Dialectical Anthropology 26: 325–342, 2001. © 2001 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.

325

Beyond Politics and Praxis: Educational Challenges in Contemporary Africa MICHAEL C. MBABUIKE Hostos Community College, City University of New York, 500 Grand Concourse, Bronx NY 1051

Beyond political rhetoric, the fundamental and profound interdependence in Africa between education and political, economic and social progress is now well established. During the 1950s and 60s with the mushrooming of newly independent African nations, UNESCO, OECD and the academic community were articulating the essentiality of education in African and other developing countries.1 In exploring the links between education and human progress, the tendency has rightly been to highlight educational needs in terms of illiteracy eradication, primary and secondary education, technical education and, of course, higher education – all with a view to achieving rapid economic growth and development in a social and politically stable environment. But the crucial problem of education and human progress in Africa may require a fundamental rethinking in the twenty first century. Education in the orthodox sense in which it is pursued in Africa may not be the panacea that once was assumed. One may even assert that, ironically, it has in part been the source of Africa’s retrogression. The persistence of illiteracy, poverty, underdevelopment and political instability in Africa – that can easily be projected well into the twenty first century – is abundant testimony to the need for a fresh look at the role of education in Africa. An important caveat must be made from the outset: Sub-Sahara Africa is a complexity of independent countries – each with its own history, culture and unique social, economic, political and educational problems. Nevertheless, it is feasible and useful to take a macro look at educational problems and their consequences, based on the common denominator of the legacy of colonialism and Western influence and the role of Africans themselves. Much of the obfuscative education prescriptions in Africa and other developing nations stem from a multitude of sympathetic theories of development – some of which are confused, contradictory or even impractical for the African reality. From structural functionalism to modernization theories, to human capital theories to Marxist theories, to liberation theories, etc., all have, in one way or another, attempted to explain human progress or development

326

MICHAEL C. MBABUIKE

in terms of economic indicators, population, quality of life or some aspect of power relations. The intention here is not a simplistic reductionism of theories of human progress and development. It is basically to state that implicitly or explicitly, the variety of theories, a priori, assume that education is the fundamental propulsion behind social transformation. This assumption is not in dispute; but formal education, while necessary, is far from sufficient to derail Africa’s ongoing retrogression relative to the rest of the world. As early as 1961 when newly independent African states were emerging, Herbert S. Parnes argued that “. . . however important education may be as an instrument for achieving the relevant goals of a society, it rarely if ever is the only required factor. This is perhaps clearest with respect to the objective of stimulating economic growth. With all due respect to the contribution that education can make in this context, it clearly cannot be viewed as a magic formula for solving all of the problems of economic development. There are a host of interrelated cultural, economic and political problems that may be responsible for inhibiting economic growth and the removal of these obstacles clearly demands a many faceted approach, of which the improvement of the human resources of the economy is but one aspect.”2 Indeed, there has been an overemphasis at a vague abstract level of belief that education is a magic formula for solving Africa’s almost incomparable social problems. Parnes’ argument was a very early warning pointing to the complexity of education in the transformation of society. There are at least three key interrelated factors that continue to shape human progress in all its varieties in Africa: culture, education and change. The way in which the African elites grapple with these factors in the twenty-first century will determine whether or not Africa becomes the de facto ward of the industrialized West while it clings to de jure independence. Since culture plays a key role in human progress, the question of whether education or culture preceded the other does not lead to the chicken and egg debate. Social scientists have long convincingly established that the individual is born into society and that society immediately begins influencing, educating and socializing him/her. If the individual is born into culture, it follows that the culture itself is a consequence of adapting to natural and social environmental realities. This endless process entails learning (education) and creating culture simultaneously. Change enters the process because the relation between culture and education is never static. Culture and education are therefore not simply interrelated; they are indeed conjoined twins. If the two are conjoined, it is fair to maintain that education – with a view to dramatically improving quality of life in a highly competitive global system – must wholeheartedly and firmly embrace the fluidity and flexibility inherent in fundamental or structural change.

