Page 79 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 4

TRUE AFRIKAN LEADERS TRUE AFRIKAN LEADERS

upon their institutions and prac- argued, was aimed at everyone. hand. This is in addition to our
tices in order to remain relevant. Nyerere, like the celebrated Bra- original question, “what, as Afri-
Although he supported the idea zilian philosopher Paulo Freire, can communities are we trying
of Africans borrowing ‘good believed that the purpose of edu- to establish?”
practices’ from other cultures cation was to liberate the ‘cogni- One thing certainly clear is that
across the world, he argued that tively caged’ human being. Like Nyerere’s philosophical texts
if not carefully approached Afri- Freire, he argued that education serves as a major strategy for
cans risked losing their momen- was a path to a permanent lib- raising African consciousness
tum for cognitive growth since eration and should make peo- and Undugu (brotherliness). His
its various habits of thought and ple self-reliant. In other words, thinking is also a stringent dis-
practice can become anach- education should help people to course to the ravages of colo-
ronistic if their ways of life are recognize their oppression and nialism and its continuing forms
predominantly anachronistic. take part in their own commu- of exploitation including current
Nyerere saw an answer to this nity’s transformation. “People” cognitive prisons.
situation in community educa- Nyerere said, “could not be de- Needless to say, African schol-
tion. veloped, they could only devel- ars need to take fresh stock
op themselves”. of the full implication of their
It Take a Village to Raise a A passionate advocate of the romances of and silences of
Child learner-centered approach for knowledge transfer in the high-
Nyerere detested the Western adult education, Nyerere be- er education sector in order to
education system, arguing that lieved that the teacher was only avoid paternalistic and blind-
it was aimed at alienating Afri- a guide for learning and not the ness reproduction of knowledge
cans from their own value sys- dispenser of knowledge. Freire’s for the sake of knowledge under
tem whilst reinforcing Western in his 1970 classic ‘Pedagogy of the auspices of community de-
values. This was in spite him be- the Oppressed’ reiterates the velopment.
ing the first Tanzanian to study importance of the student-cen- We salute the elegant legacy
in Britain, securing his Master of tric approach by arguing that of Mwalimu Julius Kambarage
Arts degree in Economics and through dialogue, the teach- Nyerere whose political life and
History from Edinburg in 1952. er ceases to exist – since the philosophy continue to inspire in
He argued in 1968, that colonial teacher is no longer merely the equal measure the young and
education was not designed to one who teaches, but one who the old throughout the world.
prepare young Africans for the is himself taught in dialogue with
service of their own countries; students.
it was instead motivated by a In Nyerere’s political thought,
desire to inculcate the values of one can as such espouse new
the colonial state. ideas such as constructivism,
His philosophical views on edu- where learners are encouraged
cation were subsequently based to use their own initiatives and
on the notion that education was autonomy, which in turn permits
a lifelong learning process and a high level thinking to take place
tool for liberation of man from the in a dialogue format open to
restraints and limitations of igno- questions based on one’s own
rance and dependency. He be- experiences.
lieved and advanced the adage A brief journey through Nyerere
that “It takes a village to raise a political thought, invites stab-
child”, which literally meant that bing questions about the role of
the community was involved at universities in Africa especially
every stage of one’s education. at this day and age of the con-
He was propagating for indige- tradictory phenomena of global- Ronald Elly Wanda is a trans-
nous education, which he felt ization and the information soci-
was well placed at preserving ety on the one hand, and clearly disciplinary fellow and executive
the cultural heritage of the Afri- intensifying poverty, widening director of GrundtvigAfrica House
can family, clan and society at inequalities and the demand for based in Nairobi, Kenya.
large. This form of education, he social justice on the one other

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