The onset of the colonial period in the 19th century marked the beginning of the end for traditional African education.
European forces, missionaries, and colonists all came ready and willing to change existing traditions to meet their own needs and ambitions. Colonial powers such as Spain, Portugal, Belgium and France colonized the continent without putting in a system of education.
Because the primary focus of colonization was reaping benefits from commercial colonial economies, cash crop production, extraction of raw materials, other physically laborious tasks were prioritized.
These economies did not expand to require jobs of a higher skill set or more labor, therefore intensive labor that required little skill was high in demand. Because of such circumstances there was little demand to educate or train the colonized populations.
Furthermore, colonial powers were unwilling to offer education to those they colonized unless it benefited them.
Either colonial powers did not view investing in African education as a practical use of their revenue or they refrained from educating Africans in order to avoid any uprisings.
Those in positions of authority were in fear of access to widespread access to higher education specifically.
Colonial powers often found themselves in a debate whether or not to educate their colonized populations and if so, to what extent.
Specifically, the British Education Committee of the Privy Council advocated for vocational education and training rather than one focused on academia.
This vocational training however neglected professions such as engineering, technology, or similar subjects. Instead the vocational training had a dominant racial overtone which stressed African training for skills fitting with their assumed social and mental inadequacy. Notably, the Belgians under King Leopold prohibited access to higher education in their colonies whereas other colonial powers put in barriers in infrastructure or access such as limiting language of instruction to the language of the colonizer, limits on teaching curriculums, and ensuring the curriculum did not reflect any Afro-ethnicity.
By demanding that communities create physical schools with strict curriculum, the foreign powers were able to dictate what the people learned, adjusting it to further their agenda.
This not only forced new form and content to education, but abandoned the knowledge gained from the largely informal education.
With less community awarenaess, efficiency in learning skills, and especially understanding of the past, African communities began to dwindle in education and prosperity. Aspects of colonialism are still prevalent in African countries that struggled to escape effects of colonization today.
Between the 1950s and 1990s, African countries finally regained their independence.
With this recovered freedom, they began to rebuild their traditional forms of education. What had inevitably evolved, however, was a hybrid of the two models.
With the collaboration of donor agencies and Western demand, pushes for development of African education and the building of human capital dominated global conversation.
Namely, the 1960s were known as the First Development Decade by the UN.
Policymakers prioritized secondary and tertiary education before also setting their sights for universal primary education around 1980.
This set the precedent for educational planning. Although children and adults may learn from their families and community, a sense of individuality has also developed that today both drives ingenuity and creates separation between groups and cultural tradition.
To be Continued…
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