BEYOND POLITICS AND PRAXIS

327

For too long in Africa, there has been an overemphasis on education for development – as if a simple total elimination of illiteracy, radical increase in primary, secondary, higher education, and vocational education would be the solution to Africa’s grave problems of relative backwardness. On the above point Parnes is relevant, even after four decades: “On the philosophical question, first let me admit to my own bias which is that decisions with respect to how much and what kinds of education a society should have, should not – and in indeed must not – be made in terms of economic considerations alone. The institution of education serves a number of individual and social purposes in any society, and all of these must be kept in mind when policy decisions are made . . . The role of education in molding the human resources is quite obvious. But no less important is the contribution of education in providing the citizenry with an understanding of the technological, economic, social and political forces that influence their lives.”3 To understand the forces Parnes describes is to appreciate the sad state of affairs of African education. It is to recognize a one-dimensional attitude of social progress that employs education as the simple tool for improving the quality of life of a people. Implicit in Parnes’ argument about “the contribution of education” is the absolutely vital point about the need to thoroughly grasp not only the importance of education to human progress, but also to embrace its irrevocable undermining of traditional values and the quiet comfort and security of traditional forms of stability. If Africa is “no longer at ease,” if “things are falling apart,” the role of African education and literature is not simply to describe, satirize or lament. Such a role can only be seen as an integral part of a thriving onedimensional view that arrests the vast competitive potentials of the African continent. If culture and education are conjoined twins, it is totally illusory to expect that African society can be held at an almost static traditional constant while the two variables interact with such forces as international capitalism/consumerism, neo-colonialism, the exchange of ideas, etc. Structural change clearly is the sine qua non of Africa’s redemption. This means the infusion of revolutionary educational attitudes and values into the African traditional mindset. The outcome of a revolutionary educational value system is not likely to be identical to the Western value system and culture – as some nationalists, traditionalists and purists are likely to claim. African culture is resilient. But the African tragedy par excellence is to harbor the illusion that African society and culture can remain static within a structural-functionalism mode of reality in which concessions are constantly made to the new forces of change to preserve traditional culture in tact. The assumption in such a scenario is that

328

MICHAEL C. MBABUIKE

the “African mind” is a tabula rasa into which information and knowledge can be pumped and controlled indefinitely – without independent questions and challenges. African culture may be resilient but like all human cultures, it is not static. A cursory examination of the history of Western education in Africa clearly shows that the “African mind” and culture are not only amenable to change but also quite astute in challenging the colonial oppressor. It is well known that the earliest history of Western education in Africa was the result of Christian missionaries and their collaboration with imperialism and colonialism. The post-colonial period brought little formal public expression of gratitude to missionaries from their erstwhile colonial collaborators but the indisputable fact is that missionary educational activities buttressed colonial administration as it pursued exploitation and domination of the African peoples. Prior to the onslaught of Western penetration of Africa, much of African education was characterized by practical preparation for life and transmission of culture. Education was essentially a practical adaptation to the African natural environment, culture and society. The arrival of Western missionary academic education created a strong yearning in Africans for Western education. H.F. Makulu argues that “By creating the desire for education, the missions had indirectly fostered the needs of the African Revolution.”4 Just as Western education planted the seeds which “fostered the needs of the African Revolution” so also must the seeds be planted for a new revolutionary approach to African education. There is no logical or practical reason to assume – as nationalists, traditionalists and purists do quixotically – that the authenticity of African culture can be preserved indefinitely. Change is inevitable and no social construction can be said to be permanent in human affairs. The resiliency of African culture neither implies that it is unchanging, or that there should be fear it will be superceded by the onslaught of a global culture dominated by Western values. What we are currently witnessing in Africa is the metamorphosis of culture propelled by education and new ideas. The outcome so far is a slowly developing cultural hybrid which is neither purely African nor predominantly Western. But the tragic irony in this evolution is that the educational propulsion has significantly steered Africa in a retrogressive and authoritarian cultural direction. And so, relative to the business of nation-building, development and human progress, even after the historical record is adjusted for Western enslavement of Africans, colonialism, imperialism, etc., Africa still comes out with an unimpressive record. With this depressing reality has emerged a defensive nostalgic response, intended to recapture Africa’s glorious past as a means of refuge and

