Africa Policy Home Page | Roundtable Home Page | Roundtable Archive

27 April 2000

It would by no means be original to assert that education has a key and essential role to play in the development and future of mankind, particularly in Africa. Visionaries and futurologists have predicted it. Sociologists and historians specialized in Africa have reflected on it and eminent experts in the field of education, in their analyses of the situation, have identified the flaws in the systems in place. In reviewing the history of education, they have proposed an overhaul of the classical school system and the introduction of new mechanisms for the creation of a new system of education that responds to the demands of the modern era and provides the training that is needed to produce the type of development agent required by the market.

Over and above history, sociology and the philosophy of education, it is a comprehensive look at the inner education of the citizen in the typical city that deserves special attention. Not with a view to preparing a catalogue of the occupations for which he was trained, nor to list the various systems under which young people are trained, even including the apprenticeship of the youngster at the village blacksmith, all elements of cultural history that help to point the way to the researcher and assist the work of the education theoretician. Seminars and regional conferences have been held on these themes.

But it is rather the systemic interaction between education and culture that should be explored with patience, rigour and depth. In other words, the evolution of a framework, a programme of training that is itself subject to schemas, references that are also changing to reflect a society in the throes of an identity crisis and in search of points of reference, not only for the society and its place in the world but, more importantly, for the role and place of the individual as the subject and focus of values. In this connection, a team of researchers from the International Centre for the Study of Bantu Civilizations, seeking in 1989 to identify the cultural factors of rural development in Central Africa, had focussed its search on the education and training of peasants on the one hand and on training through rural schools on the other. Identifying in tradition the content and framework for this training, the researchers proposed, in addition to the core elements, an innovation in the form of a "pedagogy of attention", which focuses on essential needs and defines the content.

Touching on the specific case of the school, its function and characteristics, the team listed the factors responsible for its success and the drawbacks of the system.

This experience has a certain merit. Without, of course, limiting oneself to the rural world - the urban reality of Africa today constitutes in essence the bridgehead for any major development project - it examines in turn the functions of education today, its agents, the role of the community and the State, as material instruments that enable the educational system to respond to the challenges that face it: the challenges at the heart of a society, a culture with its paradoxes and its projection, its triumphs and its griefs, in the clash of civilizations taking place in our world today.

Prospects for a coherent educational system.

Invited by UNESCO to study this issue and present guidelines for education in the twenty-first century, the International Commission on Education for the Twenty-First Century defined thus the principles of the new education: "learn to know, learn to do, learn to live together, learn to be". Education thus appears as a continuous activity for everyone everywhere, which consists in continuous relearning of how to be, how to exist.

The World Conference on Education for All, convened by UNESCO, the World Bank, UNDP and UNICEF at Jomtien in 1990, has already examined the nature and meaning of this concern and of a policy of education for all. The Conference stressed the need to redefine the status of teachers, while underscoring the responsibility of parents, of the local community, of civil society and of the State, and proposed a model programme.

A review of the report on the state of education in Africa presented by UNESCO in 1997 and complemented by the report of the Conference of African Ministers of Education, held at Durban in 1998, followed by the Conference of the OAU, held at Harare in 1999, shows clearly that the development of education depends on factors that sometimes appear to be secondary but which are ultimately essential to its success. These factors include freedom of choice and of expression otherwise known as democracy, enjoyment of a minimum of resources for living and action, a state of non-poverty, civil and social peace and the responsibility of agents of education for the effective discharge of their respective tasks. A cursory look at each of these elements provides better understanding, greater awareness and perhaps commitment at each level.

Role of education

As was already recognized at Jomtien and followed up at Dakar, Durban and Harare, the discharge of this function took the form of educational and training activities which included not only literacy programmes, but also the inculcation of skills, attitudes and behaviours.

While African States, as the above mentioned UNESCO report attests, have attempted to reform systems, the role of education, even though loudly proclaimed, remains an ambition that must now be translated into programmes of action. One of the difficulties is the genuine challenge to inculcate attitudes and behaviour patterns, which is clearly a long-term task. Examples of this include educating people to change their mentalities, for example in their approach to the prevention of AIDS or education for a culture of peace.

A model existed, however, in the traditional school. During their period of initiation, young girls were taught and initiated into family and household tasks, the observance of taboos, etc. Today, we see that this training was solid, because it still proves its usefulness by the forging of characters.

We know how difficult it is today to suppress the attachment to the terrible practice of excision and not only in rural areas. Questions may also be raised about the reason for the success of this education. It is no doubt the framework, the society, the links that exist between educators, initiators, the society itself, the family and the young initiated person, all adhering to the same ideals and sharing the same concerns.

