William Bryant Mumford, 1900–1951: entrepreneur in colonial education

Abstract

ABSTRACT Recent debates relating to the #Rhodes-Must-Fall and related movements invite a careful reappraisal of the complex field of colonial education in the late colonial era, given the lack of attention to the field by historians and the significance of this legacy for the development of educational policy in the post-colonial world. The British, French and German colonial offices, along with missionary societies and American philanthropic organisations, had attempted to shape such policies in the first half of the twentieth century, broadly influenced by notions of Indirect Rule and Progressive Education, but there were also significant critics of formal policy initiatives who have only had intermittent scholarly attention. Bryant Mumford’s career in the field (especially in Tanganyika – 1923–1932) and in his role as lecturer in the newly established Colonial Department at the London Institute of Education (1934–1942), provides valuable insights into the world of colonial education.