BEYOND POLITICS AND PRAXIS

329

consolation, rather than fundamentally rethinking the philosophy of African education. At a 1960 Addis Abba conference, post-independent Africa committed itself to a minimum of primary education for all citizens. While this commitment is essential, it does not start at the crucial beginning of pre-primary education. Nigeria, for example, Africa’s most populous country, has yet to give serious consideration to this level of education. B. Oguntosin makes this very clear: “Unfortunately, Government involvement in pre-primary education is limited to regulatory functions such as ensuring standards and teachers’ education. Government in its education policy made no provision for education of children 0–2 years. Even within the age of 2–5 years, the percentage of enrollment is quite low; only 4.7% of the estimated 19.3% children in this age break were enrolled in 1986. It is however recognized that some forms of pre-education outside the policy requirements exist in rural and urban areas.”5 The Nigerian case, like all cases of backwardness in African education, has its roots in Western plunder via imperialism and colonialism. As early as 1515 Portuguese merchants had introduced Western education in Benin. Although slow to take off, by 1842 Nigeria had its first mission school in Badagry. Subsequently, mission schools were built in Abeokuta, Badagry, Lagos, Ibadan, etc.6 No such missionary educational activities occurred in the North – in part because of an agreement between the British and the emirs “that Christian missionaries should not be admitted to the emirates without consent of the emirs.”7 The establishment of an educational system at the crucial pre-primary school level was never on the missionary/colonial agenda; it would have been counterproductive to colonial economic and political objectives. One must concur with M. Olu Odusina that “There were no philosophical principles guiding Western educational system for many years. It was only when the National Policy on Education (FRN, 1977–1981) finally crawled in, that it was expected to form a springboard frame from which all curricula developed in Nigeria would take off.”8 Small wonder then, that the legacy of pre-primary school neglect persists not only in Nigeria but throughout the continent. If there has been a troublesome historical neglect to stimulate African minds from their most tender and impressionable beginnings, one cannot expect an avalanche of fundamentally new ideas and philosophical challenges to the relatively conservative education orthodoxy that has superceded colonial education in Africa – as reflected in current curriculum development. In actuality, the heart of the problem is the legacy of a colonial curriculum. This “new” curriculum is refurbished in seemingly optimistic and progressive language by education professionals. Their well-intentioned aim is nationbuilding, economic and social progress – a progress whose purpose is to

330

MICHAEL C. MBABUIKE

enable Africans to compete with the brightest and best around the world. And yet, since independence, Africa remains educationally retrogressive, with its brilliant minds in abeyance. The colonial etiology of the post-independence education orthodoxy is well illustrated in the following missionary diary from Nigeria: “. . . first tell them a short, simple Bible story, and let them tell it to us again, to see that they remember it, and take it in. Then we teach them a text, or a verse of a hymn, and last quarter of an hour is always given in all the classes to teaching by repetition some catechism, and sometimes for a change we have the whole school together to go over the creed, the Lord’s Prayer, and the Ten Commandments, to make sure they are not forgotten.”9 The post-independence legacy in education is no doubt a far more sophisticated variation of the above diary description of didactic pedagogism. But the fundamental point is its continuing tendency to reinforce authoritarian pedagogic values that have become refined in some classroom situations and crude in others. This legacy is producing African minds that are intensely educated in specific areas of regurgitative information and broadly ignorant in others. It is an authoritarian education system that at its advanced levels prepares a student to compete very favorably, but tragically without developing first-rate imagination and creativity to make Africa competitive in the international market of ideas and technology. It is also an educational system that basically prepares Africans to service the economy at the nonintellectual level. This state of affairs is reminiscent of the inferior education of African Americans, Hispanics and other recent immigrants occupying American inner cities. They assure the economy of a steady flow of exploitable workers, whose almost one-dimensional goal is horizontal economic mobility. The nature of this labor force inadvertently reinforces the unspoken and unwritten limits of vertical mobility set by the dominant group in society. The post-independence legacy in education has also created confusion between procedural and substantive democracy. Changu Mannathoko notes that “generically, Botswana citizens are under the misconception that democracy is a macro-level issue focusing on parliament and elections. To most Botswana (Botswana citizens), it is this macro-level democracy that has produced three decades of uninterrupted political stability and an economic boom in the 1980s and 1990s.”10 The core of Mannathoko’s argument is the fact that economic success has failed to foster broad democratic values as well as “qualitative improvements in democratic practice in institutions such as schools, colleges, the university and in civil society.”11 The problem is widespread throughout Africa and significantly helps to explain the circular and static equilibrium of African education. If a culture or society is resistant to fundamental structural changes, it attempts to perpetuate itself through a

