African Philosophy

Decolonising education in Africa: implementing the right to education by re-appropriating culture and indigeneity

“…165 Hallen marshals arguments which highlight the fact that resistance to the possibility of African thought shows that our paradigmatic conception of knowledge is impervious to contestation and does not take into account the prospect of plurality of thought. 166 The core of education in precolonial Africa was the spiritual and intellectual Decolonising education in Africa openness to debate and discourse that Freire advocates is a cornerstone of quality education, be it in the turfed turrets of Timbuktu, the consecrated corridors of Cambridge or the hallowed halls of Harvard. Because education is a socialisation tool, 180 contestation within academia will enable the worldview to evolve in line with the thinking of society, rather than setting up an exogenous worldview in eternal opposition to the endogenous one.…”

“…188 Spivak argues that epistemic equal attention would be given to all forms of knowledge: 203 African identity would focus on 'looking out' rather than 'measuring up'; identity would be self-constructed, capable of dynamism, rather than exogenously constructed and static. 204 National development requires citizens who can self-actualise and self-construct the desired future. Implementation of human rights in Africa should focus on the African mind as well as the African body, thus preserving human dignity.…”

“…As Hallen argues, knowledge should be democratised, and not defined by reference to a particular cultural worldview. 196 Promoting a dominant worldview silences the non-dominant views. 197 Knowledge that is anywhere should be knowledge everywhere.…”