Indigenous African Education Research Articles

African Indigenous Knowledge Systems: Assessing the Training of the Gusii Children During the Pre-Colonial Period

The main aim of this paper is to discuss the Gusii indigenous education system. Before the coming of Christian missionaries to Africa, Africans and indeed the Gusii people had their own education system. Each ethnic group had a different education which was different from each other based on the different environments. Each ethnic group taught its youth different knowledge, skills and attitudes according to their environment and their needs. This paper examines the organization of African indigenous education among the Gusii of Kenya, the teachers, methods of teaching, the curriculum and indeed a comparison of this kind of education to the formal education that was introduced by Christian missionaries in the second decade of the 19th century A.D.

Integrating African Indigenous Education in the Curriculum: A Learning Curve for South Africa

Even though Western education is indispensable and became a game changer, its adoption in the mainstream education system (curriculum) has substantially strained the passing of relevant skills, values, and knowledge to most African communities. The adoption of Western education was not tailored to the context, realities, and needs of most indigenous communities. The popular and accepted Western education has been applauded for preparing graduates who mostly look for employment, do not resonate with their realities and environment, and can barely create jobs with the acquired education. Unlike indigenous education, which prepared the young ones to face their immediate future realities and contribute to the development of the community, Western education seems far from equipping Africans to understand themselves and their surroundings. Grounded in the African Renaissance, this paper explores African indigenous education in a bid to draw lessons from it. To achieve this, a conceptual paper is framed from a review of literature on Google scholar, DHET accredited journals, Scopus, and other relevant credited sources. The paper does not seek to undermine the importance and value of Western education in the curriculum but advocates for the adoption of indigenous education to bring positive impact to African societies. Collaborative efforts are recommended for the revival, adoption, and continuation of indigenous education without looking at it as inferior.

Decolonizing Kenyan Curriculum and Self-Reliance

Purpose: Education is meant to develop capacity and enable members of society to become productive. African indigenous education systems inculcated self-reliance among members of society and every individual had a specific defined role within the society. The colonial education system introduced the aspects of unemployment, underemployment and job seekers. In an effort to address growing mismatch between expectations by graduates and societal employment provisions, the government has regularly formed commissions and made reforms in the education system. Despite these efforts there has been growing concerns on the effectiveness of the current education system to inculcate self-reliance among graduates. This study sought to establish the influence of decolonizing the Kenyan education system on self-reliance among students. The study was carried out in universities in Kenya.
 Methodology: This study utilized the descriptive survey design and the correlational research design. A sample size of 384 respondents made up of 60 members of teaching faculty and 324 fourth year bachelor of education students was selected to participate in the study. Data collection was done using questionnaires and interview schedules. Descriptive statistics was used for measures of central tendencies including mean, standard deviation and coefficient of variation. Inferential statistics through correlation analysis using the Pearson‘s coefficient of correlation was applied to measure the degree of influence of decolonizing curriculum on self-reliance. To test hypothesis, simple linear and multiple regression models were used to test significance between independent and dependent variable. Qualitative data from interviews was organized into themes, categories and patterns pertinent to the study.
 Findings: The study found that the contemporary Kenyan curriculum influenced self-reliance to a moderate extent and that integration of selected elements of African indigenous curriculum was capable of improving the Kenyan curriculum to a large extent. It was concluded that decolonizing curriculum had a statistically significant relationship with self-reliance among students in the Kenyan education system.
 Unique Contribution to Theory, Policy and Practice: The findings of this study will hopefully shed light on factors attributable to colonization that continue to impact on students’ attainment of self- reliance and help planners to make early interventions with regard to self-reliance in education.

African Philosophies of Education and Their Relevance to School Leadership in Africa: <i>A Guide for Educational Systems and School Leaders</i>

Over the past few decades, significant research efforts have been devoted to establishing a relationship between African Philosophies of Education (APE) and School Leadership (SL). Such efforts have revealed how important African Union Philosophies of Education (AUPE) have been, or could be, in shaping School Leadership (SL) policies and practices. To achieve the above, this paper reviews contemporary literature on African Indigenous Education (AIE) and school leadership (SL) research. A descriptive and analytical interpretive approach is used to understand the methodological approaches used by existing research to redress an underdeveloped engagement with theory and practical claims from other studies. In so doing, we identify the salient values of these African philosophies of Education, bringing out their qualities as well as their limitations, and discussing ways in which they could be incorporated into the contemporary field of School Leadership (SL). This study proposes an epistemic theoretical framework to guide the delivery of African Philosophies of Education (APE) in School Leadership (SL) practice. Such a framework would be developed as part of the de-colonisation epistemic movement within the global south, noting that this movement has yet to be significantly felt in the field of educational leadership.