BEYOND POLITICS AND PRAXIS

331

narrow political socialization process of education. The outcome is a culture and society that insists on broadly defined obedience within an authoritarian context. The authoritarian context begins not at the pre-primary school level, but with parents who themselves were reared on an authoritarian cultural diet. And so the static equilibrium persists indefinitely, at least such is the illusion of those who resist change. It may be theorized that the conjoined twins of education and culture have moved through several developmental conditions, beginning with “African authenticity,” colonial corruption, to a potpourri post-colonial period – all within the context of a somewhat static equilibrium that explains Africa’s retrogression and non-competitiveness (see Figure 1). Whether or not this state of affairs is structurally and irrevocably altered hinges on the creation of a radically new vision by educators and the various elites. There is considerable valid and useful discussion of the current potpourri period in African education. But because many of the wellintentioned observations and criticisms do not, in principle, suggest sufficient cataclysmic changes – the world’s second largest continent is increasingly settling into yet another development condition that is substantively authoritarian but procedurally increasingly democratic. This “new” developmental condition can be appreciated through the genuine efforts of critics and advocates of change. Many education professionals continue to call for a democratic educational environment, contrasting its context explicitly or implicitly with the authoritarian alternative. Thus, Clive Harber notes “Democratic education differs significantly from authoritarian schooling. It does not begin with a set of existing answers to be learned and repeated. There is no ‘successful’ outcome in terms of the nature of opinions held by students. It stresses the ability to make up ones own mind after consideration and discussion of relevant evidence.”12 This apparent laudable definition and vision of education can be found in numerous critical prescriptions on the theme of African education. Oguntosin, for instance, offers a parallel definition and vision of education: “Knowledge is power, and education – of the child, the parent, the community – a process of empowerment. The task of education is to provide meaningful and relevant learning opportunities, fostering growth and the realization of the capacities inherent in people.”13 Still another parallel variation – so typical of professional experts on African education – is reflected in Amal Datta’s views. He expresses the general concerns of the above educators but raises questions about possible implications of authoritarian pedagogy for political docility: “In most African schools the classroom is highly structured in terms of the formal distribution of space. The teacher in the classroom exercises unquestioned authority in

332

MICHAEL C. MBABUIKE

Figure 1.

BEYOND POLITICS AND PRAXIS

333

such matters as seating arrangements and movement. He not only initiates the activities to be pursued by pupils but also controls communication channels and all types of interaction with the groups. We do not know the extent to which this kind of classroom environment determines the political orientation of pupils, but if supplemented by other factors, is likely to encourage passive acceptance of authority in later years.”14 The aforementioned examples illustrate the lingering core orthodoxy of a hackneyed and benign perspective on African education. Few would challenge the apparent reasonableness of a goal of education which “stresses the ability to make up one’s own mind,” or the belief that “knowledge is power, and education – of the child, the parent, the community – a process of empowerment” – or that an authoritarian system of education “is likely to encourage passive acceptance of authority in later years.” The fundamental problem with such critical visions of African education is their continuing operation within the paradigm of post-colonial vision of Africa’s development. This one step forward and two steps backward paradigm accounts for a significant part of Africa’s retrogression. The operating potpourri paradigm of African education fails to provide a systematic philosophical foundation of educational principles that move beyond lofty and static clichés of objectives and that eschew gratuitous academic eloquence in describing educational problems. What Africa desperately needs is a well-articulated overarching philosophy of education that is uncompromising in its principles and powerfully subversive in promoting “mindful,” as opposed to “mindless” thinking. The raison d’être of such a philosophy of education should be twofold: 1) a relentless subversion of the post-independence paradigm of education – which at its best basically prepares Africans for outpost duties in the service of Western economic, ideological, cultural and political interests. 2) to confront traditional cultural variables that militate against mindfulness in progressive education. The ultimate goal of confrontation ought to be jettisoning impediments, impediments which at previous historical junctions were meaningful and useful but which in the twenty-first century have proved anachronistic and antithetical to mindful thinking. There is always a delicate risk of offending cultural nationalists, traditionalists and a phalanx of African intellectuals, who may have strong psychological, spiritual, hereditary, political or economic attachments to certain cultural traditions. Indeed, there is considerable danger that advocating a jettisoning of cultural impediments may be construed as a priori disrespectful and destructive of African culture. As noted earlier, culture and education are conjoined. Culture itself is a symbolic social construction that is always subject to change. Although it consists of “webs of significance” that humans

334

MICHAEL C. MBABUIKE

have spun to provide meaning and stability in society, it is not immutable. Symbols are resources designed to deal with issues and problems in society. Culture cannot realistically be maintained at a constant when its conjoined twin, education, is radically rethinking the African condition. People in any given culture may share the meanings of that culture at both abstract and practical levels. But a monolithic uniformity of cultural mindlessness is impracticable. Agents of cultural change – notwithstanding their emotional attachments to symbolic social constructions – possess the perspicacity to grasp the increasing outdatedness of a particular symbolic social construction. Africa’s retrogression can only be halted by such agents.

