasson, Bill & Samuel, John (eds). Education: From Poverty to Liberty. Cape Town: David Philip. Nkomo, M. 1993. Research and training: Components of curriculum transformation. In Taylor, Nick (ed). Inventing Knowledge. Cape Town: Maskew Miller Longman. Nyerere, Julius K. 1974. Man and Development. London: Oxford University Press. Odora Hoppers, Catherine A. 1999. Indigenous Knowledge and the Integration of Knowledge Systems: Toward a Conceptual and Methodological Framework. Discussion document. Pretoria: Human Sciences Research Council. Reich, Robert B. 1991. The Work of Nations. New York: Alfred A Knopf. Rodney, Walter. 1974. How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. Washington, D.C.: Howard University Press. Southern African Development Community (SADC). 1999. Protocol on Education and Training in the Southern African Development Community. Tadadjeu, M (ed). 1990. Le Defi de Babel au Cameroun. Collection Propella No. 53. Yaounde: University of Yaounde. Todaro, Michael P. 1989. Economic Development in the Third World. New York: Longman.

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4 United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. 1993. Endogenous Capacity Building in Science and Technology in Africa. Ural, Ipek. 1999. Higher Education - Business Partnerships in Africa. Draft paper.

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5 African/Indigenous Philosophies: Legitimizing Spiritually Centred Wisdoms within the Academy Ivy N Goduka

INTRODUCTION A generally disturbing assumption is that education on the continent of Africa was brought by Europeans. Such thinking conforms with the doctrines of terra nullius (empty land) or terra incognito (land without minds, thus — people devoid of culture, history and a civilization). Through these doctrines Europeans did not only claim a right of ownership to the land of indigenes, but also waged a religious and educational 'war' that sought to undermine and denigrate any cultural practices and spiritual values that were embraced prior to European invasion. In a paper (Goduka, in press) on Indigenous epistemologies:... Affirming our legacy', I share my frustration at the extent to which philosophical foundations of indigenous ways of knowing have been in the past and are currently devalued and undermined within the academy. Consequently, when philosophical foundations and the history of education are discussed, only one educational thought and practice is legitimized, that which is steeped in the European culture and tradition, and which is driven by rational Newtonian-Cartesian epistemologies. Cartesian rationality presents a view of reason that excludes and marginalizes other ways of knowing and methods for making judgement. It is a method of investigation in which valid knowledge is thought to be rationally determined, and is disconnected from environmental/ecological relationships, cultural practices and spiritually centred wisdoms.

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5 POST-COLONIAL-APARTHEID ERA: A WAVE OF EDUCATIONAL REVOLUTION The post-colonial-apartheid era in South Africa is witnessing a wave of educational revolution that entails 'scientific paradigm shifts, the social reconstruction of reality ... and fundamental challenges to our basic beliefs about objectivity, knowledge and truth' (Higgs 1997:20). Higher education in South Africa is thus challenged to reconstruct its institution for a post-colonial-apartheid era. I (1998:44-45) present the rationale for this reconstruction when I wrote: It is necessary to examine the philosophical perspectives entrenched in the ideology of white supremacy, the Verwoerdian philosophy enshrined in the Bantu Education Act, and linguicism. These beliefs and ideologies undergird and permeate the curricula, the culture of schooling, the pedagogical practices attached to them, and serve to devalue and denigrate linguistic and cultural diversity that [learners], particularly those from indigenous backgrounds bring to the classroom.

Thus, recent developments in South Africa have not only led to the dismantling of apartheid, but have also led to the beginning of the process of interrogating and destabilizing assumptions that undergird and perpetuate the ideology of white supremacy and Verwoerdian philosophy, as these are revealed in the system of Christian National Education. As stated by Higgs (1998), there is much agonizing over the future form and direction which philosophy of education should take. This is particularly true in those faculties of education and colleges of education which in the colonial-apartheid era maintained Fundamental Pedagogics as the dominant philosophical underpinnings of education. The nature and trajectory of events in South Africa's recent past have thus spawned a number of different discourses within the field of education, some of which hope to address the absence and exclusion of indigenous/African epistemologies in the academy. This chapter must therefore be taken as beginning a dialogue to legitimize indigenous philosophies and spiritual wisdoms within the academy. In addition, it will demonstrate that there are other ways of knowing besides Cartesian truth or rationality; that there are other means for connecting with the universe, and for relating with one another besides the mind and/or reason; and that there are other selves and voices that are subjects and can speak for themselves. In this chapter, I claim the right to use my African/indigenous voice to speak from the heart and the hearts of many elders, ookhokho, from my village kwaManxeba, eHeshele, who are the custodians of these spiritual wisdoms. I also claim the right for my tongue/language, isiXhosa, my style of thinking, speaking and writing, my culture and spiritual values which are rooted in indigenous epistemes to be validated within the academy as legitimate and authentic. To this end, I present a few principles that are reflective of African/indigenous philosophies, spiritual 64

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5 wisdoms and world-view, which educators can integrate into the curriculum and pedagogy. As I venture to write a chapter on the philosophies of indigenous ways of knowing in Africa, I am cognizant that the continent is immense, not only in terms of its size but, more importantly, with respect to cultural, linguistic and ethnic diversity that characterizes the people who live in her various parts. As Richard Olaniyan (1982) observed: 'With [over] a thousand separate language groups, a variety of climatic regions and greatly different levels of social and economic development... Africa is a continent of bewildering diversity and extraordinary dynamism/ This immensity and diversity might lead some to conclude that it is not possible to discuss indigenous/African philosophies and spiritual wisdoms in any meaningful way because there is bound to be considerable variation from one group to another throughout the continent. However, while there is diversity among the indigenes on the continent of Africa, there is also unity that is grounded in our world-view, spiritual ecology and cultural/religious practices. This chapter will therefore present principles that undergird indigenous philosophies and spiritual wisdoms in what Cheikh Anta Diop (1962) called a 'profound cultural unity still alive beneath an appearance of cultural diversity present on the continent of Africa'. It is important to add that how these commonalities, shared philosophies, wisdoms and world-view are defined and carried out depends on the life, access to the land and other resources, regional ways, the language and the culture of a specific group. This is also influenced by the degree and extent to which an individual or a group has assimilated and/or conformed to European traditions and cultures transmitted via socialization processes such as education, religion, the media, etc. Given such constraints, let me caution the reader that although I am an indigenous scholar, a healer (izangoma), a visionary (imboni), a philosopher (ikncuba buchopho), a dreamer (umphuphi) and a Xhosa woman well versed in indigenous ways of knowing, in many ways I am a beginner in tuning into and drawing on indigenous philosophies and spiritual wisdoms, because I have been schooled in European/Western epistemes. It is thus crucial that, prior to a discussion of indigenous philosophies, I make the point that in contemporary society working with indigenous wisdoms invariably includes discussions of our personal and collective historic experiences with white supremacy via the systems of imperialism, colonialism, capitalism, racism/apartheid and oppressions in general, as well as the wave of revolutions in education. These systems resulted in the denigration of our cultural practices and spiritual values, loss of land — a wellspring of everything that makes us indigenous, loss of indigenous languages, loss of our authentic indigenous identities, loss of the right to exist as indigenous BEINGS, above all the miseducation of indigenous learners in schools/universities that are steeped in Eurocentric cultures and traditions. In short, indigenes have been subjected to a wave of mayhem and atrocities (of body, mind and spirit) that culminated in the acts of genocide of unfathomed proportions that go beyond the scope of this chapter. ©Juta&CoLtd

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5 In schools and universities, I have been lied to and taught through the hidden curricula and pedagogy driven by the Newtonian-Cartesian paradigm not to speak, think and write in my indigenous language, isiXhosa, because it is a nonscientific and barbaric language that has no place in the academy. I have been told that I come from a dead culture, and a religion that is based on foolish superstition with no spiritual value. Worshipping the Great Spirit, uQamata, has been ridiculed as being paganistic. By the same token, indigenous spirituality, magic, mythology and legends (iintsomi) that form the foundation of indigenous teachings and serve to preserve the rudiments of a people's cultural practices and spiritual values were ignored, devalued and trivialized as useless superstition, because they do not conform to Cartesian forms of rationality. I have been lied to about my Elders, ookhokho, and my ancestors abaThembu, ooQhudeni, ooMvelase, ooNgoza kaMkhubukeli, that they are evil spirits and will lead me to the scorching fires of hell. I have been convinced that the European education and Christianity will liberate and free me from the bondages of ignorance and lead me to life everlasting; will bring light to darkness; free indigenes from superstition, cultural practices and spiritual values, thus liberating them from the state of irrationality. In Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong (1995), James Loewen captures, in the most brilliant and alacritous manner, these lies and many others that were told to indigenous children in North America and around the globe. These lies were also fed to many generations of European descent in South Africa and elsewhere, and formed a bulwark of prejudice and racism against the indigenes that held the institution of education under siege for over 300 years. Thus, living within, beside and in the face of European cultural traditions, their racist thinking and practices make opportunities for an authentic identity 'Uqobo Lwam', (Ngubane 1979) as an indigenous, cultural and spiritual healer a daily struggle against the framework of European hegemony and male dominance. These atrocities also make it very hard for us to think of ourselves as indigenous peoples who are competent to articulate (either in oral or literal traditions) our philosophies and spiritual wisdoms with one another and with outsiders. ON SHARING MY INTERPRETATION OF INDIGENOUS PHILOSOPHIES AND SPIRITUAL WISDOMS OF AFRICANS As I begin the process of sharing, I will follow the lead of the elders (ookhokho) and traditional healers (izangoma) who, when they engage in a healing process begin by saying: 'Ezi zinto asizenzeli, ezi zinto zagqitywa eXhegwini ...Ezi nyaniso ayhozethu, ezi nyaniso zifunwa sisizukulwana.' Unfortunately, English words are not adequate to capture the essence of the spiritually centred wisdom of indigenes. A reasonable translation might be: 'Our accomplishments are not of our own doing, they were told to us by the Ancestors... these cultural truths were given to us, we were asked to pass them on to the next generation.' I am passing on these spiritually centred 66

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5 wisdoms, and hope that educators and learners will tune in and draw on them to enrich and heal their mind, body, spirit and soul. PRINCIPLES REFLECTIVE OF INDIGENOUS PHILOSOPHICAL WAYS OF KNOWING I wish to remind my readers that limited time and space do not permit me to go into depth in any of these areas. I deliberately choose only those indigenous principles that I feel competent to share and those I feel will not compromise the sacredness and the spiritual nature of indigenous ways of knowing. The principles that I am sharing spring from my personal experiences as an indigenous Xhosa woman, from my gurus — spiritual guides such as my mother, uBhelekazi, my father, uQhudeni, the elders, ookhokho, and many other indigenous women and men who have contributed to this body of spiritually centred wisdom. Personal Responsibility for One's Inner Self — A Journey to Self-healing This principle reinforces the notion of taking personal responsibility for one's inner self and finding ways to connect with one's inner peace, in order to begin the process of healing. According to this principle, before an individual can form a healthy and meaningful relationship, make peace with people outside of her-/ himself, and understand fully the responsibility to the whole, she or he must first learn to live life from within a healthy, healing, peaceful and loving inner self. This means learning to be in tune with one's personal imperfections and working towards a greater whole where conscious learning and relearning both within and outside the person take place. This also means healing the body, mind, soul and spirit by eating well, resting, exercising and meditating. Above all, it means abstaining from the impurities we get from liquor (utywala bom-Lungu), cigarettes and other drugs that were/are imported to our villages/neighbourhoods for waging a 'biological warfare' aimed at destroying the lives of indigenes on the African continent and the world over. Every individual at whatever age needs to develop ways to connect with her/his inner self and peace through meditation or reflection. The following can serve as a guide to connecting your inner self and inner peace with the Great Spirit, uQamata. OH! GREAT SPIRIT—

UQAMATA!

Whose voice I hear in the winds, and whose breath gives life to the world, Hear Me! I come to you as one of your many children, I am small and weak, I need your strength and wisdom. May I walk in beauty. Make my eyes ever behold the red and purple sunset. Make my hands respect the things that you have made and my ears sharp to hear your voice.

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5 Make me wise so that I may know the things that you have taught your children, the lessons you have hidden in every leaf and rock. Make me strong, not to be superior to my Sisters and Brothers, but to be able to fight my greatest enemy, MYSELF. Make me ever ready to come to you with straight eyes so that when life fades, as the fading sunset, My Spirit will come to you without shame.

A Collective Responsibility of Caring for Mother Earth The elders (ookhokho) have told us that the Creator, Great Spirit (uQamata) and the ancestors (izinyanya) have given us much through Mother Earth's bounties so that people can live in wellness through the healing and spiritually centred wisdom that are rooted in Nature, the living soul. All the Mother's bounties are like gifts and medicines, medicines that sustain us in times of plenty and heal us in times of need. Thus, we have a responsibility to care for Mother Earth and all her living and non-living creation. Solomon (1992:98) reiterates this point in his teachings: We were the 'Keepers of the Land' for the ones after us. We were to keep it in trust for them and we were to keep it clean and not disturb its harmony or its cycles because it belonged exclusively to the One who created and maintained it. And we, [her] his children were only visitors here in this part of the creation. We were guests and we were to conduct ourselves in a sacred way.

Arrien (1993) also asserts the principle of caring for Mother Earth, the living and non-living creation. She notes two views about land ownership: the people of the First, Second and Third Worlds believe that 'the land belongs to the people'. Based on this view, people control and manipulate Nature. The people of the Fourth World (this is a name given to indigenous peoples descended from a country's aboriginal population and who today are completely or partly deprived of the right to their own land) believe that 'the people belong to the land'. Therefore, people do not own or control the land, rather, they live in harmony with Nature. We cannot separate ourselves from the land, the trees, plants, minerals, rocks or anything that makes up part of Mother Earth. When we perceive Nature as interactive with a living soul that has consciousness, we tend to relate to her in a different manner than by attempting to control her resources only for our personal gain. Interrelatedness, Interconnectedness and Interdependence among Humans, Living and Non-living Creation For untold generations indigenes had understood the interrelatedness, interconnectedness and interdependence among humans, and of humans with living and non-living creation. They understood that nothing exists in isolation, 68

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5 everything is related to every other being or thing. For example, Mbiti (1969) describes the African family system as: vertical in that it included the living, the deceased and those unborn; horizontal in that it included all living individuals in the ethnic group; and as characterized by strong kinship bonds, spiritual orientation and work ethic.

Certain presuppositions are singled out by Vilakazi (1962) as important for the collective wellbeing of humankind. These include: the unity of the lineage and its patterns of mutuality and reciprocity; the supremacy of the ancestral spirits, who were malevolent or benevolent deities according to whether they were pleased or displeased with their descendants. This relational conception of reality is also echoed by Hord and Lee (1995:8) when they write: Physical objects, for example, cannot be truly separated from the uses to which they are put, uses that are themselves necessarily essentially human. Nor can such objects be separated from the natural materials of which they are made, from the geographical and temporal references of their existence, or from their specific relations to what, for want of a more accurate term, we might describe as the divine.

In the languages of indigenes are embedded guiding principles which reflect this interconnectedness. Mitakuye oyasin — of the Lakota tradition — we are all related (Atkinson & Locke 1996) and the principle yobuntu — lam we; I am because we are — we are because I am, in other words, we are all related because I am in you — you are in me (Goduka 1999), are examples of unity in diversity. Fitznor (1998:30) also reaffirms this notion when she writes: Mother Earth and her inhabitants, plants, animals, minerals, rocks, insects, etc, are all viewed in an interactive way — they are viewed as alive, as having a spirit, as conscious and as capable of responding to people. They are our 'relatives'. In ceremonies and teaching circles each of these relatives is discussed in relation to its connection and contribution to healing, wisdom, power and teachings.

Another dimension of this relational conception of reality is revealed in the lives and works of Dr Martin Luther King, Jr., and of former South African president Nelson Mandela. In their works they have extended the notion of community to ground a genuinely universal humanism as opposed to the typical partial ©Juta&CoLtd

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5 humanism of the European tradition. To them, all human beings are connected not only by the ties of kinship and community but also by the bonds of reciprocity rooted in the inherent interweaving and interdependence of all humanity. Dr King (1958:87) spoke of his life's work as one that involved agape — a Greek principle for unselfish and altruistic love, when he wrote: Agape is disinterested love. It is love in which the individual seeks not his/her own good, but the good of his/her neighbor. Agape does not begin by discriminating between worthy and unworthy people, or any qualities people possess. It begins by loving others for their sakes ... It springs from the need of the other person ... It is love in action. It is love seeking to preserve and create community. It is insistent on community even when one seeks to break it. It is a willingness to sacrifice in the interest of mutuality and a willingness to go to any length to restore community.

The underlying tenet here is that all life is interrelated. We are so connected with one another that if you are in pain, so am I. In this light, it is impossible to have a healthy institution when different individuals and constituencies are in pain. In a speech at a rally in Durban in 1990, Nelson Mandela reiterated a commitment to building a Government of National Unity when he said: We also come together to renew the ties that make us one people/and to reaffirm a single united stand against the oppression of apartheid. We have gathered here to find a way of building even greater unity than we already have. Unity is the pillar and foundation of our struggle to end the misery which is caused by the oppression which is our greater enemy. This repression and the violence it creates cannot be ended if we fight and attack each other.

Both King's and Mandela's work is testimony of a humanism (ubuntu) that places the community — not the individual — at the centre, thereby offering us a framework that embraces the principle of oneness of humanity, thus the 'decentered human subject' (Hord & Lee 1995). Individual and Family Identities are Never Separated from Sociocultural and Spiritual Contexts In indigenous ways of thinking and knowing, identities are not some Cartesian abstraction rooted in a solipsistic self-consciousness; rather, they are constructed in relation to and at least partially to a set of shared beliefs, patterns of behaviour and expectations (Hord & Lee 1995) as well as cultural practices, spiritual values, and Nature — the living soul. For example, who we are (our identities) as indigenous peoples is an integral part of Nature, the cultural practices, the spiritual values and the principles we embrace such as the morally guiding 70

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5 principle yobuntu. This principle represents the collective world-view of the indigenes of Africa, Asia, Australia, North and South America. It is embedded in the culture and is expressed in the indigenous languages of these continents. The isiXhosa proverb 'umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu' captures this world-view. An English translation that comes close to this principle is: I am because we are — we are because I am; in other words, we are all related because I am in you — you are in me. Communality, collectivity and human unity, pluralism and multidimensionality are implicit in this principle. They operate in the philosophical thought of the indigenes in regard to relationships with other human beings, interaction with all creation and ways of thinking, feeling, learning, teaching and speaking (Goduka 1998). According to Tetreault (1993:156-157), 'I am we' also makes provision for the rationale, modulation and interconnectedness of: categories of race, class, gender and ethnicity and their respective Isms'; the objective and the subjective; the rational and the intuitive — the head and the heart; the feminine and the masculine; all those things which Europeans and Westerners see as 'either-or' opposites, binaries or dichotomous thinking. Therefore, in indigenous ways of knowing, an individual's identity emanates from the interdependence of human beings with one another and with the world environment, both natural and human-constructed. It is a concept of self that is both abstract and concrete, individually and communally defined, as well as spiritually and Nature-specific. 'I am we; I am because we are; we are because I am' is thus different from the world-view embraced by people of European descent, a pivotal axiom of a Eurocentric view of humanity that is expressed by Descartes in 'I think, therefore, I am'. The latter is a concept of self that is based on solipsism — a theory which asserts that only the self exists and can be proven to exist; and that the self is abstract and totally individually defined. It is in tune with a monolithic and one-dimensional construction of humanity. In contrast, individual or family/group identities of indigenes are grounded in social, cultural and spiritual interactions, in the life of the community and in Nature. The naming of children is regarded as a sacred and spiritual ceremony because it foretells the future of the child. As revealed by Vuyo and Gcotyelwa Matanda (1998:19), It is a prophecy which calls forth the destiny of the named child ... Before a child is born, grandparents pray and meditate on suitable names for the grandchild's personality and purpose in life.' Thus, in indigenous communities, the naming of children is a prophetic and spiritual event that goes above and beyond the Cartesian abstraction reflected in names such as Ivy', 'Elizabeth', 'John', or 'Peter'. These are names which most indigenous children of my generation received as part of their Tixed' or European-constructed identity — their so-called 'Christian' names. The Dutch and the British settlers enforced the © Juta & Co Ltd

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5 use of foreign names because it was not only convenient for the colonizers to use a dialect of the Dutch language (which became to be known as Afrikaans) and English, but it was also to fulfil the 'doctrines' of the systems of imperialism and colonialism. All indigenous children were given 'Christian' names, without which they would not be eligible for education and employment. These names have no significance nor relevance to our heritage, ancestry, cultural identities as revealed in our patronymic legends, indigenous philosophies, and to spiritual wisdoms that spring from the soil of Mother Africa. Conversely, my indigenous name, Nomalungelo, luQobo Iwam, accords me an authentic, indigenous and cultural identity. It means (Human) Rights. It is rooted in the African soil, as well as in the traditional and morally guiding principle of ubuntu, which reflects oneness of humanity, a collectivity, community and set of cultural practices and spiritual values that seek respect and dignity for all humanity. This identity has multiple implications and many callings. Teaching and researching in the areas of unity-in-diversity, human rights, healing oppressions, writing a book entitled Healing with Ubuntu, and writing a chapter on African/indigenous Philosophies ... are some of the ways I reveal my name's multiple meanings and attempt to fulfil some of my callings. Ndiyintombi — daughter, kaTata uQhudeni, noMama uBhelekazi —my first gurus. Ngokwe-Siduko, patronymic or panegyric legends: in patriarchal cultures, children adopt the father's patronymic legends (Ngubane 1979). SingaBathembu, ooQhudeni, OoMvelase, ooNgoza,

KaMkhubukeli. OoMpafane, Bangadl'aMathibane, Indlal'iwile. NjengeeNkonjane zibhabh'emafmi, Bawel umlambo iThukela ligcwek. NgooMakhonza bagoduke. Bona abaxakwa Lithambo lasemzini — Kodwa eli laseMelika, linzima, ngathi lisabaxakile. Mhlawumbi abakawuqabelisi lo mcimbi babezele wona eMelika. The last three lines are a new addition to our patronymic legend. This is to show that family legends are not static and frozen in time and space, rather, they are dynamic and get altered as family members reach a certain point in life's journey. When the ancestors (abaThembu) crossed the Tugela River to look for a place to call home (ikhaya loku-godukela) in the Cape Province, they made an alteration to our family name — hence Goduka, and an addition to our patronymic legend. When in 1981, we crossed the Atlantic Ocean to live and work in the United States, life circumstances compelled us to revise and make additions to our legend. 72

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5 Ngubane also adds that in the African Civilization — Nudic and Sudic civilizations — an African is forever to respond to the challenge of being human — ubuntu — to oneness of humanity. This challenge does not exist outside of the person — in the abstract, or in the other constructed identities. Rather, it is a constituent part of the African inner self, the soul, the spirit and Nature. The environment (land and Nature) in which an African defines her-/himself is not a vacuum. The ancestors had defined themselves before her/him. They had down the ages developed a whole tradition of self-definition which linked them with the living and the unborn. Thus, when Africans connect with the ancestors, they do not have to go out of themselves to make supplications to external powers. They summon powers which inhered in themselves as extensions into the future of those who had gone before them. The ancestors are their forbears, in a different guise, living in a different period, yet having a profound influence on their lives. Every African family adopts names and titles of the ancestors in the family panegyric legends. This process serves as a bond and connection between the living and those who have relocated, but are in many ways still with us. The land is treated with great respect and because it 'houses' our ancestors. Although family names sometimes change for whatever reason, patronymic legends remain unchanged. For example, some members of the Goduka family have renamed themselves and adopted other family names. However, we all retain the same patronymic legends. Our patronymic legend describes a golden age in the experiences of abaThembu, ooQhudeni, ooNgoza, an age when our warrior-heroines and heroes strode the land and achieved the impossible, when they came to the fore to settle disputes under conditions of social and political turbulence. Nature, the Living and Non-living Creation are the True Ground of Spiritual Reality One of the key aspects of indigenous philosophies, spiritual wisdoms and worldview is that the spirit permeates the lives' of everything. Thus, in Nature, in living and non-living creation, the spirit exists. This is a notion that the European mind may find difficult to perceive as reality. In this section, I argue that indigenous philosophies and spiritually centred wisdoms, at the innermost core, are about the life and nature of the spirit that moves within and around us. I explore basic elements of indigenous traditions that connect humans at the level of spiritual ecology. I must mention here that indigenous cultures and traditions revolve around seeking life and communicating with the various manifestations of inner and outer spirit (consciously formed and activated through language, thought, prayer, 'dreaming', ritual, dance, sport, work, oral tradition, play and art) to realize a higher level of completeness in life's journey. Learning about the nature of the spirit in relationship to community and the environment is considered central to learning the full meaning of life. Richards (1980:76-77) captures the theme of indigenous wisdoms when she makes reference to its spiritual aspect: ©Juta&CoLtd

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5 The traditional African view of the universe is a spiritual whole in which all beings are organically interrelated and interdependent... The cosmos is sacred and cannot be objectified. Nature is spirit, not to be exploited ... All beings exist in reciprocal relationship to one another; we cannot take without giving ... The mode of harmony (rather than control) which prevails does not preclude the ability to struggle. Spirit is primary, yet manifest in material being.

In the following section, Gregory Cajete (1994) presents elements of indigenous ways of knowing that characterize a spiritually centred nature. Firstly, there is no espoused doctrine of religion. In indigenous languages the word 'religion' does not exist. To the indigenes 'religion' is an imported intellectual structure; spirituality is grounded in indigenous communities and in their soil. Instead of religion, the words used refer to a 'way' of living, a tradition of the people, their spiritual wisdoms. This reflects the orientation of spiritual traditions to a process rather than to an intellectual structure. These are tools for learning and experiencing, instead of ends in themselves. In the second place is the idea that spoken words and language have a quality of spirit because they are expressions of human breath. Language as prayer and song has a life energy that can influence other energy and life forms towards certain ends. Thirdly, the creative act of making something with spiritual intent, that which is today called art, has its own quality and spiritual power that needs to be understood and respected. Fourthly, life and spirit, the dual forces of the Great Spirit (uQamata), move in never-ending cycles of creation and dissolution. Therefore, ceremonial forms, life activities and transformations of spirit are cyclical. These cycles follow the visible and invisible patterns of Nature and the cosmos. In the fifth place is the shared understanding that natural forms and forces are expressions of spirit whose qualities interpenetrate the life and process of human spirituality. Therefore, for indigenes the world over, Nature is sacred and is a living soul whose spiritual ecology is reflected around it. Uka (1991) provides three major points that distinguish indigenous spirituality from other religions. Indigenous spirituality has no historical founder like Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Confucianism. It is revealed in the sense that it came into existence as a result of human experience of the mystery of the cosmos. In an attempt to solve the mystery of the universe, indigenes everywhere have asked questions, searched for answers to these questions, and come to the conclusion that the mystery must be a supernatural power, to whom belongs both the visible and the invisible. 74

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5 It is traditional; the word 'traditional' may connote something that came into being long ago, something that belongs to the era of 'primitivity'. Indigenous spirituality is 'traditional' not because it is primitive, fossil, static and incapable of adaptation to new situations. The word 'traditional' serves to distinguish indigenous spirituality from any other religion that has been brought to indigenous people through missionary zeal and by propagation. It is traditional because, unlike European religion, it is a spiritual value and practice that is grounded in and originated from the indigenous people's environment and is rooted in their soil. It is neither preached to indigenes or imported to them, but permeates their public and private lives, as well as their daily activities. Indigenes are not converted to their spirituality. Each person is born into it, lives by it, practises it either in public or in private life. It has no written literature, sacred scriptures or credal forms. It is an essentially oral tradition. What is known about indigenous spirituality, therefore, comes through oral traditions such as intsomi, mythology and legends, stories and folktales, songs and dances, liturgies and rituals, proverbs and pithy sayings, adages and riddles. Some of these oral traditions are preserved in indigenous arts and crafts, symbols and emblems, names of people and places. Thus, works of art are not merely for entertainment or for pleasing the eye. Rather, they usually are a means of transmitting cultural and spiritual values, sentiments, ideas and indigenous cultural 'truths'. ORAL TRADITIONS ARE ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF INDIGENOUS PHILOSOPHIES, SPIRITUAL WISDOMS AND WORLD-VIEWS Indigenous societies are, by and large, oral ones, and this is true even where an established written literary tradition exists, as in the case of languages such as Swahili, isiZulu, isiXhosa and so on. Writing about traditional education in East Africa, Mazrui and Wagaw (1985) note: Yet another characteristic of most indigenous systems of education in East Africa is that they are based on the oral tradition rather than the written one. This is not to suggest that the written tradition has been entirely absent ... But most traditional educational systems in Eastern Africa operated on the basis of the supremacy of the oral tradition, with only a minor role for the written word.

To indigenes oral traditions are veritable vehicles for transmitting knowledge to the younger generation. As Idowu (1962) points out, oral traditions are means for the indigenous people to know their interpretation of the universe, the supersensible world and what they think and believe about the relationship between the two. Kunnie (1994:41-42) reaffirms the role of oral tradition in the African culture when he writes:

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5 Folk tales and stories constitute a significant part of historical African tradition and culture, since African customs are often transmitted via the medium of oral tradition ... Further, [they] are narrative forms that are instructive for describing social reality, for analyzing and interpreting the roles of the actors in such a reality, subsequently stimulating the imagination of the hearers and readers in transforming that reality.

Examples of oral traditions that I will discuss briefly in this section include izaci namaqhalo — idioms and proverbs, and iintsomi — mythology and legends. Idioms and proverbs feature prominently in virtually all traditional African cultures and play an important communicative and educational role. A basic idea underlying idioms and proverbs is that such sayings provide succinct, easily remembered summaries of important ideas and experiences that are part of the shared cultural knowledge of indigenous communities. Examples of proverbs from indigenous African contexts abound, and many of them provide us with insight into both indigenous education, cultural, social and spiritual values and mores. Consider, fo example, the Swahili proverb 'Mgeni siki mbili, siku ya tatu mpejembe' — your guest is a guest for two days; after that, give her/him a hoe. This conveys both practical advice and insight into interpersonal relationships. A great deal can be learned by examining proverbs that relate to the relationship between parents and children, as in these Igbo examples. Akukwa nnewu talu, ka nweya nata — the leaf that the big goat has eaten will be eaten by her/his kids. Ezinkpolo nada ezinkpolo — from good seed falls good seed. Ainy alur ike Hi owa iru nabo — we can't eat the world on two sides; that is, you

cannot have both many children and a lot of money. The use of proverbs is widespread throughout Africa. As the Twi of Ghana say, after all: A wise child is talked to in proverbs because vast amounts of information are conveyed quickly and creatively through the use of proverbs/ Proverbs are also used in various types of wordplay. For example, speakers of Teke in the Congo often engage in a specialized kind of linguistic behaviour called Bisisimi, which can be roughly translated as 'the language of the wise'. Bisisimi involves the competitive chanting of proverbs, as opposed to their common use in everyday speech. It is found primarily in specialized settings such as mourning ceremonies, festive gatherings and acts of divination. The following are proverbs common in Southern Africa. The use of proverbs in educating young children as well as in indirect communication in general is, by its very nature, context-specific. For example, if one sees two reasonably matched Xhosa boys fighting, one might say, 'kubambene ingwe nengonyama' — the tiger and the lion are fighting. Similarly, to describe two children who do not get along, one would use a proverb contrasting two animals that are natural enemies, such as: 76

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5 Yikati nempuku — it is a cat and a mouse. Yinyoka nesele — it is a snake and a frog. Yinja nekati — it is a dog and a cat. Writing about the oral culture of the Shona, Borland (1969) states that tsumo proverbs embody the wisdom and experience of a people lacking written records in a concise, quotable and often amusing way. The free use of tsumo is the accepted way of winning an argument, and tsumo are therefore an integral part of Shona legal procedure which is conducted by argument. In isiXhosa and isiZulu, izaci namaqhalo (idioms and proverbs) can be used to discuss any aspect of social life. In his discussion of izaci namaqhalo esiZulu, Professor Nyembezi (1974) classified these proverbs into ten categories. These categories can also be applied to proverbs found in most other African languages. The categories suggested by Nyembezi (1974:46-48) together with examples of each type of proverb are presented in the table on the following page. Categories of isiZulu Proverbs Other examples of oral tradition common in indigenous communities are intsomi. These represent a central feature of the intellectual and spiritual training of the African child. With specific reference to intsomi as the educational practice among amaXhosa, Jordan (1973:XVI) comments: The custom of telling intsomi lent to it a flexibility and dynamism, which could be utilized by the teller and audience to enhance their aesthetic experience. Unlike the written word, which can be removed from its unique moment, be referred to, and re-experienced as often as the subject pleases, the spoken word, the tune spontaneously sung, once it has been uttered, is gone and cannot be recaptured.

Thus, intsomi (mythology and legends), though they can be repeated several times, or be told by different artists, at different locations, they can never be the same, because their form and content undergo transformation, as each artist relates them at a different time, in a different place and with a different audience. As Jordan (1973) puts it, it is as if each artist squeezes her or his brush just that little more or less than the previous one. In addition, the art of relating intsomi does not require a clear demarcation between artist and audience. This particular dialectic expresses most vividly the collectivist ethic at the centre of oral tradition and makes it possible to erect towering structures even on the meanest foundations. Although there is a teller who provides the theme and plot around which the narrative is constructed, the audience is encouraged to contribute what they can. Because of this instant feedback from the audience, the artists give their best, and in return they have their repertoire of tales enriched both qualitatively and quantitatively, which produces the vitality and dynamism of intsomi. ©Juta&CoLtd

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5 Category of proverb

Content of proverbs

Examples

Ubuntu

Treatment of all people with respect and dignity.

A kindness is reciprocated. The stomach of a traveller is small.

Ukwethembeka Nokungethembeki

Faithfulness and unfaithfulness, deception, cunning, etc.

She/he cries with one eye. A crime is always denied.

Ubuhlobo Nobutha

Friendship and enmity.

The harshness of young people is repaid. The one offended never forgets; it is the offender who forgets.

Impumelelo, Inhlanhla, Namashwa

Good fortune, misfortune, troubles, uncertainty, despair, futile labour, failure and encouragement.

She/he has married her/his lover. To see once is to see twice.

Ubuqhawe Nobugwala

Bravery and cowardice.

An elephant is stabbed by all before it falls.

Emakhaya

Home life, marriage, heredity, relatives, child-parent relationships, etc.

A small pot is like the big one. A minister does not beget a minister.

Ukwedhda Kwemihla

Passage of time, ageing, etc.

Old age does not announce itself. Death has no modesty.

Inhlakanipho Nobuwula

Wisdom and stupidity.

She/he lights the fire in the wind. She/he who wants wisdom lives near a cunning person.

Izixwayiso

Warnings of various types, including warnings about how to raise children, avoid dangerous situations, speaking too often, etc.

The tree is bent whilst young. Solitude devoured its owner.

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5 The following are a few isiXhosa, isiZulu and Sotho intsomi that were told to us in the village kwaManxeba eHeshele: How Blue Crane Taught Jackal to Fly, The Winning of Kwe-Langa; Sebgugugu the Glutton; Tusi and the Great Beast; Saso and Gogwana the Witch', The House in the Middle of the Road; and Usandlwana — Water Jar Boy. The isiXhosa myth of Usandlwana is a legend whose variations are still told to Xhosa children. Its roots begin in a mythic past that is ancient and reflective of the way the visual symbolic form was employed in both the oral narrative and petroglyphic illustration of this isiXhosa teaching legend. The Usandlwana legend is simple, yet profound and extraordinarily deep in its metaphoric meanings. Usandlwana is created through a traditional art form and pottery reflecting the role and magic of the creative process in indigenous art. It evokes and relates the power of hunting and the use of hunting as a metaphor for searching, learning and healing. It reminds us that all is not as it may seem and that what appears as a handicap in children may indeed be a special talent, since Usandlwana can roll as fast as other children can run. His belief that he can become a successful hunter shows how humans can transform themselves and overcome the handicaps and challenges that they face. Usandlwana's journey to find his father, culminating in his entrance into the spring, where he finds not only his spirit father but also his relatives, is a reflection of the journey deep into ourselves that is required for deep understanding, true learning and healing. In discovering not only his father but his relatives in the spring, Usandlwana reminds us that while true learning may always seem an individual endeavour, its ultimate goal is not 'the individual ego writ large'. Rather, it is a connection with our deeper inner spiritual self and with our relatives. The moral of this legend is that learning and teaching in indigenous communities are always about creating connections with one's inner self and inner peace, with ancestors, family members, community and Mother Earth — the greater whole. CONCLUSION As I conclude this journey, I would like to emphasize two major points. Firstly, I caution the reader to appreciate the limitations of writing such an important piece o work. Alas! only some of the many facets of indigenous philosophies can be discussed in such a short space of time and place without compromising the rich and varied body of spiritually centred wisdom thriving in indigenous thought. Therefore, indigenous learners and scholars in Africa and around the globe are challenged to engage in extensive research and writing to legitimize indigenous epistemologies in the library, classroom, and wherever other knowledges, sciences and technologies are still extant. Such cultures and experiences have been devalued and denigrated in the academy — even worse, they have been treated as if they never existed. As we enter the new millennium, there is growing anger among indigenes and a desire to engage in what Amadiume (1997) terms Nzagwalu — an Igbo ©Juta&CoLtd

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5 expression for answering back when one has suffered many years of insult. We are answering back because we have suffered exclusion and oppression from the ignorant and racist European/Western scholarship, and have missed centuries of spiritual wisdom about who we are. We cannot tolerate such 'disturbing ignorance and arrogance in ignorance, that is part of the systemic attempt to deny the truth of African people and other [indigenous peoples]' (Kunnie 1998:8). We need to engage in a massive and serious cultural crusade to tune in and draw on the principles and patterns of African civilization. As stated by Vilakazi (1996:8) '[we] must become anthropologists doing fieldwork on [our] people and on [ourselves], as part of a great cultural revolution aimed at reconstructing Africa and preparing all of humanity for conquering with humanism'. In the process of 'reclaiming/affirming our indigenous story, cultural identity and voice, we need to decolonize the academy, in order to tell our stories, and affirm our indigenous cultural identities and voices' (Goduka 1998:52). In the following statement Amadiume (1997:5) eloquently presents a crisis in Africa, the crisis of all indigenous communities around the globe: In a colonial situation, therefore, historical depth tends to be a contested issue, as well as the nature and status of society before conquest and subordination. This has been especially so in the case of Africa, which has experienced racism and colonialism. Which identity, what status should Africa assume? Who should write a people's social history? Is it a people who should first say what they are? Or is it others who should be telling Africans what they are? I do not know one single case in which Africans wrote the social history of any other nation.

Secondly, it is important that we do not overromanticize the cultural practices and spiritual values of precolonial times in Africa, and in other indigenous communities. As Mazrui (1980) noted in a critique of the 'Negritude' movement, the mood of this branch of African romantic thought is one of nostalgia, yearning for an innocence which is eternally lost. All that can be done now is to make the best of a bad job, to try to save some of the values of 'old' Africa, and find a synthesis between these and the influences which have come with colonialism and 'modernity'. However, although we should not take such an overly romantic view of precolonial Africa, it is also important that this past not be rejected wholesale. Indigenous scholars in Africa and elsewhere are convinced that these spiritually centred wisdoms should serve as the springboard from which the current system of education can begin. Anything short of this shall continue to plague us and continue to make our education contextually irrelevant, and culturally and spiritually insensitive because it is disconnected from the cultural, social, spiritual, political and economic realities of Africa. At this point, I wish to express my great gratitude to the elders (ookhokho), the Great Spirit (uQamata) and the ancestors (iziNyanya zakwantu) by saying: I thank you for accompanying me throughout this journey in the spirit of respect, dignity 80

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5 and humility. Ndithi kuni, Oamata, Zinyanya zakwantu, nezase-Bathenjini, nakuniookhokho bethu, Camagu! Makube chosi! Kube hele! Ningadinwa, Nangamso! You have been my gurus throughout my life. I have especially felt your spirit as it entered my tongue to help me pass on this spiritually centred wisdom to inform the next generation. I would also like to thank numerous authors who have persistently written about these perspectives despite overt or covert discouragement. You have in many ways inspired me to share my interpretation of indigenous philosophies and wisdoms. Meegwetch (Ojibway), Ekos (Cree), Camagu! Ndiyabulela Kakhulu (isiXhosa). My profound thanks go to you all! References Amadiume, Hi. 1997. Reinventing Africa: Matriarchy, Religion & Culture. New York: Zed Books Ltd. Arrien, A. 1993. The Four-fold Way: Walking the Paths of the Warrior, Teacher, Healer and Visionary. California: Harper San Francisco. Atkinson, R & Locke, P. 1996. Children as sacred beings. In Rutstein, N & Morgan M. Healing Racism: Educator's Role. Springfield, MA: Whitcomb Publishing. Awolalu, JO. 1976. Sin and its removal in African traditional religion. Journal of the Academy of Religion, 44, 275. Borland, CH. 1969. The oral and written culture of the Shona. Bulletin of the Department of Bantu Languages, University of South Africa. Cajete, G. 1994. Look at the Mountain: An Ecology of Indigenous Education. Colorado: Kivaki Press. Diop, CA. 1962. The Cultural Unity of Negro Africa. Paris: Presence Africaine. Fitznor, L. 1998. The circle of life: Affirming aboriginal philosophies in everyday living. In McCance, DC (ed). Life Ethics in World Religions. Atlanta, Georgia: Scholars Press. Goduka, IN. 1998. Educators as cultural awakeners and healers ... izangoma: Indigenizing the academy in South Africa. South African Journal of Higher Education, 12, 49-59. Goduka, IN. 1999. Affirming Unity~in-Diversity in South African Education: Healing with Ubuntu. Cape Town: Juta. Goduka, IN (in press). Indigenous epistemologies — Ways of knowing: Affirming our legacy. South African Journal of Higher Education. Higgs, P. 1997. Towards the reconstruction of a philosophy for educational discourse in South African Higher Education. South African Journal of Higher Education, 11, 10-20. © Juta & Co Ltd

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5 Higgs, LG. 1998. The democratisation of knowledge: A new paradigm for courses in philosophy of education at the University of South Africa. South African Journal of Higher Education, 12, 190-200. Hord, FL & Lee, JS. 1995.1 Am Because We Are: Readings in Black Philosophy. Amherst University of Massachusetts Press. Idowu, EB. 1962. African Traditional Religion. London: Longmans. Jordan, AC. 1973. Towards an African Literature. Berkeley: University of California Press. Jordan, ZP. 1973. Tales from Southern Africa. Berkeley: University of California Press. King, ML, Jr. 1958. Stride Toward Freedom. New York: Harper & Row. Kunnie, J. 1994. Models of Black Theology: Issues in Class, Culture and Gender. Pennsylvania: Trinity Press International. Kunnie, J. Spring 1998. Vuka. Africana Studies Newsletter. The University of Arizona. Loewen, JW. 1995. Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong. New York: Simon & Schuster. Matanda, V & Matanda, G. 1998. Naming Your Child Prophetically: A Dictionary of South African Names. Grand Rapids: Herald Publications. Mazrui, A & Wagaw, T. 1985. Towards decolonizing modernity: education and cultural conflict in Eastern Africa. In The Educational Process and Historiography in Africa. Paris: Unesco. Mazrui, A. 1980. The African Condition: The Reith Lectures. London: Heinemann. Mbiti, JS. 1969. African Religions and Philosophies. New York, NY: Anchor. Ngubane, JK. 1979. Conflict of Minds: Changing Power Dispositions in South Africa. New York: Books in Focus, Inc. Nyembezi, C. 1974. Zulu Proverbs. Johannesburg: University of the Witwatersrand Press. Olaniyan, R. 1982. African History and Culture: An Overview. In Olaniyan, R (ed). African History and Culture. Lagos: Longman. Richards, D. 1980. European mythology: the ideology of progress. In Asante, MK . Vandi, AS (eds). Contemporary Black Thought: Alternative Analyses in Social and Behavioral Sciences. Beverly Hills: Sage. Solomon, A. 1992. Poems and Essays of Arthur Solomon, ANishnawbe Spiritual Teacher Songs for the People: Teachings on the Natural Way, edited by M Poslums. Toronto: New Canada Press Limited.

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5 Spinoza, B. 1998. The Principles of Cartesian Philosophy and Metaphysical Thoughts. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. Tetreault, MK. 1993. Classroom for Diversity: Rethinking Curriculum and Pedagogy. In Banks, JA & Banks, CA. Multicultural Education Issues and Perspectives. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon. Uka, EM. 1991. Readings in African Traditional Religion, Structure, Meaning, Relevance, Future. Bern: Peter Lang. Vilakazi, A. 1996. Zulu transformation: A Study of the Dynamic Social Change. Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal Press. Vinci, TC. 1998. Cartesian Truth. New York: Oxford University Press.

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6 African Education: Mirror of Humanity Babacar Diop

INTRODUCTION Today, even if specialists in palaeontology and prehistory continue to research different stages of human evolution in an attempt to locate the first centres of settlement and dispersal, one has to admit that a strong tendency exists to acknowledge that the beginnings of this technological, intellectual and artistic adventure are to be found in Africa. DW Phillipson (1993:2) has aptly underscored this light coming from the African continent: the archaelogists and prehistorians of other regions have much to learn from the African record not only for its unparalleled evidence for the earliest period of human development, but also methodologically ... Africa also provides excellent opportunities for contrasting the testimony of archaelogy with that of linguistic and oral historical studies and for interpreting the meaning of rock art in the light of the belief systems of recent peoples ...

Is it not all the more natural then that this very continent should provide a light worthy of interest for the history of education? This intuition is shared by the French specialist in antiquity, Henri Jeanmaire (1975:164), who, in a well-known work dedicated to the rites of adolescence in Hellenic antiquity, published for the first time in 1939, pointed out: ... the African continent offers an observation field particularly interesting for the study of forms of civilisation which have disappeared elsewhere. Black Africa in particular, relatively isolated owing to a number of geographic circumstances and which has, in part, escaped transformations which have elsewhere altered former features of civilisation, has conserved with quite noteworthy distinctness, the marks of former cultural 'transgressions' which make several of its present

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6 civilisations the remarkable witnesses [our emphasis] of the state of affairs which has been rendered unrecognisable or altered elsewhere since a more or less early antiquity.

The author, who wanted to understand the structure of family cults and penetrate the mystery of the orgiastic cults in the ancient Greek universe1 or the mystery of the foundation rites in the ancient Roman universe,2 attempted to find a comparison with contemporary African situations. THE AFRICAN GAMUT Henri Jeanmaire has endeavoured to isolate the important trends and characteristics supplied by African cultural regions. Although southern and northern Africa are worthy of much attention, the author has focused mainly on so-called middle Africa, namely the subequatorial region, which offers more similarities to civilizations of European antiquity.3 African civilizations in general do not only provide information about ancient forms of religions, myths and mysteries; they also contain ancient forms of social regulation (choice of rulers, role of secret societies, mechanisms of decisionmaking, limitation of spheres of influence, etc). One of the most interesting aspects concerns the mechanisms of transition from childhood to adolescence (Jeanmaire 1975:172 et seq.). The psychological and institutional preparation with the help of the sociopolitical or religious organs, the structuring of the roles played by the community and the family, the recreational and/or utilitarian aspects, the frequency of the ceremonies, the norms (positive or negative sanctions) are reviewed and analysed. Admittedly it is possible to detect superstitions, the so-called 'irrational' aspects (sacrifices, offerings), but the essential point for the groups under consideration is to 'renew the vitality of the protecting spirit' (Jeanmaire 1975:182). Throughout the cults practised by the populations of West Africa (the Bobos) or southern Africa (Zulus, Hereros, Ovambo, etc) it is possible to determine the real, albeit variable, frequency of the ceremonies, the preparation in novitiate form, the parts played by the masters of ceremony, the godfathers, and the guides, the respect, gender characteristics (man/woman),4 ethnic or clannish characteristics (scarifications), multidisciplinarity and multifunctionality (medical and dietetic practices, initiation to aesthetics, rhetorics, and conflict resolution, etc). This education gives importance to endurance, focuses attention on the security of the group (existence of special paramilitary groups), develops solidarity and esprit de corps, reserves a part for sexual initiation, and cultivates not only modesty and humility but also emulation.

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6 THE EQUATORIAL-TROPICAL PRISM Jeanmaire's specific approach has enabled him to re-examine the particular place of masks and brotherhoods in the Central African universe. He therefore dwells on occultism (1975:187), esotericism (1975:188) with, at times, their xenophobic and misogynous impact (1975:188), attempting to explain these phenomena by the effects of political and social disintegration. West Africa, especially, presents forms of social organization which have as a base 'not consanguinity, but relations between people of the same age and sex' (Jeanmaire 1975:209). As a result there is a marked cult of solidarity, fraternity, mutualism, well observed by Charles Monteil (quoted by Jeanmaire 1975:211-212): Those who have undergone the soli (initiation) together become united for life: they are fulani, peers, twins, for they were introduced to sexual and social life on the same day. Wherever they are and whatever their respective backgrounds, twofidani regard each other as equals, even if one is a chief and the other a slave ... As a rule, therefore, the fulani is the friend on whom one can rely with absolute confidence... A flanton comprises, generally, young people who come from three consecutive soli: it is therefore a combination of three flambolo (groups of people of the same age)... each flanton is independent but it remains on the best of terms with its immediate neighbours ... when there is a conflict within a flanton, the neighbouring flantons intervene to restore peace.

Admittedly, militaristic deviations can be noted, as in the case of the Belli education among the Vey of Liberia,5 and these sombre notes deserve attention if one wishes to understand in part the chaotic situation on the continent. Indeed we cannot reflect on our present destiny without analysing the grafting between the ancient values and the modern values in a context of accelerated globalization, fashioned by a boundless liberalism with its share of all types of trading (currencies, money, merchandise including migrants, men, women, children, drugs, weapons, etc). Already in the 1960s, at the beginning of the African independences, certain intellectuals had turned their attention to the destiny of traditional African education. For example, Abdoulaye Sadji,6 the Senegalese writer, contemplated the question in an essay entitled African Education and Civilization (1964). It is revealing, moreover, that most of this author's works fit into a dynamic current either of positive assessment of African traditions or of describing the clash between African and Western cultures.7 Through his essay on African Education one can distinctly perceive that Abdoulaye Sadji experiences some difficulty in responding to those who contest historic depth in African civilizations; here is how he evokes the conceptions about African civilizations: 86

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6 the black man from the forest or semiforest regions of Africa is still at the stage where his behaviour is not the result of philosophic thinking but the result of simple adaptation to the natural environment, [sic] Historians and ethnologists who take the opposite view to those who denigrate the black race reveal to us the existence, perhaps in the distant past but real in terms of facts and documents, of a negro civilization during which the Blacks already knew how to work metals and 'weave garments'... [our translation]

And Sadji indicates that there is a debate as to whether these brilliant civilizations (Ghana, for example) can be attributed to 'authentic Blacks or men of Semitic origin' (Sadji 1964:24-25) [our translation]. Evidently Abdoulaye Sadji does not seem to support the theories of Cheikh Anta Diop on the anteriority of Negro civilizations or on Negro Egypt, the initiator of certain Mediterranean (Graeco-Latin) and Near Eastern (Hebrew and Arab) civilizations; he seems to develop a theory about Africa, held dear by the supporters of Negritude, particularly of the Senghoran vision, which, incidentally, Cheikh Anta Diop criticizes for lack of historic perspective.8 It is also possible that Sadji has the same attitude as Cesaire who, whilst morally supporting Cheikh Anta,9 does not have the scientific arguments to reinforce the hypotheses of the Senegalese physicist-Egyptologist. Abdoulaye Sadji has paid much attention to clothing (1964:25 et seq.) when recording aspects of African civilization. With regard to the stages of initiation, he dwells longer on weaning and circumcision. Naturally, even if he does not attempt to go back into prehistory or African antiquity, as a disciple of Cheikh Anta Diop would have done, he cannot refrain, as we have already shown, from reflecting on contacts with other civilizations, in particular Islam (1964:42 et seq.). Further, he displays an awareness, like Jeanmaire, of parallels between contemporary African civilizations and European civilizations in antiquity (Graeco-Latin especially). Here is how he concludes the comparison (1964:67): 'The two examples of Greek and Roman education prove that there is nothing new under the sun and that the education, such as it was given in the past to the youth of Senegal, drew its resources from a very ancient wisdom/ Professor Michel Woronoff upheld this point at the symposium 'Black Africa and the Mediterranean World in Antiquity' in Dakar in 1976. Woronoff, in his paper 'Parallel Structures in the Initiation of Young People in Black Africa and in Greek Tradition', pays tribute to Jeanmaire, whilst stressing the limitations of his work.10 After a quick review of works on the topic in Africa and in the rest of the world ('Black Africa and the Mediterranean World in Antiquity', NBA, Dakar, Abidjan 1978:238-239), he stresses the significance of the African case (1978:240) and points out some important lessons which can be drawn from this rich experience: affirmation of biological identity (1978:250), introduction to responsibility (1978:247), specialization (1978:248), solidarity (1978:248). © Juta & Co Ltd

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6 The important debates which followed his report enabled Professor Oumar Kane, a historian, to reconsider the global dimension of African education.11 The discussions made it possible to reconsider the importance of the geographic contexts of the economic activities, the specificity of the agrarian and/or maritime civilizations (Symposium 1978:149), the interaction of the ethnic groups, and particular social classes or categories.12 If African initiation allows for the affirmation of strong identities, of assumed personalities, if it encourages the practice of endurance, the achievement of exploits, it prepares for the handling of the law of opposites: remedy/poison, life/death, etc. Through rebirth dialectic space becomes larger, and cyclic practices are not in contradiction to a spiral evolution. Michel Woronoff, besides, did not fail to have recourse to the authority of LV Thomas in order to explain a few situations which seemed somewhat comical to him: 'When adults aged sometimes thirty or thirty-five years undergo initiation, out of formalism, "the famous Diola formalism", they continue to receive advice on how to have children and on the mysteries of reproduction, as if they did not know. This indicates clearly that there has been a type of change in the initiation, due to general economic conditions which have altered' (Symposium 1978:263-264).

NEW CHALLENGES AND TRANSFORMATIONS The need to take historical evolution, and hence lessons from the past, into account in order to be able to establish a viable educational project has not been overlooked by organic researchers, whose concern has been to go along with the action of the political leaders. Such was the case of Roland Colin who was very close at the same time to Leopold Sedar Senghor and Mamadou Dia — allies, then adversaries, on the political scene in Senegal. In his thesis entitled Education Systems and Social Transformations with, as subtitle, Continuity and Discontinuity in the Socioeducational Dynamic Currents — the Case of Senegal he refers to most of the works which we have mentioned (that is, Thomas Sadji, etc).13 He devotes the first part of volume I to precolonial society (1980:51). His approach is midway between that of Jeanmaire (on the scale of the whole of Africa) and that of Abdoulaye Sadji (focusing on the Wolof-lebu); in fact, Colin, for his part, has chosen to compare the Wolof, Sereer and Pulaar practices. This enables him to define six stages in the evolution of individuals.

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6 English meaning

Sereer

Wolof

Pulaar

1 Infancy from 0 to 2 years

xeq, robtatin

perlit, perantal

tugge

2 Early childhood from 2 to 6 years

Onjaj 0 ngor (m) /o ndew (f)

gune

SukaaBe tokos Be

3 Childhood from 6/7 to 12 years

o njaji (m) or nde xale, njagamar (f) cukalon ban dong / o ndew (f)

4 Adolescence from 12 to 20/2 5 years

o fes or o sanget (m); o toog njegemaar (0

aat njulli berloot waxambaa -ne (m); seqlu janq (f)

sukaaBe (m), boombi (f)

5 Active adults from 20/25 to 60/70 years

o mak (m) o tew or jeeg (f)

borom ker (m) jeeg (f)

hellifauBe (m); seemedbe (f)

6 The elderly from the time when they are no longer able to work

o nogoy

kilifa (m) mag (m, f)

mawBe raneeBe

m = male f = female After noting the similarities between this listing and that drawn up by Western psychologists (1980:55), the author studies successively: intrafamily and preinitiatory education, paying particular attention to the antenatal phase and to birth and weaning, to the function of the grandparents and of the uncle, to the role of stories; initiatory education; postinitiatory education. Like Abdoulaye Sadji, he has devoted part of his reflections to the clash with Islam (1980:108 et seq.) in order to analyse the osmosis, the graftings or the points of resistance, as the case may be. This enables him, for example, to distinguish the evolutionary difference between the Wolof and Sereer systems, the former characterized by 'duality balanced with difficulty between a politico-military system increasingly showing its domination over a Serer type laman [landkeeper] system. Lineal education is unable to restore the counterbalance once the influence and ©Juta&CoLtd

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6 domination of the colonial empire have intensified the military force from the top down, and broken the continuity of social rapports through trade dealings, from the bottom up' (1980:146) [our translation]. WHAT OF THE FUTURE? In order to properly trace the channels for an enriching future, one must keep in mind the articulation between formal, non-formal and informal sectors of the educational domain. As to the formal sector, Cheikh Anta Diop (1979) particularly stressed the importance of national languages in writing about the African renaissance. The Necessity for an Education Based on the African Languages A person learns better in the mother tongue because of an indisputable accord between the spirit of a language and the mentality of the people who speak it. Moreover, it is clear that years of delay in acquiring education are thereby avoided. I quote an example. Take the following statement: a point which changes position creates a line. In order for a young African to fully comprehend this statement (and this yet remains to be seen), he needs a minimum of six years at school to master the foreign language's syntax and know sufficient vocabulary. The same statement could have been given in Valaf (for example) to the sevenyear-old child the day he started school; in the previous case, six years had to lapse before giving it to him at the age of thirteen, six years during which much trouble was taken to create from nothing a less suitable instrument of instruction for him than that which he had from birth. If one implemented an education using the medium of an African language, one would soon be aware of many an error; among others, one would see that the Negro, far from being devoid of logic, could even make light of the abstract difficulties of mathematics and that what is an obstacle for him is rather the symbolism of mathematics taught in a foreign language which he does not know well. The Negro is obliged to make a twofold effort: to assimilate the meaning of the words and then, by means of a second mental effort, to grasp the reality expressed by the same words. Often these poor teaching methods lead to a complete rupture with the real, with which contact is only re-established slowly; this would not have happened if the person had been taught in Valaf. A reality expressed in the mother tongue has a certain something that is banal about it, hence the African is sufficiently in command to know how to master it, on the one hand, and, on the other, the chance of any error as to the meaning of the words is negligible. The case is quite different if the reality is expressed in a European language. In this event the reality is as if wrapped in a watertight membrane, separating it from the intellect, the latter only adhering to phrases and terms as if they were magic formulae and which, in themselves, constitute knowledge. And it is by this psychological process that, in our case, the memory acts as a substitute for 90

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6 rationale and, for this reason, the intellectual faculties are not even given the opportunity to be put to the test so that they can be judged. Furthermore, the study of languages is of all the more historical interest since we are unaware — until now — of any ancient script. Indeed, by studying how languages have evolved from each other, a sort of linguistic chain can be formed, starting with the first and proceeding to the most recent language, a chain which would teach us about a clearly very significant period of our history. That is why research on African history requires linguistic skills. The cultural problem above all else is therefore the following: that of the creation of languages appropriate to the speaking needs of all African nationals of whatever cultural level. But this problem in turn presents difficulties about which we have no delusions. The notion that European languages are more widely spoken in Africa than native languages is false. What is true is that European languages are spoken in the large centres by a handful of intellectuals, thereby giving the impression that they are widely used, whereas the entire inland mass speak the mother tongue; and it is out of preference for what is easy, laziness, lack of will and lack of decisiveness, a morbid preference for intellectual and moral enslavement, that we endeavour to content ourselves with European languages, not for deliberate, practical reasons. It is often alleged that the mass is uneducated and illiterate: it is easier to teach it an alphabet than a foreign language. It is commonly argued that Africa will never know linguistic unity. Africa needs linguistic unity no more than Europe does. But it is entirely wrong to think that this apparent multiplicity of languages poses a serious obstacle to the formation of a native culture. Indeed, barely four of the 600 languages generally cited are of any importance, the rest being mere variants spoken by a small group — as were European regional dialects: Basque, Gascon, etc. Now, when a dialect is only spoken by a handful of people, it constitutes neither the base of a culture nor an obstacle to such. In Africa, therefore, there are not 600 languages but only four that can be developed to become the medium of the entire African thinking. And this depends solely on the firm will of the Africans and a decision on their part for intellectual and moral emancipation. Among the difficulties to be overcome is that of the adaptation of the terms and the necessary modification of the echo of certain words in the native conscience so that a definite form of literature can be created; this would require a veritable revolution of our psychological conscience. It is common to mention the example of the Gauls whenever people shrink from tackling difficult problems. One even tries to prove that this is the action of ineluctable historical law. We consider that these are two distinctly separate situations. In fact we are unable to see how the different tribes of Gaul could have deliberately rejected a Roman influence. There is an essential difference between our situation vis-a-vis the rest of the world and theirs vis-a-vis ancient Rome. For humanity has since acquired a new factor in the course of its evolution: the © Juta & Co Ltd

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6 possibility of expanding culture within the people thanks to modern means for the diffusion of thought: press, radio, cinema. By reason of all these modern methods of propagation, which are peculiar to the modern world, there are more possibilities of acquiring knowledge, and consequently more possibilities for effective action. It therefore seems strange to us that this aspect of modern life can be cited when intellectual enslavement, the opposite of what it should bring about, is accepted. Despite all these difficulties, we have realized that, by extending the meaning of words, by giving a scientific definition to certain others which until now only had a general meaning, and by implementing a few quite legitimate rules which conform perfectly with the spirit of the Valaf language — which we take as an example — we could have a vocabulary sufficient to permit the use of Valaf for all secondary education in Senegal, and even for a large part of higher education. From basic geometrical definitions to differential and integral calculus, there would thereafter be nothing that we could not adequately express in Valaf; and we do not despair of going further. Highly important works, even those marking the great turning points in human thought, could also be translated. We remain convinced that it will suffice for the black nations to wish to make the same effort as the European nations, in order for the former to achieve similar results with the development of their languages. (Cheikh Anta Diop 'Quand pourra-t-on parler d'une renaissance africaine', an article published in the Musee Vivant, special issue number 36-37 November 1948:57-65, and again in Alerte sous les Tropiques, Presence Africaine 1990:35-38.) As regards the non-formal and informal sectors — in other words, society, relations between the communities and within the family, in short, traditional, popular and extracurricular education, Diop (1979) comments as follows: 'The entire African people is divided by ethnic barriers which we, through ignorance, believe to be impervious; this is detrimental to the sense of unity demanded more than ever before by the historic circumstances in which we find ourselves/ How Can the Problem be Solved? In proving an indisputable blood relationship between the Sereres, the Valafs, the Saras (the people of the 'labret-wearing negresses'), the Sarakholles, the Toucouleurs, the Peuls, the Laobes, I pronounce henceforth absurd any ethnic prejudice among nationals aware of these different groupings. This principle should be applied throughout Africa by our brothers from other regions. Social Barriers Within the ethnic barriers there are social divisions formed by the stratification of African societies into castes. Although greatly diminished, particularly in the towns, these divisions continue to separate numerous elements of society. 92

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6 Precipitating their removal is a way of hastening the fusion of all the social strata and of all the African groupings into one people. By explaining the origin of the castes, the historic circumstances in which they were created, their absurdity in the new economic structure and the present danger in which they find themselves, I am endeavouring towards solving the problem of the entire division of all the elements which should be united in a common struggle. Absence of Modern Methods of Expression at the People's Level The importance of this last matter is evident as soon as one presents the problem in the following way. What can be done for the average African so that he may acquire a modern way of thinking (the sole guarantee for adaptation to modern life) without being obliged to use a foreign language, as this would be an illusion? If one is in agreement over this manner of presenting the problem, immediately the need is felt to give importance to the study and development of the African languages in order to render these suitable for expressing the exact sciences (for example, mathematics, physics), technology, philosophy, etc. By creating a scientific Valaf vocabulary (for physics, mathematics, etc) particularly by translating into Valaf the resume of the most modern theory of physics (the relativity of Einstein, the resume of the Marxist doctrine, and even musical tunes (such as the Marseillaise), by creating a modern Valaf poetry, I believe to have contributed to eliminating certain prejudices regarding an alleged natural inadequacy of our languages, all the while indicating the only realistic path which will lead us to authentic culture and to the adaptation of modern science to the African national soil. I must confirm that I have analysed all the objections that an African could have raised in this regard, that I have made a preliminary study of the genius and the origin of the Valaf language, which I chose as an example, and that I have given much thought to the philosophic aspect of the matter, to micronationalism, and other issues. Problems with Regard to Extracurricular Education of the People If we wish to effectively address the African people with any educational goal in mind, we will soon realize the necessity for resorting to African languages. Preliminary work to render these languages suitable for expressing modern reality in its entirety would mean eliminating the major obstacle to extracurricular education of the people. Finally, one of the principal interests of this research programme is that it should serve as a basis for a culture henceforth conscious of itself, with all that it comprises in the way of reinforcement of the African personality. It is essential to point out that this work does not aim to establish the imperialism of some territory or other; it serves as an example of a principle which should be ©Jula&CoLtd

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6 applied throughout Africa/ (Cheikh Anta Diop 'Vers une ideologic politique africaine', an article published in La Voix de I'Afrique, see the Bulletin de I'Association des Etudiants du RDA, and reproduced in Alerte sous les Tropiques: 52-54.) An Educational Agenda for Africa The African experts convened by the regional office of Unesco in Dakar in preparation for the Jomtien International Conference of Education (1990) could also not ignore the importance of putting African educational problems into perspective after an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of traditional education. They defined 'two referential axes, the vertical one which is oriented from the chronological upstream towards the downstream of time, and where realities as determinative as genetic and parental ancestry, age, etc are found. The horizontal axis refers to alliances and associations with other lineages, other young people (age groups, etc). The biological and the sociocultural always interfere to create the rights and duties of the child with respect to others' (Ki-Zerbo 1990:36). They reduced the different stages of African education to the following: The first biophysical integration with the first rupture which weaning constitutes. Integration into a specialized society which attaches importance to selfeducation, special training. Initiation, where the reference axes (vertical and horizontal) merge. This system of education had strong points which could be summarized in a word — the importance of 'related knowledge': 'relation of general knowledge to practice; relation of education to production; relation of education to society; relation to culture through the mother tongue as well as through the immersion of the elements of knowledge into cultural practices (games, masks and religious rites, dances, music, sport, etc); finally the relation of this education to recognized ethnic values ...' (Ki-Zerbo 1990:40). This system also had its weak points amongst which the experts have listed: 'a poor level of abstraction and generalization ...; a poor coefficient of accumulation and diffusion. This education was also not open enough to others outside each ethnic or even village group. Finally the initiation rites were sometimes excessive (mutilation), indeed even fatal'(Ki-Zerbo 1990:39). As much as we think we should be cautious about the formulation of the first weak point listed,141 think it is important to stress the limitation, which is partly 94

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6 explained by the blocking of written traditions at a certain moment in African history. In fact, Africa (which developed several systems of writing, as Professor Theophile Obenga has shown in his work Africa in Antiquity (1973), knew no phenomenon comparable to that of the printing revolution which occurred in Europe at the beginning of modern times.15 For this reason, after the great clashes with the other large Near Eastern or Mediterranean civilizations, we are witnessing a 'silent disintegration which, to a large extent, explains the current problems and collapse in the education system' (Ki-Zerbo 1990:41). African societies have had their foundations shaken; a type of economy as well as political systems which generally serve the interests of foreign or autochthonous minority groups, middlemen, have been imposed on them. The men are in the mines, the fields, the factories, on the construction sites, 'the women, after bearing the children, have to rear them alone and prepare the present-day Negro slaves' (Ki-Zerbo 1990:42), and 'the African towns are often not the driving forces behind the African countrysides, but miserable showcases and dumping grounds for a distant centre, whose achievement they are structurally incapable of repeating' (Ki-Zerbo 1990:45). Is there any reason for giving up? Certainly not! On the contrary, attention must be paid to the new growth on the dunghill; this new growth generally constitutes forms of positive adaptation to new situations in order to take up past and new challenges which are the struggle for democracy, self-sufficiency with regard to food, health, peace, the preservation of the environment, etc ... And in this new adventure Africans will be keen to reappropriate new communication technologies, by developing in them specific contents in accordance with their history and their aspirations. And in the combat for the new African orientation in educational processes, African civil society will have to consolidate the work that it initiated within the framework of the Fifth International Conference on Adult Education (Hamburg 1997) and the Seventh MINEDAF (Durban 1998). We hope that the perspicacity already apparent on these occasions will become more marked during the meeting at Dakar in April 2000 which has been set up to evaluate the Declaration of Jomtien in 1990 regarding Education for All. THE PLACE OF EDUCATION IN THE RE VITA LIZ ATI ON OF THE PAN-AFRICAN IDEAL When considering Pan-Africanism, problems relating to strategy and tactics were often eclipsed by declarations of good intent and the publication of enthusiastic programmes. Those who did give some thought to questions of strategy and tactics did not fail to question themselves on the concepts and notions, the consequences and the domains of intervention. They are certain to reflect on the place of the educational processes in the birth and resurgence of the Pan-African project. ©Juta&CoLtd 95

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6 The Concepts and Notions Those who drew up the manifesto for CIFAN (Initiative Committee for Federalism in Africa) had well perceived Pan-Africanism as the ideology and policy of the PanNegrism working class. For them the considerations had made manifest their limits, economic regroupings and military alliances likewise. The latter had therefore chosen a federation of associations of states and communities which had been affected without restraint. In their mind African federalism is open to the Blacks of the diaspora. BF Tchigoua had added to the Pan-Africanism/Pan-Negrism perception the problems of the African nation and the Negro nation. His view was to reject the idea of the formation of a single nation in a foreseeable future and to agree to confront concrete problems within the subregional boundaries. Unity would not necessarily signify the formation of a single federal state and a single nation. The expression African nation' would refer to a group of states sharing a certain number of ideals and values such as solidarity, social justice, autonomy with respect to the outside world. (See Tchigoua 1991:51-62.) Professor Amin Samir is of the opinion that one cannot ignore the Arab element in Africa: 80 % of Arabic speakers are African. Africa on the whole is a diverse continent. There is no single African culture. There are African cultures. Professor Samir (1990:45) reminds us that relations between the countries north of the Sahara 'have been neither better nor worse than relations between all the peoples, including those between the Blacks themselves'. Another division which slows down the unifying processes is that between regions that are French-speaking, English-speaking, Portuguese-speaking, etc. Within Senegambia abundant examples reveal the cultural and linguistic affinities between African countries. This information is drawn from implicit or explicit assessments of experiences in the past. Tafsir Malick Ndiaye (1992) thus indicated the occurrence of several obstacles along the path of unifying experiences: among other problems, he cites the ideological contradictions between systems of government, the design of foreign powers, the distinct personalization of power in Africa. A clear awareness of the objectives, as well as the obstacles at potential and virtual level, will make it possible to determine the domains of intervention. The Domains of Intervention One of the first tasks, both for the groups who have already drafted projects and for those groups in the process of formation, has been to identify the domains of intervention. In this respect, the Senegalese preparatory committee for the First Congress of States and Peoples (CNP - Panaf 92) published a list of suggested subthemes for communications and reports. The following domains were noted: political (rights 96

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6 and liberties, state, system and political regimes), economic and financial (agriculture, finance and currency, infrastructures, economic planning, economic integration), sociocultural (arts, education, languages, religions, scientific, technological and media matters, subregional and international cooperation). The objectives of another group of the Pan-African movement, actuated by the Nigerian Osahon, were defined thus: ideological (liberating and protecting the African conscience), political (defending and protecting the interests and rights of the entire black race), economic (encouraging blacks to be self-sufficient), scientific and technical (introducing adaptable, adequate and flexible techniques, products and ideas), and cultural (identifying positive aspects and ensuring their predominance). It now remains to be seen how clear, realistic policies can be implemented in order to achieve these objectives. So as not to extend beyond the limits defined, we will endeavour to develop educational issues which are at the crossroads of human issues. Research — Information — Education — Animation Those who drew up the CIFAN manifesto rate the importance of information among the minimal psychological conditions. Information and research are inextricably linked. The different movements which claim to have their roots in the Pan-African project have considered that such a task requires organizational support in various forms: national committees, district departments, institutional bodies in schools and universities, in companies, in political parties, in trade unions and in NGOs. Education — if one needs to be reminded — can serve to consolidate the unity of a group in the affirmation of its cultural identity, and it can serve as a springboard for developing peace, for expanding the economy and, to a certain extent, for resolving conflicts. But it can serve to justify aggression towards other groups and to incite violence and hatred. This action is more or less easy according to the degree of homogeneity within the group considered. If the entire group is complex, it is necessary to institute a systematic policy to ensure the peaceful coexistence of ethnic groups who are connected historically, geographically, economically and politically. Different approaches are possible; what is essential is to ensure that the ethnic groups cannot impede the development of the African nations, and neither must the nations suffocate the ethnic groups. In the educational programmes, therefore, for both the formal and informal sectors, the question of national and African unity must find a choice place. The information section dealing with the realities of the continent and with the history of its civilizations must be handled correctly. ©Juta&CoLtd 97

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* As a result of initiatives taken in the Mandingo milieu, an entire community of erudite people today use the Nko alphabet in Guinea, Mali and the Ivory Coast. Exchanges of information and experiences take place between them. Other initiatives exist in the AL Pulaar milieu. Discussions have, in some cases, brought about a project for creating a Peul or Al Pulaar trans-state political entity (which extends beyond the present frontiers of the different states where the Al Pulaar community is represented). Did not Professor Cheikh Anta Diop say: 'the most revolutionary reforms would concern the teaching of history' (Jeune Afrique No. 1155, 23 February 1983:37)? In his opinion this subject should be taught in all university faculties. Correct information can help to bring down certain artificial barriers (White Africa/Black Africa/Hamitic Africa/authentic Negro Africa). It can also help to form a clear awareness of historic relativity. One would then see how a certain people, dominated today, blocked in its initiatives, reduced to its primitive state, is, in fact, heir to a brilliant civilization. We were given the opportunity in 1990 of witnessing, during the launching of the International Year of Literacy (at the IBA Mar Diop Stadium in Dakar, Senegal), scenes of great Wolof chauvinism. It was evident that the youth responsible for these excessive outbursts had not been educated along the lines of mutual comprehension between ethnic groups. Africans would realize that a certain phenomenon of civilization, esteemed or disparaged in one area, is perceived differently elsewhere (for example the phenomenon of castes). It would likewise be possible to greatly reduce incidents of irredentism by proving the permanence of immigrant influxes. It would then be possible to demystify autochthony. Africans would also realize that no people is more courageous or intelligent than any other. Everywhere people have tried to adapt to their environment and fought against injustice. Finally they will understand that they have one common destiny. Indeed, a portion of the continent which falls into an invader's hands is a bastion which has collapsed. Another subject worthy of particular attention is linguistics: interesting experiments in the teaching of second languages in Mauritania, for example, have shown that the youth of the different ethnic groups are very receptive. Had it not been for the deadlock orchestrated by chauvinistic milieux, in particular the Beydaan in the government, the linguistic and national issue in Mauritania would have made great progress. Even better, a successful experiment in any country can be examined and elaborated in another (the Spider newspaper and the AALAB Review have played an important role in this field). The information section should be coupled with that of education, which must be theoretic and practical. Projects such as the MDT (Management Development 98

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6 Training) and the TAP (Technical Assistance Project) have enabled NGO members of the AALAE (African Association for the Literacy and Education of Adults) to make exchanges over these essential issues. The results of this education must, in turn, be brought to the attention of the NGOs and governments in the form of journalistic information or of a permanent programme of educational activities such as meetings, seminars, symposiums. But in order to realize this ambitious programme, we need resources of a human, material and financial nature. • Men and women exist: they must be sought out, exchanges between them must be encouraged, they must be assisted in their education. Structures exist (Association of African Universities, BREDA [Bureau Regional de TUnesco pour FEducation en Afrique, in Dakar], Unesco, etc): they must be used to their best advantage. • The material and financial elements must first be sought out on the continent. Several associations and projects have collapsed or risked collapsing because they have relied principally on foreign financial backing, as was proved by the AALAE affair. • The piloting of a strategy presupposes resources and particularly the creation of pools of human resources, as well as the establishment of networks which stimulate creativity and healthy competition. In this way, even if one structure disappeared, there would be others to pursue its objectives in another form. The AALAE wanted to develop unity and solidarity between teachers of adults from the same country, from a subregion, on the continent. It developed solidarity with the rest of the world through ICAE (the International Council for Adult Education). This reflection on education and training serves to highlight the importance of making assessments. However, this must not exempt us from reflecting on our attitude towards influential and authoritative powers (economic, religious, customary and political). Consequently, we must do all we can to avoid being transformed into an institutional static power, whose sole preoccupation is to maintain itself, and which repeats the same errors as many social, political, cultural and economic structures. A choice must be made between the course of responsibility and that of opportunism (see Fouler 1990). Responsibility goes hand in hand with freedom of thought and action, and with emancipation from every form of domination likely to be permanent and absolute.

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6 Endnotes 1 '...the type of family structure involving ancestral beliefs and cults, in which Fustel de Coulanges has taught generations of philologists to recognize the basis of the antique City, finds its counterpart and its best commentary in the social system spread generally throughout almost all the populations of the equatorial and subequatorial region, and particularly amongst the agricultural communities of western Sudan. It is interesting to note that it is precisely within these same civilizations, which — according to the conception described above — represent a cultural stratification easily linked to the ancient civilizations of the Mediterranean world, that can be observed, as we will see, the development of institution where the connection with the orgiastic cults and Hellenic rites becomes obvious, a connection which has been established by the observers themselves.' (Jeanmaire 1975:166) 2 '... let us at least recall the interesting page on which Leo Frobenius has recorded traditions concerning the foundation rites of the walled cities in the Sudan, as directly described by Mandingo informants; it is superfluous to note that they inevitably evoke the foundation traditions of the Latin oppida etrusco rito.' (Jeanmaire 1975:166) 3 By studying the distribution of local civilizations in large zones from the north to the south of the continent, one obtains, in a way, the equivalent of what an ideal section would give, in the countries of the northern hemisphere — in Mediterranean Europe for example — showing superposed civilization strata through the ages. Generally speaking also, southern Africa — even if we confine ourselves to the black populations of this region — brings us face to face with a more ancient [our emphasis] state of the institutions, of which a more evolved [our emphasis] form predominates in the average zone of Congolese, Guinean or Sudanese societies. The northern zone, in its turn, offers more modern, even if archaic, features, in comparison with the culture of western Europe. If these North African features can be defined as medieval, the subequatorial features ... on the other hand, take us back several millennia before our era to the period which immediately preceded the development of the Mediterranean civilization.' (Jeanmaire 1975:165-166) 4 Although the author seemed to think at one stage that initiation applied solely to boys (Jeanmaire 1975:173), he revised his thinking (1975:182 and 186) to include feminine rites. 5 '... the descriptions of the Belli type education have awakened among European informants recollections of the Spartan education' (Jeanmaire 1975:129). 6 The author, born in 1910 in Rufisque, after studies in the Arabic (Koran) and French languages (primary and secondary schools) was employed as a teacher, then as an inspector of primary education until he died in 1961. 100

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6 7 Readers might recall that the author wrote, in collaboration with Leopold Sedar Senghor, La Belle Histoire de Leuk, le Lievre for children. He published other works: Tounka, une Legende de la Mer (Paris, Presence Africaine 1952); Maimouna (novel) (Paris, Presence Africaine 1958); Mm, Mulatresse de Saint-Louis (Paris 1954); Moudou Fatim (short stories) (Diop Publications, Dakar 1960). 8 This criticism reappears in Civilisation ou Barbarie (1991: 279). Cheikh Anta Diop believes that in order to correctly define cultural identity, particular emphasis must be given to historic, linguistic and psychic dimensions. The fact is, the supporters of Negritude have been too specific as regards this third factor. 9 Cheikh Anta Diop pays tribute to Cesaire for this attitude in the preface to Nations Negres et Culture, 1979 edition, TIP, 5. 10 'H Jeanmaire was the first to present a systematic account on the topic, placing the accent on the light which Africa could throw on the obscure legends or misunderstood rites in Greek Antiquity. At present, if the ideas developed by Jeanmaire on Spartan cryptology or on the role of the young community in the Achaean world have been questioned in part, if his ethnosociological information appears somewhat dated, his essential thinking nevertheless remains valid and is integrated in recent studies on agrarian societies' (Symposium 1978:237). 11 Professor Kane had attached importance to the mystical, technical, socioprofessional dimensions, the relationships between young people and adults, boys and girls, the physical and moral elements (Symposium 1978:261). 12 Thus Jean-Georges Texier had asked Mr Woronoff if the different tribes (or ethnic groups) about which he had spoken to us had, at one time, been conquerors or if they had had very pronounced military characteristics (Symposium 1978:257). 13 This thesis was defended on 17 December 1977 at the University of Paris V, and was published by the workshop responsible for the reproduction of theses, University of Lille III, 1980. 14 Consult in this regard the work of Powell & Frankenstein (1997). 15 Concerning Africa and writing systems, the book of Simon Battestini, Ecriture et Texte, Contribution Africaine (1997), is very interesting.

References Battestini, Simon. 1997. Ecriture et Texte, Contribution Africaine. Presses de 1'Universite de Laval. Dakar: Presence Africaine. Colin, Roland. 1980. Education Systems and Social Transformations: Continuity and Discontinuity in the Socioeducational Dynamic Currents — the Case of Senegal. Thesis published by the University of Lille III. ejuta&Coltd

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6 Diop, Cheikh Anta. 1979. Nations Negres et Culture, new edn. Paris: Presence Africaine. Diop, Cheikh Anta. 1990. Alerte sous les Tropiques. Paris: Presence Africaine. Diop, Cheikh Anta. 1991. Civilization or Barbarism? An Authentic Anthropology. Translated by Yao-Lengi Meema Ngemi; edited by Harold J Salemson & Marjolijn de Jager. Brooklyn, NY: Lawrence Hill. Fouler, A. 1990. Building Partnership between Northern and Southern Development NGOs: Issues for the nineties. Miijo, December. Jeanmaire, Henri. 1975. Couroi et Couretes, reissue. New York: Arno Press. Ki-Zerbo, Joseph. 1990. Eduquer ou Perir. Unesco-Unicef. Ndiaye, Tafsir Malick. 1992. Integration Africaine, evolution institutionelle. Afrique Espoir, 6, January-March. Obenga, Theophile. 1973. Africa in Antiquity. Paris: Presence Africaine. Phillipson, DW. 1993. African Archaeology, 2nd edn. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Powell, Arthur B & Frankenstein, Marilynn. 1991. Ethnomathematics: Challenging Eurocentrism in Mathematics Education. New York: State University of New York Press. Sadji, Abdoulaye. 1964. Education Africaine et Civilisation. (Published posthumously.) Paris: Presence Africaine. Samir, Amin. 1990. North Africa and the Arabs. Regards Africains, 14-15, 45. Symposium. 1978. Symposium on 'Black Africa and the Mediterranean World in Antiquity' (Afrique Noire et le Monde Mediterranean dans I'Antiquite') held at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at the University of Dakar, Department of History, in 1976. Dakar-Abidjan: NBA. Tchigoua, BE 1991. Overcoming the crisis of Pan-Africanism and unity in black Africa. IEDA, January-March, 51-62.

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7 Africanist Thinking: An Invitation to Authenticity LesibaJTeffo

INTRODUCTION In the recent past an anachronistic and somewhat racist discourse has been raging. It is not my intention to continue that debate in this article. I recognize the immensely positive though unintended results that that discourse has yielded. Amongst others, the debate spurred Africans to take their destiny into their own hands. Rather than to engage in attempts at justifying the existence or otherwise of African philosophy, which in itself was not unwarranted, some scholars hit the turf and ran. They did what they considered as African philosophy regardless of protestations to the contrary. To their credit, their texts today are used as sources and references in the studies of philosophies in general, and in particular African studies. We therefore contest that Africanist thinking is an affirmation and at the same time an invitation to Africans, those at home and in the diaspora, to be authentic and true to themselves and their history, and proclaim with pride what Africa was, is and can still become. In this chapter it is intended to highlight the influence of African philosophy on education, especially in contemporary academic and political discourses. To this end some issues and themes will be cited as reference points. When, in 1959, Father Tempels wrote his book Bantu Philosophy, little did he know what a plethora of responses it would generate. With all its imperfections, the book has in many ways created an entry point and a space for serious thought to be given by both Europeans and non-Europeans to the discourse of African philosophy. I submit that, in an attempt to define themselves and their destiny as they perceived and conceived it, Africans came out with movements and world-views that ultimately crystallized into what is today called African Philosophy and African Studies. To mind come Nkrumah's Pan-Africanism, Senghor's Negritude, Kaunda's African Humanism, Nyerere's Ujamaa, Biko's Black Consciousness Movement, Makgoba on the transformation and Africanization of tertiary institutions and curricula. ©Juta&CoLtd 103

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7 Today the debate on African philosophy and African studies has gone full circle in the sense that the former skeptics are its chief exponents and, given their superior research skills and resources, they are making giant strides in producing literature with an African focus and content. I refer in this connection to both black and white scholars who always argued to the contrary, until they were converted and became zealous missionaries. The centre of reference is no longer Europe but Africa. The African savage' has finally been accepted in the family of homo sapiens in that the African is recognized as capable of producing knowledge and pursuing it for its sake, and loves to know why things are as they are and not otherwise. We can humbly say that Africans have — in the view of some Afro-pessimists — come of age. They can think, speak and act for themselves — above all, they can defend their stance. Debate, by the way, is the lifeblood of intellectual activity, and the African is now a respected participant in the discourse. You are humbly invited to join us on a journey to revisit Africa and her glorious past to find ample food for thought in what history tells us about philosophies and science that had, as their root origins, the fruitful minds of great African philosophers, scholars and sages. Lest we are misunderstood, this is not a comparative study bent on painting Africa as a continent with unparalleled historical achievement. If there are conclusions or implications in this direction, it is unfortunate, for the intention is not to gloat. AUTHENTICITY VERSUS INAUTHENTICITY The concepts authenticity and inauthenticity were introduced by Martin Heidegger and later adopted by other existentialists. Sartre refers to this mode of existence as bad faith manifested by the spirit of seriousness (Yesprit de serieuz). Whatever the names given to this mode of existence, the concept is one of the most original and important contributions of existentialism. What do the existentialists mean by authentic existence? I think authenticity will become clear if we start off by understanding its antonym, in-authenticity. As the concept itself suggests, this mode of human existence is one in which a person is not truly him- or herself. Throughout life, this person simply plays a part, acting out an assigned role; he or she follows a customary pattern of behaviour taken over unquestioned from the society surrounding him or her. From a conventional point of view, such a person may of course appear well rounded, normal, responsible and praiseworthy like Leo Tolstoy's Ivan Illych. Our protagonist could be a university lecturer, husband and father, a community leader, an elder in the church, very gentle with his wife and children, affable and charismatic in social circles. Wearing a suit and tie, with permed hair every day (even if this makes him uncomfortable twenty-four hours a day), he goes to church, attends funerals, and is also an executive member of the local burial society, perhaps drives a BMW or Mercedes-Benz and lives in a mansion (which he cannot afford but has to have 104

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7 because of societal standards and expectations) in accordance with his status. Nevertheless he still lacks a self. The self is alienated from itself and becomes what Heidegger calls a Das-man, a mass-man. The self assumes a 'they-self'. This person does not exist in and on his or her own terms, but in reference to and in respect of others. He or she lives not as him- or herself but as 'they' live. In short, such a person escapes into the anonymous safety of the masses and gains reassurance from doing what everybody else is doing. He or she is an everybody and a nobody, representing 'publicness' or 'averageness'. Kierkegaard says that such an individual does not dare to believe in him- or herself; this is too venturesome a thing. It is far easier and safer to be like others, to become an imitation, a number, a cipher in a crowd. Heidegger asserts that an inauthentic individual is predisposed to judge him- or herself in terms of the functions he or she performs. For example, a professor must act like all other professors — that is, according to certain well-defined and established patterns and rules applicable only to professors. He or she does what is expected of him or her. Strictly speaking, such a person scarcely lives at all. This person does not exist. He or she lets this life pass by unlived like a religious fanatic whose soul is yearning for life yonder, life eternal, before the limits of the present one have been exhausted. The attempt to achieve authenticity is expressed by 'resoluteness' according to Heidegger, and engagement and commitment according to Sartre. Authenticity and rejection of 'theyness' do not cut off the individual from social responsibility. The authentic potentiality-for-being-a-whole is made ontologically possible for man by its freedom towards or anticipation of death. By being relieved of making choices for him- or herself, the individual gets lost in the anonymity of the mass. To revert this situation, such a person must be brought back from being lost in 'they'. This has to be accompanied by 'making up" for not choosing. This making up for not choosing means finally choosing to make this choice. It means deciding for a potentiality-for-being, and making this decision from one's own Self. In choosing to make this choice, one makes possible, first and foremost, one's potentiality-forbeing. This is existentially made possible by the fact that one can 'listen', either to one's own 'Self or to others. In listening to others, the individual is lost in the idle talk of the 'they' to such an extent that he or she fails to listen to his or her own Self. In order to escape from the clutches of the inauthentic 'public', the possibility of another kind of 'hearing' which will interrupt the idle talk of the 'they' must be provided by the individual him- or herself. It is the 'call' or 'voice' of conscience that furnishes the individual with the kind of 'hearing' which is totally different from the one provided by the idle talk; and so, the 'all' must be such that it calls unambiguously and without any hubbub of the idle talk, leaving no room for curiosity. The voice of conscience has to be taken in the sense of a 'giving-tounderstand'. It reaches whoever wants to listen, and creates an abrupt arousal to be brought back to oneself. Bringing oneself back to oneself is a kind of a disclosure — a disclosure that is more primordial, since it discloses one's authentic being. In ©Juta&CoLtd

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7 engaging or committing oneself in one way or another, one is thereby affirming one's freedom. The affirmation of an individual's freedom leads to total authenticity and authentic existence. AFRICANISM Although the concept has become very popular in South Africa in the recent past, particularly in relation to developments in tertiary institutions, I prefer to take a historical and continental look when tackling it. I choose this route because it provides the essential backdrop against which other issues will later be comprehended and appreciated. Contemporary South African society has come to regard Makgoba, the A'-rated African scientist, as one man who single-handedly and at great personal pain catapulted the debate on Africanization to unparalleled prominence in South Africa. After an illustrious career in Europe, he returned to South Africa to find the European epistemological paradigms to be still holding sway in education, and in social organization in general. He found this repugnant and incongruent to developments on other continents where the location, culture and the indigenous population were dictating the course of their destiny. He sought to change the mind-set in this regard and, in a small way, he succeeded (Makgoba 1997:199). Central to Makgoba and Ngugi wa Thiongo was the contention that when studying African society, Africa must naturally take centre stage. In this connection Prah (1998:27) argues that the centre of gravity of knowledge of Africa must be based in Africa, and this must be steered by Africans themselves. He goes on to caution (1998:27), 'We cannot in all seriousness study ourselves through other people's assumptions. I am not saying we must not know what others know or think of us. I am saying that, we must think for ourselves, like others do for themselves.' Makgoba (1997:177) submits that 'knowledge is a human construction that by definition has a human purpose. Knowledge cannot be sterile or neutral in its conception, formulation and development. Humans are not generally known for their neutrality or sterility. The generation and development of knowledge is thus contextual in nature.' As Francis Bacon said: 'Knowledge itself is power.' Therefore one who has knowledge and controls its sources wields enormous power. Since Western scholarship has dominated knowledge production, reproduction and dissemination about Africa, it is time to turn the tide. Thus the issue of Africanization and Afrocentrism should be more focused and pronounced. There is no universal agreement as to the definition of Africanization; however, suffice it to state the following as a working definition: '... Africanisation is not about expelling Europeans and their cultures, but about affirming African culture and their identity in a world community. It is not a process of exclusion, but of inclusion' (Makgoba 1997:199). He goes on to say (1997:199): It is a learning process and a way of life for Africans. It involves incorporating, adapting, and 106

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a integrating other cultures into and through African visions to provide the dynamism, evolution and flexibility so essential in the global village. Afiricanisation is the process of defining or interpreting African identity and culture. It is informed by the experience of the African Diaspora and has evolved and matured over time from the narrow nationalistic intolerance to an accommodating, realistic and global form/ Ramose, who wrote, taught and gave public lectures on African philosophy and Africanization in Africa and Europe, wrote in the foreword to the book, Black Perspective(s) on Tertiary Institutional Transformation (Seepe 1998): Africanisation holds that the African experience in its totality is simultaneously the foundation and the source for the construction of all forms of knowledge. On this basis, it maintains that the African experience is by definition nontransferable but nonetheless communicable. Accordingly, it is the African who is and must be the primary and principal communicator of the African experience. To try to replace the African in this position and role is to adhere to the untenable epistemological view that experience is by definition transferable. Clearly, Africanisation rejects this view. It holds that different foundations exist for the construction of pyramids of knowledge. It disclaims the view that any pyramid is by its very nature eminently superior to all others. It is a serious quest for a radical and veritable change of paradigm so that the African may enter into genuine and critical dialogical encounter with other pyramids of knowledge. Africanisation is a conscious and deliberate assertion of nothing more or less than the right to be African.

In relation to developments in education and the discourse in general as to who should articulate the African experience, some scholars are in agreement in asserting that Africanization 'refers to a process of placing the African world-view at the centre of analysis. Asante puts it as a perspective which allows Africans to be subjects of historical experiences rather than objects on the fringes of Europe. It is not a matter of colour but an orientation to data' (Seepe 1998:64). It is the subject matter that should be interrogated from an African perspective, and this does not in the least preclude others, that is, non-Africans, from looking at Africa through their own spectacles. That would impoverish African scholarship. The upshot of the contention in this regard is that the sovereignty of African scholarship over Africa should be accepted. This is not negotiable, otherwise we will perpetuate racist scholarship and history. Afrocentrism The skewed and racist history codified by the colonizers of European descent is indeed one major factor that urged African scholars to construct scientifically and systematically an understanding of African realities by themselves for themselves. ©Juta&CoLtd 107

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7 So it is that they started to do philosophy on their home ground. No attempt was made to distort facts by clothing them with an Afrocentric dress, despite the fact that the concept Afrocentrism in some quarters was anathema. Scientific principles were used in interrogating the African reality. Afrocentrism speaks to a mental attitude, a reawakening that Africans have a perception and conception of reality that is peculiarly theirs, that they themselves are best equipped to articulate this reality. Afrocentrism links academic pursuits with social responsibilities. It takes the African continent and society as the first laboratory for research. Indeed the debate about Afrocentrism and Eurocentrism in South Africa reached its zenith in the mid-1990s. The qualitative aspect of the debate in South Africa, both oral and in print, and to some extent through radio and television discussions, was enhanced by the arrival of quality scholars from north of South Africa. Prah (1998:29), who is attached to the University of the Western Cape, wrote: Afrocentric approach is the situation or location of Africa and African society at the centre of the way Africans view themselves and the rest beyond their social and cultural worlds. It is not facts (which have universal validity) which need to be reworked, it is rather the relationship between facts which need Afrocentric attention/ So it is that what was somewhat new in South Africa was already part of the daily academic discourse in some parts of Africa. Afrocentrism is not in dispute or contest with any other world-view. It merely wants to assert its stance as an adult amongst other adults. Seepe (1998:65) sums it up as follows: 'Lest the Afrocentrists are misunderstood, they do not claim that historians, sociologists, literary critics, and philosophers do not make valuable contributions, but rather that by using a Eurocentric approach, they often ignore an important interpretive key to the African experience. In other words, in viewing phenomena involving African people, the Afrocentrists might raise different questions/ Let us wrap up this section by quoting a lucid example from Seepe (1998:64): In suggesting that there are other ways in which to experience phenomena, rather than viewing them from a Eurocentic vantage point the intention is not to question Eurocentrism's validity within its context, but to indicate that 'such a view must not seek an ungrounded aggrandizement by claiming a universal hegemony'. Thus instead of saying that Columbus 'discovered' America, native Americans might prefer the phrase Columbus Invaded' America. And instead of saying Livingstone discovered Lake Victoria ... it might be closer to the truth to indicate that Livingstone was led to the lake by Africans.

Like the exponents of the African renaissance, Afrocentrists are keen to place the African experience at the centre of their thinking, discourse and action. Unlike Negritude, to some extent the discourse recognizes the complementary nature of cultures and experiences, but Afrocentrics in turn prefer to be informed first by 108

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7 their own context. Thus in their discussions, they gapple, amongst others, with issues like: how can African education provide sustainable development in Africa? What is the missing link between culture and the curriculum in African education? How can Africa best harness and exploit its natural and human resources, its human diversity, for its own benefit and sustainable flourishing? The issues of Africanness, African culture and African languages will continue to gnaw the human mind unless any attempt at dealing with them is coupled with philosophical reflections, and that too should take cognizance of the multiplicity of the cultures in the world. Indeed, a cursory look at philosophy will amplify our debate. PHILOSOPHY IN A MULTICULTURAL WORLD In less pedantic terms the Greek word sophia is ordinarily translated into English as 'wisdom' and the word philein into 'love'. The compound philosophia, from which 'philosophy' derives, is translated as 'the love of wisdom'. Etymologically, therefore, the word philosophy, amongst others, means the desire to find out, be it in the arts, business, practical affairs, etc. Similarly, it connotes the love of exercising one's curiosity and intelligence in the pursuit of truth in all the affairs of human beings. It is a truism that all human beings, literate or illiterate, civilized or backward, unless otherwise impaired by some accident, carry out 'ordinary reflection or thinking' in their interaction with other human beings, matter and God. It was in recognition of this truism that Aristotle regarded the human being as a 'thinking animal' (animal rationale), Descartes as a 'thinking substance' (res cogitans), Plato as a 'political animal', Mill as an 'economic being', and so on. The ability to think, therefore, is a chief (primary) defining trait of the human person (Okolo 1993:1). Following the logic of the above paragraph, it would be absurd, therefore, to regard any collective of the human as inherently incapable of engaging in critical thought due to any accident of nature. It is through scientific thinking 'that we are interested in and would like to reflect upon'. Consistent with the topic under discussion, the next paragraphs focus on distinct features of African philosophy. According to Collins English Dictionary (2nd edn 1986:64), philosophy is defined as: The academic discipline concerned with making explicit the nature and significance of ordinary and scientific beliefs, and investigating the intelligibility of concept by means of rational argument concerning their presumptions and interrelationships, in particular, the rational investigation of: • • • •

the nature and structure of reality (metaphysics) the sources and limits of knowledge (epistemology), the principle and import of moral judgement (ethics), and the relationship between language and reality (semantics

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7 At present humanity to an ever-increasing extent is experiencing the provocative challenge of entering into intercultural communication: the world is moving steadily towards a comprehensive community of interdependent cultures. Is this the emergence of a 'holistic structure' or culture of mankind, encompassing the traditional cultures, so to speak, as 'members'? In order to reach this aim, for the sake of our future, philosophically inspired politics could face the task of promoting readiness for mutual completion and integration throughout the cultures. This demands a decisive opening and transformation of the spiritual dispositions underlying each different culture. There are as many philosophies as there are cultures. And both philosophy and culture are expressed in people's art. Thus art, culture and philosophy form a trinity. While art is generally a technique of expressing, unearthing, presenting and representing hidden thoughts, feelings and values, Motshekga & Motshekga (1983:2) define culture as the sum total of a people's fundamental values and world-view. Thus a cultural person must be able to be, and maintain, himself as against and in relation to OTHERS. A cultureless and deculturalized person deserts, in relation to others, his SELFHOOD in preference to the OTHERNESS. In other words, a cultureless or deculturalized person trades in his SELFHOOD for acceptance by OTHERS.

Thus arises the necessity to develop an intercultural thinking which favours mutual understanding and appreciation between the cultures. Hereby intercultural encounters would grow more 'effective' and, in a deep humane sense, enriching. The task basically includes the philosophical effort of viewing the Being of a man as an entity disposed for the development of culture, and to elaborate the evolutive sense of man's differentiation into a multitude of different partial cultures. To such a holistic-philosophical foundation of intercultural thinking all the cultures have to contribute from their point of view. In so doing, it has to be kept in mind that there is always the threatening danger of taking one's own 'relative' perspectives or even simply using them for one's own purpose. The 'European vision' of cultures tends to bring about such a temptation. No one system of philosophy has a master key to all the secrets of nature. THE DISTINCTIVENESS OF AFRICAN PHILOSOPHY A human being is by nature inquisitive. Human beings want to know, articulate, and interpret if need be that which they experience. Due to the method of philosophy, the inquiring mind in this connection follows certain processes and thought patterns of reasoning in order to arrive at a certain truth. Thus African philosophy is just but one system of professional philosophy which has its peculiar traits. To appreciate the distinctive features of African philosophy it would be helpful to compare its method and execution with other systems of philosophy. Appiah HO

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7 (1992) elucidates the difference between African and Western philosophy being mindful of the condescending attitude of the West towards Africa. For Appiah, the West considers the issue of what philosophy is 'for' — that is, its social meaning and relevance — with intellectual and academic contempt. Undoubtedly, the West does philosophize in a different style and method from Africa, although this may be attributed to enormous resources and funding. The West is concerned with perfecting philosophical discourse for its own sake, while Africa wants to use philosophy in a particular sense to address social issues (Appiah 1992:144). Central to the issue of philosophy in Africa is the question of relevance and usefulness. Africa, perhaps owing to its level of development at this point, wants philosophy to contribute towards the political, economic, ethical and general upliftment of the people. Otherwise, as Marx conceded in the past, philosophy would be like religion, an opiate for the people. In Africa, philosophy is expected to be pragmatic and to render a 'service'. It must contribute effectively towards the amelioration of the human condition, the lived and existing human condition. Wiredu (as quoted by Anyanwu 1989:127) submits: 'we will only solve our problems if we see them as human problems arising out of a special situation'. Thus African philosophy Invites people to take a stand on the issue of reality as experienced'(1989:127). An African philosopher, as Plato describes a philosopher in general, is also 'a lover of wisdom and truth'. Indeed all 'true philosophers are lovers of the vision of truth'; the difference lies in emphasis. The African philosopher's starting point is the articulation of the African experience as the basis of (the African's) knowledge of all reality. Okolo (1993:8) puts it as follows: We can and should therefore discern the double thrust of African philosophy. The first is a systematic articulation of, for instance, the history of African thought of what a homo Africanus thinks about himself and his world, his Weltanschauung, so to speak. Through this critical and creative enterprise, the African attains the truth about man and reality as such or as I would prefer to regard it, truth about man and the universe in its more complete form, the second task of African philosophy.

Is there truly a mode of knowing (cognition) which is peculiarly African? Have our social and cultural contexts and contents anything to do with the way we conceive and perceive the world? The next section will attempt to tackle these questions. Epistemology and the African Experience As alluded to above, no one description can present an adequate and clear picture of contemporary philosophy; for this reason our age has been conceptualized, described and even defined in various ways. Realizing the inadequacy of previous descriptions, speculations and definitions of reality that nourished and fostered ©Juta&Co

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T independent thinking about the fundamental and general structure of reality, African philosophers sought to articulate their experience of reality from an epistemological paradigm consonant with the culture into which they were born and nurtured (Teffo 1990:1). It would help at this juncture to reflect on what epistemology is. Since the debate about whether African philosophy exists has subsided, and there is an implicit acceptance that it does (exist), it follows, therefore, that African epistemology as a subset of African philosophy exists. '... And since African philosophy encompasses all forms and types of philosophising, it therefore follows that it does make sense to talk of an African epistemology, just as it is sensible to talk of African ethics, aesthetics, and metaphysics, for instance' (Kaphagawani & Malherbe 1998:205). While we concede that there is no one conclusive definition of epistemology, we recognize Plato's version as the most plausible. Plato is regarded in philosophical circles as the real originator of epistemology, for he attempted to deal with the basic questions: What is knowledge? Where is knowledge generally found, and how much of what we ordinarily know is really knowledge? Do the senses provide knowledge? Can reason provide knowledge? How does one distinguish knowledge from mere opinion, even false knowledge? Put another way, what are the criteria for truth and falsehood as far as knowledge is concerned? What is the relation between knowledge and true belief? (Edwards 1967:9). These questions, in our view address the general foundations of knowledge, service, and the limitations thereof. Indeed the questions echo John Locke's view that the human mind is like a tabula rasa. For the mind to acquire the first bit of knowledge it has to go through certain processes. We do not intend to discuss those processes and sources and their limitations in this essay. Suffice it to state that the acquisition of knowledge is similar in all human beings with unimpaired sense and reason. What is different are the cultures and the raw data from which knowledge is derived. Against these traits of knowledge, we conclude that epistemology is the subdivision of philosophy that studies the nature, the source, the possibilities, the limitations and the validity of knowledge. We stated above that the study of knowledge is universal; we also affirmed that 'the ways of acquiring knowledge vary according to the socio-cultural contexts within which knowledge claims are formulated and articulated. It is from such considerations that one can sensibly talk of an African articulation and formulation of knowledge and hence of an African epistemology' (Kaphagawani & Malherbe 1998:206). Now that we have fleetingly dealt with the generic features of knowledge, let us turn to those features that typify African epistemola'. I want to submit at this stage of the argument that there is a way of thinking, and of knowing, that is peculiar to the African. For Africans, and truly for all people, what they know is inseparable from how they know it, and this is culturebound. However:

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7 There are those who take a strong universalist line and deny that there are any distinctive cognitive principles belonging only to this society or that one. Their claim is that knowledge cannot differ from one society to the next. If we call something 'knowledge', then it is true for all people, anywhere and at any time. After all, say the universalists, aren't the criteria by which we decide the truth or falsity of a claim like, It is raining', the same across all cultural contexts? And if this is so, then the epistemological character of all cultures is basically the same. (Kaphagawani & Malherbe 1998:206).

This universalist's view is inclined to project, as history attests, the Western concept of epistemology as the one and correct version that the discipline of philosophy should embrace. Suffice it to state that there is abundant literature to contest this view. Much as our view might be disputed, we assert in concurrence with Okolo (1993:17) that: Culture gives the African (easily evident in traditional or pre-modern Africa) his distinct way of thinking and knowing. There is certainly a traditional approach to life and to understanding of reality distinct from, for instance, the modern scientific and technological way of modern Africans or the white man.

He goes on to assert (1993:17): Culture makes all the difference. The way of looking at things and general attitude to life peculiar to the African is simply and totally due to his cultural mode of being in the world. It is the task of African philosophers to articulate this distinct African mode of knowing or thinking and its various sources which is what African philosophy is all about.

From the preceding paragraphs it is evident that Africa was not a 'sleeping giant' in the course of history. In many ways Africa contributed to human development in the universal order of things. However, we would like to focus especially on the contribution made by indigenous education. Indigenous Education and its Contribution to Humankind Consistent with the aim of this essay, reference to Western education will be made only to the extent that it will help to clarify and consolidate a point under deliberation. There is a part of humanity that believed in the past (and to a lesser extent today) that Africa has never had 'golden moments' in her historical development. Of course this view cannot be held by Africans themselves. Otherwise, they would be casting doubt on their own history and humanity, and inadvertently confirming prejudicial stereotypes that regard Africa as a perpetual begging child, condemned for eternity to serve people of European origin. ©Juta&CoLtd

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7 Prior to the advent of the docetic culture, all cultures disseminated knowledge, skills, information, etc informally. During this pre-docetic era Africa also contributed to world civilization and culture — especially to human values and those spiritual precepts that make human life worth living. During the 'Golden Age' of African development, we learn that Africa bestowed on the world and humanity the development of the sciences of chemistry and medicine, art, the first alphabet, libraries, architecture, worship of One God, iron smelting, shorthand writing, mathematics, astronomy, and much more. These contributions are evident in the works of various historians and Egyptologists (Koka 1990:1) Egyptologists and historians tell us that Imhotep of Ancient Egypt was the real Father of Medicine. He lived around 2600 BC — about 200 years before Hippocrates, who lived in 460 BC. The distorted and biased history of the African continent misled people into believing that nothing flourished on the continent before the arrival of the European in Africa. We hear more about the barbarism that prevailed at the time, and far less about the scientific developments. We hear more about the discoveries and inventions that were made in the midst of indigenous people. The Empires of Ghana, Songhay and Mali, the powerful kingdoms of Ashanti, Mwene Mutapa, Ife, Benin, Kwazulu, and the 'Forest Kingdoms' existed and flourished under sound political, social, legal, economic, moral, and religious systems. Quality education systems reached their zenith with the building of the Pyramids at Giza near Cairo, and the Great Zimbabwe historical sites in the Mashvingo Province. The latter two sites attest to the level of mathematics and geometric development of precolonial Africans. Indeed the two historical sites do not cease to intrigue and fascinate the modern scientist as to how people without modern technology could have achieved so much. The sites may be less majestic in material terms but do reflect in a vivid way mastery of agricultural techniques and social systems and institutions. Research continues unabated with the hope of unearthing the secrets, spirit and resilience that enabled the attainment of such unparalleled results with the bare minimum. The greatest spin-off of these sites is that they are today reliable generators of new knowledge and revenue for their respective countries. They engender a sense of pride that spurs new talent on to work hard to perpetuate the tradition of being top achievers. In this connection Du Bois (1947:13) captures the development as follows: The organised Songhay state, at the height of its power under the Black Mohammed Askia the Great, was a remarkable state from any point of view. Its organised administration, its roads and methods of communication, its system of public security, put abreast of any contemporary European or Asiatic state... (Tao, Timbuktu and Jenne, were intellectual centres, and at the University of Sankore gathered thousands of students of law, literature, grammar, geography and surgery (medicine)... Centres of culture and learning are known to have existed there long before they arose in France, Germany and England. H4

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7 The developments mentioned above, though African in conception and execution, were, however, never confined to Africa. Africa shared them with other countries of the world. It is regrettable that an acknowledgement of Africa's contribution to other civilizations is seldom forthcoming. The people of North Africa, through trade links and centres on the Mediterranean sea, facilitated enculturation, transfer of skills, and transportation of experts like St Augustine to the West, to go as missionaries of their own cultures to terra aliena. Scholars from the African educational system (Egyptian mysteries), went as far afield as Asia Minor and Europe. In the same way students from other countries came to Africa to absorb what they could with a view to developing and enhancing their own cultures. James (1992:38) quotes with approval Seggwich and Taylor, who, in their book, History of Science, Chapter IX, reveal that: During their occupation of Spain, the Moors (Black Muslims) displayed with considerable credit, the grandeur of African culture and civilization. The schools and libraries and learning were cultivated and taught: the schools of Cordova, Seville and Saragossa attained such celebrity, that they, like their parent Egypt, attracted students from all parts of the Western world; and from them arose the most famous African professors that the world has ever known in medicine, surgery, astronomy and mathematics.

Against this background one can perhaps comprehend and appreciate the discourse on the African renaissance being waged by African scholars and politicians (Koka 1990:7). It is a legitimate discourse and an invitation to reclaim for Africa her right to contribute in very significant ways to humanity as she did in the past. Africa should not only glorify her past, but she must draw some lessons from it and forge ahead in a competitive way rather than remaining an underdog. Countering and dispelling racist discourse about Africa should not be an end in itself. When Africa was enjoying her brightest hour in history the West was caught up in a slumber. No one recognized and captured more vividly this European Age of Darkness marked by the extinction of excellence than did Petrarch. He beseeched the West to consider a revival of the study of antiquity. Petrarch believed that an understanding of the cultural and moral values of the past would rouse the people of his day, people he thought were glorifying mediocrity rather than excellence, from the slumber of forgetfulness and alienation. He implored the younger generation in particular 'to work forward in the pure radiance of the past' (Motshekga 1999:5). While we do not intend to delve into a definition of a renaissance, suffice it to say that both brands, European and African, have common objectives: a rebirth of the knowledge of the past. Historically, therefore, the European renaissance (AD 1400 to AD 1500) has nothing European about it because the knowledge, if truth be told, was learned from the African civilization and culture. It was basically a ©Juta&CoLtd

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1 rebirth of spiritual vitality, culture, art, science, philosophical thought, secularism and other disciplines, which had been learned from the African educational system (Egyptian mysteries). The period was vibrant with activities and marked with the intensification of classical scholarship, scientific and geographical discoveries, the sense of individual human potentialities and the assertion of the secular over the religious and contemplative life. All this was brought out to world display in the name of Europe; shamelessly and perhaps with typical Western intellectual arrogance, Africa's contributions to the welfare of humankind were finally filed into the archives of the 'Unknown Past'. History had to be rewritten and Europe was prominently projected (Koka 1990:7). Afro-pessimists sometimes conceptually excise Egypt from the African map. This lends, in their view, legitimacy to the charge that Africa has always been the 'Dark Continent', or a sleeping giant in perpetual slumber. One of the leading South African scholars, Nkhumeleni Ralushai, who has enthusiastically embraced the call for an African renaissance, rebelled vehemently against some of the views expressed above. After having lived for the greater part of his life near the Thulamela prehistoric site in the Kruger National Park, and after researching the sites during his illustrious career in history and anthropology, Ralushai found that Africans were involved in the mining and processing of metals such as gold and copper long before the arrival of European settlers. Some of Ralushai's lucid views were captured by a report in the Sowetan (25 March 1999). The most telling findings were: Among the artefacts discovered were metal artefacts, spear blades, a copper ingot, and different types of beads and gold. The myths in which pre-historic blacks were often portrayed as technologically too primitive to produce the type of metal that existed at Thulamela were thus dealt a shattering blow. For the first time we have clear evidence that gold was found and worked and melted in royal buildings and that metal like copper and iron was not only important but also used extensively.

Ralushai further avers that there was a thriving trade between the inhabitants of Thulamela and the outside world. He attributes the decline of and final loss of this knowledge to colonialism and to its attended odious systems like apartheid, intellectual racism, and cultural chauvinism. Similarly, whites banned the working of iron, fearing that blacks would manufacture weapons to organize wars of resistance against colonial dispossession and oppression. We rest the argument in this essay with these questions: is it still plausible to contest Africa's contribution to world civilization? Can we meaningfully, after the picture painted above, talk today about an African renaissance? Whichever way you answer these questions, I thank you, because you are advancing the debate in this article and providing further literature for research. 116

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7 References Anyanwu, KC. 1989. The problem of method in African philosophy. In Momoh, CS (ed). The Substance of African Philosophy. Auchi: African Philosophy Projects' Publications. Appiah, KA. 1992. In My Father's House: Africa in the Philosophy of Culture. London: Methuen. Du Bois, WEB. 1947. The Souls of Black Folks. New York: Vista. Edwards, P (ed). 1967. The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 3 & 4. New York: Macmillan Publishers. James, GGM. 1992. Stolen Legacy: Greek Philosophy's Stolen Egyptian Philosophy. New Jersey: Africa World Press. Kaphagawani, NDN & Malherbe, J. 1998. African epistemology. In Coetzee, PH & Roux, APJ (eds). Philosophy from Africa. Johannesburg: Thompson Publishers. Koka, KD. 1990. The African Renaissance. Unpublished paper, African Study Programme, Midrand. Makgoba, MW. 1997. Mokoko: The Makgoba Affair — A Reflection on Transformation. Florida: Vivlia. Mamdani, M. 1998. Is African studies to be turned into a new home for Bantu Education at UCT? CODESRIA Bulletin, 2. Motshekga, N & Motshekga, M. 1983. An Introduction to Kara Philosophy. Freiburg: Bundschuh. Motshekga, N. 1999. The Dawn of the African Century: The African Origin of Philosophy and Science. Halfway House: Kara Publishers. Okolo, B. 1993. African philosophy: A process interpretation. Africana Marburgensia, XV (2). Prah, K. 1998. African scholars and Africanist scholarship. CODESRIA Bulletin, 2. Seepe, S (ed). 1998. Black Perspective(s) on Tertiary Institutional Transformation. Johannesburg: Vivlia. Teffo, LJ. 1990. Being-for-others in the Philosophy of Jean-Paul Sarte: A Critique on his Phenomenological Ontology. Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of the North. Tempels, P. 1959. Bantu Philosophy. Paris: Presence Africaine.

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8 Africanization of Knowledge Exploring Mathematical and Scientific Knowledge Embedded in African Cultural Practices Sipho Seepe

INTRODUCTION By way of acknowledgement, the present chapter has been richly informed by Emeagwali's website in which she has compiled and collated essays, photographic evidence, sources and resources on African civilization. The chapter has also benefited from, amongst others, the work of scholars of African civilization located at Cornell University's Africana Library, University of Pennsylvania, University of Connecticut, State University of New York, Buffalo, Ohio State University and Temple University. What is presented is a bird's-eye view and/or a collection of snippets from a wealth of information contained in these websites/webpages. Depending on one's ideological orientation and intellectual location, Africanization of knowledge' invites a number of interpretations within the academy. On the one side of the spectrum are those for whom Africa conjures up an image of a dark continent, dogged by ignorance, superstitions, poverty, unstable governments, underdevelopment, with nothing of value to be expected from her. On the other side is a group that has expressed faith in the continent and her people. They believe that Africa has the potential to pull herself out of the maladies that face her, and have called for the establishment of vigorous programmes towards the rebirth, revival and restoration of the continent. While the first group is of the view that scientific knowledge is universal, they have questioned its existence in Africa prior to contact with Europe. Since scientific knowledge should lead to the same answer irrespective of who the interrogators are and where they are located, these scholars argue, it may be imposed on any culture. Seen from this view, Africanization of knowledge' simply implies the appropriation of knowledge derived elsewhere and adapted to assist the continent towards development. Informed by this perspective, and the belief that science and technology will cure 118

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8 all ills associated with ignorance and underdevelopment, African countries began to invest heavily in education. Countries experienced a rapid expansion of educational facilities, increased school enrolment, curricula reforms and policies aimed at accelerating the pace of scientific and technological advancement. Yet, in spite of the high premium and emphasis placed on science and technology, African countries have little to show by way of progress. The economies are in disarray and the promise of development continues to elude them (Makhurane & Khan 1998). This experience led a few countries such as Nigeria, Zimbabwe and Botswana to revisit their assumptions. They became concerned with the sociocultural tensions created by the application of science and technology. Attempts were made to restructure and to repackage imported curricula to accommodate cultural sensibilities and to facilitate adoption of imported curricula materials. Premised on the notion that familiarity with objects would resolve conceptual difficulties, the thrust of these attempts became simply a cheap short cut wherein European examples and items where replaced by local ones. This 'essentialist approach leans heavily on the crutch of self-esteem and sacrifices the educational requirement for the cultural gloss' (Eglash 1997). Not unexpectedly, these attempts have not borne fruit either. The second group, having expressed their faith in Africa and her people, are quick to point out the existence of indigenous knowledge systems. They argue that tapping on these knowledge systems and Africa's other resources is central to the recovery of the continent. For this group Africanization of knowledge' advocates for the need to foreground African indigenous knowledge systems to address her problems and challenges. They advocate African solutions to address African problems'. Starting from the premise that the majority of the people on the continent are African, these scholars argue that efforts in educational and economic development failed because they were not informed and reflective of the culture, experiences and aspirations of this majority. Africanization of knowledge thus refers to a process of placing the African world-view at the centre of analysis. Asante (1988) puts it as a perspective which allows Africans to be subjects of historical experiences rather than objects on the fringes of Europe. It is not a matter of colour but an orientation to data. Apart from the fact that one can be pro-African and not necessarily anti-white, the concept of Afrocentric orientation is pre-eminently about how one views data/information. In suggesting that there are other ways in which to experience phenomena, rather than viewing them from a Eurocentric vantage point, the intention is not to question Eurocentricism's validity within its context, but to indicate that such a view must not claim universal hegemony (Asante 1988). This view of Africanization of knowledge is daunting for those trained in Eurocentric tradition since it provides them with no grounds for authority unless they become students of Africans. That this fear afflicts universities should come as no surprise since this is where ideas of white supremacy were expounded for centuries in Germany, France, England and the United States, by the likes of Hegel, ©Juta&CoLtd

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8 Toynbee and others. If anything, Asante argues, modern-day universities are the inheritors of this vicious virus that erodes the very nature of our seeing, our explanations, our methods of inquiry, and our conclusions. Lest the Afrocentrists be misunderstood, they do not claim that historians, sociologists, literary critics, philosophers do not make valuable contributions, but rather that by using the Eurocentric approach they often ignore an important interpretive key to the African experience. Perhaps the best approximate definition or description is provided by Ramose (1998): Africanisation holds that the African experience in its totality is simultaneously the foundation and the source for the construction of knowledge ... It holds that different foundations exist for the construction of pyramids of knowledge. It disclaims the view that any pyramid is by its very nature eminently superior to all others. It is a serious quest for a radical and veritable change of paradigm so that the African may enter into genuine and critical dialogical encounter with other pyramids of knowledge. Africanisation is a conscious and deliberate assertion of nothing more or less than the right to be African.

A fuller appreciation of these somewhat irreconcilable positions would require that they be placed within the broader historical perspective of colonial experience. Such a perspective will dispel the notion that Africa has not contributed anything to world civilization. In addition it will provide a justification of why the first position is untenable. Colonialism as a system of administration and process of exploitation not only inhibited the development of indigenous knowledge and technological systems but also undermined Africa's manufacturing capability (Emeagwali 1998). This destabilization was effected through legal and military means. It also had a psychological dimension which included the creation of myths aimed at undermining and destabilizing the Africans' belief in themselves. In addressing Eurocentrism in the history of science, Emeagwali (1989) lists strategies often used to reinforce the myth that regions outside Europe have contributed nothing to the development of science and technology (http://members.aol.com/sekglo/racism.htm). Below are a few snippets (or brief extracts) of these strategies (taken from a modified, updated version of a chapter first published by Gloria T Emeagwali (1989), in the Journal of the International Science Policy Foundation. Selective omission of information With regard to this, Emeagwali notes that 'silence reigns with respect to nonEuropean predecessors of significant inventions'. For example, the constant interaction of the Ancient Greeks with their African counterparts is ignored, even when the Greeks themselves gratefully acknowledge this interaction.

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8 The conferment of honorary Western nationality This was effected through westernizing the names of outstanding scientists and their devices coupled with Europeanization of scientific documents. By way of example, Emeagwali states that 'the Egyptian Claudius Ptolemaeus and the Algerian/Tunisian Constantine assume European identity in some of the texts, whilst West-Asian (Middle Eastern) scholars such as Ibn Sina (Avicenna), al-Kindi (Alkindius), Ibn Rush'd (Averroes) and al-Ghazali (Algazel) become indistinguishable from their European counterparts. The ancient Egyptian arithmetical and medicinal documents become known as the Rhind, Ebers and Edwin Smith papyri, and the comet identified by the Chinese as early as 2 500 years ago is attributed to Haley'. Blind citation of Grteco-Roman references Emeagwali refers to the creation of European progenitors where they do not really exist. Emeagwali cites as an example the fact 'that the Greek alphabet is largely of Syrian/Lebanese origin, and that there is a proliferation of loan words in both languages that is hardly ever explained. The African and Asian origin of many linguistic terms and concepts associated with the Graeco-Roman cultural zone, is concealed from the unsuspecting layman'. Double standards of assessment Emeagwali refers to the 'museumization' of technological and scientific artefacts of people of African origin. It is not difficult to notice 'that most of the technological creations of Africa are assigned to artistic designations. Africans find some of their scientific and technological achievements confined to fine art museums/ This practice often results in the trivialization of the scientific and technical processes underlying the creation of such inventions. Rumours and innuendo Emeagwali addresses the common refrain that Africa, given thousands of years, would not be able to invent a wheel. Assailing Africa for not inventing the wheel almost seems to imply that the wheel Is a European invention'. The fact remains, though, that Greek and Roman wheeled vehicles and chariots are the direct heirs of Mesopotamian ingenuity (Emeagwali 1989). Moreover, African Saharan rock paintings reveal chariots and wheeled vehicles of great antiquity. Not only are printing, gunpowder, the stirrup, the sternpost rudder, the lateen sail, the abacus, and the pendulum of non-European origin but so too are the axle, the bow drill, the chisel, and the wedge, many of which are of ancient Northeast African origin. Other strategies, not explained in this submission, include manipulation of dates, euphemisms and circumlocutions. Despite Eurocentric strategies of misinformation, distortions and colonial intimidation, African knowledge systems have shown remarkable resilience.

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8 AFRICAN KNOWLEDGE AND TECHNOLOGICAL SYSTEMS PRECOLONIAL ERA Ivan van Sertima (1984b, 1999) provides a compelling overview of the creative genius of the African people. The overview catalogues an array of technologies produced by people of African origin prior to colonialism. Van Sertima submits that these technologies were often concentrated in a centre (scholar, priest, trading post or royal capital). The concentration of knowledge and technologies in a centre was not peculiar to Africans; it is a common phenomenon throughout the world. In modern times this phenomenon and practice has assumed material expression in the form of laboratories, universities and centres for scientific and industrial research. For Van Sertima, this observation — the concentration of knowledge in centres — is important if one is to understand how science and technology may rise and fall within a civilization — that is, the destruction of a centre could lead to an almost instant evaporation and disappearance of knowledge and technical skills. By way of illustration, he points out that 'a nuclear war could shatter the primary centres of the twentieth-century technology in a matter of days. The survivors on the periphery, although they would remember aeroplanes and the television sets, the robots and the computers, the space machines now circling our solar system, would not be able for centuries to reproduce that technology ... A dark age would certainly follow. Centuries afterwards, the technological brilliance of the twentieth century would seem dreamlike and unreal' (Van Sertima 1999:306). In this vein, Van Sertima argues that the effect of colonialism in Africa, the uprooting of large populations of Africans, and European diseases that descended on Africa, decimating both cattle and people, had a similar cataclysmic effect on the African people. Fortunately, the African genius could not be suppressed forever, thanks to the work of archeologists and anthropologists. Below is an overview of precolonial Africa's technologies, skills and mathematics, and scientific knowledge. The overview is not meant to be comprehensive and does not pretend to be. Technological Artefacts Most of the history and debates on African civilization have tended to focus on the Egyptian civilization, with little attention given to sub-Saharan Africa. Fortunately, the technological accomplishments of sub-Saharan Africa that have survived colonialism speak for themselves, while some are still being uncovered by scholars and archaeologists. Emeagwali (1989) lists numerous stolen African treasures. These include: the empires and kingdoms of Nubia (Sudan), Kemet (Pharaonic Egypt), Aksum (Ethiopia) and Punt (Somalia). West Africa and other parts of the continent provide artefacts not only of iron, tin, gold and bronze metallurgy but also evidence of building technology, ceramics, mathematics and medicine. 122

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8 By studying closely the cultural practices of the people of Africa, one soon discovers the knowledge and creative ingenuity that informs these practices. Culture refers in this case to 'a complex system which includes methods of doing things, patterns of behaviour, attitudes, values, knowledge and material objects shared from generation to generation' (Van Sertima 1999:306). One may easily refer to several cultural practices designed to preserve food and other materials such as leather or wood, to protect the health of humans, livestock and crops, herbs traditionally used in foods and medicines. In Nigeria, for instance, appropriate technology for the selection of desirable strains for food production and beverages was developed over centuries (Okagbue 1993). Close examination will reveal the scientific and technological basis of these cultural practices. For illustrative purposes, it might help to sample and comment briefly on some of the technologies that existed for centuries in sub-Saharan Africa. Textile Technology in Nigeria Nigeria's passion for beautiful textiles is well known. This passion, the result of many centuries of investment in time, energy, enterprise and ingenuity, is perhaps reflected in the tremendous variety, beauty, flamboyance, colours, textures, elegance and style of its textile products. This passion for textiles represents one of Nigeria's most important technical activities: cloth-making (Shea 1992). Cotton and silk are some of the fibres produced in Nigeria. Different kinds of cotton plants were used for the textile production. The situation changed, however, under British colonial rule. The British enforced the cultivation of a particular variety of cotton and prohibited the sale of traditional kinds of cotton. As a result of this policy, virtually all the cotton grown in the country is a reflection of colonial preference (Shea 1992). Shea points out that the variety of these textiles is rivalled only by the variety of technologies that were developed to produce these impressive artefacts. While most studies have focused on the artistic qualities of these textiles, adequate attention has not been paid to the technological and economic aspects behind the production of these materials (see http://members.aol.com/afsci/shea.htm#AFTX, last update March, 1999). Metallurgy Discoveries by archaeologists and anthropologists suggest that Africans were involved in some of the most intricate technological processes centuries before colonial encounter. Alluding to this, Peter Schmidt, Professor of Anthropology, and Donald Avery, Professor of Engineering, both of Brown University, announced in 1978 that, based on the evidence before them, between 1 500 and 2 000 years ago Africans living on the western shores of Lake Victoria in Tanzania produced carbon steel. Schmidt and Avery found the technological processes so complex as ©Juta&CoLtd

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8 'to be able to say that a technologically superior culture developed in Africa more than 1 500 years ago overturns popular and scholarly ideas that technological sophistication developed in Europe not in Africa'(quoted in Van Sertima 1999:308). In examining the thirteen Iron Age furnaces dug up during excavations near Lake Victoria, the two researchers found that the 'temperature achieved in the blast furnace of the African steel-smelting machine was higher than any achieved in any European machine until modern times. It was roughly 1 800 degrees Celsius, some 200 to 400 degrees Celsius higher than the highest reached in European cold-blast bloomeries.' The smelting process was technologically original and sophisticated. This observation led Avery to comment (Van Sertima 1999): It is a very unique process that uses a large number of sophisticated techniques. This is really semi-conductor technology — the growing of crystals — not iron smelting technology/ Metallurgy in Precolonial Borgu, West Africa There is ample evidence to suggest that the inhabitants of Borgu, which now falls between Nigeria in the east and the Republic of Benin in the west, were involved in large-scale iron-making. This metallurgical activity had to do with the large quantity of iron ore deposits in the region. The soil contained limonite, haematite and gothite (Akinwumi 1997). Iron-making involved months of digging and stockpiling of ore, followed by a smelting process. The smelting required construction of the furnace and tuyeres. Termite clay with other mixtures was used for this purpose. The tuyeres were then made in final preparation for the smelting process, after which smithing ensued (http://members.aol.com/afriforum/metal.htm). This type of activity required an understanding of aspects related to both chemistry and physics. Another metallurgical activity reported in Nigeria is tin technology (Abubakar 1992; Bitiyong 1997). Colonialism inhibited and destabilized the technical growth of these technologies. Indigenous manufacturing capability was deliberately undermined to facilitate European exports (Emeagwali 1997). Also, as a result of the invaders' new laws, the internal self-reliance among metallurgists, the blacksmiths who forged iron and the whitesmiths who worked with lighter metal such as tin, was undermined and destroyed (Emeagwali 1997). Astronomy and Mathematics The same year (1978) another team of American scientists — Lynch and Robbins of Michigan State — uncovered an astronomical observatory in Kenya. It was dated 300 BC and was found on the edge of Lake Turkana. The site constituted the ruins of an African Stonehenge. Informed and guided by the knowledge that 124

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8 modern Cushites in East Africa had a calendar based on the rising of certain stars and constellations, Lynch and Robbins suspected that they had discovered one of the earliest pre-Christian calendars. Upon examination of the arrangement of the stones, they found that every stone, except one, made it quite clear that this was no random pattern but that a definite relationship existed between the pillars at Namoratunga and the stars. The team concluded that a 'complex calendar system based on astronomical reckoning was developed by the first millennium BC in Eastern Africa' (quoted in Van Sertima 1999:309). Within this context Van Sertima brings to light another discovery in West Africa among the Dogon people — a discovery far more remarkable than the megalithic observatory in Kenya. The discovery attests to an extremely complex knowledge of astronomy among the Dogon people. Available evidence suggests that the astronomer-priests of the Dogon had for centuries a very modern view of our solar system and of the universe — the rings of Saturn, the moons of Jupiter, the spiral structure of the Milky Way galaxy, in which our planet lies. New light has been thrown on this subject by Hunter Adams III, a scientist at the Argonne National Laboratory whose contribution includes a summary on work done by anthropologists on the Dogon people. Adams III exposed the prejudices of Eurocentric scholars 'who simply would not accept that any African astronomerpriest could have developed a science of the heavens so advanced that it could yield knowledge which, until the twentieth century, escaped European observation' (Van Sertima 1999:310). Van Sertima ascribes this tendency to deny an African astronomical science 'to the fact that such accurate observation over long periods involves the most precise record-keeping, a capacity to measure complex distances and times, to calculate orbits and azimuths and convergences. That calls for a mathematics system and not just the simple hand count of one, two, many. Very few anthropological works have ever mentioned a mathematical system in Africa. At the moment only a single book exists — Africa Counts: Number and Patterns in African Cultures by Claudia Zaslavsky (1973) — which attempts to deal with mathematics south of the Sahara (Van Sertima 1999:314). At the heart of this denial is the assumption that the African was incapable of developing an abstract body of thought. Coupled with this denial is the fact 'that anthropology has a love affair with the primitive and would rather set its tent down among the Bushmen of the Kalahari than among African traders who are accustomed to dealing in large sums of currency. There is a world of difference between the mathematical thinking of a hunter and gatherer and a trader from an African city state' (Van Sertima 1999:314). While conceding that not all Africans were involved in and practised mathematics as an abstract body of thought, Van Sertima is quick to point out that the same can be said of Europeans. To support this point, Van Sertima refers to the history of mathematics. This history indicates that most Europeans got their mathematics from the Greeks. History shows also that it was not until 1202 that ©Juta&CoLtd

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8 Hindu numerals were introduced into Western Europe. In sub-Saharan Africa, among the earlier evidence of the use of numbers is a find in the Congo (Zaire) known as the Ishango bone. This find shows markings — a notation count — on a bone 8 000 years old. It is a numeration system used as a lunar calendar. This was the first numeration known in Africa and is among the first in the world. Furthermore, Van Sertima (1999:315) points to another obvious fact: 'mathematics develops according to a need. If a situation calls for a simple count of objects, a people will develop a simple set of numbers. If their cultural demands are more complex, a more complex mathematical system will evolve. Systems of numeration may range in Africa from a few number words among the San people, who have been pushed into the least hospitable areas of the continent, to the extensive numerical vocabulary of African nations having a history of centuries of commerce/ With regard to the latter, the Yoruba and the related people of the city of Benin in Nigeria are exemplary. These groups have been urbanized farmers and traders for centuries. Their complex numeration system, based on 20, abounds in West Africa. The system relies on subtraction to a very high degree. To those using it, it seems perfectly natural and is used with the same ease with which we write IX (ten minus one) for nine in the Roman numerals. Commenting on this system Robert Armstrong, a scholar who studied the Yoruba numerals, states that 'it is testimony to the Yoruba capacity for abstract reasoning that they could have developed and learned such a system' (quoted in Van Sertima 1999:315). In raising the cultural dimension of mathematics, Van Sertima suggests that mathematics, both in terms of process and skills, is hidden in architectural design. One need only refer to architecture south of the Sahara. The area south of the Sahara boasts several architectural wonders, one of which is Great Zimbabwe — a great city and a site of civilization more than 800 years old — the most immense construction site in Africa besides the pyramids of Egypt. Despite its expanse it was only after Zimbabwean independence that scholars ventured to study it. Among the accessible monumental testimonies to the scientific, engineering and technological expertise of ancient Africans in various parts of the continent are: the stolen obelisks of Aksum, Ethiopia, North-East Africa; the Lalibela churches of Ethiopia, Ancient Egypt, North-East Africa; Swahili mosques, East Africa; historic West African mosques; the Benin enclosures and fortifications, Nigeria, West Africa; the Gwoza terraces of North-East Nigeria, West Africa; the walled cities of Zazzau and Kano, Northern Nigeria, West Africa — all significant evidence of engineering skill. One may refer also to numerous metallurgical and other artefacts such as the bronzes of Benin, Ife and Igbo-Ukwu, Nigeria, West Africa, Benin bronzes (ARM); indigenous glassworks of Bida, Nupeland, Nigeria, West Africa; metallurgical artefacts of Thulamela and Mapungubwe, South Africa; ancient terracotta figurines of Nok, Nigeria, West Africa; Ashanti gold, West Africa (Garbrah); Akan metal casting (Arthur/Rowe) (Emeagwali 1997). 126

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8 There are other forms in which mathematics is expressed, for example 'in abstract patterns, like that obtained from the combination of two geometric operations, translation and reflection on an axis' (Van Sertima 1999:316). One may also refer to decorations on bowls and cloths of the Kuba of the Congo. Or it may be expressed in measuring systems like the exquisite brass weights for measuring the weight of gold dust currency among the Ashante, or in the complex network games the Shongo children play, or mathematical recreations which are the delight of many Africans (Van Sertima 1999:316). Research suggests also that earlier than the seventeenth century West African scholars of Kanem-Bornu were highly skilled in the science of the magic square. In central Sudan the Borno kingdom became the most important centre of learning of mathematics in the eighteenth century. The recovery of some books in Central Bilad al-Sudan suggests that scholars from the Katsina area were well versed in numerology and astrology (Kani 1992). There is little doubt also that mathematics is required in many, if not all, great engineering projects, such as the construction of enormous palaces, churches or ceremonial centres. A number of engineering feats such as Africa's major temples come to mind. It is within this context that a British engineer remarked, after observing suspension bridges built with vines by the Kikuyu, that they equalled in engineering skill and potential durability any comparable bridges of wood that he had seen in his own country (Van Sertima 1999:316). To avoid belabouring Africa's contribution to mathematics, it suffices to refer to the excellent work done by Dr Scott W Williams of State University of New York, Buffalo, in collating material on African mathematics. By doing so, many myths and lies about Africa's non-contribution to world mathematics have been exposed. Williams writes (http://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/myths_lies.html): Purely Eurocentric origins of mathematics can no longer be upheld. The oldest (35,000 BC) mathematical object was found in Swaziland. The oldest example of arithmetic (6000 BC) was found in Zaire. The 4000 year old, so-called Moscow papyrus, contains geometry, from the Middle Kingdom of Egypt, the consequence of the formula for the volume of a truncated square pyramid. From Herodotus (-450 BC) to Proclus (-400 BC) to Aristotle (-350 BC), Egypt was the cradle of mathematics (astronomy and surveying too). From the earliest, the great Greek mathematicians, including Pythagoras (-500 BC), Thales (-530 BC), and Exodus (the teacher of Aristotle) all learned much of their mathematics from Egypt (Mesopotamia, and possibly India).

Pointing to the fact that the engineering skill of Africans was not confined to architecture, Van Sertima submits that the most ancient mines in the world are found in Africa. 'Several such ancient mine works and rare minerals were discovered by the German treasure-seeker, Karl Mauch, not far from Great Zimbabwe itself. Yet when this great stone city was found, Europeans not only ©Juta&CoLtd

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8 began to steal the treasures but even the [right of the native] Africans to lay claim to their own civilization. Many books have tried to prove that this architectural site, which is right in the heartland of Africa, approximately 800 kilometres away from any seacoast, was built by Persians, Phoenicians, Portuguese, Arabs or Chinese. The fact that there are no prototypes for Zimbabwean architecture, art and ritual among any of these foreign peoples does not seem to bother the conjectural historians' (Van Sertima, 1999:317). African engineering skills may also be seen in the construction of boats. A variety of these are documented (for example Van Sertima's They Came Before Columbus, 1976). They range from reed boats with sails, rope-sewn plank vessels, jointed boats fitted out with woven straw cabins, to enormous dugouts as wideberthed, long and sturdy as Viking ships (Van Sertima 1976:318). The Portuguese found African boats with sails on the Congo estuary. Africans were also found to be using nautical science in the Sahara Desert. Van Sertima cites EW Bovill's famous work, The Golden Trade of the Moors. The work details the African's use of the compass and astronomical computations to guide the African caravans across the desert. The journey across the Sahara is 'twice as long and twice as hazardous as a journey by Africans across the open sea from Africa to America (2 400 kilometres). Africans had to cross thousands of kilometres of trackless wasteland. Africans had to solve problems of storing grain for months while traversing the barren sands, whereas the sea is a mobile food-store' (Van Sertima 1999:320). Agricultural Science The above suggests that, in addition to the use of nautical science, there was a high level of sophistication in agricultural science among Africans. As a result Van Sertima submits that the earliest technological leap from hunting and gathering activities to the scientific cultivation of crops occurred in Africa at least 7 000 years before it did on any other continent. Citing a discovery by Fred Wendorf reported in 1979 in Science magazine, Van Sertima (1999:320) alludes to the discovery of agricultural sites near the Nile that go back 'more than 10 000 years before the dynasties of Egypt. There, Africans were cultivating and harvesting barley and einkorn wheat'. When the grains of these cereals were carbon dated at Kubbaniya, they gave a reading of 17 850 BC, plus or minus 200 years. In dealing with other aspects or elements in the development of civilization, Van Sertima submits that not only were Africans the first in crop science but also the first in the domestication of cattle. The work done by Charles Nelson, a University of Massachusetts anthropologist, and his team comes to mind. In 1980 Charles Nelson announced in the New York Times that his team had unearthed evidence in the Lukenya Hill district in the Kenya Highlands, about 40 kilometres from Nairobi, that Africans had been domesticating cattle 15 000 years ago. The 'findings led them to conclude that the pre-Iron Age African in that area had a 128

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8 relatively sophisticated society and could have spread their mores, living modes and philosophy, eventually reaching the fertile crescent of the Euphrates River Valley, which many had once thought was the cradle of civilization' (Van Sertima 1999:322). This denigration and suppression of people's knowledge system was extended to medicine. 'Practitioners of indigenous medicine were confronted with unjust laws leading to: fines, deportation from their native land, imprisonment and execution' (Van Sertima 1999:325). African medical practitioners who were trained in the conventional Western biomedical tradition were not spared from the spectre of humiliation and discrimination. Like their traditional counterparts, they also were often denied employment. This practice was consistent with discriminatory laws pervading the whole colonial system. (For further details and related sites visit the website http://members.aol.com/afriforum/colonial.htm, last update April 1999.) Fortunately, there is enough evidence to suggest that African plant medicine was more developed than any in the world before the disruption of its cultures. Van Sertima points out that in spite of the tremendous knowledge that was lost, the fragments that survive still tell us a lot; an observation corroborated by Dr Charles Finch of the Morehouse School of Medicine. Writing in the Journal of African Civilizations, Finch sketches the background to African traditional medicine, not just its plant science but its psychotherapy, its approach to the diagnosis of disease, its very early knowledge of anaesthetics, antiseptics, vaccination, and the advanced surgical techniques in use among African doctors (Van Sertima 1999:324). With regard to herbal medicine, studies suggest that several Western medicines were known to Africans before they were discovered by Europeans. Van Sertima (1999:325) proffers: The Africans had their own aspirin. The Bantu-speaking peoples use the bark of Salix capensis to treat musculoskeletal pains and this family of plants yields salicylic acid, the active ingredient in aspirin. In Mali they had one of the most effective cures for diarrhoea, using kaolin, the active ingredient in the American brand Kaopectate. Nigerian doctors developed a herbal preparation to treat skin infections which rivals the best in modern world ... Finch introduces us to far too many plant medicines to mention here — for abortion, for retarded labour, malaria fever, rheumatism, neurotic venoms, snakebite, intestinal parasites, skin ulcers, tumours, catarrh convulsions, venereal disease, bronchitis, conjunctivitis, urethral stricture — all effective as those used in western medicine... The African herbal pharmacy is staggering. The Zulus alone know the medicinal uses of 700 plants.

Van Sertima's essay touches on other aspects such as surgery which suggests that African doctors had attained a level of skill comparable with, and in some respects superior to, that of Western surgeons until the twentieth century. The most ©Juta&CoLtd

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8 impressive is that of the Caesarean operation sketched by Dr Felkin in 1879, at a time when such operations were rare in Europe. The skill demonstrated in this operation startled readers of the Edinburgh Medical Journal, where it was reported. Van Sertima (1999:327) notes that Africans were not only found to be doing the Caesarean section with routine skill but to be using antiseptic surgery, which Lister had pioneered only two years earlier than this event, and when the universal application of his methods in the operating rooms of Europe was still years away/ In the light of the above, it is apparent that much of the knowledge, skills, technologies, medical practices and prescriptions described above were lost due to major cultural disruptions wrought by colonialism. The fact that most of these were transmitted through oral tradition was also not helpful. It should be pointed out, however, that the annihilation was not complete, as attested by information that has survived for centuries. The survival of this information suggests that oral tradition may be as durable as written documents. Van Sertima concludes his essay by asking a pertinent question. Why did the Africans leave no written documents? On this note Van Sertima (1999:327) submits: First of all, the assumption underlying these questions — that Africans did not develop writing systems — is a myth. There is evidence that probably half a dozen scripts were invented and used by Africans before the holocaust, although many of their manuscripts perished in the sack of Alexandria, the razing of Timbuktu, and the burning of the Moorish documents in the squares of Granada on the order of Cardinal Ximencz.

Precolonial Writing Systems Emeagwali's website (http://members.aol.com/Grafin/afrihist.htm#BKG, last update February, 1999) details evidence of a range of writing symbols and motifs for communicating various ideas and concepts in various African countries. The variety of writing material used, she argues, reflects the complex history of Africa's writing systems. The systems were inscribed on materials such as parchment, papyrus, leather, skin, fabric, sand, clay and metal more extensively in some parts of the continent than others. Since the use of specific scripts was confined to the priestly hierarchy, some of the African writing forms may not have been known (Emeagwali, website) Among the writing systems were the following — Geez (Ethiopia), Meroitic (Nubia), Hieroglyphics (Egypt), Bamum (Cameroon), Vai (Liberia), Nsibidi (Nigeria/Cameroon), Ajimi (Nigeria/Niger) and the Adinkra pictographic system (Akan-Ghana, Ivory Coast). There is ample and compelling evidence (Emeagwali, website) that Africans developed a wide range of sophisticated systems of oral expression involving the preservation and transmission of information in an oral format. In certain cases the oral systems coexisted with the written systems. Texts such as the epic of

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8 Sundiata (Mali) or the Abuja Chronicle (Nigeria) are a case in point. (For further details on precolonial writing visit Emeagwali's website.) TOWARDS A CULTURALLY INFORMED MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE As we enter the new millennium, the image of Africa is not pleasing. Africa has not made any progress in teaching science or technology, and has failed to make any economic and developmental recovery from colonialism. Neither has Africa been able to devise anything unprecedented or to evolve any unconventional approaches to education and development in recent years. This picture remains sombre despite a plethora of developmental initiatives and educational projects — tried and still under way — aimed at addressing the educational backlog, economic stagnation and underdevelopment in the continent. For instance, Yoloye and Bajah (1981), and Lapp (1980, 1983), have reviewed and evaluated change in science education in Africa. Their assessment is that there is little in the way of curriculum restructuring and modification that has not been tried. Secondary schools have seen the introduction of measures ranging from science curriculum units, teachers' centres, equipment production units, Nuffield-type courses, radio, television, audio and video — all of which have been tried to bring science education to students. Yet science teaching continues to be based on the authority of the text, the teacher and memory of pupils (Makhurane & Khan 1998). The reasons for this unenviable state are varied and include, inter alia, continued reliance on colonial educational tenets (for example, educational philosophy, pedagogical practices, learner-teacher roles, etc) leading to poor assimilation, use of imported and culturally insensitive curricula, underresourced and overcrowded classrooms, governments that pay only lip service to education and development (Jegede 1998). The common denominator in these initiatives is that their design is located outside the indigenous mathematical, scientific and technological practices. The lesson to be drawn from this experience is that Africa should evolve and devise her own relevant and culturally responsive approaches rather than adopt science and technology curricula from outside. To teach science within the narrow definition that excludes the learner's context is to ignore what catalyses learning within the learner's environment Qegede 1998). This ideological stance and educational approach is supported by contemporary theories of learning. These theories, informed by research in mathematics and science education, indicate that learners develop ideas about natural phenomena well before they come to school. What learners understand from formal instruction, listening to lectures, reading from texts is influenced by the ideas they bring (Driver 1988). It is for this reason, inter alia, that teachers must begin with what learners know. Using their prior knowledge, accumulated in their cultural surrounding, would also assist in removing the cultural alienation and other ©Juta&CoLtd

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8 learning obstacles to which learners are exposed. Starting with indigenous knowledge systems would encourage learners to draw on their cultural practices and daily experiences as they negotiate and grapple with new situations and unfamiliar terrain.

Pointers from Research in Mathematics In their investigation of fractal patterns of African traditional settlements, Eglash and Broadwell (1989) were intrigued by the geometrical concepts which informed these settlements. Their investigations revealed that 'spectral analysis of digitized photos showed these to be non-linear'. In a subsequent review of anthropological literature and field work in West and Central Africa, Eglash was led to the conclusion that 'these architectural fractals result from intentional designs, not simply unconscious social dynamics, and that recursive scaling structures can be found in other areas of African material culture (art, religious icons, indigenous engineering, and games)' (Eglash 1997). Eglash boldly states that in 'the design rationals and cultural semantics of many of these geometric features, as well as in quantitative and symbolic systems, there are abstract ideas and formal structures which parallel some of the fundamental aspects of fractal geometry'. Flowing from this, and similar findings by other scholars, the possibility exists that African art can be used to teach mathematics. Starting with students' cultural experiences, teachers may use examples and activities familiar to their charges. A case like this may also provide teachers of art with new tools for design analysis. Eglash (1997) contends that the 'comparisons of African v.s. European cultures cannot be reduced to dichotomies of fractal v.s. Euclidian since Euclidian aspects of African knowledge systems exist throughout the continent and vice versa'. He argues further that 'since these technologies, are cultural characteristics it is possible and likely that for different African communities all using fractals, cultural semantics may vary from place to place ... [and that] the history of mathematics is not a ladder in which we climb from primitive counting to advanced recursive functions and frequency transforms. Rather, it is a branching structure in which different cultures may take different paths, and what came only recently for some may have been the first steps for others'. This perspective is shared by a growing number of ethnomathematicians, a group of scholars who subscribe to the view that many societies and groups (for example, national societies, labour communities, religious traditions, professional classes, etc (Eglash 1997)) have participated in mathematical practices in one form or another. The notion of group is thus not limited to indigenous societies. According to Ubiratan D'Ambrosio (1990), who coined the term ethnomathematics, mathematical practices refer not only to formal symbolic systems but also to concrete physical activities that illustrate the difference in quantities. Similar understanding can be extended to ethnoscience. This perspective allows us to see science as a human enterprise in which various traditions of humanities 132

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8 have participated. It also helps us understand how culture and science interact in society (Eglash 1997). Eglash joins an array of scholars (Zaslavsky, Gloria Emeagwali, Paul Gerdes, Martin Bernal, Ivan van Sertima, Marilyn Frankenstein, Arthur Powell, Ubiratan D'Ambrosio, and many others) who have variously sought to debunk the myth that African geometric systems, and other indigenous symbolic systems, are the result of unintentional and unconscious social dynamics with no scientific basis. The intellectual posture of ethnomathematicians and ethnoscientists demands that strategies be put in place to harness the potential located within indigenous knowledge systems to address both education and developmental issues. The experience with imported culturally insensitive curricula has been costly and painful. Pointing the way in the exploitation/use of indigenous science for education and development is the collaborative project undertaken by Eglash and Onyejekwe, both based at the Ohio State University, and Diata (University of Dakar) and Badiane (ENDA Senegal). These scholars, convinced that a top-down approach to development is often less effective, even when making use of indigenous practices, designed a project to create 'a framework in which to test the possibility that indigenous knowledge can be used in a boot-strapping approach to development' (quoted in {HYPERLINK http://www.cohums.ohio-state.edu/comp/isgem.htm}). The goals of the project, which focuses on the creation of an indigenous science centre, include: • utilizing indigenous knowledge for the benefit of the people; • creating such benefits by combining indigenous with modern scientific frameworks and technological capabilities; • creating a model for other indigenous science centres with the hope that a network of these institutions could create interethnic cooperation and stability. Projects such as this one would not only promote the development of indigenous knowledge in modern technological frameworks but would also encourage the custodians 'to conduct their own empirical studies, educational projects and technological production to meet these challenges' (Eglash 1997). Also, the location of these centres and projects, drawing on local materials and labour, utilizing indigenous practices, would provide a sense of ownership by the community — thus ensuring their sustainability. Aside from encouraging the continuation of cultural practices, a synthesis of traditional and/or cultural practices with modern scientific frameworks should facilitate local empowerment. It would also provide the psychological rehabilitation needed to address the effects of mental and cultural domination brought by colonialism. Similar projects are now being undertaken in South Africa. The Ministry of Science and Technology, in collaboration with the Council for Science and Industrial Research (CSIR) and historically black institutions, completed in 1998 a national audit of indigenous technologies. The audit was followed immediately by ©Juta&CoLtd

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8 the launch of the Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) Programme, an initiative of the Parliamentary Portfolio on Arts, Culture, Language, Science and Technology. The Programme is seen as a critical component in the restructuring and democratization of the South African science and technology system, which has hitherto remained Eurocentric. The revitalization of IKS is necessary for the 'generation of new knowledge' and thereby to 'elevate Africa's place within the universe of research' through the 'formation of new knowledge, education and information'. It is envisaged that one of the outcomes of the IKS Programme is the creation of conditions for sustainable social and economic transformation, which has thus far remained a pipe dream. Aside from affirming and empowering practitioners of IKS, and legitimating and validating indigenous knowledge in its own terms, the IKS Programme also narrows the knowledge gap between the various systems of knowledge found in the country. The challenge facing (South) African scholars is to build on this initiative and engage themselves in unravelling the mathematical and scientific basis of these technologies. In other words, the challenge is to locate and identify the scientific skills, knowledge and process embedded in the cultural practices of the African majority. Once these are identified, they can then be used to restructure, redesign and reformulate the present curricula. A restructured curriculum should assist in the affirmation of the African child. Since it is in culture and language that learners find an intellectual home, the utilization of indigenous technology and African knowledge systems might be the key to unlocking the door that has prevented the masses from accessing mathematics, science and engineering. References Abubakar, N. 1992. Metallurgy in Northern Nigeria. In Emeagwali, GT. Science and Technology in African History. New York: Edwin Mellen. Akinwumi, 0. 1997. Metallurgy in pre-colonial Borgu society. In Emeagwali, GT (ed). African Civilisation: Technical, Social and Political Dimensions. New York: American Heritage. Ascher, M. 1990. Ethnomathematics: A Multicultural View of Mathematical Ideas. Pasific Grove: Brooks/Cole Publishing. Asante, Molefi K. 1988. Afrocentricity. New lersey: Africa World Press. Bajah, Sam Tunde. 1980. African Science: Fact or Fiction? A Multidimensional Approach with Bias towards Science Education. Intellectual Life Committee Monograph Number One. Dominiquez Hills: California State University. Bernal, Martin. 1987. Animadversions on the origins of Western science. In Powell, Arthur B & Frankenstein, Marilyn (eds). Ethnomathematics: Challenging Eurocentrism in Mathematics Education, 83-99. Albany, NY: Sunny Press.

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8 Bitiyong, YI. 1997. Tin technology in the Nok region. In Emeagwali, GT. African Civilization: Technical Social and Political Dimensions. New York: American Heritage. Boyd, Herb. 1991. African History for Beginners. New York: Writers and Readers Publishing. Gloss, MP (ed). 1986. Native American Mathematics. Austin: University of Texas Press. Crowe, DW. 1987. Ethnomathematics reviews. Mathematical Intelligence, 9(2), 68-70. Crump, T. 1990. The Anthropology of Numbers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. D'Ambrosio, U. 1990. Etnomatematica. Sao Paulo: Editora Atica. Diop, Cheikh Anta. 1967. The African Origin of Civilization: Myth or Reality? Westport: Lawrence Hilland Co; Paris: Presence Africaine. Diop, Cheikh Anta. 1985. Africa's contribution to world civilization: The exact sciences. In Van Sertima, Ivan (ed). Nile Valley Civilizations. Journal of African Civilizations Ltd, Inc. Driver, R. 1988. Restructuring the science curriculum: Some implications of studies on learning for curriculum development. In Layton, D (ed). Innovations in Science and Technology Education, 59-84. Unesco. Draft Report of First National Workshop of the Indigenous Knowledge Systems Programme. 1998. University of North West. Eglash, R. 1997. When maths worlds collide: Intention and invention in ethnomathematics. Science, Technology and Human Values, 22(1), 79-97. Eglash, R & Broadwell, P. 1989. Fractal geometry in traditional architecture. Dynamics Newsletter, June, 1-10. Emeagwali, GT. 1989. Science and Public Policy. Journal of the International Science Policy Foundation, 16(3). Emeagwali, GT (ed). 1992. The Historical Development of Science and Technology in Nigeria. New York: Edwin Mellen. Emeagwali, GT (ed). 1992. Science and Technology in African History. New York: Edwin Mellen. Emeagwali, GT (ed). 1993. African Systems and Science, Technology and Art. London: Karnac. Emeagwali, GT (ed). 1997. African Civilization — Technical, Social and Political Dimensions. New York: American Heritage. Emeagwali, GT. 1998. Colonialism and Science. Paper presented at the Conference on 'Matrices of Scientific Knowledge', Oxford University (March).

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8 Ezeabasili, Nwankwo. 1977. African Science: Myth or Reality? New York: Vantage Press. Gay J & Cole, M. 1967. The New Mathematics and an Old Culture. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Wilson. Gerdes, P. 1991. Lusona: Geometrical Recreations of Africa. Maputo: EM University Press. Gerdes, P. 1994. Reflections on ethnomathematics. For the Learning of Mathematics, 14-2, June. Gerdes, P. 1997. Lusona — Geometrical Recreations of Africa. Paris: L'Harmattan. Jackson, A. 1992. Multiculturalism in mathematics. In Stern, LA (ed). Heeding the Call for Change. Mathematical Association of America. Jegede, OJ. 1998. The knowledge base for learning in science and technology education. In Naidoo, P & Savage, M. African Science and Technology Education into the New Millennium: Practice, Policies and Priorities. Cape Town: Juta. Joseph, GG. 1991. The Crest of the Peacock. London: ffi Tauris & Co. Kani, A. 1992. Arithmetic in the pre-colonial Central Sudan. In Emeagwali, GT (ed). Science and Technology in African History. New York: Edwin Mellen. Keitel, C, Damerow, P, Bishop, A & Gerdes, P. 1989. Mathematics, Education and Society. Science and Technology Education Document Series No. 35. Paris: Unesco. Lapp, DM. 1980. The Improvement of Science and Mathematics in Less Developed Countries. Institute for Scientific Planning and Technological Cooperation. Lapp, DM. 1983. Basic Science Education in Sub-Saharan Africa. United States Agency for International Development. Lerman, S. 1992. Vedic multiplication. Critical Mathematics Educators Group Newsletter, 2, January. Lumpkin, Beatrice. 1984. The pyramids: Ancient showcase of African science and technology. In Van Sertima, Ivan (ed). Blacks in Science Ancient and Modern, 67-83. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books. Lumpkin, Beatrice. 1988. Hypatia and women's rights in Ancient Egypt. In Van Sertima, Ivan (ed). Black Women in Antiquity, 155-161. New Brunswick and London: Transaction Books. Lumpkin, Beatrice. 1997. Africa in the mainstream of mathematics history. In Powell, Arthur B & Frankenstein, Marilyn (eds). Ethnomathematics: Challenging Eurocentrism in Mathematics Education, 101-117. Albany, NY: Sunny Press.

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8 Makhurane, PM & Khan, M. 1998. The role of science and technology in development. In Naidoo, P & Savage, M. African Science and Technology Education into the New Millennium: Practice, Policies and Priorities. Cape Town: Juta. Okagbue, R. 1993. The scientific basis of traditional food processing in Nigerian communities. In Emeagwali, GT (ed). African Systems of Science, Technology and Art. London: Karmak. Pappademos, John. 1984. An outline of Africa's role in the history of physics. In Van Sertima, Ivan (ed). Blacks in Science Ancient and Modern, 177-186. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books. Pappademos, John. 1985. The Newtonian synthesis in physical science and its roots in the Nile Valley. In Van Sertima, Ivan (ed). Nile Valley Civilizations. Journal of African Civilizations Ltd, Inc. Ramose, MB. 1998. Foreword. In Seepe, S (ed.) Black Perspective(s) in Tertiary Institutional Transformation. Johannesburg: Vivlia Publishers. Savage, M. 1998. Curriculum innovations and their impact on the teaching of science and technology. In Naidoo, P & Savage, M (eds). African Science and Technology Education into the New Millennium: Practice, Policies and Priorities. Cape Town, Juta. Shea, P. 1992. Textile technology in Nigeria: Practical manifestations. In Emeagwali, GT (ed). The Historical Development of Science and Technology in Nigeria. New York: Edwin Mellen. Shirley, L. 1995. Using ethnomathematics to find multicultural mathematical connections. National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Yearbook, 34-43. Skovmose, 0. 1985. Mathematical education versus critical education. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 16, 337-354. Van Sertima, Ivan. 1976. They Came before Columbus. New York: Random House. Van Sertima, Ivan (ed). 1984a. Blacks in Science Ancient and Modern. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books. Van Sertima, Ivan. 1984b. The lost sciences of Africa: An overview. In Van Sertima, Ivan (ed). Blacks in Science Ancient and Modern, 7-26. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books. Van Sertima, Ivan. 1984c. Dr Lloyd Quarterman — nuclear scientist. In Van Sertima, Ivan (ed). Blacks in Science Ancient and Modern, 266-272. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books. Van Sertima, Ivan. 1999. The lost science of Africa: An overview. In Makgoba, MW (ed). African Renaissance — The New Struggle. Mafube Publishing.