The Palgrave Handbook of African Education and Indigenous Knowledge (edited by Jamaine M. Abidogun and Toyin Falola)

Reviewed by: The Palgrave Handbook of African Education and Indigenous Knowledge ed. by Jamaine M. Abidogun and Toyin Falola Haroon Leon Forde The Palgrave Handbook of African Education and Indigenous Knowledge JAMAINE M. ABIDOGUN AND TOYIN FALOLA, EDS. Palgrave Macmillan, 2020, 851 pages. The Palgrave Handbook of African Education and Indigenous Knowledge endeavors to address the fundamental elements that make up education across the African continent. These according to the present volume are Indigenous, Islamic or Muslim, and Western education systems, and the book rigorously attempts to tackle and frame each form of education that influences Africa’s multitiered systems of learning. In order to do so it argues that indigenous knowledge as a form of education must be centered in learning on the continent, with the later arrivals Islamic and Western education making up the broader spectrum of schooling that exists. It is from this vantage point that Jamaine Abidogun’s introduction frames the collection as a challenge to notions of Africa as a continent that was devoid of its own education systems prior to the arrival of Islam and more specifically the incursion of colonialism. Acknowledgment of African indigenous education systems, according to Abidogun, has been slow to manifest and had primarily been omitted from academic discourses until the 1990s. The present book seeks to offer both recognition and legitimization of Indigenous knowledge systems across Africa. In doing so, the handbook frames its arguments in the context of pan-African decolonization and is made up of 38 chapters, which are divided into four sections to frame the contributions of African and Africanist academics. These four sections are “Africa Histories of Education,” “Africa Indigenous Education,” “Islamic and Muslim African Education,” and “African Education: National or Neo-colonial Constructions.” Under this vast spectrum, the work encompasses all levels of schooling with its chapters addressing elementary, tertiary, and lifelong learning. The volume contributes to contemporary discourse on decolonization of education in African settings and this central theme is discussed at length in both George J. Sefa’s foreword and Abidogun’s introduction. It is also the subject of Gloria Emeagwali’s chapter, “African Indigenous Knowledges and the Decolonisation of Education in Africa,” which contends that the process of decolonization can only come to fruition through Africanization and the full incorporation of African indigenous knowledge systems (AIKS) into the continent’s current educational sphere. [End Page 157] While some chapters do not propose answers or solutions toward African education’s decolonization, Emeagwali’s calls for Africans to achieve this by choosing to “reverse the process whereby settler colonists and their activities, no matter how outrageous become the focal point . . . and indigenous Africans and their epistemologies . . . become a footnote.” This Emeagwali argues will lead to a pan-African understanding of self that will enable Africans to dispel the Eurocentricity of colonial and post-colonial education (p. 337). In addition to contemporary presentations of education in Africa, the volume offers analysis of education in ancient and medieval historical contexts. Julia Troche’s chapter, “Ancient Africa Education: Egypt and Nubia,” details Africa’s contributions to education that predated and inspired later Hellenic influence (p. 41). In doing so, Troche does away with the misperception of Egypt’s contributions to knowledge being better aligned with the Mediterranean than Africa, a position that is strengthened by Nubia’s inclusion and regional location to cement the bridge between Egyptian and Sudanic knowledge systems. “East African Indigenous Education: Before the Era of Islam,” by Daniel Sifuna, looks retrospectively at education in eastern Africa and covers Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda, bringing lifelong learning into the discussion about the purpose of education prior to the arrival of later education models. To convey its premise, the chapter illustrates the communalism of subject societies such as the Baganda, Ngoni, and Gikuyu, and demonstrates how these societies evolved through learning. Sifuna categorizes lifelong learning into the four phases of life (childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and elderhood), reporting strategies that were used in the socialization of community members, which Sifuna states were heavily influenced by the social environment. This ranged from education that was formal or informal, gender specific, ethno-national, or related to genealogy. Inevitably, the chapter also addresses the impact of Islamic and Western...

African Hermeneutics of Western education: A case of Yuyi Wamunyima Mupatu of Barotseland, Zambia, 1897-1982

An African proverb states that “until the lion tells his side of the story, the tale of the hunt will always glorify the hunter”. This is the case of the historiography of Western education in Africa, which was largely Eurocentric. Unlike many studies that are Eurocentric, the objectives of this article were to examine the history of education in Africa from the African’s point of view; to demonstrate that Africans were not passive recipients, but that they engaged Western education in a dialogue with indigenous African education. This has been achieved by examining the career of Yuyi Wamunyima Mupatu of Mongu-Lealui district, a man who made a significant contribution to the hermeneutics of Western education in Zambia. He became a teacher at Barotse National School but was twice fired for refusing to compromise on quality education. Mupatu led a movement that significantly decolonized education in a time which was forbidding. He established Makaplulwa School in 1945 but the school was closed due to local governance challenges in 1949. In 1963, the school reopened. Today Makapulwa School stands as Mupatu Combined School in Limulunga district. The study concludes that Mupatu’s is contribution to education is a demonstration of African people’s capability to interpret western culture and also their desire to retain what was African even as they embraced the West. It is a story of adoption, interpretation and adaptation of Western education. Mupatu was a product of both the Barotse indigenous education and Western education. To present this discourse, I relied on primary sources, mainly information from those who knew him; family members and his former pupils, his biography and other secondary sources on the subject. The study is significant because it highlights the people’s aspirations of what education should be in Africa.

Back to Basics: Integrating African Indigenous Education into the Formal Educational System in Cameroon Schools

Back to Basics: Integrating African Indigenous Education into the Formal Educational System in Cameroon Schools

Conceptualising Community Engagement through the lens of African Indigenous Education

The conceptualisation of “community engagement” at Higher Education in South Africa remains a topic for debate in the transformation agenda. South African Indigenous knowledge has been transmitted and perennially refreshed through educational pedagogy that are characterized by a sensitivity to African Philosophy, axiology and the spirit of Ubuntu. This article presents a qualitative critical review from the perspective of African indigenous education of the conceptualisation of community engagement. Community engagement is explored as a contemporary pedagogical counterpart to the indigenous pedagogies that supported African epistemology and axiology and community engagement is positioned within a natural evolution of the South African indigenous education and human development framework. Since children are the most vulnerable and affected community it is postulated that a student-centred framework for community engagement would offer an empowering praxis for a new South African Indigenous Education. Community engagement conceptualised within African Indigenous Knowledge Systems is argued as a means towards authentic transformation giving “voice” and “agency” to communities across all levels of education. Within this framework, the article affirms the use of indigenous concepts and practices within a transformed education system where Higher Education assumes a key role-player in human development from the cradle to the grave.

Mediated mutual reciprocity in the process of African children’s social ontogenesis

The paper highlights Nsamenang’s social ontogenesis theoretical stance in explaining how participatory pedagogies in socialisation impact not only development but children’s capacity to assume responsibilities for their own development. A synoptic review is presented of widely discussed challenges faced by African children, under the headings of redefining the African personhood and process of child development, poverty and malnutrition, changes in educational systems and poor access to quality education, child labour versus productive participation in the household economy, conflict and war, the HIV/AIDS pandemic and access to health care. Research evidence from Cameroon suggests that despite the challenges and adversities faced by these children, their ingenuity, resilience and cultural assets play an important role in mediating positive outcomes. Building on and expanding Nsamenang’s Africentric perspective on the sustaining power of African indigenous education processes, the paper presents a complementary theory of Mediated Mutual Reciprocity (MMR) that explains how children and learners are the main drivers of the learning process.

Indigenous Knowledge Systems and the Teaching of Climate Change in Zimbabwean Secondary Schools

Indigenous African education grew out of the immediate environment, real or imaginary, where people had knowledge of the environment. Indigenous education inculcated a religious attitude that imbued courtesy, generosity, and honesty. At colonization, Africans were thought of as primitive although they had their own systems, contents, and methods of education. Colonialism signified the decline in the importance of indigenous knowledge systems (IKS). By shifting focus in the core curriculum from teaching/learning based on Western science to teaching/learning through IKS as a foundation for all education, it is anticipated that all forms of knowledge, ways of knowing, and world views be acknowledged as equally valid, adaptable, and complementary to one another in equally valuable ways. The uniqueness of indigenous people and their knowledge is inextricably connected to their lands, which are situated primarily at the social-ecological margins of human habitation such as tropical forests and desert margins. It is at these margins that the consequences of climate change manifest themselves in the following sectors: agriculture, pastoralism, fishing, hunting and gathering, and other subsistence activities, including access to water. Government policies in Zimbabwe often limit options and thus undermine indigenous peoples’ efforts to adapt. IKS is very important for community-based adaptation and mitigation actions in the agricultural sector for maintenance of resilience of social-ecological systems at a local level. This article, through interviews, document analysis, and personal observations, proposes that it is best for Zimbabwe to develop her own climate change curricula and modes of delivery that incorporates IKS.