The educational system A macro analysis of Africa’s educational problems must begin with a discussion of traditional or pre-colonial education and culture. The purpose of culture is obviously more than designing symbolic social constructions to answer man’s deepest needs. Culture must also be transmitted to succeeding generations in order to survive, and it is through education that it is accomplished. Traditional African education was the means by which culture was transmitted from one generation to another. The post-independence paradigm of African education bears the legacy of both traditional and Western educational values. Magnus O. Bassey argues that “In pre-colonial Africa, it was the duty of education to sort out worthwhile traditions and to transmit these traditions from one generation to the next . . . in traditional society skills, knowledge and attitudes were acquired and transmitted through nonformal institutions: These include parents, age-grades, secret societies and so forth.”15 Traditional African education was basically what Chuka Eze Okonkwo describes as a “cultural action” whose objective was “creating attitudes and habits considered necessary for participation and intervention in one’s historical process.”16 There was a kind of double-edge sword to African traditional education. On the one hand, it was characterized by conserving cultural values and requiring strict adherence to them. Socialized members of society were expected to conform to their respective roles, and core values were seldom challenged – a situation that is sometimes nostalgically and emotionally yearned for in the African novel. African education stressed the importance of marriage, respect for age, love and unity. Of particular importance in the African curriculum was the notion of the precedence of the clan over the immediate family. Okonokwo contends that “From the time a child was born, he was taught that although he bore the name of the immediate

BEYOND POLITICS AND PRAXIS

335

family into which he was born, he was first and foremost a child of the clan.”17 This aspect of the curriculum – perhaps more than any other – provided the individual with a sense of a variety of educational and stable cultural authorities. The drawback to the relative restrictive nature of clan authority was that it could sometimes become indistinguishable from clan authoritarianism. If the traditional African educational system is not to be romanticized, this reality, which facilitated colonial catechized education, needs to be acknowledged. It is true that traditional pedagogical philosophical methodology dovetailed with colonial education, but its content was also antagonistic to the foreign looters. The fundamental point to be made is not that traditional African education embraced aspects of authoritarianism but that it successfully prepared the individual to meet the needs of his total environment at various evolutionary junctures. If, on the one hand, traditional African education was conservation oriented, on the other hand, it also dovetailed with colonial pedagogy – with unintended consequences. Okonkwo observes that “Other themes the traditional curriculum stressed were honesty and chastity. The teaching of the importance of being honest was so effectively done that in traditional societies there were no lawyers, since there were no liars. Judgment was based on true evidence given – more so, after one had sworn by his ancestors.”18 Achebe, who inspires Okonkwo’s observation, makes the argument about honesty clear in A Man of the People: “If our people understand nothing else, they know that a man who takes money from another in return for service must render that service or remain vulnerable to that man’s just revenge.”19 The intention here is not to idolize traditional African culture and education in terms of honesty. Africa had no monopoly over honesty any more than Western man has a monopoly over evil. The purpose here is merely to argue that a complex interaction between traditional African culture and its Western counterpart led to a coalescence of moral and intellectual honesty that eventually fuelled the challenge to colonialism. A complex psychological and intellectual insight on the part of Africans played the pivotal role in the de-colonization process. Traditional African education, with a focus on socialization of the individual to fulfill his or her societal obligations, was arrogantly and erroneously believed to be incapable of transcending the practical or mundane. In fact, in 1842 a Royal Commission sent to West Africa to evaluate missionary education in Sierra Leone, Gambia and the then Gold Coast concluded that “missionaries were wasting their time with the current educational fare because the underdeveloped African intellectual faculties precluded retention of abstractions. The curriculum should be scrapped and the children taught to work.”20 The positive contribution of traditional African education in the

