Indigenous perspectives in African curricula

• In Event: Curricular representations of indigenous perspectives: examining stakeholder interactions within African, Asian, and North American contexts

Proposal

Indigenous perspectives and knowledge within African curricula do not exist in a vacuum, but rather within the context of a history of colonialism, imperialism and neo-colonialism (Dei, 2016, Wane, 2013). The colonial encounter between the colonizer and the colonized subject disrupted indigenous ways of knowing and teaching (Wa Thiongo, 1985) for most Indigenous peoples of the world, including in Africa. Therefore, for any meaningful conversation to take place in relation to an indigenous African perspective in curriculum, it is necessary for educators to re-think or re-imagine how Indigeneity may be infused within the Eurocentric curriculum.

Eurocentric discourses serve the purpose of justifying the neo-colonial agenda and further, inform research and policy that influence our current educational thought. Although many theorists contend that we live in a post-colonial world, implying that we have somehow arisen above the problematic of colonialism (Ashcroft, Griffiths, & Tiffin, 1995), I argue that colonial processes of domination and imposition are just as real for Indigenous peoples of the world as they were over one hundred years ago.

In this presentation, I explore the issue of Indigeneity as a strategic tool that may be employed in decolonizing ways of knowing, teaching, and learning and, in particular, how we learn from the land (Wildcat, McDonald, Irlbacher-Fox, & Coulthard, 2014). I employ indigenous knowledges as an anti-colonial tool, a strategy, and an educational approach in my discussion of curriculum in Africa.

Colonial education dominates our current education in Africa. It has a very strong hold on one’s mental ability and controls how many Africans define their educational endeavours. What the colonizer succeeded in doing was to destroy or undervalue the ways of knowing and teaching of all the Indigenous peoples of the world. The use of a foreign language and concepts as a medium of education makes a student foreign within her or his own culture, environment, etc. This creates a colonial alienation. The neo-colonized subject is made to see the world, and where (s)he stands in it, through the eyes of the colonizer. The harm is compounded when the neo-colonized subject is exposed to images of her or his world mirrored in the written language of her or his colonizer where the natives' language, cultures, history, or people are associated with low status, low intelligence, and barbarism.

An exploration therefore of an Indigenous perspective in Curriculum in Africa is particularly challenging. A challenge that pushes Indigenous scholars from Africa to write against the grain, and advocate for rupturing the status quo and dismantling visible and invisible colonial structures in education (Some, 1993). Using the anti-colonial discursive approach and valuing Indigenous ways of knowing affirms the pedagogic need to confront the existing barriers and the urgency for creating an educational system in Africa that is meaningful and purposeful for people of African ancestry.

My presentation will be guided by the following questions: How does a curriculum that is centered on African Indigenous ways of knowing look like? What would be some of the fundamental philosophies employed to create such a curriculum? Who would be willing to teach such a curriculum and why? Does this type of curriculum require teachers who have undergone a particular understanding of what it means to be an Afrocentric and authentic African scholar? Who is an authentic African scholar and how can their authenticity be measured? What type of tools will be appropriate to undertake this type of measurement?

Author

• Njoki Wane, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto