Reflecting on a ‘Waltz-Time’ Project: Efforts, Contentions and New Challenges in the Africanization of Education

Africanization of education was a major policy option in most countries in Africa upon the attainment of independence and its relevance could not be overemphasized. More than half a century after, it behoves many to ask questions such as where are we with the project. Have we achieved it or are we still on the way to policy consolidation? Are there new contentions with this policy which require an ideological shift? The paper is a reflection of these issues. It discusses Africanization as an epistemicide and through a selected country representational literature review, examines efforts by some African states to Africanize their educational systems as well as the challenges that have been on the way. It observes that while implementation actually started in a few countries, the general picture could be termed ‘a waltz-time dance.’ It discusses some of the challenges and concludes that even within the context of globalization and the internationalization of education, the Africanization project is still as relevant as it was in the 1960s and should thus have its place in African policy reform endeavours. Keywords: Africanization of Education, , Decolonization of Education, Epistemicide, Curriculum Reform, Challenges, Prospects DOI: 10.7176/DCS/10-4-04 Publication date: April 30th 202

FROM PREACHING THE CHRISTIAN GOSPEL TO AFRICANS, TO PREACHING AFRICAN SOCIAL WISDOM TO EUROPE: REVEALING SURPRESSED TRUTHS IN THE COLONIAL ARCHIVE IN CAMEROON

When it comes to stories (even fabrications) that reveal Africa as a dark continent, a continent of emptiness and of primitivism, one is likely to find milliards of documents proliferated by Europeans to continuously justify their overrule over the continent and its people. But when it comes to literature especially written by Europeans who have experienced Africa objectively that confesses the potential of its people and their knowledge base and how this knowledge base can inform European social existence, such hardly exists. In this paper my aim is to reveal some studies carried out by European missionaries in Cameroon which went out of the way to recommend that amidst the social crisis that plagued Europe, and the human values of traditional society in Africa, there was need for a paradigm shift from preaching the Christian gospel to Africans to preaching African social wisdom to the Europeans. I content that this position was contrary to Coloniality of power, being and knowledge which have guided Euro-African relations from the time of their early contact. That is why it has been consciously suppressed by the colonial archive.   Article visualizations

Black men, English suits and a Corner Office: Education and the making of a West-Cameroon Civil Service 1954-1972

Abstract: Within the perspective of postcolonial state building in Africa, the study hinges on the colonial education, manpower and development nexus to examine the state of preparedness of the Trust Territory of the British Southern Cameroons with regards to an indigenous political and economic leadership as the British and Nigerian colonial authorities were leaving the territory. It discusses the quantity and quality of manpower produced by the British colonial education system that was on hand to take over the mantle of leadership as the territory gained independence. The study asserts that, the forming West Cameroon state was ill-disposed to its own endeavours due to lacks in a sufficiently qualified personnel and could thus not implement its own policies; the roots being a poorly developed colonial educational system. This had significant effects on the socio-economic development of the federal state of West Cameroon. The paper has relied on archival data and some critical secondary literature to present the argument

Learn history, think unity: national integration through history education in Cameroon, 1961-2018

Since independence, one of the greatest worries of African states has been how to maintain national cohesion amongst the multiplicity of ethnic groups which characterize them. My aim in this paper is to show that, other factors notwithstanding, national integration had been a major educational ideology in Cameroon and that it contributed to the peace and stability that the country was known for, amidst a turbulent central African region until the advent of neoliberalism and multiparty politics in 1990. I discuss the nature of contents that helped to achieve this while arguing that a de-emphasis on the social sciences and particularly on the integrationist approach to history education in the multiparty era is not unconnected to the post-1990 reinvention of various parochial identities antithetic to national cohesion in which recent calls for the secession of the Anglophone region by some radical groups is seen as the culmination of the trend. I conclude by highlighting the social relevance of curriculum within which history education should be re-invented as a vector for peace, unity and national integration in the country.https://upjournals.up.ac.za/index.php/yesterday_and_today/issue/view/14

On A Plata of Gold? A Critical Narrative of Nationalism and Independence in French Cameroon 1945-1960

It is over fifty years since most countries in Africa became independent but the debate about the role of nationalists in the quest for African independence remains controversial. While some opinions hold that independence in Africa was granted (given) to the Africans, others hold the premise that it was fought for by the Africans to the point of achievement. As Cameroon celebrated its 50th anniversary of independence and reunification in 2014 (4 years behind schedule) we thought that as teachers of African history, our contribution to the celebrations was to give a fresh account of the road to independence in French Cameroon with the hope of throwing light to the ‘granting-achieving’ positions. Our account is mainly established from primary sources (especially newspapers) from the National archives Yaoundé.

Black men, English suits and a Corner Office: Education and the Making of a West-Cameroon Civil Service 1954-1972

Within the perspective of postcolonial state building in Africa and the quests to Africanize/indigenize, the study hinges on the education and manpower nexus to examine the state of preparedness of the Trust Territory of the Cameroons in the days leading to independence to establish an Indigenous civil service as the British and Nigerian colonial authorities were leaving the territory. It ascertains the nature and level of training as well as the sum of indigenous manpower that was on hand to take over the mantle of leadership as the territory gained independence. It concludes that quality and quantity of manpower production had significant and long lasting effects on the socio-economic development of the territory

Learn History, think unity: National integration through History education in Cameroon, 1961-2018

Since independence, one of the greatest worries of African states has been how to maintain national cohesion amongst the multiplicity of ethnic groups which characterize them. My aim in this paper is to show that, other factors notwithstanding, national integration had been a major educational ideology in Cameroon and that it contributed to the peace and stability that the country was known for, amidst a turbulent central African region until the advent of neoliberalism and multiparty politics in 1990. I discuss the nature of contents that helped to achieve this while arguing that a de-emphasis on the social sciences and particularly on the integrationist approach to history education in the multiparty era is not unconnected to the post-1990 reinvention of various parochial identities antithetic to national cohesion in which recent calls for the secession of the Anglophone region by some radical groups is seen as the culmination of the trend. I conclude by highlighting the social relevance of curriculum within which history education should be re-invented as a vector for peace, unity and national integration in the country

Joshua Dibundu, Lotin Same, and the Native Baptist Church: Resistance and Nationalism in Cameroon’s History of Religion

This article sets out to present Joshua Dibundu and Lotin Same, two clergymen and contemporaries of John Chilembwe of Nyasaland and Simon Kibangu of the Congo, who stood out against European missionary pressure and colonial administrative oppression in an effort to establish and sustain the first African Independent Church (AIC) in Cameroon: the Native Baptist Church (NBC). I argue in this article that unlike the Cameroon kings and chiefs who resisted European occupation of the territory, and nationalists who fought for independence, the leaders of the Native Baptist Church represent another type of early nationalist and change-oriented agents who deserve their place in the historiography of the country. I have privileged the use of archival documents, structured interviews and some critical empirical literature to establish this account