336

MICHAEL C. MBABUIKE

process of de-colonization is rarely systematically recognized. The attention is almost always on the role of Western education – that is, on African elites educated at missionary schools or abroad. The complex and positive contribution of traditional and Western education is once again vital in effecting radical change in Africa. The problem of retrogression in African education is related to the issue of quality and quantity in education. This issue is not unique to Africa but it is particularly grave in light of Africa’s economic stagnation, ethnic conflicts, rapid population growth, famine, poverty, health problems such as AIDS, etc. Almost by any international standard of human development index, nearly all of Sub-Saharan Africa is regressing. And so the issue of quality and quantity in education becomes a burning question. The UNDP in 1990 redefined the criteria for human development to “cover all aspects of human life . . . far beyond narrowly defined economic development to cover the full flourishing of all human choices. It emphasized the need to put people – their needs, their aspirations and their capabilities at the center of the development effort.”21 According to UNESCO, Sub-Saharan Africa spent 5.2% of national budgets on education in 1980 and 4.6% in 1990 – percentages surpassed only by most developed nations and Arab states (UNESCO, 1993). But the high expenditure is compounded by high population growth rates. One expert has noted that “Projections of world population growth indicate that Africa will be the most rapidly growing region at least until 2025. While the total world population is expected to increase by 60%, the number in Africa is expected to more than double, going from (640) million in 1990 to nearly 1.6 billion in 2025.”22 If Africa’s population is rapidly increasing, and if human development indexes are far from impressive as seen in Table 1, it is unrealistic to expect continuous high expenditure on education. The issue of quality and quantity therefore becomes fundamental in the decision-making process. In Anglophone West Africa, Table 2 shows an impressive expenditure on education in selected countries. But despite the high investment relative to GNP in the above countries, gross primary school enrollment leaves much to be desired (see Table 3). In addition, the table shows the inequality of enrollment in favor of males. Gross secondary school enrollment is even more grim on all accounts – as seen in Table 4. To argue that Africa is retrogressing in many areas of human progress is to suggest the need for movement beyond lamentation of the condition described in this paper. There is an urgent need for movement towards a philosophical and psychological new paradigm that is no less than cataclysmic in its implications. Paulo Freire recognizes the core of the problem: “The central

337

BEYOND POLITICS AND PRAXIS

Table 1. Sub-Saharan Africa’s Human Development Index (HDI) relative to all countries. High HDI

Medium HDI

Low HDI

None

South Africa – 101 Cape Verde – 107 Namibia – 115 Botswana – 123 Tome + Principe – 123 Gabon – 124 Zimbabwe – 130 Equatorial Guinea – 131 Ghana – 133 Cameroon – 134 Congo – 135 Kenya – 136

Dem. Rep. pf Congo – 141 Sudan – 142 Togo – 143 Nigeria – 146 Madagascar – 147 Mauritania – 140 Zambia – 151 Senegal – 153 Ivory Coast – 154 Benin – 155 Tanzania – 156 Djibouti – 157 Uganda – 158 Malawi – 159 Angola – 160 Guinea – 161 Chad – 162 Gambia – 163 Rwanda – 164 Central African Republic – 165 Mali – 166 Eritrea – 167 Guinea Bissau – 168 Mozambique – 169 Burundi – 170 Burkina Faso – 171 Ethiopia – 172 Niger – 173 Sierra Leone – 174

Source: UNDP, Human Development Report, 1999. Table 2. Selected expenditure on education (West Africa). Country

Percent of GNP

Percent of total govt. expenditure

The Gambia (1991) The Ghana (1990) Liberia (1980) Nigeria (1993) Sierra Leone (1989)

2.7 3.1 5.7 1.7 1.3

12.9 24.3 24.3 12.0 7.3

Source: UNESCO, Statistical Yearbook, 1996.

338

MICHAEL C. MBABUIKE

Table 3. Gross primary school enrollment (%). Country

All

Males

The Gambia (1992) Ghana (1991) Liberia (1986)∗ Nigeria (1994) Sierra Leone (1990)

67 76 – 89 51

79 83 – 100 60

Females 56 70 – 79 42

Source: UNESCO, Statistical Yearbook, 1996. Table 4. Gross secondary school enrollment (%). Country

All

Males

The Gambia (1992) Ghana (1991) Liberia (1986)∗ Nigeria (1994) Sierra Leone (1990)

67 76 – 89 51

79 83 – 100 60

Females 56 70 – 79 42

Source: UNESCO, Statistical Yearbook, 1996.

