Educational Policy and Practice in Tropical Africa: A General Bibliography

Abstract

Tropical Africa has surged to world attention in the 1960's. Since 1957 more than two dozen new independent nations have emerged. All view education as playing a significant role in their commitment to economic and social progress. For most of the countries which comprise Tropical Africa' primary materials on education are just beginning to be systematically collected and critically analyzed. Indeed, many aspects of African education present a pioneer field for the researcher. The problem is not at all a lack of primary datathese are prodigous-but the absence of systematic synthesis. For example, there is as yet no single comprehensive history of education in Tropical Africa during the colonial period. Published secondary materials are more voluminous and comprehensive for some areas of Tropical Africa then for others. Over the past quarter century, a continuous flow of critical works covering British colonial educational policy has appeared, whereas up-to-date analytic histories of education in most Belgian, French, Portuguese, Spanish and Italian colonies or former colonies (other than resumes in official reports) have yet to be published. Published studies of educational development in noncolonial Africa, i.e. Ethiopia and Liberia, are even scarcer. For an historical analysis of educational development in these latter countries, one must rely mainly on sections in more general politico-economic treatments, on periodical literature, or on unpublished studies. The following selection is neither an exhaustive listing of secondary works nor a specialized bibliography of primary sources for the researcher. The cross-section presented is intended for those whose particular area specialization is other than Africa and