/ARTS&ENTERTAINMENT/CULTURE: European History ‘Unwanted’ In African Schools

By Moyiga Nduru Reprint | | Print |

Moyiga Nduru

BULAWAYO, ZIMBABWE, Jun 1 1999 (IPS) - Africa’s education system, inherited from the colonial era, has virtually remained the same since Sebalo Sibanda wrote his history examination 13 years ago.

“I did my history exams answering silly questions about European history and not a thing about Black or African history,” Sibanda recalls.

Sibanda is the founder and chairman of the Bulawayo-based School of African Awareness (SAA), a non-governmental group which is campaigning to have African leaders adopt a school curriculum based on Black culture, tradition and history.

“When I look at history textbooks used in Africa I feel sad,” he says.

Sibanda says the SAA will hold talks with curriculum developers, educationalists, politicians, students and parents over the issue. “If we fail to take full control of our education, we will not achieve much as the people of African descent,” he says.

Fredy Ncube, a student in Bulawayo, says African children would gain a lot by learning more about the role played by Black people in building the pyramids in Egypt, about the military might and skills of Shaka, the Zulu King, and about the Benin kingdoms, instead of dwelling on the “irrelevant” history of Christopher Columbus discovering America, or Napoleon’s wars in Europe.

“It’s unfortunate that our curriculum is silent about the West African state of Mali being the first centre of learning in the universe,” he says. “Unfortunately, we have not been taught a thing about Mali’s contribution to a universal education.”

Gordon Chavunduva, a former vice chairman of the University of Zimbabwe, who has promoted African medicine for 30 years, says African schools and universities teach mainly European subjects.

“African medicine and African religions are not taught in schools,” he told a popular TV cultural show ‘Living Traditions’ on Sunday.

“African governments have been spending billions of dollars to purchase western medicine, but have never spent a cent on African medicine,” he lamented. “If we were to be supported, by now we would be competing with European companies.”

Regina Naasirah Blackburn of the department of African American Studies at the University of Seton Hall, New Jersey, says the lack of Black or African history in school curriculum is not only confined to the continent, but also eludes African American children.

“In primary school we didn’t learn anything about Africa. In secondary school, we began to think about Africa. We learned more about Africa in the college,” she says. “We need a strong African awareness in America.”

Blackburn attended the 3rd International African People’s Conference held in Zimbabwe’s southern city of Bulawayo on May 21- 25.

The conference, which attracted delegates from the United States, Nigeria, Sudan, Botswana and Uganda, was organised by the SAA, which seeks to spread the philosophy of Pan-Africanism among Africa’s youth.

SAA especially wants to reach the more than 40 million children out of school in Africa, who live in the rural areas.

One of the SAA’s objectives is to encourage parents to send their children to school. According to the UN Children’s Fund (Unicef), Africa will need an extra 1.9 billion US Dollars a year to attain universal primary enrolment in sub-Saharan Africa by 2010.

Sub-Saharan Africa spends nine billion US Dollars a year on education, but this is only half the 1980 level of per capita spending, Unicef observes in ‘The State of The World’s Children, 1999’.

African countries were among the 115 nations that committed themselves at the 1990 World Conference on Education for All to ensuring greater access to improved schooling for girls and women.

This conference, held in Jomtien, Thailand, recognised that more and better schooling for girls and women generates many social benefits such as lower mortality rates for infants, children and women, as well as higher nutritional levels and educational attainment.

“But after making some progress, sub-Saharan Africa’s net primary school enrolment for girls is currently lower, at 51 percent, than in 1985,” Unicef says.

“It is necessary to target the youth, make them understand so that they carry the torch,” says Sibanda.

“The SAA takes pride in being African and in promoting self- esteem among people of African descent,” he says. “Its ideology emphasises the concept of self-reliance as a means to uplift African people worldwide.”

Besides organising debates and lectures on the revival of African culture and history, the SAA raises funds for AIDs orphans and homes for the elderly.

It is currently engaged in establishing branches around Africa, the United States, the Caribbean, Europe and the Middle East to continue with its crusade.

The fledgling organisation, with a membership of more than 1,000 in Africa and in the diaspora, was established three years ago in Bulawayo.