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8 Wendorf, Fred, Schild, Romuald & Close, Angela E. 1984. An ancient harvest on the Nile. In Van Sertima, Ivan (ed). Blacks in Science Ancient and Modern, 58-64. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books. Yarbrough, Camille. 1984. Female style and beauty in ancient Africa: A photo essay. In Van Sertima, Ivan (ed). Black Women in Antiquity, 89-97. New Brunswick and London: Transaction Books. Yoloye, EM & Bajah, ST. 1981. Science Education for Africa, Vol. I: A Report of Twenty Years of Science Education in Africa. Lagos: SEPA. Zaslavsky, C. 1973. Africa Counts. Boston: Prindle, Weber & Schmidt, Inc. Zaslavsky, C. 1984. The Yoruba number system. In Van Sertima, Ivan (ed). Blacks in Science Ancient and Modern, 110-226. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books. Zaslavsky, C. 1994. Fear of Math. Pembrock, NJ: Rutgers. Zaslavsky, C. 1997. Africa counts — number and pattern in African culture. In Powell, Arthur B & Frankenstein, Marilyn. Ethnomathematics: Challenging Eurocentrism in Mathematics Education. Albany, NY: Sunny Press. http://members.aol.com/afriforum/colonial.htm http://members.aol.com/afsci/africana.htm http://members.aol.com/afrifor/metal.htm http://members.aol.com/afsci/shea.htm#AFTX http://members.aol.com/Grafm/afrihist.htm#BKG http://members.aol.com/sekglo/racism.htm http://www.library.cornell.edu/africana/Library/ALinks.html http://www.library.cornell.edu/africana/Writing_Systems/ Amharic.html http://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/myths_lies.htm

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9 Rethinking Educational Paradigms in Africa: Imperatives for Social Progress in the New Millennium Tukumbi Lumumba-Kasongo

INTRODUCTION: OBJECTIVES AND ISSUES Any study of the kind of education that is needed in Africa has to be examined as a constitutive part of the whole. An understanding of how formal education has been produced and managed, as well as how it is functioning, and of the dominant political ideology behind its functioning, is as important as the question of what kind of education we should transmit to succeeding generations. This chapter is divided into six sections. The first section comprises the introduction, in which I discuss my objectives, raise issues related to the topic, and pose the questions to be dealt with in this essay. The second section examines formal education in relationship to colonial political thought. The epistemological issues of the learning process are discussed in the third section. In the fourth section the role of intellectuals is dealt with. The fifth part is concerned with the question why Africans should search for new paradigms in education or in the social sciences generally. And, finally, the conclusion proposes what can be done in order to transform African realities. In this essay, I intend to examine the reasons why I am convinced that Africans should devise new educational policies based on new paradigms, so necessary to regain momentum for social progress. My objectives are to raise some problematic issues related to the philosophical and social foundation of this topic, and to discuss and contextualize the mission of education within the logic and structures of the African political economy in the world system. My contribution is to make heard a constructive African voice in education that can be epistemologically relevant, ideologically and politically progressive and Pan-African, and also internationally functional. How has formal education contributed to advancing the role of Africa ©Juta&CoLtd

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9 since the colonial period? What ought to be the essence of the African educational system and philosophy of social progress? Why is it that there are so many graduates in so many disciplines and domains in countries such as, for example, Cote dlvoire, Ghana, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), but yet clear and consistent patterns of social progress are still sadly lacking in those countries? This chapter is written against the background of the relationship between the dynamics of the world system and the underdevelopment of Africa, as expressed in the perspectives and assumptions associated with the historical structural approach articulated by political economists such as Claude Ake, H Cardoso and Gunder Frank. It emphasizes the dynamic relationship among social phenomena (such as citizen, market, political party, state, worker, etc) and the historical causes of their potential or real contradictions. As Cardoso and Faletto (1979:IX) have observed: We seek a global and dynamic understanding of social structures instead of looking only at specific dimensions of social process. We oppose the academic tradition which conceived domination and socio-cultural relations as 'dimensions', analytically independent of the economy, as if each one of these dimensions corresponds to separate spheres of reality.

The relationship between education, intellectuals and the global political economy is viewed as structurally holistic. African academics and intellectuals, despite discourses of political independence, have none the less continued to perceive and define themselves as part of the world system. Their so-called search for autonomy through reform has failed to make the achievement of social progress the overriding mission of the African educational system. Why is this so? Within the existing dominant paradigms of the global political economy, African structural dysfunctionality in the area of education has been reduced to, and evaluated through, the simple logic of inefficiency, incompetence, and the level of corruption of African systems of governance, all of which result in a failure to deliver goods and services. Here, I argue that the African crisis is essentially multidimensional and that the current educational philosophy is not likely to support the quality education that popular and social movements have been demanding. Given various layers of social, economic and political crisis as reflected in economic disparity, social injustice and poverty in many parts of Africa and among different social classes, I have come to think more than ever before that either the entire current educational system is philosophically and socially irrelevant or that the teachers and professors are not teaching and transmitting the necessary knowledge the way they ought to. Thus, it is imperative that we engage in constructive studies of education as a tool for social progression. One of the problems that African educational systems face is the fact that these systems lack social purpose and vision among the African states or African elites. 140

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9 For at least four decades there have been high expectations regarding what formal education can and should do for individuals and societies at large. In terms of the number of students who have acquired some type of education or who have obtained diplomas, and the number of schools that have been constructed since many countries earned their nominal political independence, much has indeed been achieved. However, it has been generally observed that the dynamics of formal education systems and their policy outcomes have produced disappointing results. We must again ask ourselves what was actually envisaged after political independence: what kind of formal education, for whom, and to produce what kind of society (Ela 1998:5-22)? For the majority of African people, especially the youth, formal education has a vital role to play in achieving social progress. In the 1960s and early 1970s, in most African countries the cost of attending school, particularly public institutions, was almost fully borne by the state. Countries such as Tanzania, Cote d'lvoire and Ghana spent more than 30% of their national revenues on education (Assie-Lumumba & Lumumba-Kasongo 1991:266; Assie-Lumumba 1994; Negrao 1994; World Bank 1983). By contrast, in the 1990s even those countries not ravaged by war allocated less than 10% of their budgets to education. A poignant example is provided by the DRC, where, in the 1980s and early 1990s, Mobutu's government was spending less than 5 % of its budget on education. In the twenty-first century the demand for formal education is likely to continue to rise: Africa will have to compete even more energetically with other strong regional economic and political blocs — not only for access to global resources but also for access to the global marketplace — if any meaningful social progress is to be made in the region (Assie-Lumumba 1994). However, in light of the ongoing African crisis, as reflected in its extremely weak political and economic structures and the unpredictable political behaviour of its states, the current role of education and its social and political implications in the long term have to be questioned. Instead of becoming an instrument of social progress as expected by most people in Africa, formal education, within the broader parameter of the global political economy, has been mostly an instrument of underdevelopment. When Western-type formal education was first introduced into Africa as part of the so-called 'civilizing mission' of the early missionaries, and later of the representatives or agencies of the European states, it was resisted and challenged by Africans because it was perceived as an alien culture. Later it was associated with the power of colonization — exploitation, dehumanization and control. However, despite the initital resistance to it by the African social structures, parents gradually started sending their children to school. This was largely a result of the evolution of its coercive power and the expansion of its administrative and social advantages, mainly in the form of limited material benefits. Formal education has now been accepted as a tool for individual and social mobility and a potential instrument of social progress. ©Juta&CoLtd

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9 EDUCATION AND COLONIAL POLITICAL THOUGHT Frantz Fanon (1963) and Albert Memmi (1969) have produced important works in which they examine the nature of the dependency syndrome characteristic of the relationship between the colonizer and the colonized. They emphasize the instability of the psyche of the colonized person and the process of mental decolonization. They view decolonization of the mind as one of the most important criteria for human liberation. This decolonization, however, has to take place within the realm of the praxis. Education and political thought are intellectually and socially interconnected. Their influence on one another is reinforced by the fact that political thought provides the philosophical, social and political framework for education. In Ancient classical political thought, for example, formal education in the citystates, as an essential part of civic education, was conceived as a duty of the citystate, serving to rigidly socialize citizens about their 'natural' and social rights (Hurwitz 1979 and Lumumba-Kasongo 1980). Women, slaves, foreigners and traders could never become citizens, regardless of their individual intellectual abilities or personal merits and the quality of their contributions to the process of building the city-state. In Greece, in the fifth century BC, citizens who participated in the agora had to be educated. Through historical implications and ramifications, colonial political thought is an integral part of Western political thought (Samir 1989). This political thought is essentially characterized by its dualistic concept of defining society, a sort of Manicheism. In Africa, during the colonial period, Africans as subjects were denied an adequate educational opportunity for their emancipation and development. Native rights and civil rights were given different values to fit the dualistic metaphysics of Western thought. Colonial thought is defined as a systematic way of theorizing about processes of dehumanization and domination. This thought is essentially about the study of the ideas and concepts related to the systems of domination and exploitation. It is the articulation of politics or systems of governance from the points of view of the colonial systems. Given the fact that the colonial education system was perceived as a dangerous tool that had to be systematically controlled by the Western powers, the educational system introduced was a reflection of the concept of the 'Dark Continent'. In accordance with its mission, the colonial education system in its essence could not be relevant and humanistic to its subjects. Although this formal education brought Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Voltaire, Montaigne, Mills and the Western classics to Africa, the process of learning in Africa was intended to violently separate Africans from their own heroes and philosophers. These Western philosophers were taught in Africa within the logic and rules of domination and control. Despite the dynamics of the concepts of states, citizenry, property, individual rights, etc associated with Western philosophy, the political context did not allow these concepts to develop fully and freely, to mature and become enlightened ideas. _^

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9 Colonialism was not only or simply a political or economic experience for Africa; it was even more fundamentally a culture experience (Mazrui 1978:23). It discriminatorily imposed its values on African societies. The colonial process of socialization through formal education was as important as the militaristic, political and economic methods used to produce oppressive conditions. Colonial education was an effort of the governing classes in the colonies to create infrastructures which would support their systems. The style of instruction, the general ethos of the school, and the curriculum helped determine what values and techniques were transmitted (Lumumba-Kasongo 1990:115). Despite differences and similarities between Belgian, English, French, Portuguese, Spanish and German educational goals, systems and policies, the essential and common objectives of the colonial powers were to provide a modicum of education to fit Africans into the colonial expectations and systems of production and consumption. Education was a direct reflection of ideological state apparatuses. Each European country produced its own educational system with the main objective of promoting European interests. As Carnoy (1974:81) has indicated: Schools in Africa were intended to convert Africans from barbarians (sic) into civilized humans (sic), to prepare them to fill the role of agricultural producers instead of slaves in the European-run world economic system. This was a European decision — Africans could only accept it or not. Ultimately, even the choice of accepting European values and norms was taken away from them.

Whether this education was produced and managed by Christian churches, as in the case of the Belgian model, or by military or secular administrators as, for instance, in the case of the French model, the educational curriculum of colonialism was strongly oriented towards the articulation of the so-called civilizing mission of the European powers. Who can forget the profound expression of 'nos ancetres les Gaullois' ('our ancestors the Gauls') that was commonly taught to African children in elementary schools in most former French and Belgian colonies? The major objective of this system of education was to alienate Africans, as much as possible, from whatever positive achievements and historical experiences they had produced in the past. It had a mandate to disconnect Africa from its past and to reconnect it to the new Western value system that is today considered as 'universal'. Western political thought sought to negate African metaphysics and ethical values, which the colonial powers deliberately associated with the notions of paganism and barbarianism, even if, in reality, in most world cultures the barbarians are clearly the invaders. In short, Western political thought, as reflected in the African experience, cannot be disassociated from the politics of exploitation, social and economic pillage, and distortion. ©Juta&CoLtd

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9 EPISTEMOLOGICAL CRISIS IN THE AFRICAN LEARNING PROCESSES1 One of the crisis areas in the African educational system concerns the origins of knowledge taught in African schools and how it is organized and managed. Where do we get our knowledge from and how is it transmitted to us? Epistemology is a theory of knowledge. Knowledge is an understanding of phenomena and it is also a social product. Whether what we are learning is located in 'here' (mind) or 'out there' (social milieu), the process of learning itself is both a social and an intellectual activity. In other words, learning is conditioned and regulated by the social environment in which we live. The knowledge that we acquire must relate to and/or direct the efforts of learners towards an understanding of themselves and their environment, and how they can reproduce both their environment and themselves. In short, the role of critical knowledge is possible only as social theory. How do we see this epistemological problem in African institutions of learning? In trying to deal with the question of the role of education in general terms, Claude Ake (1985) utilizes the concept of 'received social sciences' as an illustration of the knowledge-making process. Within the historical context, social sciences, as a fragment of total knowledge, are categorized as 'received social sciences' (Ake 1985:11). In general, they supported and spread the assumptions of 'inferiority' of the colonized societies in terms of technology and advancement of social structures. Most of the studies of anthropology and/or ethnology before World War II were fully influenced by this notion of the 'inferiority' of the colonized people. The social sciences approached the problems in Africa with the great supporting capitalist order as 'The Order' and its values as 'The Values' and, as such, they were assumed to be superior to any other values. Ake (1985:4) sums this up as follows: It encouraged people to see phenomena, as they would appear to capitalists. For instance, society represented as being fundamentally atomistic and man (sic) as an aggressive acquisitive being. This is held up as a natural condition of man and society and we are called upon to forget that these conditions are due to the historical contingency of the capitalist mode of production.

Within the above intellectual framework, the 'received social sciences' had to underscore and justify the claimed superiority of one category of people over others. They were also used to promote the socioeconomic and political interests of the donors of social sciences, whether multinational corporations, foundations, schools or other international training agencies. These social sciences tried to disassociate the sciences from the social needs of Africans. They were utilized as the tools to govern and to maintain their power. Thus, the epistemology of 'received social sciences' is conceived as 'instrumentalist epistemology'. The learning process was objectified for some specific ends. Social sciences were used as 144

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9 means to enforce the laws of the capitalist mode of production and the African was not defined historically as an end in him-/herself. These 'social sciences' were able to elaborate and analyse African social problems only within a limited perception of the world. They were able to rationalize exploitation and discourage liberation or conflict as irrational. In short, the crisis in the 'received social sciences' can be situated at three levels: how knowledge was transmitted, the purpose of the knowledge, and the kind of knowledge it was. In Africa, knowledge within the Western educational context was transmitted through the institutions associated with capitalism, colonialism and slavery, such as churches, schools, multinational corporations and international agencies. Schools were set up as models of the metropolitan schools, although the intention was not to reproduce the same content of learning in the colonies. The Belgian administration, for example, could not develop the same curriculum in the schools as its policy was set up on the 'Pas d'elite, pas de probleme' ('No elite, no problem') premise. Even in the French colonies, despite the so-called assimilationist policy, the French colonial administration established an indigenous system different from that in France. Bantu Education in South Africa was articulated on an extreme racist classification. In Liberia, the Americo-Liberians established a system similar to the American system because, despite many social constraints, they preferred to reproduce American society in Africa. In short, it is difficult to disassociate the 'neutrality' of knowledge from the institutions of political economy if we define knowledge as a social productive force and a direct instrument of social practice (Bottomore & Rubel 1964:91). The purposes of transmitting knowledge can be found in the goals of formal education in Africa. For Mwalimu Nyerere of Tanzania, for example, in the context of the postcolonial situation, education was to serve as a means of social transformation. Thus, he changed many aspects of Tanzania's education system so that it could become more 'pragmatic', vocationally oriented, and socially meaningful. In the process of implementing the Ujamaa village policy between 1968 and 1978, for instance, the continual usage of the English language as the main language of schooling was perceived as socially inconsistent and politically contradictory to African socialism. Thus, Kiswahili was adopted by the government to become the national language of formal education. Despite the monetary cost, books and other materials were easily translated into Kiswahili. However, the shift back to the English language later in schooling was a result of the failures of the Ujamaa village schemes. This supports my point that the content of education and the dynamics of the classroom have to be examined in relationship to the nature of the African political economy. African voices that do not address the dynamics of the African economy and Africa's real role in international relations can be unrealistic and misleading voices. In Liberia, Cote d'lvoire and Togo, for instance, the educational goal has been to equip individuals with more skills. In the case of Liberia, formal education was largely based on the philosophy of idealism and the promotion of a classical type of © Juta & Co Ltd

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9 education with its emphasis on high, absolute and unchanging truths and a curriculum based on the works of the great philosophers (Kroma 1983). Education, especially at higher levels, is important because it can produce professionals with particular skills and knowledge, who can be expected to help reduce illiteracy, improve the welfare of the population, and contribute to socioeconomic development. Thus, it is assumed that the production of human resources associated with the necessary skills and knowledge is one of the most important factors for the progress of Africa. But in reality the situation is different: the goals of the 'social sciences', or of science in general, do not coincide with the aspirations of African societies or with the need for cultural unity. The fact is that African social sciences, as they have developed at institutions of higher learning, do not adequately respond to or understand the needs of the majority of poor people in Africa. What kind of education would have the power and legitimacy to deal with poverty constructively? It should be noted that, until recently, most of the research undertaken in the social sciences has been oriented towards urban areas. And, within these areas, the research tends to focus on aspects related to the metropolitan economy and politics. In The University of Liberia Journal for example, up to the 1980s, more than 70 % of articles dealt generally with the market economy, business and the urban population, while the majority of the population was — and still is — rural. The curricula of many departments at the University of Liberia, for instance, and those of schools set up by the Firestone Rubber and Tire Company for its workers in Liberia, had many things in common, not in content but in philosophy, including the narrowness of their subject matter, universalism, specific objectives and American orientation. Universities of most former French colonies are still in most cases structured after French universities and each is still also affiliated to a specific university in France. Policies that are obsolete in France are still carried out in the francophone countries to respect the French traditions. The kind of knowledge that is being taught in African schools tends to support more the existing order of things — which creates exploitation, injustice, wars and other oppressive elements — than on creating the tools that can change the social conditions of people. African voices should be able to articulate some alternative policies and produce some general principles and guidelines in order to change the existing order. These voices should not only include intellectuals and academics, and policy-makers/technocrats, but also social movements. The issue raised here is one of finding the relationship between knowledge, metaphysics and social environment. I argue that knowledge as transmitted and managed by international institutions — churches, multinational corporations and schools, etc — does not relate to African metaphysics and the social context. The learners and teachers lack confidence and there is little interconnectedness among the elements of what is being learned. What should be the role of African intellectuals in this crisis situation? 146

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9 AFRICAN INTELLECTUALS AND THEIR SOCIAL AND POLITICAL ENVIRONMENT Thomas Kuhn (1970) has argued that, in sciences generally, crises are necessary preconditions for the emergence of new theories. If paradigms are incapable of solving a set of problems as they should, the paradigms should be changed. The process has to take place within the scientific community which is 'a supremely efficient instrument for maximizing the number and the problem solved through paradigm change' (Kuhn 1970:169-170). With regard to the African situation, questions must be asked concerning the nature of the crises, how they are manifested, and whether or not they are temporary or permanent. Finally, is there any reliable scientific community in Africa which can fit Kuhn's definition of scientists? Africa, like other continents, has produced a significant number of intellectuals in the postcolonial era. What are they doing in pursuit of research and developmental objectives? European colonial elites firmly believed in their so-called civilizing mission in Africa. To actualize it, a series of mechanisms, strategies and policies were established. Whether it was through so-called direct or indirect rule, Europeans attempted to create a new breed of people — or what Fanon (1963:8) has called 'Greco-Latin Negroes' — who could play the role of intermediate social forces between the natives, the colonialists and colonists. During the colonial era, this group of new bureaucrats played the dual role of national liberators and also of supporters of the status quo at the same time. One of the major issues I address in this section is whether African intellectuals can be regarded as partners of imperialists or as agents of social progress in Africa. African intellectuals include African academics and all those who research or use knowledge as either the foundation of policy formulation and implementation or the instrument of political struggle. Using the Eastonian systems analysis logic, the relationship between human beings and the environment in its complexity is essentially dynamic. Both phenomena influence one another to a certain extent. However, it may be difficult to quantify with precision what their impact is on one another or to know exactly where the influence of one begins and the influence of the other ends. Sociologists talk about how an individual, or the human being, is a product of her/his environment. Social contract theorists like to define society as a contract. Although humans are products of the dynamics of an environment in many ways, this essay is written from a structuralist perspective in which humans are perceived as essentially environment-making forces. Universally, humans, as rational social entities, construct their environment to solve their human problems and to respond to their sociobiological needs as well. What kind of intellectuals can be characterized as products of change and what kind may be defined as agents of social progress? I will not expand the discussion on the classical functions of intellectuals. How do African intellectuals face their social conditions and integrate their social milieu? Despite high rates of illiteracy © Juta & Co Ltd

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9 and school dropout at various levels of learning, Africa is no longer in a situation of despair when it comes to the number of intellectuals in most areas. Yet, by and large, African intellectuals seem to be disconnected from the world of research and paradigm-making. What is or ought to be the role of the African intellectuals in various processes of social progress? Intellectuals are a group of people who do not only reflect and think, but who also project, imagine and change their environment for the greatest public good. That is to say, in a philosophical sense they ought to be transcendentalists. In light of the global African crisis, many people have blamed African intellectuals for being conspirators or for being partially responsible for most of the malaises of Africa. But this kind of blame does not seem to take into account the question of who the intellectuals are, how they relate to the dynamics of the global system, and what values they tend to represent. For instance, during the 1980s when the programmes of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) were at their apex, a number of important African intellectuals, designated as experts by those institutions, were recruited, who largely supported the arrogance of these programmes and their destructive policies. However, in the 1990s many African intellectuals outside the Bank and the IMF questioned and criticized the impact of these programmes (see CODESRIA Project on Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs), Assie-Lumumba & Lumumba-Kasongo (1996)). In the DRC, for instance, for more than thirty years the dictatorship of Mobutu was firmly supported by many intellectuals who were mostly university professors and finally became amateurs politicians. With the renewal of war on 2 August 1998, many lumpen intellectuals who claimed to be 'democratic', and many of whom worked in the previous Mobutu regime, became the leaders of the rebellion. They engaged in a process of unimagined destruction basically in pursuit of their own power and fortune. However, I continue to argue that, although African intellectuals are microcosms of African society, society expects them to inject some of their knowledge, skills, savoir-faire and culture into the process of positive African environmental change. But experience on the ground in Africa tends to suggest that societal expectations founded on colonial teleologies and the Western approaches of the 'middle class' as a solution have not worked well in Africa. In a broad sense, this middle class, mostly a consumerist class, is defined as being part of the intellectual family. Fanon (1963:153) perceived it as performing 'a cheapJack's function' characterized by the absence of capacity to fulfil even its historic role of bourgeoisie. It did not have any intellectual resources. In short, its 'modernizing claims' were limited and philosophically myopic. Instead of using their intellectual abilities to make positive changes to their environment by changing themselves first (as articulated by Paulo Freire through his concept of 'dialogical education') African intellectuals in most cases use their abilities to adapt or readapt themselves relatively easily to the social dynamics, the philosophical contradictions, and the cultural and political imperatives of the 148

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9 African milieu. This process of adaptation has created more problems than solutions in the policy related to change. They tend to develop more easily the psychological disposition to adapt to the African sociological and cultural milieu instead of trying to critically examine the contradictions related to this milieu with the final objective of positively changing it. Anyone who has been able to learn how to read and write in Africa, usually in a European language, is called a literate person. And every individual who has immersed into a culture of critical learning can be called an educated person. An educated person is not necessarily associated with diplomas, although having diplomas can be considered as symbolic of education. An educated person can be characterized by utilization of intellectual abilities or his or her skill to think critically about the world in and around her/him. Literally, an intellectual is someone who uses her/his intellect or engages in intellectual pursuit, or puts high value on thinking or acquiring knowledge. Conducting research is at the heart of intellectual endeavour. Intellectuals are associated with important diplomas and possessors of critical knowledge. There is a need to categorize African intellectuals. Individuals in these groups can belong to more than one group at the same time. I have identified these categorizations as a research tool rather than as a normative tool for assessing the 'goodness' of each grouping. They are far from objective or perfect. However, some of the dominant characteristics must be identified for analytical purposes. African objective conditions have produced several types of intellectuals. Organic intellectuals. There are two types. (a) These intellectuals are engaged in critical thinking about their social environment. They teach and conduct research at institutions of higher learning, but they also have strong associations with research centres either in Africa or elsewhere or with social and political movements. Generally, many of them form the leftist political parties. Despite difficult material conditions, this group has been engaged in building theories and critical thinking through research. Their scope of analysis is very much determined by the dynamics of international or global issues. Although they can also become politicians, generally these intellectuals have a weak social base limited to universities. Even when they act as consultants, they bring with them an African critical perspective. (b) These intellectuals are not actively engaged in critical thinking but are more active in popular and social movements. These groups are pragmatic and generally have a relatively solid social base. Functionalist intellectuals or careerist intellectuals. They have obtained higher degrees, are specialists in their fields, and generally teach at universities and colleges. They are the functionaries of the state apparatuses. They do some © Juta & Co Ltd

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9 research but local/national issues mostly determine their scope of analysis. Traditionally they are called 'enseignants'. Knowingly or unconsciously they feed the regimes. Many of them even tend to develop characteristics associated with strong ethnic affiliations as mechanisms for social protection and cultural security. Intellectual consultants. Coming onto the scene in the 1970s, this group of intellectuals was born of the dynamics of peripheral capitalism in Africa, manifest in various programmes and projects associated with the missions of the United Nations, multinational corporations, and 'destatelization' of the African economies. There are two main groups here: (a) scholars who consult on a part-time basis and who still teach and conduct research; and (b) those who have made consultancy their professions. These two groups react differently to the exigencies of their environment. Consulting offices, as quasi or permanent institutions of money-making or project-selling, especially in the urban areas, have mushroomed in postcolonial Africa in countries such as Cote d'lvoire, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal and South Africa. Many full-time consultant report writers conduct applied research projects, which in most cases are policy-oriented. Although individual intellectuals in this category may perform critical evaluations in their work, generally, these diploma holders challenge the state apparatuses less than the two previous groupings. Professional consultants engage less in theoretical debates than do organic intellectuals. However, this group is not passive in the search for paradigms in which Africans have been involved since the beginning of the postcolonial era. Lumpen intellectuals. These individuals have obtained university diplomas but have lost their jobs or professional development as a result of either their incapacity to maintain their professional status, the dysfunctionality of the market and the state, political and economic instability due to the freezing of jobs, or the enforcement of early retirement as recommended by the World Bank through its SAPs. In terms of their consistent engagement with the vision for African development, this group is the most dangerous and vulnerable of the African intellectuals. In general terms, they are opportunistic, less ideological, and less committed to any concrete societal project. They can support any political regime. They have a fragile social base. In my view, the group of intellectuals best equipped to make a vital contribution to the social progress of the community is the one that directly or indirectly links theory with praxis. It is at this level of analysis that African intellectuals can become socially and scientifically relevant. Although intellectuals in each of these 150

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9 groups react differently to the demands of African societies and the requirements of political systems, it could be said that African intellectuals generally are the most accommodating and vulnerable groups of writers, policy-makers and researchers. They easily allow environmental forces to dominate their professionalism. This is due partially to the fact that many elements of the African culture that emphasize tolerance and reconciliation are still important determining factors of African value systems. African collective metaphysics seems to be stronger than the imperatives of professionalism. That is to say, most African intellectuals know the limit of the power of their professionalism. For better or for worse, the African social and cultural environment is a challenge for research. It also should be observed that most African intellectuals, who for various personal and political reasons have been forced out of Africa or have decided by themselves to leave either temporarily or permanently and to work as researchers and teachers in countries in the North, tend to do superb jobs in their chosen institutions. The same people, if they were to work in Africa, would be likely to render poor professional performances. Is this due to the imperatives of the conventional push-pull theory of migration which stipulates that new migrants tend to be ideologically more conservative and also tend to work harder than the natives in order to survive or be accepted as professionals in their new environment? Or is it so because for many the new environment is more conducive to research? Could it be that this is due simply to the fact that Africans have great potential but that the social context at the national level hinders intellectual production in the public sector because solving small-scale family problems is considered more valuable by society than performing in the public arena? The political environment has a direct impact on the functioning of intellectuals in Africa. Political resources controlled by the state are generally scarce and limited access to them leads some African intellectuals to become beggars or corrupt in order to survive in their social milieu. The African state as a fragile and insecure international political entity wants to control knowledge associated with the role of intellectuals. This creates major problems in the process of searching for paradigms in African knowledge production and management. WHY SHOULD AFRICANS SEARCH FOR NEW PARADIGMS IN EDUCATION OR SOCIAL SCIENCES? Although the answer to this question may appear obvious, in real world politics it is not. Despite the World Bank's recent claims, the existing paradigms are not working. Rather than decreasing, the population of poor Africans is approaching 300 million, 200 million of whom are extremely poor. The causes of this increasing impoverishment cannot only be linked to one or a few factors. The artificiality of the African state and of its boundaries, power struggles, economic wars, lack of education, and intrigues related to the dynamics of the international political economy and its agencies, are among some important interrelated factors © Juta & Co Ltd

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t that have created this crisis. The manifested contradictions of the global system in Africa dictate that we search for new paradigms as an intellectual and political urgency. Within this call, we have to explain Africa to herself. Historically, colonial social sciences, especially ethnographic studies, defined Africans as a simple people and their society as a simple society — in other words, a society without 'being' and 'history'. African society was defined as pre-logic. Utilizing a unilinear perception of the world, African conditions — cultures, religious organizations and political organizations — were generally defined as 'primitive' or elementary. At the time of political decolonization from the 1950s to the 1970s, various forms of national struggle occurred: power struggles, class struggles, accommodationist or integrationist alliances. The modernization school, which emerged out of nineteenth-century evolutionist debates in Europe and the dynamics of capitalism, produced new guidelines for the newly independent states and countries. The major premise of this school of thought was that, if African states wanted to progress and play a significant role in the world system, they would have to adopt the so-called prerequisites of modernity — that is, they would have to become Westernized. This included, inter alia, the adoption of cultural secularization, structural differentiation and fixed stages of economic development — or what I call the Rostowian model of development. Within these prerequisites, Africa should be able to produce the structures of the strong state and civil society a I'Europeenne — a state mandated to create a nation. In this way Africa would join the 'universal' modern world. Within this perspective, African societies — their traditions, religions, collective consciousness and ethnicity (defined as tribalism) — were perceived as the number one enemies of the world of the modern states and global capitalism. Most of the African leaders believed in the immortality of the state and its power to become an effective merchant force in the global system as a social reconciliator and a unifying force. Some of them promoted parliamentary democracies without either real parliamentary politics or liberal social values being accepted in the inherited state. Some of the characteristics of this state were highly centralized decision-making, militaristic behaviour, and being philosophically and functionally international. In the name of 'global peace' in the world of the states, military build-up was undertaken on the continent. The fear of social disintegration at the national level and the increasing demand for African raw materials to feed global capitalism in the context of the international power struggles, contributed to the establishment and the consolidation of authoritarian, totalitarian and highly inefficient states. The Western powers and their dominant multinational and international financial institutions either partially or totally supported the dictators, both military and civilian, in the name of 'collective peace' and global economic growth at the expense of local social democracy and social progress. In this period, the ideology of development was separated from that ofuhuru. The common belief was 152

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9 that the development paradigm should be promoted through the process of economic growth. However, because of the crisis of the state and of political economy associated with this paradigm, African states were forced to adopt the SAPs instead of implementing the Lagos Plan of Action, a home-grown programme of development conceived by Africans in 1980. These programmes had the technical definition of growth but did not have mechanisms by means of which to transform growth into development. Some African leaders sought to find solutions by attempting to Africanize capitalism and socialism. Here again many attempts resulted in fiasco — and in some cases the results were tragic. In the 1990s, it has become apparent that most of the policy elements of development that have been tried in Africa, either in the agricultural sector or in the area of governance, were designed in the West or the North, mostly by non-African experts. The implementation of policies was also done mainly within the framework prescribed by external experts or converted African policy-makers. This situation is very much unique to Africa. It is difficult to generalize why these suggested, imposed or recommended paradigms have failed in Africa. However, the identification of some key elements of the answer may shed some light on my views and further localize my approach. The African state is the most problematic phenomenon of all. It is more international than national in its behaviour and philosophy. Generally the paradigms associated with this state were not seriously intended to succeed, at least at the national level. The strategies of development have been alien, costly and hostile to the African culture, traditions and history. African peripheral capitalism, which is not necessarily an evolutionary stage of global capitalism, but a permanently hybrid model with its own particular characteristics, has been the major problem impeding any genuine educational innovation and creativity. Statistics showing how the global economy reproduces itself in Africa support my position that the existing developmental models, in both their political and economic reforms, have essentially served a few African political elites and their patrons and institutions in the North or the West rather than African people and their social systems. The marginalization of the African female population, for instance, in African educational systems stems partially from the irrelevant non-socially rooted nature of these alienating paradigms that exclude women from their very inception (AssieLumumba, 1997). Africa has once again become a social laboratory for exploring various kinds of paradigms which have been designed outside the continent. By the early 1990s, there were tens of thousands of expatriate 'technical assistants' in sub-Saharan Africa, more than the total number of colonial administrators (Ali 1997:3). The result of all this has been the pillage of African resources, including loans. ©Juta&CoLtd

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9 CONCLUSION One of the most important points I address in this chapter is the question of identifying the nature of the relationship between state, culture, international political economy and knowledge, specifically in the social sciences. There are some social scientists, including this author, who think that as productive bases have not been established in Africa, and that within the development of capitalism Africans are becoming mainly consumers and producers of labour (although labour production has been challenged by further marginalization of Africa through multinationals and capital moving out of Africa), African scholars will be unable to achieve any common methodological change in the social sciences unless the total situation changes. As Claude Ake (1985:4) puts it: In so far as our historical experiences are unique in Africa, we cannot rely on the transmission of scientific ideas from other continents to solve our problems. Until we stop thinking along the lines of transfer of technical and scientific know-how and think rather of internally generating it, we cannot begin to master our destiny or to develop.

Another proposal made by various African scholars in thinking about new paradigms in African education is to vigorously continue searching for indigenous development, educational paradigms or sciences, and Pan-African or regional educational content in selected areas. The search for an indigenous model of education is quite an interesting one in that it demands an African renaissance in what can be taught. Although we support the idea that science or knowledge is 'contextual', it is not clear, however, how 'contextual' should be defined. Contextualizing African educational systems means that we have to develop systems of education that take into account the dominant African cultural elements and philosophies, and common historical configurations that are designed from the contradictions of colonialism, neocolonialism, apartheid and people's struggles for emancipation. Education is the process through which people must struggle to be free. This is a common premise that should be promoted by people in any specific African context. It can be produced only through a democratic process. This process is not only about political participation in choosing some selected aspects of education, but, more importantly, it is about redefining African educational systems to make them consistent with the African ethos, the vision of a progressive society, and the African political economy. In short, a democratic process must be built by a solid internal consensual foundation. Although most parts of the continent entered the 'World System' through slavery and colonialism, this has manifested itself in different ways from country to country. In reality, there are today many Africas that should be taken into account in our effort to select a single, dominant way of thinking in social sciences. There 154

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9 is a need for radical change in the 'received social sciences' typologies and philosophy, but there are many things that we can gain from them too. Many elements of knowledge are already in our social context. I suggest a 'consensus of thinking' approach which may enable us to consider our social conditions as prerequisites for rigorous intellectual work. In other words, there is a need for a 'synthesis of learning' that may enable us to be critical of ourselves and of the historical development of the social relations of which we are part. Our task requires good organization and management of knowledge. The idea of 'synthesis of learning' goes along with the view of many scholars that the indigenization of social sciences in Africa implies an intellectual emancipation as well as a fundamental and critical reassessment of Western paradigms.2 I agree with Joseph Ki-Zerbo (1972) who pointed out that knowledge, when it becomes autonomous, can be utilized even against the purposes it has previously supported and advanced. How can this knowledge become autonomous and decolonized so that it can be used for the advancement of the whole society? The processes of paradigmatic change and societal building should be viewed from a critical examination of the role of Africa in international relations and political economy. Here some delinking must be philosophically and politically considered. No educational system will be able to serve the African people productively and socially without a strong nationalistic philosophical basis. This basis cannot develop out of peripheral capitalism. Endnotes 1 Most of the information in this section was taken from our article: The 'Silent Crisis' in the international transfer of knowledge in African societies and their education systems: A theoretical perspective (see Assie-Lumumba & Lumumba-Kasongo (1994)). 2 For further information on this way of thinking, see Hettne (1982:137). References Ali, Abdel Gadir Ali. 1997. On African capacity and all that. DPMF Newsletter, October 3-4.

Ake, Claude. 1984. Social Science as Imperialism: The Theory of Political Development. Ibadan: Ibadan University Press. Ake, Claude. 1985. The Social Sciences in Africa: Trends, Tasks and Challenges. Paper presented to CODESRIA for discussion on the social sciences in Africa, April. Ake, Claude. 1996. Democracy and Development. Washington: The Brookings Institution.

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i Assie-Lumumba, T N'Dri. 1994. Demand, Access and Equity Issues in African Higher Education: Past Policies, Current Practices and Readiness for the 21st Century. Monograph series: Accra. Association of African Universities. Assie-Lumumba, T N'Dri. 1996. The future role and mission of African higher education. South African Journal of Higher Education, 10(2), 5-12. Assie-Lumumba, T N'Dri. 1997. Educating African women and girls. In Iman, Ayesha, Mama, Amina & Sow, Fatou (eds). Engendering Social Science in Africa. Dakar: Council for Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA). Assie-Lumumba, T N'Dri & Lumumba-Kasongo, Tukumbi. 1991. The state, economic crisis and educational reform in Cote d'lvoire. In Ginsburg, Mark (ed). Understanding Educational Reform in the Global Context: Economy, Ideology and the State, 257-284. New York: Garland Publishing. Assie-Lumumba, T N'Dri & Lumumba-Kasongo, Tukumbi. 1994. The 'Silent Crisis' in the international transfer of knowledge in African societies and their education systems: A theoretical perspective. CODESRIA Bulletin, 4 (1994), 9-13. Assie-Lumumba, T N'Dri & Lumumba-Kasongo, Tukumbi. 1996. The Impact of Structural Adjustment Programs on Higher Education in Africa. Final research paper sponsored by and submitted to CODESRIA's African Perspective on Structural Adjustment Programs Project, Dakar, Senegal. Bottomore, Tom & Rubel, Maximilien. 1964. Karl Marx: Selected Writings in Sociology and Social Philosophy. New York: McGraw-Hill. Cardoso, FH & Faletto, E. 1979. Dependency and Development in Latin America. Berkeley: University of California Press. Carnoy, Martin. 1974. Education as Cultural Imperialism. New York: David McKay, Inc. Ela, Jean-Marc. 1998. Quelle education pour quelle societe? Journal of Comparative Education and International Relations in Africa, 1(2), 5-22. Fanon, Frantz. 1963. The Wretched of the Earth. New York: Grove Press, Inc. Hettne, Bjorn. 1982. Development Theory and the Thirld World. Helsingborg: Schmidts Boktyekeri AB. Hurwitz, H Leon. 1979. Introduction to Political Science. Chicago, II: Nelson Hall. Ki-Zerbo, J. 1972. Histoire de I'Afrique: D'Hier a Demain. Paris: Hatier. Kroma, Emerson. 1983. The Role of the Public Education System in Liberia. Paper presented to the University of Liberia Teacher's College, September 1983. Kuhn, S Thomas. 1970. Structures of Scientific Revolution. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

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9 Lumumba-Kasongo, Tukumbi. 1980. The Role of Political Community within Entire Community According to Aristotle. Unpublished MA thesis, University of Chicago. Lumumba-Kasongo, Tukumbi. 1986. Problems, relevance and perspective of teaching classical political theory in an African university: A general reflection. The University of Liberia Journal October, 54-68. Lumumba-Kasongo, Tukumbi. 1990. African education policies and educational development. In Mutewa, Mekki (ed). Contemporary Issues in African Administration and Development Politics, 112-135. New Delhi and Madras: Allied Publishers Ltd. Mazrui, Ali. Political Values and Educated Class in Africa. Berkeley and Los Angeles, California: University of California Press. Memmi, Albert. 1969. Dominated Man. Boston, MA: Beacon Press. Negrao, Jose. 1994. Adequate and Sustainable Funding of African Universities. Monograph series. Accra: Association of African Universities. Samir, Amin. 1989. Eurocentralism. New York: Monthly Review Publishers. World Bank. 1983. Comparative Indicators. Washington, B.C.: The World Bank.

