STILL IN SEARCH OF A FULLY DECOLONIZED AND TRANSFORMATIVE PEDAGOGY IN AFRICA

Abstract

Before colonialism, there existed in Africa, indigenous knowledge and indigenous ways of knowing. These indigenous ways of knowing and living include- child-rearing practices, traditional rites of initiation, agegrade institutions, conflict resolution and judicial methods, agricultural and food systems, a life rooted in moral and communalistic values, etc. Africans were socialized to value the community, respect elders, worship the Supreme Being, value human labor, show radical hospitality and generosity, etc. While many of these values are still subsisting in many African communities, especially in rural places, these values are endangered and threatened by the global capitalist system and an educational system that is rooted in Eurocentric and Western values and ideas. While it is true that some positive and healthy values come from the West, we should not abandon the authentic and theistic-humanistic aspects of African culture that enabled our African ancestors and forebears to navigate through their own times. This paper uses critical analytic and hermeneutic methods to argue for a radical decolonization of all forms of pedagogy in Africa. Decolonization is not a rejection of good values from Europe, rather it is dethroning those aspects of Western culture and education that privileges Eurocentric ideas over African ways of knowing. All forms of pedagogy in Africa should be authentically indigenous and also transformative. We are critical of negative aspects of African culture that are hostile to genuine human flourishing. The paper finds that the educational systems in Africa are still suffering from the effect of colonialism. It concludes that Africans should reconstruct all forms of pedagogical endeavors to foster the transformation of African societies and promote human well-being.