Page 21 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 19

Re-Education

education institutions on the African and Ethiopia.
continent.
There are ancient African writing Timbuktu was the center of Islamic
systems which emerged before Eu- learning from the 13th to the 17th
ropeans were permanently present century.
in Africa. Timbuktu’s economic success at-
Commonsense tells us, that where tracted many scholars, and strength-
you can find written languages, ened the teaching of art, religion
there were most likely people who and science. About 700,000 man-
Medina Sy learned how to read and write and uscripts have survived until today,
and are studied and translated in an
who passed on this knowledge.
Medina is of German-Senegalese origin. She be- Commonsense would also assume attempt to learn more about the life
lieves that Africa in the power of African unity that there would be a complex and society in Africa in the past.
societal structure which would fill
and that Africa is the future and the place to be.
the writing systems with content and Ethiopia, maintains two education-
knowledge of people. al systems. The traditional system
Here are some examples of ancient relies mostly on Christianity. Christi-
African writing systems including anity arrived in Ethiopia around the
they lived in. The teachers were
a respected authority and not to their region and time of creation: 3rd century. The modern education-
be questioned. This is trait of the al system includes primary and sec-
traditional African way of education • Gicandi symbols: Kenya ondary school and was introduced
that surely survived. It’s a common Circa 3000 BCE by the Ethiopian Emperors Menelik
experience of Africans and African II (1889-1913) and Haile Selassie I
decedents, that you would have to • Meroitic: Sudan (1930-1974).
listen to Africans who are older than Circa 700- 300 BCE
you and that it’s generally not well Changes to the educational
received if you question what the • Nubian: Sudan system during colonialism
elder person has to say to you. 8th – 15th century CE
Youngest text from 1485 When colonizers arrived, they
Africans were educated in intellectu- brought their educational systems.
al and manual labor. Traditional Af- • Ge’ez: Ethiopia This led to the decrease of tradi-
rican societies produced everything Since 8th century tional African education. It is im-
that they needed on the continent. portant to note, that Europeans did
Therefore, common skills that peo- • Nsibidi: Nigeria learn African languages in order to
ple had to learn were, for example: Circa 5th -15th century operate freely, trade with and learn
farming, dancing, textile production, from Africans.
fabrication of metallic tools, wine • A-Ka-u-ku: Cameroon The infiltration of African educa-
making, producing traditional/herb- 17th century tion started with European mis-
al medicines, cooking and carving sionaries, who often also taught
of wood. • Vai: Liberia non-religious content. After the
It would happen that certain families 1830 Berlin conference of 1884/85 the
specialized in a certain profession, education systems were changed
and knowledge would be passed on And as we all know Egyptian and formally to European ones. Until
to their children. Hence the pro- Sudanese Hieroglyphs, found on African countries started to regain
fession would stay in the family for various pyramids, are also located in their flag independence, the colonial
many generations. Unfortunately, Africa. powers imposed heavily euro-centric
knowledge could be lost when the Between 1850 and 1990 many curriculum on Africans, so that it
keeper of the knowledge died, or more African writing systems were was –and still is- difficult for African
lost his or hers mental abilities. created, such as the N’ko script and societies to return to their traditional
others. education systems.

Besides apprenticeships and oral
literature there have been formal Other examples of formal educa- The different colonial powers did
tion can be found in Timbuktu, Mali operate slightly different, while all

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