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10 Indigenous African Philosophies and Socioeducational Transformation in 'Post-Apartheid' Azania Julian Kunnie Unfortunately the West has taught us to scorn oral sources in matters of history, all that is not written in black and white being considered without foundation. Thus even among African intellectuals, there are those who are sufficiently narrow-minded to regard 'speaking documents', which the griots are, with disdain, and to believe that we know nothing of our past for want of written documents. These men (sic) simply prove that they do not know their country except through the eyes of Whites. (Preface, Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali by DT Niane)

INTRODUCTION In perusing much of the literature written on education in Azania, as in most other academic fields, one has the impression that either Azania is populated by a paucity of black people or that few black educators exist in the country.1 The overall character of much of the educational reflections and discourse are overwhelmingly either European or Eurocentric. It is as if Azania is not a part of Africa, but rather a reflection of Europe in Africa. It is ironic to note that there is much talk about the need for multicultural expressions in education in Azania today by mostly white liberal educators, one of whom describes the situation of non-Western cultural modes in education, yet does not even mention Africa or cite one indigenous African source in her paper!2 The shocking inference here is the distorted view that Africans possess little or no indigenous knowledge of value that can be utilized in the process of educational transformation. The same Eurocentric oversight nonchalantly presupposes that the norm for educational achievement and success for black children and students is that of Western European capitalist elitist culture, where the English language is sacralized, and internalization of bourgeois European values is seen as the index of 'progress'.3 158

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10 Tragically, racism continues to infect the post-apartheid dispensation, including the halls of academia.4 Azania is an intrinsic part of the African continent. All critical and transformative educators in the country need to embrace an indigenous African world-view and root the nation's educational paradigms in an indigenous sociocultural epistemological framework. Eurocentric researchers and academics presuppose that by virtue of employing the term African, one implies a homogenous concept, failing to understand that Africanization' necessarily suggests the diversity of indigenous cultures within Africa that are characterized by pluralistic languages, beliefs, teachings, and social practices. The strident and hostile reaction to Malegupuru William Makgoba, the former Deputy Vice Chancellor at the University of the Witwatersrand, upon his call for the Africanization' of the university, is indicative of the stereotyping of Africanization as being monolithic, exclusivistic, totalitarian, and intolerant of pluralistic cultures by Eurocentric ideologues.5 Africa, with her over 800 languages today, is the most linguistically diverse continent in the world, with most Africans speaking at least three languages, in addition to the principal European ones, French and English. Africa functioned as the wellspring for the emergence of the major religious traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, which all coexist on the continent today, reminding us that Africa can be very instructive in the discourse on 'multicultural education'. All educational curricula in Africa must have Africa as their pivotal point and focus, and be indigenousgrounded and oriented, or else such education becomes alien, oppressive and irrelevant, as we have seen in the case of colonial and neocolonial education systems in Africa. Africans on the continent today are among the most illiterate people in the world, even though it was Africa, specifically Egypt, that gave birth to formal writing 5 000 years ago.6 Places like Nubia and Meroe were pioneers in writing and literacy, much of it still remaining undeciphered today. In medieval Sudan, educational centres arose in cities like Djenne, Gao, Timbuktu and Katsina, with Timbuktu possessing many more schools than European metropolises at that time (Jackson 1970). Owing to the impact of slavery and internal upheaval in the seventeenth century, many of these centres of learning were destroyed (Ki-Zerbo 1991:25). If it was Africa that pioneered writing and subsequently reading, millennia ago, why is it that Africans today view reading and writing as essentially European and alien to black cultures? Essentially, history is read from the present backward, and as long as Western European powers wield hegemonic economic, military and sociocultural power in the world, as they have for the past five centuries, we will all be victim of the Eurocentric epistemological distortions of history that place classical Greece as the place where writing and reading originated. Thanks to black scholars like Cheikh Anta Diop, John Jackson, WEB du Bois, John Hendrik Clark, Theophile Obenga and other non-Eurocentric classical cultural scholars like © Juta & Co Ltd

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10 Martin Bernal, we now have more information about the African bearing on the development of scientific knowledge in the Hellenistic world during the classical period.7 Educators engaged in transformative 'post-apartheid' education must familiarize themselves with these texts, use them in their classes, and incorporate them into their curricula. It is important to note that in the Azanian context, as in all other global indigenous societies, forms and practices of education via the oral medium were well established and functioned in the socioeconomic evolutionary development of Azanian society.8 Women and men, elders and religious practitioners all participated as educators in the raising of young children and their nurturing into adulthood. Much of the knowledge orientation was directed at living effectively in changing sociocultural and material environments. Indigenous knowledge systems were complex and intricate and functioned to preserve wisdom from preceding generations with the objective of making them relevant in the dynamic unfolding of social change. This chapter will demonstrate how indigenous revolutionary African philosophies can be tapped as a foundational resource for the socioeducational transformation of post-apartheid Azania in light of the problems enunciated above. It will show too that indigenous philosophies can be politically and economically liberating, including critiquing elitism, that has tenaciously sown its ugly seeds within the sociocultural and educational fabric of Africa. By virtue of assuming the indigeneity of culture, one does not connote a detachment from political radicalization and mobilization. ERSTWHILE BLACK EDUCATION IN AZANIA: A BRIEF HISTORY Formal education in Azania since the arrival of Europeans in the seventeenth century and the organizing of educational institutions have generally been a Eurocentric enterprise, catering to the needs of the minority white population. These processes have transmitted the ideology that the world is predicated on racial, cultural and personal hierarchies, and that essentially education is a European undertaking for the benefit of European people, specifically the upper and middle classes. Deeply interwoven into this system of 'education', which ipso facto represented a practice of indoctrination, was the effect of mental and material enslavement, and an extension of political and economic colonization of Africans. Presumed within this epistemological configuration was the view that certain supposedly 'more intelligent' people in society deserved access to the best material resources, principally for the maintenance of their dominant and privileged roles in society. Throughout most of Africa, including Azania, the institutions of Western education established either by the colonial state or the missionary organizations at the beginning of the century focused on the subjugation of Africans, creating a select few blacks for elitist leadership, and brainwashing all through the 160

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10 educational process (Marah 1989:48). Contrary to the contention of many liberal white historians that missionary education was responsible for cultivating numerous political leaders in Africa such as Nelson Mandela and Robert Mugabe, the president of Zimbabwe, the missionaries were part and parcel of the package of the dispossessing system of colonialism (Stack & Morton 1976:47,48).9 As John Marah (1989:109-10) has argued, Western education in Africa 'has been used to disintegrate Africa on class as well as on racial lines'. Africans were educated only to the point of needing to understand the language of the European colonial master — in the words of HF Verwoerd, white Prime Minister of South Africa, in 1950, that: 'Natives will be taught from childhood that equality with Europeans is not for them' (cited in Mboya 1993:2). The Bantu Education Act of 1953 legalized white superiority and institutionalized black inferiority, manifest prominently in the shaping of public educational institutions for blacks which reproduced 'the relations of production necessary for the continued exploitation of Blacks in South Africa' (Enslin 1984:140-41). It was thus inevitable that the resistance struggle in Azania took a significant turn with the Soweto student insurrection of 1976, when black students adamantly refused to cooperate any longer with the nefarious Bantu Educational system that indoctrinated black inferiority and prepared black people for subservience in a white-owned and white-controlled economy. Black youth then were in fact sending a strong message both to the apartheid system and to their parents: enough is enough! Black students were determined to bring an end to the socioeconomic misery that their parents had been forced to accept under the white enslavement of blacks in every sphere of life and demanded a just, fair and normal education and political system.10 The Soweto uprising is a watershed event that all educators in Azania need to study and analyse in the context of the slogan 'Education for liberation', particularly in the post-apartheid era, in which the lines between the oppressor and the oppressed have been made to appear murky by the deceptive ideology of 'post-apartheid non-racialism'. EDUCATION IN POST-APARTHEID AZANIA TODAY A perusal of the educational situation in Azania today indicates that the country is mired in a socioeducational crisis of monumental proportions. Black people's expectations of a free and decent education, with reduced class sizes and free textbooks, as promised during the 1994 elections, have been frustrated and remain apparently distant dreams (Lodge 1994). There appears to be much confusion within ruling circles in Azania about responses to the educational crisis facing black people. One of the biggest obstacles appears to be the funding question and the lack of financial resources for public education. On the one hand, the educational ministry has been providing large severance packages for teachers and school administrators, costing the government © Juta & Co Ltd

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10 hundreds of millions of rands. On the other hand, there is a critical lack of black teachers to meet the growing needs of the black community in urban and particularly rural areas. Even former president Nelson Mandela was shocked by the enormous financial cost of the severance packages and approached eighteen other countries, appealing for financial assistance in the area of educational development.11 Many historically black public schools are facing desperate situations of shortages of books and teachers, with sliced budgets and demands from provincial educational authorities that retrenchments need to occur and departments need to function within allocated budgets. Even though the new government has earmarked close to 25 % of the national budget for education, and more monies for black education, the funding allocations for predominantly black and white institutions still remain significantly unbalanced, with predominantly white schools absorbing close to a third of the total education budget in 1994 even though whites represent only 10% of all school-goers.12 Although the funding allocation has increased overall since then, the results of school pass-rates indicate that predominantly black schools are still facing educational crises of towering proportions. In KwaZulu-Natal, only 45% of all students taking their matriculation examinations passed in 1998. Gauteng scored a 55,6 % rate, 4,1 % higher than 1997, and North West Province's matriculation pass rate was 54,66 %, an increase of 4,6 % over the previous year. However, only 13,4 % of the 42 300 students who wrote their matriculation exams in North West Province received university entrance passes, similar to the trend across the country.13 Nationally, schools in black rural communities continue to suffer the most as a result of the legacy of apartheid underdevelopment and neglect over the decades, so that up to one third of all eligible school-going children are not in school. As far as higher education is concerned, the situation is equally depressed. White monopolies and dominance in administration and teaching staff continue as a carry-over from the days of apartheid. In 1995, Africans comprised 11 % of the total research and teaching staff at Azanian universities. In 1993, there were 148 white students for every one black student in engineering (Khosa 1996). Gender equity for black students is still a serious problem, with black women comprising only a small percentage of students at university. Black academics and university administrators were outraged at the report of the National Commission on Higher Education commissioned by the new government proposing a comprehensive programme of educational redress, because it failed to challenge colonial assumptions and historic apartheid structures.14 Today, many historically black universities are in dire straits as a result of financial constraints and reduced student intake. At the University of the North, where budget deficits have curtailed expansion of university programmes, there was a decline of student intake from 15 000 in 1995 to 5 500 in 1999.15 This is not just a question of increased allocation of financial resources for black education, even though this is a vital necessity; transformation of the educational system requires sociocultural and curricular revamping so that the new system is not geared 162

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10 towards reproducing racial inequalities, cultural distortions, and economic disparities, all the offspring of Azania's colonial-capitalist character. The ideology of the commoditization of education so typical of Western capitalist societies must be eschewed and discarded in the Azanian context, mediated by a sociocultural revolution where indigenous African philosophy is the underlying principle.16 In essence, it behoves all Azanian educators to develop a theory of indigenous education that is geared towards revolutionary transformation of colonized and capitalist Azania and grounded in indigenous philosophies of liberation. DEVELOPING A THEORY OF INDIGENOUS REVOLUTIONARY EDUCATION UTILIZING AFRICAN LIBERATION PHILOSOPHIES Since Azania as it currently exists is a product of three and a half centuries of European colonial entrenchment and almost a century and a half of capitalist economic structures, it is imperative that, in the words of the revolutionary African theorist and philosopher Amilcar Cabral, we 'return to the source' of indigenous cultural resistance in examining the question of educational transformation.17 These indigenous modes of popular cultural, political and economic resistance need to become a part of the programme of educational curricular transformation so that there is a dynamic dialectical interplay between education and socioeconomic and cultural change. By African philosophy, we do not imply some ahistorical 'ethnic philosophy' which is repudiated by African philosophical scholars like Paulin Hountondji.18 Rather, we would like to propose the synthesis of the 'sagacity philosophy' and the 'nationalist-ideological philosophy' trends proposed by the Kenyan philosophy scholar Henry Oruka, and suggest 'indigenous liberation philosophy', which deals specifically and pointedly with the struggles waged by indigenous African communities against the twin edifice of European colonialism and capitalism.19 In this sense, the philosophies we refer to may have to do with the question 'on what grounds can we ever claim to know anything about the world?' as Robin Horton poses it, qualified by the preoccupation with the issue of understanding the basis for advancing the anticolonialist and anti-capitalist struggles.20 By indigenous, we do not imply a static or reified precolonial African culture free of contradiction and conflict. Tsenay Serequeberhan (1994:108), an African philosophical critic, explains: This 'return' is not a return to tradition in its stasis. We are not therefore engaged in an antiquarian quest for an already authentic past. Rather, we are engaged in the affirmation of the Western native of the rural indigenous mass. Simultaneously, this is the self-negation of the Westernized native of his [or her] cultural legitimacy. The obverse of this denial is the positive affirmation of the stunted indigenous culture. This affirmation, furthermore, is not a theoretical/abstract assertion of need of proof. It is the 'complete and absolute identification with the hopes' and aspirations of the dominated rural mass which is aimed at a joint process of struggle.

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10 In lucid terms, the Europeanized-educated indigenous elite discovers its authentic indigenous identity by becoming involved with the rural masses of women and men to advance the liberation struggle. Cabral (1973:65) avers: The 'petite bourgeoisie' (intellectuals, clerks, workers, chauffeurs, salary-earners in general), having to live with the various peasant groups in the heart of the rural peasant population, discover at the grass roots the richness of their cultural values (philosophic, political, artistic, social, and moral), realize, not without a certain astonishment, the richness of spirit, the capacity for reasoned discussion and clear exposition of ideas, the facility for understanding and assimilating concepts on the part of population groups who yesterday were forgotten, if not despised, by the colonizer and even by some nationals.

We propose a 'return to the indigenous source' in Azanian education as Cabral propounded during the throes of the decolonization struggle in Guinea-Bissau, where the rural masses of women and men come to the centre in any socioeducational discourse. The objective here is the rediscovery of the indigenous historicity of the colonized rural masses through a process of de-Westernizing and de-Europeanizing the Western-educated indigenous community, so that the contemporary struggle for the decolonization of Azania is advanced. The foundational element in this philosophical paradigm is radical struggle, the struggle to purge contemporary Azanian society of all forms of the particularity of European culture that claim universality but are oppressive and irrelevant to the decolonization movement. Concomitantly, there needs to be a revolutionary excising of those forms and practices of indigenous culture that have been alienating, such as women's subordination, ethnic provincialism and rivalry, and gerontocratic domination, without abolishing the matrix of indigenous cultures themselves. Cabral (1970:5) underscores these points lucidly: History allows us to know the imbalances and conflicts (economic, political, and social) which characterize the evolution of a society; culture allows us to know the dynamic syntheses which have been developed and established by social conscience to resolve these conflicts of each stage of its evolution, in the search for survival and progress. Whatever may be the conditions of a people's subjection to foreign domination, and whatever may be the influence of economic, political, and social factors in practicing this domination, it is generally within the culture that we find the seed of opposition, which leads to the structuring and development of the liberation movement.21

Cabral reminds us that indigenous cultures and philosophies are pivotal in the movement for transformation of indigenous and colonized people. In Azania, an indigenous revolutionary theory of education demands that we subscribe to indigenous assumptions, utilize indigenous cultural resources, and 164

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10 apply indigenous philosophical principles in the construction of a liberated country. For instance, the assumption that valued knowledge has to be mediated through positivistic and Cartesian modes, where dogmatic certainty is the defining criterion of reliable knowledge and where the mind of the individual is viewed as determinative of the essence of personhood, must be expunged. Indigenous philosophies valorize both the dimensions of the physical and the metaphysical and realize the power of Creation, of the laws of Mother Nature, of the forces of Mother Earth, because they assert that we as human beings are an intrinsic part of the web of Nature, not above or extrinsic to her. Since we are an essential element of Nature, we cannot pretend that we can 'tame' her or abuse or manipulate her to do our bidding. We recognize that there are eternal laws of Nature made by the Creator, in the Azanian context, Nkulunkulu in the Zulu tradition, uOamata in the Xhosa tradition, or Modimo in the Sotho-Tswana tradition. Indigenous educators and those who subscribe to the principles of indigenous philosophies, ought not to be intimidated and fearful of incorporating their sense of indigenous spirituality into the academic world, since one of the principal problems that many Western European academies and academics face is their alienation from Nature and from themselves because they uncritically assume that being academically rational precludes the spiritual. They thus enforce a spiritless culture within the academy. The reason for this personal and social disequilibrium in Western education is the dichotomization of the body and the spirit, the dualism of the mind and the heart. This foolishness developed from the era of ancient Platonic dualism and assumed institutionalized form with the onset of the Western European Enlightenment, which deified the Western individual intellect to the denial of the transcendental and metaphysical. It degenerated into the movements of positivism and objectivism in Western thought, as developed by August Compte. Now we have the absurd notion permeating the corridors of the academy in various parts of the world, including Africa, that scholars can be totally 'objective' in their quest for knowledge and the pursuit of the mysteries of the universe and human cultures. Theories of indigenous education need to strenuously object to these falsified and distorted dualisms and objectifications that couch themselves in the garb of 'Western science'. As Vine Deloria (1995:17-18), the prolific indigenous native scholar from North America, incisively states: In our society we have been trained to believe that scientists search for, examine and articulate truths about the natural world and about ourselves. They don't. But they do search for, take captive, and protect the social and economic status of scientists. As many lies are told to protect scientific doctrine as were ever told to protect 'the church'. This condition might have corrected itself had not Western science given status to the winter ramblings of Rene Descartes, who mistakenly concluded that mind and matter were independent things, the Cartesian bifurcation of nature was the more fatal [than the Inquisition — my

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10 addition] because it encouraged successive generations of scientists to treat an obviously living universe as if it were an inert object.

Indigenous revolutionary theories of education need to be moored in principles which emphasize the complementary character of the spheres of the physical and the spiritual, the mental and the metaphysical, the male and the female. Western European philosophy has disembodied the intellectual, presupposing that the intellectual is devoid of spiritual and soulful consciousness and connection. Ironically, while the West is obsessed with the preservation of the written word, and the letter of the law', it has failed to understand the potency of words, as indigenous people do. For the native peoples of North America, the verbal word of European colonizers was presumed to be authentic and authoritative, since their traditions depended on the sacralization of the spoken word. Alas, the white man's verbal word was as bad as his 600 written treaties with indigenous nations: all were broken.22 Among the Dogon of Mali, the 'word' wields so much of power that it affects procreation. Bad words can undermine a woman's ability to procreate. In the words of the historic Dogon sage, Ogotemmeli (Griaule 1970:142): Bad words smell. They effect a man's potency. They pass from the nose to the throat and liver, and from the liver to the sexual organ.

Among the Dogon, speaking loudly or whistling at night is proscribed because it is seen as ill-omened, capable of disrupting the force of women by entering their wombs illicitly. Patently, there was and is profound respect for the power of women among indigenous African cultures such as the Dogon. One of the tragedies of colonialism was its devastating erosion and erasure of the decisive roles of women in African societies, particularly in areas of religion and culture. In post-apartheid Azania, the emphasis on the primacy of women's roles as cultural carriers and tradition-bearers needs to be reclaimed and reappropriated into the educational curriculum. The Western European colonial projections of women as 'weak' and frail creatures, inferior to men in the dualistic schemat of humankind conceived by Victorian and other European cultural forms need to be eviscerated from the educational landscape. It is imperative that indigenous narratives from the spectrum of African traditions be employed in a didactic capacity, to underscore the resilience of women and their connectedness to Mother Earth, for instance. The Xhosa folk tale, Nomabhadi and the Mbulu Makhasana, for example, describes the central role of the ntsomi in informing everyday praxis in society.23 The ntsomi signifies the instructive role that imaginary stories phy in teaching us about variegated life truths. We have been indoctrinated with the specious view that indigenous folk tales are irrelevant and are demonstrations of regressive superstition. Every cultural tradition is characterized by mythological stories and constructs from which valuable lessons are learned; what colonialism has done is to import European stories such as Hansel and Gretel, Cinderella, and 166

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10 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, to enforce Eurocentric culture and cosmologies on African people, just as European religion foisted European 'saints' and repudiated indigenous African ancestors. Besides affirming the centrality of 'whiteness' as being synonymous with 'purity' in fables like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, such stories negate blackness and disparage indigenous traditions. One of the axiological tasks of the educator in post-apartheid Azania is to reexamine and reappropriate such indigenous narratives and mythologies and utilize them in a socially constructive manner — that is, making them directly relevant to the world-views and existential experiences of African people. The brainwashing of Eurocentric culture on Africans in Azania needs to be forcefully arrested by all critically conscious African educators. In a previous work, Models of Black Theology: Issues in Class, Culture and Gender, I have demonstrated how indigenous folk tales, such as that of Nomabhadi and the Mbulu Makhasana, can be instructive in informing the ability of theologians to engage in rigorous and creative social analysis of structures of society (Kunnie 1994). In that work, I focused on the centrality of the figure, Nomabhadi, an indigenous woman whose life begins in family tragedy and desolation, and who falls prey to the evil Mbulu, but yet whose spiritual resilience urges her to resist and transform a condition of subjugation, oppression and destruction into a condition of empowerment for indigenous people, particularly women. The Mbulu is a metaphor for the tenacious evils of colonialism, capitalism and sexism, yet is overcome by the actions of the persevering woman, symbolized by Nomabhadi, who always acts in concert with active members of her community. Injustice will always be defeated so long as the forces of justice are united against injustice, this wonderful tale informs us. In other tales such as that of A Girl is Cast off by Her Family, the fragile interrelationship of the ecology is demonstrated with the waterspirits demanding justice from a family that mistreats and persecutes the youngest daughter.24 Educational curricula in Azanian elementary and secondary schools need to incorporate such instructive cultural instruments as folk tales and use them for revolutionary transformation of the psychic make-up and social landscape of Azania's ravaged colonized culture and existence. Similarly, as Malidoma Some judiciously and illustratively informs us in his classic work, Of Water and the Spirit: Ritual, Magic, and Initiation in the Life of an African Shaman, the role of the ancestors must continue to play a decisive role in the transmission of knowledge within African educational settings.25 The role of dreams and visions, communication by the ancestors in such mystical forms, cannot be discarded within the halls of Azanian education. Just as the elders are seen as custodians of wisdom by indigenous peoples around the world, so too Azanian elders need to be given opportunities to speak in classroom settings on ancestral wisdom and ways of knowledge. Azanian education needs to undergo a revolutionary transformation to undo the three and a half centuries of Eurocentric colonial indoctrination, and all theories of transformative education must seek such radical avenues. Why is it that teachers solely trained in Western educational theories and © Juta & Co Ltd

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10 systems are perceived as the sources of knowledge? Are there no roles for indigenous soothsayers, storytellers and healers (izangoma) in the Azanian school system? Revolutionary alternatives rooted in indigenous theories of knowledge and education must be employed to subvert the status quo of educational neocolonialism that continues to propagate the same old Western theories of education and knowledge. Why is it so abnormal to invite indigenous elders from the community to discuss issues of medical science such as herbal medicine or indigenous philosophical understandings of mental dysfunction and social conflict? Such steps imply a revolutionization of the educational bureaucracies and tradition of educating children in Azania. In this sense too the traditional books that emanate from European writers in North America and Europe need to be very discreetly and selectively employed, to pave the way for the use of works by indigenous authors and educators who view the world as a circular, interconnected universe — as do all indigenous peoples — as opposed to disparate, compartmentalized spheres as so many Western authors and academics do. Cabral accentuated in his philosophy of African liberation that all educational transformative theories need to have the people's culture as the epistemological point of departure. It is by starting with the people's culture, and affirming their rootedness in their culture, that the broader world is encountered and understood, not vice versa. Among the indigenous people of Australia, Edward Koiki Mabo, the late well-known Aboriginal freedom leader from the Piadram community of Murray Island, and founder of the Black Community School, argued for the role of parents in the educational process, a fundamental practice of indigenous societies. He emphasized that indigenous education involves parents centrally in children's education so that children are schooled in knowledge of their indigenous heritage and history prior to encountering broader societal and global cultures. Mabo (in Loos & Mabo 1996:56) contended in his critique of state schools in Australia: We're taking away the responsibility of the parents and giving it to some alien body [the colonial state] education is a parent's responsibility. It should not be manipulated by a foreign body. In the case of minority groups such as ourselves, we're being forced to accept alien culture. The family units are themselves first. For instance, I myself am a Piadram first and secondly I am a Murray Islander and then a Torres Strait Islander and then an Australian afterwards. Therefore, I need to strengthen my kids with their own heritage before they could accept the overall society values.

In the Azanian context, this indigenous practice of having parents viscerally involved in the education of children must return, so that children are grounded in their individual indigenous traditions and, in so doing, engage the broader universe of knowledge. Azanians suffer from the legacy of a Eurocentric colonial capitalist system that continues to propagate itself into the post-apartheid era. Often educators lament

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10 the fact that the rural indigenous population does not have access to the Western European epistemological base, proposing as a corrective that the rural peasantry be gradually schooled into the Eurocentric educational system so that the women, men and youth in this sector can experience upward socioeconomic mobility. In the same vein, we generally accept the dominant role of men as normative for this process of transformation, just as we see monetary rewards as the incentive of all educational and material development: both distortions are endemic to capitalist philosophy. Within this distorted paradigmatic framework, the Westernized indigenous educator is the primary custodian of academic knowledge whose mission it is to impart his/her knowledge to the Ignorant' rural masses. If Cabral were assessing our situation today, he would insist that we have it all wrong. The object would not be for the rural indigenous population to fit into the Western schemat of things, but rather that the Westernized educational elite become immersed in the vagaries of indigenous rural culture, and thus become reculturalized through a process of dialectical self-criticism. Both the Westernized indigenous educator and the rural indigenous educator become involved in a mutual struggle to reshape contemporary indigenous culture and reconstruct society so that it is 'cut and cast to fit the historic requirements of the stuggle' (Serequeberhan 1994:109). Elements of indigenous culture that are hostile to the advancement of the liberation struggle against colonialism, capitalism and patriarchy must be extirpated. One of the axiological points that Cabral makes is that the struggle for liberation must begin with the rural masses as the point of departure, as opposed to some abstract theory such as Marxism or Leninism or any European philosophical system, since such theories of change were tailored for specific European historical conditions. The women and men, youth and children of Africa are generally found in the rural communities of the continent. The process of educational transformation must begin where the indigenous rural people are, be rooted in their language and cultural matrix. This by no means implies that the urban workers are disregarded within philosophies of transformation. Rather, it suggests that an 'epistemological balance' be struck between the rural peasantry and the urban masses, where the experiences of the rural population are valorized, as opposed to the present situation of 'post-apartheid' Azania, where such experiences are viewed as incidental and marginal in sociocultural definitions of the future. In the areas of language and language policy, for instance, English is heralded as the lingua franca of education because we are all told that we need to be global in our thinking and communication. Ironically though, educational proponents of such a policy overlook the fact that indigenous African languages have been disparaged and indigenous cultures have been ravaged for three and a half centuries under colonialism and capitalism. Indigenous rural people are expected to assimilate a Eurocentric reality and negate the value of their languages and ©Juta&CoLtd

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10 cultures. Further, communication is a one-sided movement with the urban Westernized elite doing all of the talking and rural folk doing all of the listening when it comes to developing educational curricula. In this regard, Paulo Freire (Freire & Faundez 1989:78) persuasively argues that education during this transitional period should be rediscovered, revolutionized, instead of simply being reformed now, in the transitional period, the popular classes in power not only must be listened to as they demand education for their sons and daughters, but they must also participate actively alongside professional educators in the reconstruction of education.

The 'sagacity tradition' of indigenous philosophy needs to be employed at all levels of the educational curricula and system to eradicate the diabolical effects of the Eurocentric colonialist-capitalist system in Azania. Indigenous African sagacity, for instance, views ancestral lands as sacred and women as the respectful carriers of tradition.26 The principle of living in harmony with the complex natural world, that of animals, plants and the ecology, is enshrined within this indigenous 'sagacity tradition'.27 The ethic of collective responsibility and egalitarian distribution of resources is foundational to rural societies in Azania, even though the capitalist system continues to undermine this historical observance.28 All of these 'sagacity' elements need to become a part of the educational curricula at all schools, where the positive qualities of indigenous cultures and cosmologies can be taught and learned, and thereby contribute towards advancing the liberation struggle against the edifice of Eurocentric capitalism. Ultimately, these 'sagacity' values need to be incorporated into the unfolding modernity of Azanian society, with the objective of de-Westernizing, de-Europeanizing and decapitalizing the nation. The revalorization of indigenous philosophies and their insertion into the socioeducational fabric of post-apartheid society must function to decolonize Azania so that Azania becomes re-Africanized, yet in a critical manner that accords justice and socioeconomic equality for the vast working class majority, particularly those in the rural areas of the country. PRAXIOLOGICAL STEPS TOWARDS REALIZING INDIGENOUS REVOLUTIONARY EDUCATION IN AZANIA In view of the aforedescribed socioeconomic analysis and assertion of indigenous philosophical paradigms, the following measures need to be urgently adopted in post-apartheid Azania, as concrete and practical steps towards attaining a revolutionized and decolonized educational system. A radically new policy needs to be instituted where education is free and compulsory for all children from preschool through university, through the radical reorganization of the national budget so that the largest chunk goes 170

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10 towards rural education for the development of new schools, the acquisition of adequate reading and writing materials, substantial refunding of historically black colleges, universities and technikons, and the decent compensation of teachers and other rural educators for work performed. A reorientation away from the existing focus on urban Western European capitalism to one principally directed towards indigenous rural African socioeconomic and cultural systems that are socialistically and working-class inclined, needs to become established at all societal levels. A revamping of the curriculum at all levels of preschool, elementary, secondary and tertiary education needs to occur, with the writing of new materials and use of new books that are geared towards embracing the indigenous African condition and eschewing the current Eurocentric curriculum, particularly in key disciplinary areas such as history, cultural studies, economics, social science and geography. Educational and curricular materials in Azania's major indigenous languages such as Zulu, Xhosa, Sotho, Venda, Pedi and Shangaan and the institutionalization of multilingual schools where all students will be required to acquire written and oral proficiency in at least one major indigenous African language, in addition to one's mother tongue, needs to be introduced.29 A concerted effort to train teachers to function in rural African environments must get underway, utilizing indigenous methods of communication and cultural cosmologies in curricular development with deployment of material incentives to reorient those interested in teaching to function in rural communities. New General Education courses at all levels of schooling that teach conscientization of the value of indigenous cultures and explain the machinations of capitalist economics, need to be introduced so that students come to understand from a tender age the evils of Eurocentrism, capitalism, elitism and sexism, and are conscientized to culturally repudiate these anomalies. The institutionalization of literacy programmes for all rural and urban workers of all ages must be advanced, funded by the state, through programmes such as night school, education by extension, development of rural libraries, newspapers, television and radio programmes, and braille materials, with particular attention to disadvantaged groups, such as women, low-income youth, those with disabilities, and those who have experienced sociopsychological trauma as a result of being imprisoned or tortured in apartheid's prisons. The funding for this programme ought to come from the diverting of the absurd repayment of prior apartheid debts to international banking agencies like the World Bank, the IMF and other Western banking institutions. Short of these measures, Azania will continue to hang in suspended animation as 'an island of Europe' in Africa, where European capitalists and their elitist allies © Juta & Co Ltd

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10 will continue to plunder the resources and dehumanize the indigenous people, as apartheid-capitalism has so tragically demonstrated in its operation of the past two centuries (Biko 1996:145). CONCLUSION Post-apartheid Azania is at a crossroads as far as educational and social transformation is concerned. It is imperative that all persons committed to the empowerment of the oppressed and dispossessed through education, especially formal educators and educational policy-makers, realize the need for the adoption and praxis of a qualitatively different socioeducational system. This new system must make a decisive and epistemological break with the colonial past and capitalist present and relocate us into a revolutionized, re-Africanized and socialist future. The new millennium can be Africa's millennium, and Azania can be an integral shaper of this new continental era in the world, depending on the philosophical path she as a nation pursues.

Endnotes 1 The term Azania is derived from the term Zanj, used to signify the indigenous reference to this portion of southern Africa by Afro-Asiatic traders in the region in the fourteenth century. Azania is used as the name for a liberated South Africa adopted by the Pan-African and Black Consciousness movements. John Jackson provides an illumination of the historical basis of the Zanj in East Africa in his Introduction to African Civilizations (1970:272-274), which described 'black people beyond Ethiopia'. Hence the terms 'Zanzibar' and 'Tanzania'. 2 See, for instance, Helen van Ryneveld van der Horst's article, 'Differentiated instruction and the multicultural classroom' in Educare, 22(1) & (2), 1993, where she devotes an entire section to 'fundamental dimensions of a non-Western versus a Western worldview', yet makes no reference either to Africa or African thought systems or to African scholars in this discussion. Ironically, reference is made to research on Mexican American culture, while overlooking indigenous African culture and experience which surrounds this educator's educational environment. Most white educators and educational researchers in South Africa clearly display a Eurocentric epistemological dependence even though they discuss South African education as reflected in their writings and research articles. 3 Marimba Ani has an excellent chapter in her book Yurugu (1994) entitled 'Progress as Ideology', in which she expatiates on the theme of European colonialism and imperialism in the ideology of 'progress' to justify the extermination and subjugation of indigenous peoples.

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10 4 One author, Patrick McAllister, has written an article entitled 'Australian multiculturalism: Lessons for South Africa?', which was published in Indicator South Africa, 13(2), Autumn, 1996. It is incredible to see that many white researchers will consider a racist-colonialist defined society like Australia where settler-colonial Europeans have attempted to erase the indigenous Aboriginal people through policies that can only be described as systematic genocide, as areas from which to lean, as opposed to exploring the fact that Africa in fact possesses the most culturally heterogeneous societies in the world from which many diversity lessons could be gleaned. 5 The poignant account of Malegupuru Makgoba's ouster from the Deputy Vice Chancellor position at the University Of the Witwatersrand by dint of resentment from many white administrators and academics is recounted in Mokoko: The Makgoba Affair, Vivlia Publishers, Johannesburg, 1997. 6 New research unearthed recently in Egypt verifies the contention that the first form of formal writing was evident in Egypt about 3000 BC, and not in Mesopotamia, as previously believed by archaeologists. See USA Today, 31 January 1999. 7 The numerous works of these brilliant scholars need to be studied by all teachers of education, not just students of African and world history. Works such as Cheikh Anta Diop's African Civilization: Myth or Reality? (1974) and Civilization or Barbarism? (1991); John Jackson's Introduction to African Civilizations (1979); WEB du Bois' The World and Africa (1965); Theophile Obenga's African Philosophy: A Lost Tradition (self-published) and Martin Bernal's Black Athena Vol. landII (1987), ought to be mandatory reading for all Azanian teachers as part of the preparation for teaching black children — indeed all children — Africa's authentic history. Constance Hilliard's work, Intellectual Traditions of Pre-Colonial Africa (1998), is another elucidating work in this area, highlighting the African roots of GraecoRoman knowledge, particularly in the sciences, and demonstrating that Africa had a plethora of philosophical and scientific traditions prior to European colonialism with figures like Iba Batuta from the fourteenth century who wrote treatises on logic, mathematics, physics and arithmetic, among several works, to those of the sagacity traditions of the Kamba of East Africa, of the Shona of Zimbabwe, and the Khoisan and Nguni nations of Azania. 8 See, for instance, Tsehloane Keto's article 'Pre-industrial educational policies and practices in South Africa' (1990) in Pedagogy of Domination: Toward a Democratic Education in South Africa, edited by Mokubung Nkomo. 9 The author's MA thesis, Black Theology and Revolutionary Praxis in South Africa (Azania), at the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California, 1984, delves extensively into this theme of missionary culpability in the colonial enterprise. 10 Mandla Ncwabe's Post-Apartheid Education in the New South Africa (1993), particularly page 5, elaborates on how educational issues have come to the fore in

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10 political struggles against apartheid rule, since black students were highly cognizant of the way in which apartheid indoctrinated subservience among black people. 11 Financial Mail 140(10), 30 May 1996. 12 Indicator South Africa, 11(3), Winter 1994. 13 Sowetan, 31 December 1998. 14 Higher Education Review, 16 June 1996. Cited by Meshack Khosa, 'Leaders or followers: Transforming South African Universities', Indicator South Africa, 13(4), Spring 1996. 15 The article 'South Africa's black universities struggle to survive in a new era' in the Chronicle of Higher Education, 12 March 1999, provides concrete details of serious problems being encountered in black higher education in Azania. 16 This point is discussed in JK Kigongo's 'Ethical values in African traditional education' in Journal of African Religion and Philosophy, 2(1), 1991, 49. See also the author's book Is Apartheid Really Dead? Pan Africanist Working Class Cultural Critical Perspectives (1999), for a detailed explication of the compromised settlement and a substantiation of the neocolonialism thesis, and the way in which revolutionary transformation of the post-apartheid dispensation could materialize. 17 The work Return to the Source: Selected Speeches by Amilcar Cabral (1973), is a classic text in liberation theory and philosophy. 18 See, for instance, his work African Philosophy (1987) for an extended treatment of his rejection of 'ethnic African philosophy' because of the romanticized and reified reversion to 'African' philosophy by European thinkers which dehistoricized African cultures and societies, functioning in a similar manner to the Negritude proposed by Leopold Senghor. For an incisive critique of the latter, see Wole Soyinka's work Myth, Literature and the African World (1976), 126-139. 19 See, for instance, Henry Oruka's article 'Sagacity in African Philosophy' in African Philosophy: The Essential Readings (1991), 49. 20 Robin Horton is one European scholar who attempts to reject the reified notion of 'ethnic African philosophy' and argues for a historicized parallelism between European scientific thought and indigenized African philosophical and cosmological dispositions, although he neglects to consider the underlying historical anomaly of European colonial imperialism in Africa and the world which prevents any form of philosophical mutuality between European science and indigenous scientific approaches. See, for instance, his article 'African traditional thought and Western science' in African Philosophy: Selected Readings, edited by Albert Mosley (1995), 328.

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10 21 Cabral's other noted works such as Revolution in Guinea (1972) and Unity and Struggle (1979) are equally didactic texts on philosophical theory, culture and revolutionary transformation in Africa. 22 See Suzan Shown Harjo's article 'The American Indian experience' in Family Ethnicity, edited by Hariett Pipes McAdoo (1999), 64, for an illumination of the history of duplicity of the United States government in its relations with the native peoples of the country. 23 The story of Nomabhadi and the Mbulu Makhasana appears in Tales From Southern A/rfcfl by AC Jordan (1973), 155-179. 24 This story is narrated in Richard Dorson's edited collection, Folktales Told Around the World (1975), 389-400. 25 Malidoma Some's classic text, published by Arkana/Penguin, New York, 1995, demonstrates the traumatic experiences if indigenous African children at the hands of European missionary education and the amazing power and resourcefulness of indigenous knowledge and wisdom in establishing connectedness and harmony with the complex spirit world. 26 Ifi Amadiume furnishes a trenchant critique of Western patriarchies and argues that West African societies, such as the Igbo tradition, possess matriarchal structures that demonstrate the power and influence of women in shaping society in Reinventing Africa: Matriarchy, Religion, and Culture (1997). This kind of critical rediscovery needs to be done in southern Africa, examining precolonial structures and gender roles. 27 Marimba Ani's Yurugu (1994) provides an excellent delineation of the ethics of harmonious coexistence between human beings and the rest of nature among indigenous cultures. The weakness of the text is its overlooking of structures of social inequality and conflict that one finds in all societies, including indigenous ones. 28 The principle of egalitarianism in indigenous societies is noted in Kwame Nkrumah's Consciencism (1970), even though social structures were and are still characterized by levels of inequality, typical of all societies. 29 Zandile Nkabinde discusses this issue and other elements of educational needs and changes called for in An Analysis of Educational Challenges in the New South Africa (1997), especially in Chapter 5.

References Amadiume, Ifi. 1997. Reinventing Africa: Matriarchy, Religion, and Culture. London: Zed Press. Ani, Marimba. 1994. Yurugu. Trenton: Africa World Press.

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10 Bernal, Martin. 1987. Black Athena, Vol. I & II. New York: Rutgers University Press. Biko, Steve. 1996.1 Write What I Like. London: Bowerdean Publishing. Cabral, Amilcar. 1970. National Liberation and Culture. Eduardo Mondlane Lecture, Syracuse University, 20 February 1970. Cabral, Amilcar. 1972. Revolution in Guinea. New York: Monthly Review Press. Cabral, Amilcar. 1973. Return to the Source: Selected Speeches. New York: Monthly Review Press. Cabral, Amilcar. 1979. Unity and Struggle. New York: Monthly Review Press. Deloria, Vine. 1995. Red Earth, White Lies: Native Americans and the Myth of Scientific Fact. New York: Scribner. Diop, Cheikh Anta. 1974. African Civilization: Myth or Reality P Chicago: Lawrence Hill. Diop, Cheikh Anta. 1991. Civilisation or Barbarism? Chicago: Lawrence Hill. Dorson, Richard (ed). 1975. Folktales Told around the World. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press. Du Bois, WEB. 1965. The World and Africa. New York: International Publishers. Enslin, Penny. 1984. The role of fundamental pedagogies in the formulation of educational policy in South Africa. In Kallaway, Peter (ed). Apartheid and Education: The Education of Black South Africans, 140-141. Johannesburg: Ravan Press. Financial Mail 140(10), 30 May 1996. Freire, Paulo & Faundez, Antonio. 1989. Learning to Question: A Pedagogy of Liberation. New York: Continuum. Griaule, Marcel. 1970. Conversations with Ogotemmeli: An Introduction to Dogon Religious Ideas. New York and London: Oxford University Press. Harjo, Suzan Shown. 1999. The American Indian experience. In Pipes McAdoo, Harriet (ed). Family Ethnicity. Thousand Oaks: Sage Press. Hilliard, Constance. 1998. Intellectual Traditions of Pre-Colonial Africa. Boston: McGraw-Hill. Horton, Robin. 1995. African traditional thought and Western science. In Mosley, Albert (ed). African Philosophy: Selected Readings. Engelwood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall. Hountondji, Paulin. 1987. African Philosophy. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Indicator South Africa, 11(3), Winter 1994. Jackson, John. 1970. Introduction to African Civilizations. New York: Citadel Press.

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10 Jordan, AC. 1973. Tales from Southern Africa. Los Angeles and Berkeley: University of California. Keto, Tsehloane. 1990. Pre-industrial educational policies and practices in South Africa. In Nkomo, Mokubung (ed). Pedagogy of Domination: Toward a Democratic Education in South Africa. Trenton: Africa World Press. Khosa, Meshack. 1996. Leaders or followers: Transforming South African Universities. Indicator South Africa, 13(4), Spring. Kigongo, JK. 1991. Ethical values in African traditional education. Journal of African Religion and Philosophy, 2(1). Ki-Zerbo, Joseph. 1991. Educate or Perish. Abidjan: Unicef; Dakar: Unesco's Regional Office for Education in Africa. Kunnie, Julian. 1984. Black Theology and Revolutionary Praxis in South Africa (Azania). MA thesis, Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley, California. Kunnie, Julian. 1994. Models of Black Theology: Issues in Class, Culture and Gender. Valley Forge: Trinity Press International. Kunnie, Julian. 1999. Is Apartheid Really Dead? Pan Africanist Working Class Cultural Critical Perspectives. Boulder: Westview Press. Lodge, Tom. 1994. The final transition. Indicator South Africa, (11)3, Winter. Loos, Noel & Mabo, Koiki. 1996. Edward Koiki Mabo: His Life and Struggle for Land Rights. Queensland: University of Queensland Press. Marah, John. 1989. Pan African Education: The Last Stage of Educational Developments in Africa. Lewiston: Edwin Mellen. Mboya, Mzobanzi. 1993. Beyond Apartheid: The Question of Education for Liberation. Esquire Press. McAllister, Patrick. 1996. Australian multiculturalism: Lessons for South Africa? Indicator South Africa, 13(2), Autumn. Ncwabe, Mandla. 1993. Post-Apartheid Education in the New South Africa. Lanham: University Press of America. Nkabinde, Zandile. 1997. An Analysis of Educational Challenges in the New South Africa. Lanham: University Press of America. Nkrumah, Kwame. 1970. Consciencism. New York: Monthly Review Press. Obenga, Theophile. 1978. African Philosophy: A Lost Tradition. (Self-published.) Oruka, Henry. 1991. Sagacity in African Philosophy. In African Philosophy: The Essential Readings. New York: Paragon House.

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10 Serequeberhan, Tsenay. 1994. The Hermeneutics of African Philosophy: Horizon and Discourse. New York: Routledge. Some, Malidoma. 1995. Of Water and the Spirit: Ritual, Magic, and Initiation in the Life of an African Shaman. New York: Arkana/Penguin. Stack, Louise & Morton, Don. 1976. From Torment to Triumph. New York: Friendship Press. Sowetan, 31 December 1998. Soyinka, Wole. 1976. Myth, Literature and the African World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Van Ryneveld van der Horst, Helen. 1993. Differentiated instruction and the multicultural classroom. Educare, 22(1) & (2).

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11 African Philosophy and Educational Discourse Moeketsi Letseka

INTRODUCTION The debate over whether African philosophy does or does not exist has led to the publication of a wide range of intellectually stimulating and useful works: Tempels (1959); Mbiti (1970); Ruch (1974); Horton (1977); Wiredu (1980, 1996), Hountondji (1983); Maurier (1984); Wright (1984); Floistat (1987); Gyekye (1987, 1997); Mudimbe (1988, 1994); Appiah (1992); Shutte (1993); Sogolo (1993); Beyaraza (1994); Masolo (1994); English & Kalumba (1996); Rauche (1996). This chapter therefore does not belabour the issues raised in these works. Instead it acknowledges that all people1 have a philosophy that guides the way they live, their perceptions of otherness, and the decisions and choices they make about every aspect of their lives. It argues that such a philosophy often stands out among other philosophies as a distinct set of beliefs and values with which such a people identify. On the basis of this assumption, the chapter argues that all people philosophize. The second section of this chapter discusses the notion that all people philosophize in so far as they pose fundamental questions and reflect on fundamental aspects of life, human conduct and human relations. The third section sketches communality in traditional African life to which African philosophy should provide a conceptual response. It argues that African philosophy should speculate about and provide a conceptual interpretation and analysis of human problems and human experience in the African context. The notion of botho or ubuntu (humanism) is identified as pervasive and fundamental to African socioethical thought, as illuminating the communal rootedness and interdependence of persons, and highlighting the importance of human relationships. Thereafter botho or ubuntu is identified as an important measure of human wellbeing or human flourishing in traditional African life. Botho or ubuntu is treated as normative in that it encapsulates moral norms and © Juta & Co Ltd

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11 virtues such as kindness, generosity, compassion, benevolence, courtesy, and respect and concern for others. The final section of this chapter suggests that educating for botho or ubuntu, for interpersonal and cooperative skills, and for human wellbeing or human flourishing, ought to be major concerns of an African philosophy of education. WHAT IS MEANT BY PHILOSOPHIZING? I shall use philosophizing in the context of this chapter to refer to engaging in an abstract activity. Wittgenstein (1961:112) confirms this: 'Philosophy is not a body of doctrine but an activity/ Ryle (1966:9) concurs: 'Philosophy is not adherence to a tenet or membership of a church or party. It is an exploration/ The form and nature of this activity or explanation are clearly articulated by Straughan and Wilson (1985:2). They write: 'Philosophizing involves getting clear about the meanings and uses of words, about the concepts that lie behind words, and about relevant types of reasons and arguments, so that serious issues may be discussed sensibly/ Philosophizing is therefore a conceptual activity. All people philosophize in so far as they pose fundamental questions and reflect on fundamental aspects of how to live the good life, on the nature of human conduct and on the complexities of human relationships and experience. Thus, according to Gyekye (1987:39), 'Philosophy is a conceptual response to basic human problems at different epochs/ He elaborates on this view in his recent book: 'Philosophy speculates about the whole range of human experience: it provides conceptual interpretation and analysis of that experience ... not only by responding to the basic issues and problems generated by that experience but also by suggesting new or alternative ways of thought and action' (Gyekye 1997:24). From this brief analysis it is clear that philosophy is a rational and reflective discipline, where reflection becomes reason (Maurier 1984:2). In traditional African life philosophizing might entail an interrogation of the notion of botho (Sotho) or ubuntu (Nguni), which articulates the importance of humanness and altruism. These are characteristic features of most traditional African communal settings. And while I acknowledge the dangers of making generalizations about the nature of human conduct, it seems to me that it ought to entail living one's life in such a way that one does not unfairly impede others from living their own lives the way they choose. I realize that mention of fairness is certain to raise eyebrows — fairness is such a porous notion about which it is difficult for individuals to agree. While I partly understand this position, I would agree that generally everyone has an idea of what it means to be fair, in so far as fairness is understood to refer to treating others in the way one would like to be treated oneself in similar circumstances. Most people will agree that unfair treatment is unpleasant, it necessarily results in tension, stress and unhappiness, and is inconsistent with sound and happy human relationships and experiences. 180

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11 This is more like Kant's categorical imperative (1991:67), which requires us always to act in such a way that we can also will that our maxim should become universal law. According to this maxim, one can expect to be treated with fairness because one is in the habit of treating others with fairness. I should, however, indicate that Kant's ethics were opposed to any connection between morality or moral conduct and human interests. Instead he linked morality to human reason. He writes: A rational being belongs to the kingdom of ends as a member, when, although he makes its universal laws, he is also himself subject to these laws' (1991:95), and later: 'The practical necessity of acting on this principle — that is, duty — is in no way based on feelings, impulses, and inclinations, but only on the rational beings to one another, a relation in which the will of a rational being must always be regarded as making universal law (1991:96). CENTRAL ASSUMPTIONS OF AFRICAN PHILOSOPHY What, then, has African philosophy to say about the purpose of life, the nature of human conduct, and the complexities of human relationships and experience? In trying to answer this question I shall briefly explore aspects of communality in traditional African life and how these impact on most African people's conceptions of the good life and desirable human conduct. I shall also explore the extent to which these shape, in the last instance, human relationships and experiences. The importance of communality to traditional African life cannot be overemphasized. This is because community and belonging to a community of people constitute the very fabric of traditional African life. Consider, for instance, most Western liberal philosophies that conceive the individual in abstract terms — in isolation from specific social, political, historical and cultural circumstances. There is an underlying assumption that individuals 'have equal natural rights which are prior to any social organization and which take moral priority over any collective good or group' (Ramsay 1997:7). Most champions of Western liberal philosophies have extensively argued this. Mill (1991:14), for instance, writes: 'The only part of the conduct of any one, for which he is emenable to society, is that which concerns others. In the part which merely concerns himself, his independence is, of right, absolute. Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is supreme.' Locke (1993:116) also argues: 'We must consider which state all men are naturally in, and that is, a state of perfect freedom to order their actions, and dispose of their possessions, and persons as they think fit, within the bounds of the law of nature, without asking leave, or depending upon the will of any other man.' But such arguments cast the individual as some sort of entity that is capable of existing and flourishing on its own, unconnected to any community of other individuals, not bound by any biological relationships or socioeconomic, political and cultural relationships, obligations, duties, responsibilities and conventions that frame and define any community of individuals. Freedom is an ideal, but there ©Juta&CoLtd

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11 cannot be perfect, as it were, absolute freedom in a community of persons. The fundamental reality in life is that persons are biological, have social, political, economic and cultural relations, obligations and responsibilities that govern their respective societies and, invariably, frame the extent to which they are free. Contrast this with the communal conception of the individual in most traditional African settings. Mbiti (1970:108) neatly highlights this: 'Whatever happens to the individual happens to the whole group, and whatever happens to the whole group happens to the individual. The individual can only say: "I am, because we are; and since we are, therefore I am."' This, Mbiti argues, Is a cardinal point in the understanding of the African view of man' (1970:109). Commenting on traditional life in Kenya, Kenyatta (1965:297) echoes similar views: According to Gikuyu ways of thinking, nobody is an isolated individual. Or rather, his uniqueness is a secondary fact about him; first and foremost he is several people's relative and several people's contemporary.' Menkiti (1979:158) concurs: A crucial distinction thus exists between the African view of man and the view of man found in Western thought: in the African view it is the community which defines the person as a person, not some isolated static quality of rationality, will or memory.' One is a biological relative of a broad family;2 is linked to a broad network of other people through marriage; associates with others through community roles, duties, obligations and responsibilities, and is several other people's contemporary or neighbour. In traditional African life a person depends on others just as much as others depend on him/her. The task of African philosophy is therefore to speculate about the communality of the individual in the African setting. It should provide conceptual frameworks for interpreting and analysing the humanness that botho and ubuntu capture. It should provide rational tools for critical reflections on personal wellbeing or human flourishing, on communal ethics and how these ought to impact on human conduct. Botho or Ubuntu (Humanness)

Traditional Africa morality is known for its concern with human welfare, hence botho (Sotho) or ubuntu (Nguni), which means humanness. Gyekye (1997:158) contends that '[i]f one were to look for a pervasive and fundamental concept in African socioethical thought generally — a concept that animates other intellectual activities and forms of behaviour, including religious behaviour, and provides continuity, resilience, nourishment, and meaning to life — that concept would most probably be humanism.' Humanism is used here to refer to a philosophy that sees human needs, interests and dignity as of fundamental importance and concern. The expression: 'umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu' (Nguni) or 'motho ke motho ka batho' (Sotho) captures the underlying principles of interdepence and humanism in African life. It translates to 'a person depends on others just as much as others 182

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11 depend on him/her'. It illuminates the communal embeddedness and connectedness of a person to other persons. It also highlights the importance attached to people and to human relationships. As Sindane (1994:8-9) suggests: 'Ubuntu inspires us to expose ourselves to others, to encounter the difference of their humanness so as to inform and enrich our own/ To be human, Van der Merwe (1996:1) contends, 'is to affirm one's humanity by recognizing the humanity of others'. Gyekye (1997:258) draws on an Akan proverb: It is the human being that counts; I call upon gold, it answers not; I call upon cloth, it answers not; it is the human being that counts/ and argues that in Akan tradition the human being is of higher worth than gold or riches, and that it is he or she that counts or matters. However, I should point out that this does not imply that African socioethical life wholly rejects the importance of wealth or material riches in attaining the good life. On the contrary, individual effort is encouraged and valued. It is common to hear people in southern African Sotho communities reminding one another that '17 tlaphela ka mofufutso oaphatha ea hau\ which means "You shall live by the sweat of your brow'. Effort is acknowledged in so far as its goal is to generate resources for the maintenance and sustenance of human life. Persons, especially parents, are expected to adequately provide essential needs such as food, clothing, shelter, security and love for their children. Those who do so are acknowledged. But if someone becomes arrogant or disrespectful of others on account of being rich, Africans have ways of cautioning against this sort of behaviour. The Sotho expression 'monono ke moholi ke mmuoane warns that worldly riches are like mist, which evaporates when the sun rises and begins to heat our surroundings. The message is clear and simple: you might not be rich forever, but family and friends will always be there for you, through thick and thin. The importance of treating them with humility therefore cannot be overemphasized. The Sotho peoples also say 'moketa ho tsosoa o itsosang', meaning 'assistance will always be there for the weak who are, however, making an effort to help themselves'. It is important that one is seen to be making an effort to help oneself. While traditional African life encouraged an altruistic attitude — concern with the welfare of others — it was far from condoning idleness, laziness or total independence, or encouraging people to rest on their laurels and do nothing to improve their welfare and opportunities in life, secure in the knowledge that their family and the community at large would be there to take care of their individual problems. On the contrary, one had to be seen treating one's welfare and opportunities in life as priorities in order to get the attention of others and receive help. For instance, cooperative community farming (letsema in Southern Sotho) has for many years been a joint effort for families in subsistence economies. Four or more families would come together and agree on a duty roster that would allow them to cultivate each of their fields on agreed days to make them ready for the planting season. The affected family's obligation would only be to provide food for © Juta & Co Ltd

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11 the working teams. A letsema was therefore not only a cooperative community effort but also recognition of the fact that it would be difficult and slow for individual families to complete the cultivation on time if each were to go it alone. The maxim 'divided we fall, but united we stand' is most appropriate as a description of the fundamental principle underlying the letsema. The underlying concern of botho or ubuntu (humanness) with the welfare of others is, without a doubt, crucial. Here is a case in point: while it is likely, for example, that two English friends meeting in the streets of London or Brighton will talk about the weather, the same is not true of Africans. When two African friends or acquaintances meet in similar circumstances, it is likely that they will talk about the health and welfare of family members. They will want to know whether the children, in particular, are growing up well, are in good health, and are attending school. They will enquire about the condition of the sick, often the elderly. They will want to know how they are recovering. They will want to know whether the fields have been cultivated and whether the cattle are being well maintained. Of course, the latter are important as means of production. In traditional African life family relations and personal welfare receive priority. This analysis has sought to highlight traditional African life's concerns with personal wellbeing. It is to this that I now turn. Personal Wellbeing In the above section I explored a wide range of some of the practices that I consider characteristic features of traditional African life. This exploration covered issues such as the communal rootedness of the individual, the general humanness, the importance of individual effort and cooperative community projects. I suggested that these reflect a broader concern with personal wellbeing or human flourishing. But I did not elaborate on what actually constitutes personal wellbeing or how it can be judged. I now want to focus briefly on these issues. In two separate chapters focusing specifically on personal wellbeing, Raz (1988:289) argues that 'personal well-being captures one crucial evaluation of a person's life: how good or successful is it from his point of view?', while White (1990:28) relates wellbeing 'not merely to desire-satisfaction, but to the satisfaction of informed desires'. The importance of distinguishing between mere desire-satisfaction and informed desires cannot be overemphasized. On many occasions we have desires, the satisfaction of which might not benefit our overall health or personal wellbeing. White's example about the desire for smoking clearly illustrates this distinction. He writes (1990:29): 1 may have a desire to smoke, but satisfying this does not benefit me because it is not among my informed desires: knowing what I know about smoking, I would rather be without the desire.' Most of us are aware that smoking causes cancer and other cancer-related ailments and that non-smokers who are exposed to cigarette smoke on a daily basis — passive smokers — are equally affected. Air hostesses, 184

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11 bartenders and restaurant caterers fall into this category. White's central argument here is that persons can only attain personal wellbeing if their efforts to satisfy their desires are made from informed positions. Raz (1988:290) contends that all things being equal, a person is better off when well fed, in moderate temperature, with sufficient sensory stimulation, in good health, etc. However, he also points out that much will depend on the individual's other goals, on whether he or she wants to be friends with someone, or distance him- or herself from another, or to go camping in summer. These cannot be ignored since they are a person's goals, in a broad sense — projects, plans, relationships, ambitions, commitments, and the like. They play a large and conscious role in the individual's life in that they colour his or her perception of the environment and that of the world at large (Raz 1988:291). It seems that personal wellbeing is influenced by both biological and non-biological goals, and that its attainment will depend on the sort of informed choices persons make out of a wide range of options available to them. Our examination of traditional African life above certainly touched on some of the aspects of personal wellbeing alluded to here by White and Raz. For instance, these include decisions to enter into joint efforts to deal with tasks such as cultivating or other essential duties. These can be classified as efforts aimed at satisfying informed desires as well as at fulfilling the non-biological goals of cooperating and forming enduring friendships with others. It can certainly be argued that individuals who strive for and fully embrace the notion of botho or ubuntu as their goal are driven by a humanist concern for treating others with fairness. They are probably hoping that they in turn will also be treated with fairness, should they find themselves in similar circumstances. Fairness and humanness are, in my opinion, crucial to personal wellbeing. A fulfilled and flourishing life ought to be one in which persons are reasonably well fed, well clothed and housed, in good health, loved, secure, and able to make a conscious effort to treat others with fairness and humanness because they in turn are treated that way. I now want to briefly explore some ethical issues and how these frame human conduct in traditional African life. Ethical Issues and Human Conduct

It seems reasonable to argue that there is a strong connection between the issues discussed in the above sections and ethical issues and human conduct. I now want to focus attention on ethical concerns as an important aspect of botho or ubuntu (humanness). I shall start by debating what seems complicated but is essential for this debate — that is, while botho or ubuntu has been understood to mean humanness, it can also be used to draw the distinction between an individual and a person, given that the latter refers to a humane person. Let me clarify this: motho or ubuntu, from which linguistically botho or ubuntu is derived, can be used on a superficial level, to refer to a person or an individual. For instance, if one is asked to ©Juta&CoLtd

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11 identify a person to whom one had not paid close attention, to be able to give a clear picture one would give an answer such as: 'Ke bone motho fela a feta.' Here the respondent is simply pointing to the fact that he/she 'saw a person/individual pass by'. But when human conduct, captured in the botho or ubuntu (humanness) of a person, becomes an issue, a clear distinction between a person as an ethical person and as an ordinary individual becomes essential. Motho or umuntu moves to a higher level, where he/she is endowed with desirable moral norms and virtues such as kindness, generosity, compassion, benevolence, and respect and concern for others. Consider, for instance, the case of an offence on which everyone agrees that it is heinous and an affront to botho or ubuntu, such as repeatedly raping an eightyyear-old grandmother or a six-year-old girl. To express their displeasure community folk might utter statements like: 'He is not a person but a dog', 'Oh God, he is an animal', or 'He is sick'. A normal person endowed with botho or ubuntu cannot even contemplate rape. Therefore anyone who rapes becomes, as it were, depersonalized. This is because he lacks botho or ubuntu. It would be illogical for anyone with botho or ubuntu to respect and show concern for others and also have the inclination to rape. Rape is an affront to and is inconsistent with the above moral norms and virtues. Botho or ubuntu is therefore normative in that it prescribes desirable and accepted forms of human conduct in a particular community of people. We are batho or abantu (persons) because we live lives that are consistent with communally accepted and desirable ethical standards. Such standards demand us to possess, commit ourselves to, and value the moral norms and virtues listed above. The hypothetical rapist is nothing but a lunatic, a psychopath, and a danger to himself and to others. Let me close this brief exploration with some remarks on courtesy. I should state that no one is born courteous or with botho or ubuntu. These are acquired, for example, through a life in which one is surrounded by courteous people and interacts with them on a regular basis. I shall dwell in detail on ways in which courtesy can be promoted when I consider education for humanism below. Suffice it to say that courtesy can also be promoted by instruction. A courteous community can, for instance, encourage its youngsters and insist that they comply from a very early age with courteous attitudes, dispositions and behaviour. Youngsters might be taught and encouraged to greet others, especially their elders, to verbally express thanks whenever services and benefits are in their favour, not to 186

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11 be embarrassed to apologize when they are wrong, and to endeavour to be polite to others. Of course there will always be those who deviate from these norms and virtues. Traditional African life is known for exacting penalties for recalcitrant and deviant behaviour. Naturally this would be consistent with communally accepted standards of discipline, the most extreme being corporal punishment. It should, however, be mentioned that there are other forms of disciplining recalcitrant and deviant behaviour, such as deprivation of favours or temporary exile, where one would be sent to a distant uncle for a change of environment, to cool off and, hopefully, to receive alternative counselling. AFRICAN PHILOSOPHY ON EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSE What then can an African philosophy do for education in Africa? What educational frameworks would be most appropriate for an African context as outlined below? That is, what ought to be the purpose of education in an African context? These are some of the questions on which I intend to focus attention in this penultimate section of the chapter. During her inaugural lecture as Professor of Education at the University of the Witwatersrand, Penny Enslin (1993:3) outlined three ways in which education can be characterized: M as a concept formed from the normative point of view, that is, as a moral concept; • as internally complex in that it picks out a variety of activities such as teaching and learning; and • as having complex connections with a host of other concepts to which it is related, so that clarifying the concept of education involves the elaboration of the broader conceptual scheme within which it is implicated. I want to take my cue from Enslin's characterization of education above to briefly reflect on the role that African philosophy can begin to play in education in the African context. I should hasten to indicate that while I have throughout this chapter referred to the African context in general terms, it should not be misconstrued to suggest that I am treating the African context as a homogenous concept, for that would be a terrible oversimplification. Appiah (1997:47), for example, warns: Africa's forms of life are too diverse to capture in a single ideal type. The central cultural fact of Africa's life remains not the sameness of Africa's cultures, but their enormous diversity — religious diversity, political diversity, diversity of clothing and cuisine. Africa has the cultural diversity to satisfy the wildest multi-culturalist.' I fully acknowledge these diversities. But as in Gyekye's characterization of humanism as a pervasive and fundamental concept in African socioethical thought (1997:158), I have picked out some issues in the African context about which I think reasonable generalizations can be made. © Juta & Co Ltd

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11 I now explore the view that education is formed from a normative point of view, which therefore makes it a moral concept. It was suggested that education is internally complex in that it picks out a variety of activities; that it has complex connections with a host of other concepts to which it is related, which means that clarifying the concept of education involves the elaboration of the broader conceptual scheme within which it is implicated. It seems to me that this gives rise to the following questions: • Should the aim of education in traditional African life be botho or ubuntu (humanness)? • Should it be interpersonal and cooperative skills? • Should it encompass personal wellbeing or human flourishing? Drawing on Gyekye (1997:158), most of these can be classified as pervasive and fundamental to African socioethical thought. As can already be deduced, to reiterate Enslin's characterization of education above, they are of a moral nature, internally complex, and have complex connections with a host of other concepts to which education is related. My answer to the first would be that without a doubt educating for botho or ubuntu is crucial to traditional African life. It should be noted though that, because of its normative nature, botho or ubuntu gives rise to a conceptual problem. This is even exacerbated by Appiah's warning that Africa's forms of life are diverse (1992:24-27). However, I think the question 'can anyone prescribe desirable and accepted standards of human conduct in culturally diverse communities of people?' has been partially answered. I did this by acknowledging that there are areas in African socioethical thought where reasonable generalizations can be made. Gyekye (1987:257) identifies humanism as a pervasive and fundamental concept in African socioethical thought, which seems to suggest that humanism transcends the said diversities. But what is the true nature of humanism, and how best can it be promoted? I indicated above that humanism is a philosophy that sees human need, interests and dignity as of fundamental importance and concern; that humane people are those endowed with moral norms and virtues such as kindness, generosity, compassion, benevolence, courtesy and respect and concern for others. My contention is that it can be promoted through a pragmatic approach in which youngsters learn and acquire it by example. Aristotle (1996:33), for example, suggests that 'moral or ethical virtue is the product of habit (ethos), and has indeed derived its name, with a slight variation of form, from that word'. The condition for such a pragmatic approach would be that youngsters live in communities that fully embrace and value humanism, understood as botho or ubuntu. It is assumed that persons in such communities would strive to treat others with a sense of botho or ubuntu, which entails treating them with fairness. A reciprocal expectation would be that those who are treated with fairness will also 188

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tt return the favour and treat others with fairness. As a normative concept fairness is taken to be a desirable virtue on account of its concern with humane relationships. To quote Aristotle (1996:34) once again: 'It is by taking part in transactions with our fellow-men that some of us become just and others unjust... In a word, our moral dispositions are formed as a result of the corresponding activities.' One of the enduring ways in which traditional African societies instil desirable attitudes, dispositions and habits in their youngsters is through storytelling. The educational value of stories cannot be doubted. As Gyekye (1987:13) points out: 'a great deal of philosophical material is embedded in proverbs, myths and folktales, folk songs, rituals, beliefs, customs, and traditions of the people'. Folk tales in particular 'mirror more or less accurately the ideas of the people and their general outlook upon life, conduct and morals' (Gyekye, 1987:15). There is ample evidence to show that myths, folk tales, proverbs, songs and drums have always played an important educational role in traditional African life. Gyekye (1987:14) contends that Africans, like other peoples, are endowed with mythopoeic imagination, and the continent abounds in myths and tales which, in the African setting, as certainly in others, are important as vehicles for abstract thought.' Indowu (1962:5-6) notes that 'The religion of the Yoruba ... finds vehicles in myths, folk-tales, proverbs and sayings, and is the basis of philosophy.' It will be remembered that myths feature prominently in the work of the Greek philosopher Plato. It has even been argued that his philosophy cannot be understood apart from it (Steward 1960:26). Lee (1974:447), who has translated The Republic, explains that it is Plato's habit to cast dialogue in the form of a myth when he wishes to convey religious or moral truths for which plain prose is inadequate. Now to respond to the second question. There is no doubt, as we have seen in the above analysis, that interpersonal and cooperative skills are sine qua non to traditional African life. Certainly interpersonal skills have been shown to be an integral part of educating for botho or ubuntu and the promotion of communally accepted and desirable moral norms and virtues. I shall therefore not dwell on them here. It does, however, seem necessary for education in the African context, whether of a formal, informal, or non-formal nature, to have cooperative skills built into it. The development of cooperative skills in younger people will no doubt play a crucial role in promoting and sustaining the sort of communal interdependence and concern with the welfare of others that was alluded to above. It was noted that that sort of interdependence highlights the fundamental principle governing traditional African life, which is that a person depends on others just as much as others depend on him/her. There is a wide range of community initiatives through which youngsters can be inducted into this way of thinking and encouraged to be team players. Cooperative community farming (letsema) was discussed in detail above as one example through which members of the community or family embark on joint initiatives to cultivate their fields and make them ready for the planting season. The letsema can O Juta & Co Ltd

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11 also be expanded to cover both the weeding and harvesting periods. Usually the same families that cultivated their fields as a collective will team up again to remove undesirable weeds that clog and deprive the plants of essential nutrients. During the threshing and winnowing of sorghum, wheat and maize the cooperative initiative would once again come into play. The educational importance of cooperative initiatives to youngsters cannot be overemphasized. By observing how families team up to tackle jobs of such a magnitude, youngsters learn about the importance of teamwork or cooperative effort. Often youngsters might also be brought into the thick of things to assist at various levels. Young boys might, for instance, assist their brothers and uncles to move the produce from the field to the homesteads in convoys of donkeys or oxendrawn wagons, while young girls might either be part of the harvesting or the cooking team. Of course, there are clear divisions of labour, often along gender lines. It seems to me that being part of the production process as discussed above initiates youngsters into a wide range of community practices, traditions and conventions which are valued by their respective communities and families. It is through such practices, traditions and conventions that the crucial evaluation of people's life — how good or successful it is from their point of view — can be made (Raz 1988:289). But it is also through such practices, traditions and conventions that we can determine whether a people or a family are concerned with mere desire-satisfaction or with the satisfaction of informed desires (White 1990:28). A people's conception of personal wellbeing is therefore deeply implicated in the sort of life-sustaining and -enhancing activities that they pursue. The educational value of getting youngsters involved at various levels in the pursuit of such practices, traditions and conventions goes a long way in initiating them in their respective communities' and families' idea of human flourishing. Of course, in the course of time youngsters might grow up to become adults whose idea of human flourishing is completely different from the one into which they were socialized. An African philosophy of education should therefore clarify the normative aspects of education in the African context, posing fundamental questions and reflecting on fundamental aspects of the essence of human life, encapsulated by the notion of botho or ubuntu, and how this impacts on human conduct, human experience and conceptions of the good life. CONCLUSION This chapter began with a teasing out of what it means to philosophize. It argued that this entails engaging in a conceptual activity — that is, clarifying the meanings and uses of words, the concepts that lie behind words, and the reasons and arguments, with a view to sensibly discussing serious issues. African philosophy, seen in this light, speculates about and provides a conceptual interpretation and analysis of human problems and human experiences in the African context. 190

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11 This chapter argued that communality and botho or ubuntu (humanism) are pervasive and fundamental concepts in African socioethical thought about which reasonable generalizations can be made, given that the African continent is so vast and diverse. African philosophy was seen as deeply implicated by communality and botho or ubuntu. It was argued that it ought to provide a conceptual interpretation and analysis of the two as defining aspects of traditional African life. It was argued that the aim of an African philosophy of education should therefore be the promotion of botho or ubuntu, interpersonal and cooperative skills and human flourishing. A pragmatic, experiential approach to education, during which learners learn by example, by living in communities of people who are endowed with these and by interacting with them on a regular basis, was proposed. Endnotes 1 People as used in this context signifies individuals living as broad and/or diverse collectives in areas that have distinct geographic, historical or cultural identity, for instance West or East Europeans, Africans, Indians, Chinese, lapanese, etc. 2 I use family in this sense to differentiate between the African and Western conceptions of the family. For while the family in Western thinking is narrowly conceived to cover husband, wife, children and immediate biological brothers and sisters (the nucleus family), the African family — extended family — is much broader and complex. In his short book An Introduction to the Study of African Culture, Eric 0 Ayisi (1992) writes that the extended family consists of a number of joint families, and a joint family is made up of heads of two or three lineally related folks of the same spouses and offspring, and who occupy a single homestead. References Appiah, KA. 1992. In My Father's House: Africa in the Philosophy of Culture. New York: Oxford University Press. Appiah, KA. 1997. The arts of Africa. In The New York Review of Books, 44(7), 46-51. Aristotle. 1996. The Nichomachean Ethics, translated by Harris Rackham. Hertfordshire: Wordsworth. Ayisi, EO. 1992. An Introduction to the Study of African Culture. Nairobi: East African Educational Publishers. Beyaraza, E. 1994. Contemporary Relativism with Special Reference to Culture and Africa. Bayreuth: Bayreuth University Press. Bodunrin, PO. 1981. The question of African philosophy. Philosophy, 56(216), 161-79.

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11 Busia, KA. 1962. The Challenge of Africa. New York: Praeger. English, P & Kalumba, K. 1996. African Philosophy: A Classical Approach. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall. Enslin, P. 1993. Should Nation-Building be an Aim of Education? Inaugural lecture delivered at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 22 September. Floistat, G (ed). 1987. Contemporary African Philosophy: A New Survey, Vol. 5 (African Philosophy). Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff. Gyekye, K. 1987. An Essay on African Philosophical Thought: The Akan Conceptual Scheme. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Gyekye, K. 1997. Tradition and Modernity: Philosophical Reflections on the African Experience. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Horton, R. 1977. Traditional thought and the emerging African philosophy department: A comment on the current debate. Second Order, An African Journal of Philosophy, 6(1), January, 64-80. Hountondji, P. 1983. African Philosophy, Myth and Reality. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Idowu, EB. 1962. Oludumare, God in Yoruba Belief. London: Longmans. Kant, E. 1991. The Moral Law: Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals, translated by HJ Paton. London: Routledge. Kenyatta, J. 1965. Facing Mount Kenya. New York: Vintage Books. Lee, Desmond (trans). 19 74. The Republic, by Plato. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books Ltd. Locke, J. 1993. Two Treatises of Government, edited by Mark Goldie. London: Everyman. Masolo, DA. 1994. African Philosophy in Search of Identity. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Maurier, H. 1984. Do we have an African philosophy? In Wright, Richard A (ed). African Philosophy: An Introduction, 2nd edn. Washington: University Press of America. Mbiti, JS. 1970. African Religions and Philosophy. London: Heinemann. Menkiti, IA. 1979. Person and community in African traditional thought. In Wright, Richard A (ed). African Philosophy: An Introduction, 2nd edn. Washington: University Press of America. Mill, JS. 1991. On Liberty and Other Essays, edited by John Gray. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Mudimbe, VY. 1988. The Invention of Africa. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

192

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11 Mudimbe, VY. 1994. The Idea of Africa. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Paton, HJ (trans). 1991. The Moral Law: Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals, by E Kant. London: Routledge. Plato. 1974. The Republic, translated by Desmond Lee. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books Ltd. Rackham, Harris (trans). 1996. The Nichomachean Ethics, by Aristotle. Hertfordshire: Wordsworth. Ramsay, M. 1997. What's Wrong with Liberalism: A Radical Critique of Liberal Political Philosophy. London: Leicester University Press. Rauche, GA. 1996. In what sense can there be talk of an African philosophy: A methodological hermeneutics. South African Journal of Philosophy, 15(1), 15-22. Raz, J. 1988. The Morality of Freedom. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Ruch, EA. 1974. Is there an African philosophy? Social Order, 3(2), 3-21. Ryle, G. 1966. Plato's Progress. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Shutte, A. 1993. Philosophy for Africa. Cape Town: University of Cape Town Press. Sindane, J. 1994. Ubuntu and Nation Building. Pretoria: Ubuntu School of Philosophy. Sogolo, G. 1993. Foundations of African Philosophy: A Definitive Analysis of Conceptual Issues in African Thought. Ibadan: Ibadan University Press. Steward, JA. 1960. The Myths of Plato, edited by GR Levy. London: Centaur Press. Straughan, R & Wilson, J. 1985. Philosophizing and Education. London: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Tempels, P. 1959. Bantu Philosophy. Paris: Presence Africaine. Van der Merwe, WL. 1996. Philosophy and the multi-cultural context of (post) apartheid South Africa. Ethical Perspectives, 3(2) 1-15. White, J. 1990. Education and the Good Life: Beyond the National Curriculum. London: Kogan Page. Wiredu, K. 1980. Philosophy andan African Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Wiredu, K. 1996. Cultural Universals and Particulars: An African Perspective. Indianapolis: Indiana University Press. Wittgenstein, L. 1961. Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, translated by David F Pears & BF McGuinness. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. Wright, RA. 1984. African Philosophy: An Introduction, 3rd edn. Lanham: University Press of America.

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12 The Problem of Education in Africa Herbert W Vilakazi

INTRODUCTION Calls in our time for an African renaissance are a response to the deep crisis presently troubling the whole of Africa (Mengisteab 1996:3-64). This crisis has its roots in the African Slave Trade — the mass enslavement of Africans in the Americas and Caribbean — in the phenomenon American historians have called 'racial slavery' Qordan 1974; Bennet 1975). It was intensified and systematized by European colonialism and the domination of Africa, and by the consequent universal contempt for the African as a human being (racism) (Williams 1976). The crisis continues in the form of the underdevelopment, mass poverty, dislocation and destabilization of the entire continent in our time (Amin 1990; Chinweizu 1976). The totality and essence of the crisis of Africa was captured perfectly by the German scholar Frobenius, who wrote that, as justification for the African Slave Trade, 'the African was turned into a semi-animar (Frobenius 1973). Everything that subsequently happened to Africans, to African societies, to the image of Africa, to Africa's role in modern history, followed upon that dehumanization of the African to the level of a 'semi-animar. I go further than Frobenius and state that for other human beings — particularly the people of Europe, the people classified 'white' (Allen 1994) — to regard and treat the African as 'semi-animal', they themselves had to bow down to the level of 'semi-animal' (Baldwin 1985). Therefore the African Slave Trade was an actual experience of deep trauma (in the psychological sense) for the people of the entire world, particularly for those people who were directly involved in this dehumanization of the African (the perpetrators and victims), as well as for those millions upon millions of people who witnessed this macabre event. The African Slave Trade totally confused the notion of what a human being is for virtually everyone in the world. A profound identity crisis took root in the psyche of modern men and women. 194

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12 The nineteenth-century German historian Mommsen called the attention of the literate world to the great significance of Africa in world history. He pointed out that the war between Rome and Carthage actually broke the back of Rome, even though Rome officially won the war. He also stressed that it was through Africa that Christianity won its place as a world religion. We should add to this register the African Slave Trade, and the enslavement of millions of Africans in the Americas and Caribbean, as the foundation upon which modern capitalist civilization was actually constructed. Karl Marx had already stressed that fact in The Poverty of Philosophy (1847). He noted that slavery was absolutely crucial for capitalist civilization. He wrote that if you strike off slavery in North America, you strike off the significance of North America for the world economy. Strike off North America, you strike off world trade; strike off world trade, and you strike off the modern world economy and capitalist civilization. In other words, Africa and Africans were the foundation for the creation of modern capitalist material wealth. This is one side of the equation. The other side of the same equation is that the rise of modern capitalist civilization, through the exploitation and dehumanization of working people generally — and of the African, in particular — brought about a sharp and deep decline in the moral, mental and spiritual health of the generality of men and women in capitalist civilization. The African was turned into a 'type', a semi-human, and the European was also turned into a 'type', a superior person. The African Slave Trade, the brutalization and dehumanization of just about the entire people of one of the two largest continents of the world, was a major, determining, distorting and deforming factor in shaping the 'social character' of the men, women and youth of capitalist civilization. To borrow from Athol Fugard's formulation, in his play Blood Knot, there is a psychic 'knot' linking Africa and modern Western civilization, linking underdevelopment, mass poverty, modern diseases in Africa, and the contempt for Africans on the one hand, with the moral, spiritual and mental illness of what Erich Fromm calls the 'social character' of modern capitalist civilization on the other (Fromm 1991:78-208). Africa, and Africans, occupy a space of great significance in the psyche of modern men and women worldwide. The striking fact, if you pause to think about it, is that humankind first emerged in Africa. We know this fact from all available modern findings in research on the origin of humankind. Africa is, therefore, the Mother of Humankind. This remarkable lady not only gave birth to humankind, but she succoured and raised the infant, and socialized the infant into a specific culture. As her offspring, grown to adulthood, left Africa for other regions of the world, they carried with them cultural knowledge and practices derived from Mother Africa. The lowest, or first, stratum of the culture of humankind, therefore, can be traced to Africa. It is striking that the German cultural-historical school of ethnology, in line with the discovery of Grimaldi Man in Southern and Western Europe, traceable to Africa, hypothesized the existence of what they called a © Juta & Co Ltd

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12 common stratum of culture, which stretched from West Africa to Southern Europe and the Middle East. This hypothesis was also buttressed by the discovery of strikingly common elements in the cultures, particularly religious practices, of certain African peoples and the culture and religion of the Old Testament (Isaac 1964). DNA studies have also revealed a very close 'genetic distance' between Africans and West Europeans, according to a remarkable publication by two British palaeontologists (Stringer & Andrews 1988). There is, indeed, a 'blood knot' that ties Africans and the rest of humanity, not just physiologically but also culturally. How the more calamitous then was the African Slave Trade, when the very descendants of Mother Africa, having forgotten their original relationship with her, came back to the continent and enslaved their long-forgotten cousins, the Africans, carrying them in chains to distant lands to be held as slaves, when they came back to the continent and abused and dehumanized their own Mother Africa. I submit that this tragic experience was no less significant in the psyche of humankind than the one hypothesized by Freud as the origin of religion, namely the killing of the primeval Father by the original human horde. The fall of Africa, as a distinct historical event, therefore, brought about the fall of all humankind. The rise of Africa, therefore, the African renaissance, properly understood, cannot be an isolated African event. As we all fell together, we must all rise together. This is a very complex and profound issue, which confounds many people; but it is no less real because of that. The biggest, most fateful current problem in Africa is that all the African states, without exception, lack the correct strategy and tactics to resolve the gigantic historical crisis in which Africa finds herself.

THE CRISIS IN AFRICAN EDUCATION This crisis of Africa is also the crisis of education in Africa. Every proper system of education is founded upon, and develops, a particular civilization. The biggest problem with education in Africa is that, with the conquest of Africa by Europe, Africa was denied the status of a civilization comparable, say, to Chinese, Indian or Western civilization. When we speak of China, India, Europe or the United States of America as a civilization, what do we have in mind? We have in mind a complex of culture, language or languages, religion, a world-view, a pattern of historical experience, a certain technology and manner of using that technology, an identifiable pattern in art, music, architecture, poetry, literature and dance, a certain body of knowledge, science, medicine and values, a certain cuisine and manner of dress and general habits, etc. A civilization is generally so massive and of such power that it acts like a magnet, drawing outsiders to it, influencing others and being influenced by others. In addition, the massiveness and power of a civilization inevitably tend to 196

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12 push its influence beyond its territorial borders, either peacefully or forcefully. A civilization is all these things and more, as long as these things all form a set, like a set of pots. We now know that humanity emerged first in Africa. Africa is the Mother of Humankind. This most marvellous of mothers not only gave birth to humankind, but she prepared the remarkable cultural foundation which some of her children took along with them as they left for other regions and corners of the world. Africa was, indeed, the first civilization, held in the highest esteem in antiquity (Diop 1974; Bernal 1987). Civilizations have risen and fallen: the glory of Rome and Italy, of Greece, are no . longer alive. With the African Slave Trade, the creators of African civilization wer reduced from human status to 'semi-animal', and Africa was denied the status of a civilization. In the entire history of the rise and fall of civilizations, this was unique to Africans. Africa became, as it were, a non-living possession of Western civilization. Educated Africans were educated as part of Western civilization but, unlike their Western counterparts, they were placed in the suffocating position of not being able to engage themselves in developing a civilization of which they felt a part. Whites, Indians, coloureds and Arabs in Africa formed their own separate communities, almost completely sealed from the communities of the overwhelming majority of society, Africans, thereby saddling themselves with the terrible handicap of not being acquainted from the inside with the people and culture of Africa. This is a major problem in South Africa, in this era of democratization, when the majority of society, the non-Western African people, and the non-Western culture of the majority, are supposed to be the motive power and guide for the future development of African societies. Racism, whether of the English, Afrikaner, French, German, Portuguese or Belgian type, prevented any spontaneous synthesis of African and European cultures. Europeans in Africa remained European, and educated Africans became Europeanized. Europeans, Indians, Arabs, coloureds and educated Africans became alienated from the mass base of African society and culture, with educated Africans somewhat better off than the others. A hiatus emerged between Western-educated society on the one hand, and principles and patterns of African civilization on the other. Knowledge of the principles and patterns of African civilization became lost in the consciousness and mental set of African intellectuals — not to mention non-African communities. The peculiar situation here is that knowledge of the principles and patterns of African civilization remained with ordinary, uncertificated men and women in urban and rural areas, especially in rural areas. The tragedy of African civilization is that Western-educated Africans became lost and irrelevant as intellectuals who could develop African civilization further. Historically, intellectuals of any civilization are the voice of that civilization to the rest of the world; they are the instruments for the development of the higher culture of that civilization. The © Juta & Co Ltd

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12 tragedy of Africa, after conquest by the West, is that her intellectuals, by and large, absconded and abdicated their role as developers, minstrels and trumpeters of African civilization. That fact, plus domination and exploitation by Europe, resulted in the stagnation of African civilization. What remained alive in the minds and languages of the overwhelming majority of Africans remained undeveloped. Uncertificated Africans are denied respect and opportunities for development; they could not sing out, articulate and develop the unique patterns of African civilization. Now that Africa is attempting to rise from the prostrate position to which she was thrown, she finds herself in an awkward situation. She needs to develop a system of education founded upon, and developing, her civilization — the civilization of the overwhelming majority; yet her intellectuals, by and large, are strangers to this civilization. In South Africa, the white and Indian intellectuals, who are disproportionally influential in policy-making and as experts, are a hundred times worse off than educated Africans in their relationship with the principles and patterns of African civilization. This brings serious distortions and errors into policies in the sphere of culture and education! The overwhelming majority of whites, Indians and coloureds can neither speak nor write any African language. Yet knowledge of its languages is the prime portal to any culture. In the entire history of civilizations, no intellectuals of any particular civilization have ever been placed in as tragic a position in relation to the culture and civilization of their own people as that occupied by African intellectuals. Our intellectuals, by and large, have no spiritual/intellectual sympathetic relationship with the culture and civilization embracing the masses of African people. This is the case throughout Africa. Our intellectuals and intelligentsia, who must take the lead in building the new Africa, must engage in a comprehensive and serious process of re-educating themselves in the principles and patterns of African civilization, whose knowledge they have largely lost. The biggest spiritual and mental challenge to African intellectuals is that in this massive re-education of themselves in the principles and patterns of African civilization, the only teachers they have are ordinary African men and women who are uncertiflcated, and largely in rural areas. We are talking here about a massive cultural revolution consisting, in the first place, of our intellectuals going back to ordinary African men and women to receive education on African culture and civilization. Secondly, it should break new ground in that non-certificated men and women will have to be incorporated as full participants in the construction of the high culture of Africa. This will be the first instance in history in which certificated intellectuals alone will not be the sole builders and determinants of high culture, but will have to work side by side with ordinary men and women in rural and urban life. Intellectuals must become anthropologists doing field work, like Frobenius. But, unlike academic, Western anthropologists, African intellectuals will be doing field 198

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12 work on their own people, on themselves, as part of a truly great effort aimed at reconstructing Africa and preparing all of humanity for conquering the world for humanism. The principle to be adopted is this: the unique African pattern of development into modernity should base itself, first and foremost, on the use of the cultural and material resources provided by her civilization, adopting and adapting the finest acquisitions of scientific and technological developments to meet the needs of Africa, and also opening herself to the finest influences resulting from cultural intercourse with other civilizations. This does not mean that Africa must become closed to outside influences. I must also stress that this emphatically does not mean that Africans must only be guided by the African past. No civilization has ever developed and prospered in isolation. In isolation, civilization atrophies. The influence of other civilizations and cultures on another civilization can be compared with the relationship between rivers and the huge ocean. Civilization is the huge ocean; the elements or influences of other civilizations and cultures upon a particular civilization are like rivers which lead to, and empty themselves into, the huge ocean. These are assimilated by the civilization and bring about changes from within; they become the catalyst for the further development of aspects of the civilization. In this way the finest products of the cultural and spiritual wealth of other civilizations will be absorbed by the child and student within the African school, but all this will take place within the context of African civilization. This is the gigantic challenge facing African universities. Like African civilization itself, and current African societies, African universities are also in deep crisis. Indeed, the crisis of African civilization, and of contemporary African societies, cannot help but influence, in a larger sense, the shape, the direction, the mental and spiritual life, of African universities. Universities, however, as producers of well-thought-out and debated knowledge, must in our age become more and more the dominant source of the guiding light of society. African universities have, indeed, been deeply influenced and shaped by the comprehensive crisis of African civilization, and the crisis of the societies within which they are located. However, in their dutiful role as the guiding light of society, universities in Africa must master the crisis, intellectually and scientifically, and demonstrate to society and to the continent the way out of the crisis. This is the role of the intellectual: preoccupation with issues of societal and historical development, in their comprehensive scope, guided by attainable humanistic criteria and possibilities within each epoch (Baran 1961). African universities have, thus far, largely not lived up to the responsibility and challenge of becoming the guiding light to the continent and to the societies within which they are located. The former Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Dr Alex A Kwapong (1973:203-204), outlined the challenge of modern African universities thus: © Juta & Co Ltd

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12 ... the new African universities came into being at the same time as the birth of the new African states or soon after they attained their independence. Thus these African universities were consciously conceived of and designed as prime instruments for the attainment of national independence or the consolidation of this independence and to help meet the urgent needs of post-independence. Therefore, in addition to serving the universal and basic objectives of universities everywhere these universities were expected, above all, to promote the development and modernization of their various countries; they were meant to help meet the needs of development; they were designed to be 'development universities' in developing countries and were expected to play much the same role as the land-grant colleges of the United States in the late nineteenth century.

In the forty or so years after attaining independence, African countries, and the African continent as a whole, have failed dismally to develop. A crisis of poverty and of immiseration, in many cases worse than before independence, has afflicted large parts of Africa, and continues unabated to this day. Africa' biggest failure to date lies in not being able to formulate and implement policies to initiate the agricultural revolution, to enable her to feed her millions of people adequately, and to lay a reliable basis for industrialization or modernization. We must stress an elementary fact: the Industrial Revolution in the West was preceded by an Agricultural Revolution. The peculiar and astonishing spectacle of our time is witnessing effort after effort to initiate the industrialization of Africa before initiating an agricultural revolution. Since gaining independence from colonial status, beginning with Ghana in 1957, African leaders have adopted a development strategy which has neglected agricultural and rural development in favour of industrial projects. The only focus on agriculture has been the misplaced one of developing the production of cash crops for export, instead of focusing on developing the capacity for food production to meet domestic needs. The terrible result has been a food crisis in large parts of Africa. Domestic food production for domestic needs has declined in most countries; these countries find themselves dependent upon food imports, and food prices have risen steeply. Traditional African dietary systems have been disturbed, and gross imbalances and insufficiencies in food intake have occurred. This has had terrible results in the traditional health system. The immune system of the African body, which has been built up over centuries, has been disrupted or adversely affected in most cases, opening channels for infection by a host of new and terrible diseases. We are talking here about a dire threat to the lives of tens and hundreds of millions of human beings. An agricultural revolution and rural development are absolute prerequisites for lifting Africa out of underdevelopment, poverty, misery and horrible, unnecessary, dehumanizing disease. Amin (1991:555) highlights this as follows: 200

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12 The failure of 'development' has been more dramatic for Africa as a whole than in any other region. In fact, Africa has not yet started its agricultural revolution without which no further stage of development can be considered. The task of achieving the agricultural revolution is therefore the priority target for the decades to come. This is a very complex task, and, obviously, multidimensional.

The crucial point here is that all the elements necessary for solving this gigantic, immediate crisis are present on a world scale. What has been lacking, so far, in Africa is the requisite vision among the leading elites. This entails adopting the correct strategy and tactics to bring about this desperately needed process of development. Herein lies the terrible failure of African universities to fulfil their role as the guiding light of the African continent and of the societies within which they are located. No matter what our disciplines or fields of specialization, we African scholars must mobilize our thinking around this issue, and take a position on the mandatory desirability or non-desirability of this process. The issue of the correct strategy and tactics to be pursued must be debated, leading to a specific resolution of the problem, which can then be presented to government, political leaders and civil society as the considered opinion and recommendation of the learned fraternity of the continent. Here is another crucial point: in what can be called a dialectical process of shortsightedness, and a failure to take requisite action as the guiding light of society and the continent, African universities — and the system of education in Africa in general — have been severely damaged, almost crippled, by the very crisis of the African continent which they have failed to master intellectually. To be more specific, African education has been severely affected by the economic crisis and shrinking financial resources of the African state. Certainly, modern capitalist states are also failing to provide adequate funding for universities. However, the financial problem of African universities is more extreme because African societies are virtually the poorest in the world owing to the failure of development in Africa. In the USA or other developed capitalist societies, state funding for universities may be declining not because these societies are not developing or developed, but for other reasons which the intellectuals of those societies must address and take action upon. The crisis of Africa presents a comprehensive and multidimensional challenge to African universities. However, the key issues of the moment, which we must all face up to and debate, are the economy and the unresolved issue of African civilization in relation to other civilizations and as a basis for the development of Africa. The unresolved nature of these two issues is what is killing Africa and Africans — physically, spiritually and intellectually. Let us stand up and master these issues!

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12 IMPLICATIONS FOR CURRICULA What are the implications of the above crisis for school curricula and the organization of education? Need to Synchronize Education and Development Policy Besides the obviously Eurocentric character of current African education, particularly in South Africa, perhaps the greatest problem facing education is the current lack of synchronization between the existing system of education on the one hand, and development policy and the development needs of Africa on the other. In the final analysis, development involves development of the human personality; therefore, in capital accumulation, the development of human capital is actually the most crucial input. In calculating the factors responsible for development, most scholars have concluded that roughly a third of accumulated development is attributed to education (Cosin 1972). Actually, this may be an underestimation. Knowledge, through study, has been raised to first rank in the list of priorities to be attended to by society members for the solution of all problems before them (Fortune 1994). The connection between education and development cannot, however, be haphazard. It requires careful planning, both at the micro- and macrolevel. The same seriousness shown by entrepreneurs planning to start a business is needed for synchronizing education with the development needs of the nation as a whole. There is no society today which can afford to do away with the need to coordinate and integrate the various microlevel plans and activities of large groups of people in the form of some national or society-wide plan. The only question is the manner in which such society-wide planning is done — whether it is done officially, by representatives of society-at-large, or by some private bodies and groups without public accountability. In South Africa we have a peculiar problem. We know that from now onwards the African community is the pool from which the vast majority of skilled workers, scientists, mathematicians and intelligentsia must be drawn to meet the development needs of the country. The white, Indian and coloured communities no longer suffice, as they did for the very narrow industrialization and development needs of the past (namely to meet the needs of the tiny white population first and foremost). In the past, the vast masses of Africans were not fully integrated into the industrial economy: the white-controlled economy needed African labour largely for unskilled work. They were, in the main, also not fully integrated into the economy as consumers of modern industrial goods as a result of the terribly low wages they received as predominantly unskilled workers and as a result of other racist denials of certain facilities and infrastructure (for example, electricity, roads, telephones, modern schools and health care, etc). Thus, a very low ceiling was set for the development and growth potential of the economy — 202

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12 and of human capital! Education policy, and the education system, were not oriented to developing the African population as human capital. The crisis in the South African economy is largely due to the fact that the economy has reached the point at which it can no longer develop and broaden its scope on the basis of non-African skilled and intellectual labour. The white community is now too small a pool from which to draw additional talent with the skills and leadership qualities necessary for further development, even with the addition of the Indian and coloured communities. The African community must now be seen as a vast pool from which to draw skilled and talented leaders for the further development of the economy and of society. Amongst the black population there is abundant human capital that must be trained, developed and tapped; this can only be done if this vast potential human capital receives appropriate and properly planned education. Not only must we embark on a vast and serious educational effort aimed at training, developing and tapping this potential human capital, but we must also formulate and implement the right kind of education policy. Need for a Massive Public Campaign on Education Firstly, we must design and implement a vast public propaganda campaign, which stresses the crucial importance of and need for education — and for the right kind of education. We have hardly begun to use the tremendous power and effectiveness of available mass communication technology for awakening people to the urgency and nobility of this need, and for actually imparting specific knowledge and skills to members of society. Designing Education to Fit Specific Development Needs of the Time Secondly, we need to design specific curricula and methods of imparting the appropriate knowledge to satisfy the purposes we have in mind. Let us consider, for the moment, the development of the university system in the United States, which was aimed at serving the masses. I have in mind here the 'state universities' and the land-grant colleges'. In 1862, the US Congress passed the Morrill Act, which granted federally controlled land to state governments for the establishment of institutions of higher education to provide programmes in military training, agriculture and mechanics. Karrier (1967:85) describes these as follows: As "community service centers" these institutions ... called into existence courses, programs, and schools in the fields of commerce, journalism, agriculture, electrical, mechanical, civil and aeronautical engineering, mining, forestry, and education, all in the interests of serving the needs and demands of an advancing technological society.' It is important to stress that these universities had highly developed and comprehensive programmes of extension services to the communities, for example to modernize agricultural practices. © Juta & Co Ltd

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12 These educational institutions were of great practical relevance in increasing productivity and variety of production in agriculture. They helped tremendously in spurring forward the American agricultural revolution, provided crucial support to the American industrial revolution, and had turned the United States into a major economic power by the turn of the twentieth century. African countries desperately need similar developments in agriculture and in rural communities in order to solve the food crisis and mass poverty. This requires, however, an equally similar input from education. In addition to the humanities, rural African schools must teach modern agricultural methods and science, and mathematics, adapted to African conditions. Africa is sadly lacking in the kind of education policies which will meet development needs. The majority of black South Africans would agree that the situation is no different here in South Africa. A New Balance Between the Humanities, Mathematics and Science There is a need in our system of education for a major change in curriculum and in the methods of teaching. I have in mind particularly a new balance in the relationship between science, mathematics, languages and humanities, from elementary school to tertiary education. This must be discussed thoroughly and widely, and planned carefully, on the basis of our needs and the experience of other countries. Consider the experience of the former Soviet Union. In 1917, the masses of Russian people were roughly at the same educational level as the masses of African people in our time. By the 1980s, however, roughly a quarter of the world's scientists and mathematicians were in the Soviet Union (Mandel 1989:x). The question that we must consider is how the education system of the Soviet Union achieved this remarkable result. How did it manage to successfully teach mathematics and the hard sciences to the children of peasants and of ordinary workers? I suspect that the secret to this achievement was methodological — that is, the secret lay in the methods that were used. It is very important for us to learn that secret, for, judging by the failure of African schools to successfully produce science and mathematics students, the methods which are being used here must be very inadequate. Through discussions and an exchange of views between our science and mathematics educators and Russian educators in the same fields, we can perhaps discover this secret and decide whether or not it can be used in our situation or adapted to our needs. We should also be planning such discussions with educators from other countries that have achieved greater success in the endeavours in which we are involved. Our system of education must also be characterized by a vast increase in the number of polytechnic schools, or 'technikons'. Access to these schools must be facilitated so that our society can benefit from tens of thousands of well-educated, skilled workers. We also need to plan and implement closer relationships between 204

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12 educational institutions and institutions producing material wealth, such as industries and farms. In white-ruled South Africa, the majority of white, Indian and coloured students who received tertiary education attended technikons or polytechnic institutions of learning. There were sufficient numbers of these institutions to meet the needs of the economy. More importantly, white, Indian and coloured students were channelled towards these institutions through proper counselling and the availability of bursaries and scholarships so as to fulfil society's needs. The same expertise, foresight and generosity did not apply to the African community. On-the-job training is, of course, also important. But, as has been noted, it has its limitations. Afanasyev (1975:298) outlines ihe problem in the following terms: But this method of training in industry, whether individual or on courses, has definite disadvantages. The instruction given is often based on rule of thumb. It may apply only to work on a given machine or mechanism, or for very limited range of operations. The worker does not get a wide polytechnic training, a knowledge of the principles on which machines work, of materials and technology. His qualification remains low and his ability to grow limited. According to data from a number of Moscow factories the machine operators trained on short courses produce about eight times more rejects than those from vocational centres.

We also need to have a well-planned and implementable component of adult education. Again, other countries are more experienced and have achieved better results than we have; we must study their experiences before designing and implementing our own component of adult education. Language We must make special mention of the language issue in our education system. Language is the gateway to culture, knowledge and people. The more languages one masters, the more access one has to other cultures, to knowledge, and to other people. What is relevant to the learning process is the fact that mastery of the language in which a subject is taught is the key to mastery of the subject matter. The Eurocentric nature of our education, at the heart of which has been the use of European languages, has constituted a barrier against the successful education of the masses of African people. This is particularly the case in South Africa. The African student has to make the acquaintance of the subject through a language which is not his or her mother tongue. If the African student did not master the particular foreign language in childhood alongside his or her mother tongue, then the foreign language in which instruction proceeds becomes a tension-generating factor, which interferes with the mastery of the subject matter. The problem for non-English speakers in schools in which English is the language of instruction is © Juta & Co Ltd

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12 the following: instruction does not build upon the linguistic and conceptual resources possessed by the student from his/her home and residential environment, but seeks, as it were, to implant linguistic and conceptual apparatuses from somewhere else. Naturally, the new plant, which has not grown organically from the body and soil of the student, does not stand secure, and may even be 'rejected' by the body and the native soil. Language is a medium of learning in educational institutions. In normal schooling, either the language of instruction is mastered early, as mother tongue, or it remains a type of barrier against easy and comfortable understanding and discourse. This means that African children and students, to whom English, in most cases, is a foreign language, will most frequently be underachievers in standard tests, compared to children and students who grow up speaking English. Multilingualism seems to be the answer to this problem. There is evidence to suggest that when multilingualism is introduced from the early stages of education, the languages mastered by children when their brains are most absorbent in development become powerful linguistic and conceptual resources for learning. The following report (Time 1995) is of relevance to this problem: 'Later this year, two professors from George Mason University in Virginia will release a study of 42,000 non-English-speaking students ... the study found that children who had received six years of bilingual education in well-designed programs performed better than 70% of all llth graders, including native speakers, on standardized English tests. One of the report's authors, professor Virginia Collier, says children placed in an English-language environment before they are fluent "are just left out of the discussion in their mainstream classes. It shows up in the long-term, when the academic going gets tough." The George Mason study also found that the highest achievers are products of avant-garde experiment in so-called two-way schools, where half the curriculum is taught in English, half in a foreign language. An example is the Oyster Bilingual Elementary School in the District of Columbia, whose students are 58 % Hispanic, 26% white, 12% black and 4% Asian. After six years of Spanish-English curriculum, the school's sixth-graders score at ninth-grade level in reading and lOth-grade level in math.' As education policy, we should move towards implementing multilingualism in all our schools. However, the early years of education should be in the mother tongue. Multilingualism should also be implemented during the early years of schooling. We do not have in mind here simply being able to speak the language, but preparing to make these languages of instruction in schools. This is not an impossible aim. It was done, this very century, in the case of Afrikaans in South Africa. Students today can learn medicine and other hard sciences in Afrikaans. In fact, all languages had to be developed and adapted for teaching the modern sciences and other modern subjects. Therefore, there is nothing to say that this cannot be done in respect of African languages. 206

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12 Pursuing the Ideal of Producing the 'Whole' Person Education is not only just an instrument to meet the needs of the economy, the army, the state, and the material needs and vulgar pride of the individual. It is also a means to develop and accentuate depth and breadth of character; to produce shine, beauty, nobility and poetry of the human personality; it is also to bring out, develop and perfect the full potential of the human personality. Yes, the ultimate aim of education — indeed, of society itself— is to develop the human being as an end in itself, the total human personality as the supreme value of life. The very pronounced division of labour, which came hand in hand with the Industrial Revolution, fragmented not only the labour activity of members of society, so that they lost the sense of the unity of the work process as a whole, but it also crippled the human individual by locking each person into a specialized production activity, with the result that only those talents necessary for the performance of that activity were developed. Other potential talents of the individual were neglected. We then, in the main, became crippled, one-sided individuals, as one-legged, one-armed or one-eyed individuals, unable to relate to ourselves, to others and to life itself as whole individuals. We ceased to be as many-talented as men and women in preindustrial societies. Society not only became split into apparently non-related parts, and into antagonistic parts, but the human being became similarly split, emotionally and mentally. The greatest split that occurred was that between intellectual work and material or manual labour; some members of society specialized as intellectual workers, while the vast majority became bound to material or manual work. In preindustrial societies, the same person who made a mat to sleep on also made it beautiful — that is, a work of art; the same person who manually made a spoon out of wood not only made a utilitarian object for eating but also a work of art. It will come as no surprise to find these spoons and mats hanging as works of art in our museums and on the walls of the homes of educated men and women in today's industrial society. In modern society, the making of spoons, mats, beds and tables is one activity occurring in factories; the making of art is restricted to a special group of people called artists. In other words, manual work has been robbed of artistic quality, and artistic work has been separated from 'the world of work'. Art, and the appreciation of art, has become a specialization, separate from the daily lives of masses of working people. This splitting of work, this division of labour, was a blessing as well as a curse. It was a blessing in that it benefited the economic development of society by raising productivity, as Adam Smith pointed out. However, it was harmful and a curse as far as the spiritual and mental health and unity of the individual and of society were concerned. The important point is that education adjusted itself to this contradictory situation. It was bound to serve the needs of the economy by producing specialists and people educated only for one or two tasks in life. Education adjusted itself to © Juta & Co Ltd

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12 producing cripples of human beings, who were one-sided in development, in whom the pursuit of and desire for beauty, the creation of things of beauty and nobility and art, were for leisure time or for a select few in society, called artists or intellectuals. How did education make this adjustment? Through the school curriculum. The development of an artistic sense is not a high priority in the education fashioned for the vast majority of society's members. To that extent, education contributes towards ugliness and vulgarity, and the love of ugliness and vulgarity, and to the violence so common in modern industrial societies. In other words, even though the economy called for specialists, education played hardly any role in countering the spiritual and mental fragmentation and degradation of humanity. Planners of education must be loyal not only to the development needs of the economy, the nation-state and society in general, but also — and above all — to the development of the wholeness of the human being, to the spiritual and mental health and unity of both the individual and humanity. Fortunately, as modern technology and science develop, a stage is soon reached where the typical worker needed to handle this technology and science is a person who can not only handle the equipment physically but who also understands, rationally and theoretically, the machinery and science involved. To an increasing extent the economy itself calls for a curriculum in which the study of nature and of society and history are integrated. A mighty philosopher, Karl Marx (Bottomore 1963), foresaw this about 140 years ago: 'Natural science will one day incorporate the science of man, just as the science of man will incorporate natural science; there will be a single science/ It is therefore incumbent upon the planners of education, for both development and humanistic needs, to formulate and implement a curriculum which integrates the imparting of technological and scientific skills with the arts and humanities, and which integrates the training of the mind and soul with the training of the human body. The appointment of a committee to see to the formulation and implementation of such a policy should be top priority.

Governance of Educational Institutions There should be two types of educational institutions, public institutions and private institutions. Public institutions should be funded by the state. However, the state's role in education should be restricted to: m providing the infrastructure (buildings, equipment, electricity, water, modern means of communication, etc), books, and salaries of teachers and staff; • laying down and seeing to the implementation of certain broad guidelines, as discussed in this policy statement. Within the framework of the broad guidelines, the details should be decided upon at the local level. The actual running and management of schools, including the appointment and dismissal of teachers and staff, and the construction and closing down of schools, 208

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12 should be left to local communities, through School Boards. The local school boards should be elected or appointed by the local community, with strict adherence to the principle of representativeness of the character of the community, all social classes, religions, cultures and races being represented in due proportions. Private schools should be funded privately, not by the state. Attendance and Costs Attendance at all public preschools, elementary schools and secondary schools should be free of charge. Tertiary Institutions (Universities, Technikons, etc) There should be public as well as private tertiary institutions. Public Institutions

These should be funded largely by the state, as is the case with the excellent 'state universities' of the USA. Fees in state-funded tertiary institutions should be low, calculated according to the annual income of the family or the individual financially responsible for meeting the expenses of the student. Private Institutions

These should not be funded by the state, except in cases where specific research is commissioned by the state. Technikons

The state should encourage the formation of partnerships between the state and private enterprise in the establishment of technikons. The state should encourage each industry to establish its own technikons. For example, the automobile industry should be expected and encouraged to establish technikons in which to train its own technicians, for this industry knows best what sort of training its workers require. The same goes for the electrical, computer, building and mining industries, etc. The state should be open to concluding agreements on financial cooperation with such industries to facilitate the establishment and operation of these technikons. However, the actual running of these institutions should not be the responsibility of the state, although the broad guidelines enunciated in the policy statement should be followed. © Juta & Co Ltd

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12 Three- or Four-year Degree? The accommodation of the new mix of science, mathematics and the humanities into the curriculum may call for more time in the subject package, and may require the adoption of a four-year degree across the board. A committee should be appointed to investigate this matter and to make appropriate recommendations. Preschool Education Preschool education is a crucially important phase of education, yet it has been totally neglected in the education of Africans. Latest findings on the development of IQ in children are particularly alarming when viewed against what is not happening in the education of Africans. The following report (Time 1994) is worth careful study in relation to our situation: After birth the brain's higher intellectual centers show explosive growth. Around age eight or nine, connections between neurons in the cerebral cortex are pruned back. The rule that governs this elimination is simple: use the connection or lose it. Children without a rich early-life exposure to reading or numbers may be at a disadvantage that can register later as diminished intellect.

The point being made here is that the future intellectual development of a human being is critically dependent on the educational inputs made to children at the preschool age. Physiologically, the child's brain grows at an explosive rate during the first eight years or so. After that, growth slows down considerably. The crucial point is that appropriate educational inputs at that early stage largely determine the later intellectual success and development of the adult person, including IQ. Therefore, children who have been denied the benefit of a good preschool education, using the latest advances in educational technology, methodology and subject content, are likely to suffer negatively as far as their future intellectual development and achievements are concerned. Such children are likely to be underachievers, compared to children who have received such benefits. In Africa up to now there has been a near-total absence of preschool education; this has exposed our children to what the report records as 'a disadvantage that can register later as diminished intellect'. Quality preschool education can thus be the foundation for exemplary intellectual achievements later on in life; without it a child may be doomed to mediocrity. Therefore, it should be the urgent policy of every African government to formulate a plan for instituting an excellent preschool system for all our children. Such is the education policy we recommend to all African countries.

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12 References Afanasyev, VG. 1975. The Scientific and Technological Revolution: Its Impact on Management and Education. Moscow: Progress Publishers. Allen, Theodore W. 1994. The Invention of the White Race, Vol. 1. London: Verso. Amin, Samir. 1990. Maldevelopment. London: Zed Books. Amin, Samir. 1991. The interlinkage between agricultural revolution and industrialisation: Alternative strategies for African development. In Adedeji, Adebayo, Teriba, Owodunni & Bugembe, Patrick (eds). The Challenge of African Economic Recovery and Development London: Frank Cass. Baldwin, James. 1985. The Price of the Ticket. New York: St Martins/Marek. Baran, Paul A. 1961. The commitment of the intellectual. Monthly Review, Bennett, Lerone, Jr. 1975. The Shaping of Black America. Chicago: Johnson Publishing Co. Bernal, Martin. 1987. Black Athena. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press. Bottomore, TB (ed). 1963. Economic and philosophical manuscripts. In Karl Marx: Early Writings. New York: McGraw-Hill. Chinweizu, K. 1975. The West and the Rest of Us. New York: Vintage Books. Cosin, BR (ed). 1972. Education: Structure and Society. Harmondsworth: Penguin. Diop, Cheikh Anta. 1974. The African Origin of Civilization. New York: Lawrence Hill. Fortune. 1994. Your company's most valuable asset: intellectual capital. 3 October, 24-33. Frobenius, Leo. 1973. Leo Frobenius: 1873-1973, edited by Eike Haberland. Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner. Fromm, Erich. 1991. The Sane Society. London: Routledge. Fugard, A. 1984. The Blood Knot. London: ICON. Isaac, Erich. 1964. Relations between the Hebrew Bible and Africa. Jewish Social Studies, 26, 87-98. Jordan, Winthrop D. 1974. The White Man's Burden: Historical Origins of Racism in the United States. New York: Oxford University Press. Karrier, Clarence J. 1967. Man, Society and Education. Glenview: Scott Foresman. Kwapong, Alex A. 1973. Ghana. In Perkins, James A & Israel, Barbara Baird (eds). Higher Education: From Autonomy to Systems, 203-204. Washington, D.C.: Voice of America Forum Series.

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12 Mandel, Ernest. 1989. Beyond Perestroika. London: Verso. Marx, Karl. 1963. Economic and philosophical manuscripts. In Bottomore, TB (ed). Karl Marx: Early Writings. New York: McGraw-Hill. Mengisteab, Kidane. 1996. Globalization and Autocentricity in Africa's Development in the 21st Century. Trenton: Africa World Press. Stringer, CB & Andrews, P. 1988. Genetic and fossil evidence for the origins of modern humans. Science, 239 (4845), March, 1263-1268. Time. 1994. 31 October, 55. Time. 1995. 13 November, 45. Williams, Chancellor. 1976. The Destruction of Black Civilization. Chicago: Thirld World Press.

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Index A

academic liberty 31 access expansion of 26 to higher education 15 to information 28 to rural areas 21-22 accreditation systems 23 adolescence 85 adult education 205 African experience 111-112 African humanism (Kaunda) 103 Africanism 116-117 Africanization 4 African renaissance 108-109,115-116,194 African Slave Trade 194, 196, 197 Afrocentric orientation 119 Afrocentrism 107-109 agricultural research 41 agricultural revolution 200, 204 agricultural science 128-130 ancestors 73, 167 ancestral lands 170 ancient Africans' expertise 126-128 antiseptic surgery 130 architectural design 126 art 74, 207 artistic sense 208 assessment double standards of 121 quality of 21 astrology 127 astronomy 124-125, 127 authenticity 104-106 autonomy at universities 31 through reform 140 B Bantu Education Act of 1953 161 basic education 20 Black Consciousness Movement (Biko) 103 botho, see humanism, ubuntu brain drain 24-25, 28-29 business administration 16

c

Caesarean operation 130 calendar 125 capitalist civilization 195

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careerist (functionalist) intellectuals 149-150 Cartesian truth 64 chemistry 124 Christianity 195 Christian National Education 64 civilizations, African 86-88 civil society-university relations 32 collaborative initiatives (research) 55 collective responsibility 68 collectivity 71 colonial administration 39 colonial higher education 12-13 colonialism 120 colonial political thought 142-143 communality 71, 182 communication sciences 16 technologies 29 community 71, 181 community-based research 53 community initiatives 189 cooperation in graduate training 30-31 international 33-35 cooperative community farming 183-184, 190 cooperative skills 189 coordination policy 22-23 corporal punishment 187 course schedules 40 crisis in education 196-201 crop science 138 cultural practices 123, 132 cultural violence 5 culture context of 51 diversity of 187 people's 168 curricula in higher education 18-20, 40 in schools 202-210 D Dar es Salaam School 3 decolonization 2 of mind 142 democratization 8-9 dependecia approach (Latin America) 3 dependency syndrome 142

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development needs 203-204 policy 202-203 thinking 3 developmental university 15-16 diversity of culture 187, 188 documentation 43-44 domestication of cattle 128-129 donors-university relations 32-33 E economy, extroverted 41 educational discourse 18 7-190 educational institutions, governance of 208-209 'Education for liberation' 161 elementary school 204 emigration 24-25, 31 empowerment 6 endogenistic orientation 3 endogenization 4 engineering skills 128 environmental science 52 epistemological crisis 144-145 equatorial-tropical prism 86-88 equipment for research 30 equity in gender 162 in education 15 esotericism 86 ethical issues 185-186 ethnomathematicians 132, 133 ethnoscience 132-133 Eurocentric epistemology 54 Eurocentrism 108, 120 evaluation 21 evolution historical 88 human 84 exact sciences 9 3 existentialism 104-105 expression, methods of 93 extracurricular education 93-94 F female students 15 financial assistance 26-28 financial resources 14,161-163 folk tales 167, 189 food crisis 200 formal education systems 141,145, 160 fractal geometry 132 functionalism equilibrium theories 2-3

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functionalist (careerist) intellectuals 149-150 fundamental pedagogics 64 funding agencies 33, 162 G gender equity 162 genesis amnesia 5 geographical location 26 geometrical concepts 132, 133 government-university relations 31-32 grants 2 7 H healers 168 herbal medicine 168 higher education financing of 2 6-2 7 function of 17 in Africa today 14-15 origin in Africa 12 preparation for 21-22 historical evolution 88 historic relativity 98 history of African continent 114-116 teaching of 98 honorary Western nationality 121 human capital 202-203 conduct 185-187 evolution 84 sciences 52 potential 49 humanism (ubuntu) 70, 179-180, 182-184 humanities 213-214 human resources 27-28 for research 30 I identification of violence 4-6 identity, individual and family 70-73 idioms and proverbs 76-79 inauthenticity 104-106 independence 2 indigenization 3 indigenous education 113-116 indigenous knowledge systems 119,132, 133,160 Indigenous Knowledge Systems Programme 134 indigenous liberation philosophy 163

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indigenous philosophies 64, 66-74, 75-79 indigenous spirituality 74-75, 165 individual identity 71 indoctrination 160 industrialization 200 industrial revolution, American 204 information access to 29 and research 97 omission of 120 sciences 16 storage 30 technology 29, 43 informed desires 185, 190 initiation 8 7 institutional nomadism 43 intellectual consultants 150 intellectuals, African 146, 147-151, 198 interconnectedness 68-70 interdependence 68-70, 71, 189 international communication 43 international cooperation 33-34 charter for 35 international development theory 2-A international institutions 146 International Monetary Fund 39 Internet 44 interrelatedness 68-70 intervention, domains of 96-97 Iron Age furnaces 124

J job market 40, 41 Jomtien World Conference on Education for All 14, 94-95 K knowledge African 122-131 foundations of 112-113 indigenous 54-55, 132, 133, 160 production 47 systems 119 knowledge-making process 144 L laboratories 29, 30 Lagos Plan of Action 22 land-grant colleges 203 land ownership 68

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language(s) 19, 42, 74 African 90-92 context 51-52 policies 43, 169-170 teaching methods 204, 205-206 learning nature of 17 process of 144 liberation philosophies 163-170 libraries 29 life and spirit 74 linguistics 98 literacy 159 loans 2 7 lumpen intellectuals 150-151

M magic square, science of 127 management of universities 29 mass communication technology 203 mass-man (Heidegger) 105 material resources 27-28 mathematics 124-128, 204-205 measuring systems 127 medical science 168 medicine faculties of 16 indigenous 129 plant 129 metallurgy 123-124 migration 2 8 mines, ancient 127-128 missionary education 161 modernization school 152 moral concept 188 Mother Earth, caring for 68 multicountry systems 23 multidimensionality 71 multilingualism 206 museumization 121 mythology and legends 76-79, 167 myths 189 N NTIC (new technologies of information and communication) 43-44 names and titles 73 narratives, indigenous 167 nationalist-ideological philosophy 163 nationality, honorary Western 121 nature 73-75 nautical sciences 128 negritude (Senghor) 103

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Newtonian-Cartesian epistemologies 63, 66 numeration system 126 numerology 127 O occultism 86 on-the-job training 205 oral traditions 75-79,130 organic intellectuals 149

P

Pan-African ideal 95-199 Pan-Africanism (Nkrumah) 96, 103 parents and education 168 Pas, Octavia (Mexican poet) 3 pedagogy, critical 50-52 personal wellbeing 184-185 philosophies, African 9-10, 19, 75-79 philosophizing, meaning of 180-181 philosophy african distinctiveness 110-111 central assumptions 181-187 in multicultural world 109-110 of education 64 physics 124 planning, strategic 25 plant medicine 129 pluralism 71 policy, national educational 16-17 policy-making 7 political thought and education 142 polytechnic institutes 23, 204-205 post-apartheid Azania 161-163 post-colonial-apartheid era 64-66 practical value 8-9 pre-Christian calendars 125 precolonial era 12 2-131 preschool education 210 pressure groups 29 pre-university preparation 22 private institutions 208-209 private universities 24 proverbs 76-79,189 public campaign 203 public institutions 208, 209 public schools, black 162

Q quality assessment and evaluation 21,27 of education 16 of research 16 quota system 22

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R 'racial slavery' 194 racism 19 7 radical struggle 164 'received social sciences' 144-145 relevance in education 16 religion 74,167 religious denominations 24 remedial courses 22 research capacity 29-30 collaborative 55-56 educational 20-21 in mathematics 132-134 institutes 56 promotion of 50-56 system 41-42 responsibility, personal 67-68 revitalization of universities 25-35 revolutionary education developing theory 163-164 steps towards 170-172 reward systems 28 Rostowian model of development 152 rumours and innuendo 121 rural communities 169

S

sagacity philosophy 163, 170 saints 167 scholarships 27, 39,40 science 204-205 and technology 41, 47^48, 50, 119 culture 53 history of 120 research in 132-134 teaching of 131-13 2 scientific information 34 scientific method 52 school(s) boards 209 reforms 51 role of 51 self-healing 67-68 self-transformation 47 social barriers 92-93 social organization 86 social science 2, 144 education 52 research 50 social transformation 50 sociocultural contexts 70-73 socio-economic adancement 50

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socioeducational transformation 160 socioethical thought 179 sociology, new 3 soothsayers 168 Soweto student insurrection 161 spiritual contexts 70-73 spiritual ecology 74 spirituality 74 spiritual wisdoms 64, 66-79 state universities 203 storytellers 168, 189 struggle for truth 8 subsistence crops 41 subsistence economies 183-184 surgery 129-130 symbolic violence 5

T teaching methods of 204-205 nature of 17 technikons 204-205, 209 technological artefacts 122-123 technological systems 122-131 technology 41, 47-48, 50, 119, 131 tertiary education 14, 15, 204 tertiary institutions 53-55, 57, 209 textile technology (Nigeria) 123 traditional healers (izangoma) 66-67 traditions and practices 18 transformation (Makgoba) 103

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U ubuntu (humanism) 70, 72-73, 179-180, 182-183 Ujamaa (Nyere) 103 unity human 71 in diversity 69 universities African 199, 201 black 162-163 earliest 12-13 as teaching institution 39 management of 2 9 Universal Declaration of Human Rights 39-40 V Vasconcelos (Mexican intellectual) 3 Verwoerdian philosophy 64 violence cultural 5 precision identification of 4-6 symbolic 5 W Western education 160-161 'whole' person 207-208 women, roles of 166-167, 170 World Bank 3 9 world-views 75-79, 119 writing systems, precolonial 130-131

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