problem is this: How can the oppressed, as divided, unauthentic beings, participate in developing the pedagogy of their liberation? Only as they discover themselves to be “hosts” of the oppressor can they contribute to the midwifery of their liberating pedagogy. As long as they live in the duality in which to be is to be like, and to be like is to be like the oppressor, this contribution is impossible.”23 One of the central problems facing Africa is indeed oppression. But making an argument from this premise beyond the year 2000 must be far less reductionistic – in terms of evoking the old ogres of colonialism, imperialism, neocolonialism, capitalism, etc. – to explain Africa’s retrogression. To argue this is to reinforce the almost indelible mindset of helplessness and arrested creativity so prevalent among the elites and intellectuals. One obviously must not ignore the history and impact of external oppression but the tendency to substitute that history as excuse for Africa’s own mismanagement, poor planning, inefficiency, corruption and shortsightedness goes a long way towards explaining the spiral nature of Africa’s retrogression. Africans must discover that the “hosts” and the oppressors have almost become one and the same. Freire’s argument may therefore be re-conceptualized thus: only after Africans make the psychological leap in understanding that the hosts and the oppressors are increasingly

BEYOND POLITICS AND PRAXIS

339

becoming identical in their leadership, culture and education – “can they contribute to the midwifery of their liberating pedagogy.” Any liberating pedagogy must incorporate what Ellen Langer describes as mindful thinking. In other words, “A mindful approach to any activity has three characteristics: the continuous creation of new categories; openness to new information; and an implicit awareness of more than one perspective. Mindlessness, in contrast, is characterized by an entrapment in old categories; by automatic behavior that precludes attending to new signals; and by action that operates from a single perspective.”24 Many critiques of Africa’s education tend to center around politics, curriculum standards and definitions of education and fail to break out of outdated post-independence thinking. Even when critiques appear to be “progressive” they continue to be umbilically attached to the status quo’s world view. But the problem of education in Africa, as this paper insists, must be viewed simultaneously with the other conjoined twin: culture. Critiques of education in Africa usually try to be as politically correct as possible. Cultural obstacles are conveniently sidestepped – or the red herring of cultural relativity is introduced to avoid controversy. Jerome Bruner insightfully notes that, “How one conceives of education, we have finally come to recognize, is a function of how one conceives of the culture and its aims professed and otherwise.”25 Virtually all critiques of African education, in one way or another, claim to be synonymous with change. The concept of change is defined here in the Robert Nisbet sense. That is, it “is a succession of differences in time in a persisting identity.”26 Nisbet notes three essential ingredients: “differences,” “in time.” and “persisting identity.” Change implies differences of condition or appearance which must be successive in time and must be persistent. Some of the well-intentioned critiques of the problems of African education often fail to grasp the meaning of change in the process of African history. It is assumed that Africa’s exposure to Western educational values and ideas should logically and automatically standardize the continent’s rhythm and pace of change with that of the West. What is clearly under appreciated is that every society has its own time-order in the process of change. Although it may be significantly influenced by external forces, a culture’s time-order does not necessarily become recessive in the midst of a seemingly dominant force. Indeed in some cases it may stubbornly resist adjustments and cross-fertilization – thereby giving rise to retrogression. Africa’s problems are compounded by the fact that it is possible to find several time-orders among various ethnic and cultural groups, even within the same geographical boundaries. The reality of time-order is essentially a culture’s philosophical orientation or worldview. The challenge for African educators and policy makers