It may perhaps be necessary in defining the role of education in Africa today to go beyond the simple evocation of "attitudes and behaviours" and encourage decision-makers to formally set, perhaps with the force of law, the parameters of civic education, family education, and moral education.

Perhaps the imparting of "knowledge" should be more specialized, more adapted, efficient and selective in order to reflect the realities of the market. It should reflect traditions and be sufficiently comprehensive to permit initiatives in micro-enterprises and at the same time sufficiently open to facilitate the type of retraining that is geared to the market while assuring a cultural and technical base that would permit beneficiaries to become integrated into the society and to achieve fulfilment in it.

2. Education projects

While education for all is at the forefront of the education battle, the way in which it can be instrumentalized is not always clear. Literacy would no doubt be a point of departure. But literacy should be supported by a variety of cultural practices, such as reading, use of audio-visual resources, the practice and use of national and local languages, etc.

Occupational training, as we have seen above, requires long-term vision, pragmatism and flexibility over and beyond knowledge of the market. In this regard, training could be tailored to the needs of an established enterprise, provided that satisfaction of those needs is not the only purpose of training. The goal in fact is to prepare managers for a profession in a selected field. This leaves sufficient room for adaptability. The closing of an unused mine, for example, should not deprive the trained worker of future employment. On the contrary, it should permit him to be retrained in a mine in a neighbouring country.

In emphasizing this type of occupational training, a more comprehensive system still needs to be conceived and developed in Africa for Africans. When, as we saw in December 1999 in the large Kinshasa markets, food products that permitted the population to celebrate the end of the century, despite the political and social misery and even by ignoring that misery, are cultivated and sold mostly by women, one sees the absolute necessity to provide this social category with a framework within which to refine and perfect its initiatives. What is more, technical supervision should help to organize knowledge more effectively and contribute to the acquisition of appropriate tools.

Attempts had been made in the industrial smoking of fish in Lambarene, Gabon. The challenge is to inventorize these initiatives, codify them and disseminate them for training purposes.

But it is scientific and general technical education for young girls that is now the focus of attention. It is the place and role of women in the overall process of development in Africa that is an argument in favour of this type of training. Women in fact, because of the variety of initiatives in which they are involved, such as "tontines" or mutual savings societies, are particularly successful in this area.

Lastly, education in Africa seeks to train development agents in continuous contact with the land and surrounding nature and will benefit from being education/research aimed at drawing attention to questions and supporting research. At the initiative of the Malian scholar, Diara, and in collaboration with UNESCO, a Pan-African meeting was held in October 1999 at Libreville to discuss this subject. A training programme may be organized to spot talented individuals for whom special training may be tailored. Programmes of this type have existed elsewhere and have produced positive results. Venezuela, for example, has had a Ministry for the Development of Intelligence. Japan, through its MITI, has encouraged the development of inventiveness. The challenge is to have the conviction that Africa by its own genius is capable of contributing to the advancement of knowledge.

But this type of project in particular requires a clear vision and strong commitment to a development project. And this is where education agents have a role to play.

3. Education agents.

These agents are, first of all, those primarily concerned - students. Their training should begin in the home and family and make them aware that school is an indispensable complement to make them useful beings, indispensable agents in society. It is only by being motivated that they can focus on their tasks, convinced that they are performing worthwhile tasks and preparing themselves for future responsibilities.

Today, however, many are frustrated. Increasing numbers of unemployed graduates lending credence to the view that school may not be tailored to the society. And there is worse. There is a list of personal successes (in terms of wealth, or in business or politics) not backed by any educational achievement or particular course of study, thereby giving the possible impression that school is not indispensable.

Over and beyond the curriculum which must be adapted to the conditions described above, beyond the obligations of the community to the employment market, instructors and teachers have a key responsibility to inform, train and mould the agents of development. This means that they themselves should be well informed and be committed. Their commitment should not be affected by the absence of an appropriate professional status and by their precarious material conditions.

Of course, the national community and the State in particular has a responsibility to ensure for the teaching profession a status that is commensurate with the real place of education in the preparation of the country, its development and its future. It is in the elaboration of national budgets that the choice of priorities should reflect the real and effective importance which the State attaches to education and in particular to those who have the responsibility for imparting it. For there is no doubt that wastage does occur.

Also of importance is the degree of harmonization and interaction between the student, teacher, curriculum, job and State. It is only when at these different levels responsibilities have been assumed that the level at which the breakdown occurs can be blamed. It is when all these parameters are in place that one can periodically evaluate the progress achieved, adjust goals and evaluate downstream the results obtained. Reality, it is true, will impose other partners on the State. These will be private enterprises, international aid donors, local communities, etc. The State should not, however, abdicate its basic responsibility, which is to define the framework and guidelines of national education without excessive centralization. It should avoid the development of an education that is oriented to the centre and accept that even basic education may ultimately move beyond the control of the State and prevent it from intervening in the definition of the type of person to be trained for the country. This is so because the challenges of education are the same challenges that face the State and its future, the nation's challenges. Challenges of education

Education, which is the concern of all, will benefit from the contribution of everyone. This requires first and foremost the right of everyone to contribute, which means the right of freedom of expression, democracy. The right to education. The right to educate cannot be exercised with constraint, by force of arms, in a state of war. Only peace permits construction and reconstruction. Thus defined, the education system needs to be reconstructed in Africa and reference is often made to education directorates. Do these directorates operate without reference to the society at large, its situation, its trends, its internal dynamics that must be understood in order to effect indispensable changes? What is it, in fact, if not the state of culture! Foundations of a dynamic culture A culture of development In its very essence, development is at the heart of culture. The honest man of ancient Greek and Roman times was none other than an individual that was well rounded, who knew the laws of the city and the precepts of the gods, respecting them and thus assuring in the city the harmony that made it an agreeable place to live. He was good and therefore beautiful. A beauty that the philosopher saw as part of the splendour of the real. Knowledge of the precepts and rules of tradition handed down during initiation but also throughout his period of training prepared the young African to be a citizen that obeyed the rules, had an occupation, a worker that was useful to society, concerned with establishing a home and ensuring the continuation of the line of his clan, under the favourable eye of his ancestors and of the powerful god. This harmony between the living and the dead, the universe, the environment and the inhabitants of the earth rhymed with the seasons and ensured happiness, peace and understanding among all. This development was made possible by this culture that was reconciled with itself. But is this culture to be magnified and restored?

Re-reading the situation

The effort that must be made today when African societies have been disrupted in their essence is less to restore the elements of a dynamic of the past than to question the present and to identify the main lines of aspirations, happiness and, by extension, the type of ideal man to be formed by a society whose parameters need to be reinterpreted.

Perhaps we will then be faced with what is known as "development blockages", resistance to change would become part of the tradition. Should we not therefore look rather at the aspect of method?

Taboos cannot be swept away without substitution. They cannot be denounced without prior dialogue for it is less a practice than a vision. And it is within a new vision that perspectives that are understood and accepted can lead to lasting and non-violent changes.

In the study of the cultural approach to the prevention of AIDS, one notes that the use of condoms in rural areas of Africa sometimes encounters resistance. This domain is sacred. It is governed by a traditional moral of sexuality which can dispense with these precautions.

This is not to say that there have been no deviations from tradition. Deviants were identified and subjected to special treatment, since the preservation of the society has always been the prime concern.

In this connection, much has been written about the meaning of life, the respect for life among Africans. There is a temptation to see a paradox when looking at the frightful consequences of the wars that rent the African continent today. In a book published by the Odile Jacob publishing house in January 2000, Laurent Murawiee exclaimed: "Always and again, we will make war".

Given this geostrategic reality, only strong cultures have a chance to control their destinies. Life, yes, life remains the leitmotif, the last explanation for the trajectory of the citizen, from birth to death, in the major stages of his existence. The celebration of these moments has given rise to cultural manifestations which are today referred to as African Art. The excellence of these manifestations has in fact provided an opportunity to "fabricators of culture" to excel and produce works of unsurpassed beauty. It is true that it is rather the aesthetic value that might have impressed in the beginning - an aesthetic that was immediately perceived as different and exotic.

A culture exploding in the world

But the conquest of its letters of nobility has been accomplished by African culture by dint of daily effort. In the American diaspora, in which descendants of a community are in search of their roots and where melancholy awakes a somnolent creativity, it is no longer only the negro spirituals and the masks that attract, it is the festivals of films, music and dance that become affairs, business for promoters and for artists.

And Europe?

First a place that recycled culture, it has now become a place for creation, remodelling, the launching of African art. And not only Europe. The manifestations of culture, of African art are celebrated throughout the world today. And not always to the benefit of Africa.

Source of inspiration, African art is now under increasing threat of being levelled down, uniformized. And this is the danger. For not only acculturation but also globalization leads to this levelling down, this standardization which, ultimately, leads to impoverishment, even though the electronic media and its arsenal of technology have helped African creativity to be projected throughout the world.

Challenges for African culture

But the challenges that face African culture today are certainly not to be recognized and integrated into the dominant cultures. They lie in the contribution made by African culture, whose specificity is its guarantee. The modern face of its presentation should not mask its nature. By seeking today (in order to promote this culture and ensure its impact) the cure needed for any contemporary culture, we should not disfigure African culture.

The inventorizing and promotion of traditional knowledge, inventorizing and adopting a strategy for the development of cultural industries, the establishment of efficient structures for management, promotion and marketing all require that a framework be redefined that is adapted to a reality, the reality of an existing culture that is specific in its nature, dynamic in its action, radiant in its manifestations. Free of complexes.

And it is a struggle that is unfinished! To be continued.

For it is this culture that defines the framework for the development and the education of the African man today, through the different phases of training, from his young childhood to maturity. It is this that can make him an agent of development, in other words, an asset to his society.

Achieving genuine progress

Development in fact consists in changes in the mentality, social habits and institutions of a population that enable the population to manage its growth. Economic growth, of course, but aimed at improving the general well-being. In order to achieve that goal, there is no other route but through knowledge. Knowledge that has been digested, mastered and finally tamed so as to confer on its possessor not only the capability to remodel it but also to participate on an equal footing in the conquest of the universe and the perfecting for man of the framework within which he could accomplish the dream of Prometheus. Together, these capabilities constitute knowledge.

Mastering knowledge

Knowledge in the twenty-first century constitutes a major asset, which is today one of the key instruments of domination. Knowledge and information are even considered by strategists as the foremost weapon of the wars of the future. But this knowledge requires initiation and control of the technological means of the modern media.

We have spoken of the transfer of technologies. This transfer must be understood not as the installation of vehicles for the transfer but rather as the acquisition of an instrument that has become necessary by the reality of things, a vision of the world. All technological innovation is an intrusion into a culture. Games like Kiela and others from the African oral tradition have led to research into the language. Some have seen in games a system of information to be decoded, studied, analyzed and used for the development of a modern system of communications.

In any event, research remains essential, since it straddles the points of arrival and departure of knowledge. The development of research into teaching institutions, applied research, and development, but also basic research, cutting-edge research, remain the best way to master and contribute further to knowledge.

Inventiveness and creativity

The enriching of knowledge takes place when research focuses on the essence of things, on the foundations, when it discovers and creates.

In creating, there is always a portion of genius, of the innate. But there is also a technical component, forms, that require knowledge of the framework, the mould by which the product of creation is fashioned. Education meets culture. The technical structure is superimposed on a pre-existing or rather co-existing base, imprinting its model which will necessarily carry the unique imprint of the creator. In so doing, the creator brings to the general creation of humanity a value that is additional and always original, enabling man to re-energize himself and, periodically, to re-invent himself.

A culture for all

But at a time of global knowledge, of the global dissemination of information, of events, there is still room for the original, the specific, and the creator is still applauded. Indeed, although globalization threatens creativity, inhibits genius and endangers the product of creativity, it is more because of the risk that it poses through standardization, and the search for cultural originality, which reflects the discomfort into which the intellectual creator is thrown, beset by the imperatives of the environment of the world in which we live.

But should he not seize there a unique opportunity in the history of mankind? Being able to connect to all cultures and all the world's civilizations, to learn from them and to contribute to them its own store of technical information and to be able to create once again products that are further enriched. But also to transmit his own message, to see it adopted and disseminated throughout the world. To realize, finally, that there is no happiness in being happy all alone. Is not solidarity a fundamental African value?

At the limits of culture and education

Speaking of the diversity of sciences in the unity of knowledge, a brilliant professor confessed that true science consisted in knowing almost everything about almost nothing. He could have added that only the contribution of intellectuals could move society forward in any significant way. The truth is that the best structured education, the richest and most dynamic culture are still inadequate, flawed by a fundamental bias. They are like a canoe. The stroke of one oar sends it to the right, another stroke sends it to the left and the straight line is maintained only by successive swerves.

In critically reviewing the education system in Africa, its project, its actors and its challenges in a culture that needs to be reinterpreted in a new context, it is a society, a world that is challenged, an immense field still to be discovered which, perhaps, may still hold some surprises.

These surprises will testify to the incomparable riches residing in the nature of man. Also, our questioning, our quest is but a modest contribution to the search for progress for man in Africa. A search that respects his culture and is aware of his centuries-old civilization that is generous and welcoming, far, very far from this "wreck floating on the surface of the international system" as Laurent Murawice saw it, without indulgence. No doubt victim of an incurable myopia. If that is so, then the partnership between Europe and Africa, which is now being forged in Cairo, will ultimately have been a fools dream!

Africa Policy Home Page | Roundtable Home Page | Roundtable Archive