Indigenous African Education for Socio- Economic Development

Education in Africa has been in existence since time immemorial. This study sought to examine the activities of Lantana in Benin on their specialised training, Dogon of Mali in their world view, Futo Toro of Senegal in their various trades, Poro of Sierra Leone in the training of the youth, Takensi of Ghana in their social order and the Akan of Ghana. Also examined are the activities of the Chamba and Yoruba of Nigeria in their adult centred training and forecasting of the future respectively. The Chagga of Tanzania and the Abakwayaare were also examined on their initiative plays and economic activities. The paper also studied the Ndembu of Zambia on the past analysis and the activities of the Mijikenda of Kenya among other Kenyan tribes. The study used the theoretical framework of Emile Durkheim on the social and moral order, while the design of the study was on content analysis of available information and expectations. The study recommends positive approaches in the indigenouseducation that can be adapted, mainly for Kenya in its desire to achieve Vision 2030. However, further research should be done on specific values, foods, attitudes and the rule of law, how achieve social, political and economic progress in African nations and especially how the current economic integration blocks have followed the same pattern of the communities and their values.

Fostering children’s music in the mother tongue in early childhood education: A case study in Zambia

The influence that the use of a familiar language has on learning has long been explored with suggestions that a child’s mother tongue is the most suited initial language of instruction in school. In Zambia, however, this is not the case as the majority of people think that young children should learn to speak in English as soon as possible because this is the language of education. As a result, songs in English dominate the singing repertoire in pre-schools even when children have not mastered sufficient English vocabulary. Singing songs in English, just as teaching children in a language they do not understand, has been shown to hamper learning. The theoretical lens of indigenous African education underpins the study in order to investigate how music in the mother tongue in a cultural context can foster educational aims. Research participants included an expert in Zambian indigenous children’s songs who also acted as resource person and led 18 children aged between 5 and 6 years in sessions of music in their mother tongue. The findings of the study revealed that educational implications of children’s participation in music in the mother tongue can be found in the way in which they are organised, the activities they involve and in the music elements that characterise them.

African indigenous care-giving practices: Stimulating early childhood development and education in Kenya

The indigenous communities in Africa, specifically Kenya, which is the focus of this article, had their own well-developed motivational systems that positively enhanced teaching and learning programmes in the community. These motivational systems were manifested in behaviours that were presented as sequential cultural tasks that demanded active engagement from children at every stage of development. The philosophical tenets of African indigenous education underscored education as preparation for life. This was a culturally based education that addressed the physical, emotional, mental and social aspects of a child’s successful development. It offered the child an opportunity to participate in practical, productive and responsible livelihood activities. This article suggests that a concert of research into these indigenous motivational care-giving practices and community participation in the activities of early childhood education may offer important insights into transitioning children from life in the home environment to that of the school and its accompanying academic tasks. When these motivational care-giving practices are incorporated in the process of transitioning children to formal schooling, then their chances of success in these new educational programmes could be enhanced.

Folklore as an instrument of education among the Chewa people of Zambia

This article considers the folklore of the Chewa people of Zambia as an instrument of education. It suggests that there is only a fine distinction between Chewa culture [mwambo wa a Chewa] and Chewa education [maphunziro ya Uchewa]. The former comprises tribal “truths” to be imposed on the minds of the younger generation. The latter comprises stages in the development of the young through training and some formalised learning. However, by and large, the former dominates the latter. The strongest features of an African Indigenous Knowledge System (AIKS) such as that of the Chewa people are best expressed in terms of Jakayo Peter Ocitti’s five philosophical principles of African indigenous education, namely preparationism, functionalism, communalism, perennialism and holisticism. They build on one another and are, therefore, related. The authors of this article demonstrate how Chewa culture and education use folklore to influence the minds of the young. They give examples of how various components of Chewa folklore are used to criticise, commend, dislike, admire, discard and adapt various traits in people. This paper does not present folklore as an educational panacea; there are weaknesses in Chewa traditional education which are also discussed. Rather, folklore is considered here as a valuable supplementary element in education. What the authors propose is to integrate folklore and informal learning as practised by the community in the formal curriculum to enhance the quality of the education provided for all and to maintain cultural identity.

