Colonial Literacy and the Socio-Political Dimensions of the History Syllabus in Colonial Botswana

Abstract

The current Botswana history syllabus still retains strong traces of its colonial origins. The colonial history syllabus was part of a broader colonial education agenda. Western education amongst Batswana education began with informal literacy training focusing on the rudiments of reading and writing, to address the basic requirements of missionary bodies. It was gradually expanded to fully-fledged colonial subject-differentiated curricula. Each subject played a specific ideological role in the colonial milieu. In the case of history, the syllabus and content were defined by the prevailing political discourse, which placed imperial history at the core of the history syllabus and generally sidelined local indigenous histories. This was in keeping with the broader socio-political context and the dynamic relationships between the colonial government and the dikgosi (chiefs). This relationship ensured gradual accommodation of hegemonic Tswana epistemologies into the history and social studies curricula. The article places the history syllabus within the broader dynamics of an evolving colonial education policy in colonial Botswana.