340

MICHAEL C. MBABUIKE

is to synchronize Africa’s traditional values and cultures with an educational pedagogy that uncompromisingly seeks to radically alter the African timeorder landscape – because it has largely failed. Time-order is the universal reality that every culture is based on a philosophical value orientation which is implicit and explicit, and transmitted from one generation to the other. It is, as it were, an almost psychological implantation in individual members – to justify and rationalize distinctiveness, regulate social intercourse, and deeply influence attitudes towards change. In other words, it is a means of responding to the total environment. Time-order is changed only through mindful learning. This means that the grave problem of education and human progress in Africa can only begin to be reversed through a mindful overarching educational paradigm in synchronization with culture. Illiteracy, poverty – and education at the primary, secondary and post-graduate levels – have been perennial problems for Africa; but they cannot be solved within the current paradigm of pedagogical values. There are, no doubt, hazards in advocating the overthrow of the current paradigm for an effective mindful alternative. But “effective education is always in jeopardy either in the culture at large or with constituencies more dedicated to maintaining a status quo than to fostering flexibility. The corollary of this is that when education narrows its scope of interpretive inquiry, it reduces a culture’s power to adapt to change. And in the contemporary world change is the norm.”27 It is unrealistic to discuss Africa’s retrogression without recognizing tremendous external constraints. Most of Africa’s economies are vertically integrated into their Western counterparts. Africa’s economies continue to be dependent on primary exports, which are extremely vulnerable to market forces in the West. Added to these problems are Western lending institutions such as the IMF and World Bank, whose policies of structural adjustment significantly limit government capacity to invest in education and other important social programs. Kevin Danaher summarizes the predicament Africa and other Third World countries face: “Despite the steady decline of Third World economies under the tutelage of economists, from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), these institutions keep insisting that their wise men and their ‘free market’ policies will eventually foster development. Third World leaders are told that in order to get more loans to pay off the old loans, they must implement ‘structural adjustment’ reforms.”28 Profound as they are, Western economic and political constraints on Africa are not insurmountable. But as long as the current collective breed of leadership, leadership in all walks of life, continues to remain incapable of seeing beyond the village, beyond primordial sentiments, beyond self-

BEYOND POLITICS AND PRAXIS

341

aggrandizement and beyond a stifling cultural and educational environment – it can unequivocally be stated that dependency and retrogression will persist. There is little space in Africa’s twenty-first century for the nostalgic authoritarian mindset, or for harping on the great refrain of slavery, colonialism, imperialism, capitalism, etc., ad infinitum. For the foreseeable future, Africa is likely to continue experiencing incessant brain drain, as more and more of its creative and outstanding talents take up permanent residence in Western countries, where at least the trade-off with racism is creativity and mindful thinking. Finally, it goes without saying that Africa’s rebound from retrogression is inconceivable without equality of the sexes. The overwhelming majority of women remain subservient to men. In any educational reform gender disparity must obviously be addressed. Notes 1 See Qualitive Aspects of Educational Planning (UNESCO, 1967), and Social Objectives in

Educational Planning (OECD, 1968). 2 Herbert S. Parnes, ed., Planning Education for Economic and Social Development (OECD Mediterranean Regional Project, 1962), 13. 3 Ibid., 7. 4 H.F. Makulu, Education, Development and Nation-building in Independent Africa (London: SCM Press, 1971), 10. 5 B. Oguntosin, “Early Child Care, Development and Education (ECCDE): Path to National Development,” in Educational Challenges in Africa for the 21st Century: The Road Ahead, ed. M. Olu Odusina (World Council for Curriculum and Instruction, 1997), 3. 6 Ibid., 248–249. 7 L.J. Lewis, cited in Odusina, 249. 8 Odusina, op. cit., 250–251. 9 Ibid., 249. 10 Changu Mannathoko, “Obstacles to, and Possibilities for, Democratic Teacher Education in Botswana,” in Voices for Democracy, ed. Clive Harber (Education Now, 1998), 71. 11 Ibid. 12 Clive Harber, Education, Democracy and Political Development in Africa (Sussex: Academic Press, 1997), 9. 13 Oguntosin, op. cit.“Early Child Care, Development and Education,” 5. 14 Amal Datta, quoted in School Management and Effectiveness in Developing Countries, eds. Clive Harber and Lynn Davies (Cassell, 1997), 50. 15 Magnus O. Bassey, Western Education and Political Domination in Africa (Bergin & Garvey, 1999), 15–16. 16 Chuka Eze Okonkwo, Journal of African Studies (Summer) 12(2) (1985), 104. 17 Ibid., 104. 18 Ibid., 105. 19 Chinua Achebe, A Man of the People (London: Heinemann, 1966), 136. 20 Edward H. Berman, African Reactions to Missionary Education (Teachers College Press, 1975), 8.

342 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28

MICHAEL C. MBABUIKE

UNDP, Human Development Report, 1999, Overview by Paul Streeten, pp. 1–13. James D. Tarver, The Demography of Africa (Praeger, 1996), 31. Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed (Continuum Press, 1993), 30. Ellen Langer, The Power of Mindful Learning (Addison-Wesley Inc., 1997), 4. pp. X–XI. Robert Nisbet, Social Change (Haper & Rowe, 1972), 1. Jerome Bruner, The Culture of Education (Harvard University, 1996), 15. Kevin Danaher, ed., Fifty Years is Enough (South End Press, 1994), 3.