Proverbs as Theoretical Frameworks for Lifelong Learning in Indigenous African Education

Every aspect of a community’s life and values in indigenous Africa provide the theoretical framework for education. The holistic worldview of the traditional system places a strong emphasis on the centrality of the human element and orature in the symmetrical relationship between life and learning. This article focuses on proverbs and the words that form them as important sources of, and foundation for, indigenous African education. The article analyzes proverbs and the power of the spoken word in indigenous African pedagogy. The analysis is used to argue for an increased articulation of indigenous African knowledge into the dialogue on the inclusion of non-Western traditions in the theoretical frameworks for adult education. The article uses the traditional contexts of Ogu and Yoruba of West Africa but draws examples mostly from Yoruba proverbs to present their epistemological significance in traditional African education.

Perceptions and reflections of music teacher education in Kenya

This article builds on enquiry aimed to discover Kenyan music teachers’ perceptions and expectations of their role; their view of the training they received; head teachers’ perceptions and expectations of the role of the music teacher; and the expectations of both music teachers and head teachers of a music teacher education programme in Kenya. The findings have steered a discussion towards suggestions for an improved framework to guide teacher education for music at all levels of education in Kenya. Through questionnaires, a sample of 16 music teachers and 11 head teachers recorded their opinion that teachers were not adequately prepared to implement the music programmes; that the role of the music teacher covered in and out of class activities; and that this expectation could only be accomplished with proper academic and professional training. Guided by principles of indigenous African education and learning conceptual orientations, the discussions led to recommendations that call for better grounding of music teachers in the processes of music and ability to facilitate music learning.

Traditional African modes of education: their relevance in the modern world

This article explores the characteristics, goals, modes of transmission, teaching and learning strategies of indigenous African education, in which the pursuit of excellence and quality has always been an important aim. Informal and vocational training constitute the core of indigenous education in Africa. Under this traditional system, each person in the community is practically trained and prepared for his/her role in society. It is a holistic system, in which story telling, proverbs and myths also play an important role. The author suggests the adoption of some of the elements of this system into modern-day educational practice as a strategy for improving quality.

Silver and Gold We Have None But What We Have, We Give Unto Thee: Indigenous African Counselling and the Rest of the World

This paper examines the complimentary roles and functions of African indigenous counselling in relationship with non-African forms of counselling. This paper is premised on the view that all forms of counselling, whether African or Western, stand to gain a lot from one another via collaboration and the cross fertilization of ideas. This paper examines the counselling and therapeutic contents of African language, African indigenous education, African indigenous counselling and social practices using the Yoruba culture of Western Nigeria as a reference point. Furthermore, the paper practically examines how the traditional therapeutic resources of African language, African traditional education and African indigenous counselling practices could complement non-African counselling culture. The paper advocates for the evolution of a somewhat global orientation to professional helping. This is possible if counselling practitioners from different cultural orientations develop interest in learning how different counselling cultures could complement one another. This orientation may contribute to mutual self-renewal and self-refinement for all forms of counselling. This paper primarily intends to promote the culture of sharing ideas, practices and concepts from different cultural orientations so that we may develop the mentality of a universal approach to employing counselling strategies to solve humanity's problems.

Education and Morality in Africa

This paper examines briefly the major concepts in education and morality in Africa, focusing on the moral education of the African child. This is with particular reference to the child’s obligations and duties to self, family, local community and the nation. It is argued that education today has been reduced to no more than schooling, which focuses mainly on literacy and numeracy. The politicization of institutionalized education in post-colonial Africa has led to an explosion in the schooling process, a high turnout of unemployed youths, and a questionable abandonment of the major values of indigenous education. It is recommended that in the new millennium, what is good in African indigenous education should be synthesized with the valuable aspects of Western culture. This would ensure that we move closer to the standard of morality and life in the traditional African education system.

Indigenous African Education as a Means for Understanding the Fullness of Life

The intention of this article is to prompt a serious interest in indigenous African education in order to forge a new future that builds on (a) the positive aspects of our past and (b) carefully selected and imported ideas and methods. To this end, our discussion will focus on the richness of indigenous education. Indigenous African learning plays a vital role in the transmission of values that Africans consider to be essential in understanding and experiencing the fullness of life. Because it is interwoven in the fabric of African life, indigenous education is inseparable from traditional African religious thought and practices -there is no dichotomy between religious and secular thought or values (Mbiti, 1990). Thus Africans do not speak of education as a process or institution separate from everything else in life. There is no distinction between formal, nonformal, or informal education. In fact, the term education is a Western concept that does not speak to the traditional African reality, in which the entire community is continually engaged in learning and teaching. In traditional Africa, learning begins very early in life, soon after birth, and continues to old age. As Menkiti (1984) describes it, the whole of life is a process of learning to become fully human, to attain personhood: