Education and the Study of Africa
- LAST REVIEWED: 25 October 2012
- LAST MODIFIED: 25 October 2012
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199846733-0073
- LAST REVIEWED: 25 October 2012
- LAST MODIFIED: 25 October 2012
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199846733-0073
Introduction
Though some historians and anthropologists have examined precolonial or indigenous forms of socialization, most contemporary studies of education focus on formal education that came to the continent with European colonialism. Works on indigenous forms of instruction examine initiation, vocational training, and the impartation of cultural or historical knowledge. Islamic schools date back to the arrival of Islam in Africa several hundred years ago. The first European missionaries in Africa established Christian schools in the late 15th century, but these were not widespread until the 19th century. European colonial officials established secular schools for Africans in the early 20th century. Whereas French educators promoted educational “assimilation,” British territories introduced the “adapted education” system for Africans in the 1920s, a policy modeled after the American segregated school system. Africans made demands for more schools and a more literary curriculum in the 1930s and 1940s and, in some cases, even established their own schools. This period also saw the development of higher education for Africans. During the nationalist era, the educated elite were at the forefront of demands for independence, and many of the leaders of new nations in the 1960s were Western-educated elites. Independent governments attempted to implement universal primary education and create more opportunities for secondary and higher education, with varying success. They also paid more attention to the education of rural children and of women. Structural adjustment programs (SAPs) and other international economic interventions, however, resulted in less government revenue for and control over social services like education. In the early 21st century, governments and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are working to make education affordable and accessible for everyone.
General Overviews
Overviews of education in Africa give a general introduction to the success stories and the obstacles to universal education and education reform. Brock-Utne and Skattum 2009 and Moulton, et al. 2002 are collections of essays focusing on different regions and countries in Africa in order to find commonalities in successes and failures, whereas Bashir 2005 and Abdi 2002 focus on the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Africa, respectively. The essays in Olukoshi and Diarra 2007 discuss the financing of education and the place of education in national development plans.
Abdi, Ali A. Culture, Education, and Development in South Africa: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives. Westport, CT: Bergin & Garvey, 2002.
This historical overview begins with a historical survey of the period before and during apartheid and then analyzes the policy of “multicultural education” in postapartheid South Africa.
Bashir, Sajitha. Education in the Democratic Republic of Congo: Priorities and Options for Regeneration. Washington, DC: World Bank, 2005.
A study funded by the World Bank analyzing current enrollment, financing, and quality of primary, secondary, and higher education in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Brock-Utne, Birgit, and Ingse Skattum, eds. Languages and Education in Africa: A Comparative and Transdisciplinary Analysis. Oxford: Symposium Books, 2009.
A collection of a variety of essays on the role of language in contemporary education in East and West Africa, and Francophone and Anglophone countries, including articles in English and French.
Moulton, Jeanne, Karen Mundy, Michel Welmond, and James Williams, eds. Education Reforms in Sub-Saharan Africa: Paradigm Lost? Westport, CO: Greenwood, 2002.
A collection of essays examining case studies in Malawi, Uganda, Benin, and Ethiopia that focus on educational reforms of the 1990s associated with the transition to democratic governments.
Olukoshi, Adebayo, and Mohamed Chérif Diarra, eds. Enjeux du financement et de la planification de l’éducation en Afrique: Ce qui marche et ce qui ne marche pas. Dakar, Senegal: Groupe de travail sur les finances et l’éducation de l’Association pour le développement de l’éducation en Afrique (ADEA), 2007.
A collection of essays on the financing of education in Africa. Most articles examine education in West African nations.
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Article
- Achebe, Chinua
- Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi
- Africa in the Cold War
- African Masculinities
- African Political Parties
- African Refugees
- African Socialism
- Africans in the Atlantic World
- Agricultural History
- Aid and Economic Development
- Alcohol
- Algeria
- Angola
- Arab Spring
- Arabic Language and Literature
- Archaeology and the Study of Africa
- Archaeology of Central Africa
- Archaeology of Eastern Africa
- Archaeology of Southern Africa
- Archaeology of West Africa
- Architecture
- Art, Art History, and the Study of Africa
- Arts of Central Africa
- Arts of Western Africa
- Asante and the Akan and Mossi States
- Bantu Expansion
- Benin (Dahomey)
- Boer War
- Botswana (Bechuanaland)
- Brink, André
- British Colonial Rule in Sub-Saharan Africa
- Burkina Faso (Upper Volta)
- Burundi
- Business History
- Cameroon
- Cape Verde
- Central African Republic
- Children and Childhood
- China in Africa
- Christianity, African
- Cinema and Television
- Citizenship
- Cocoa
- Coetzee, J.M.
- Colonial Rule, Belgian
- Colonial Rule, French
- Colonial Rule, German
- Colonial Rule, Italian
- Colonial Rule, Portuguese
- Communism, Marxist-Leninism, and Socialism in Africa
- Comoro Islands
- Conflict in the Sahel
- Conflict Management and Resolution
- Congo, Republic of (Congo Brazzaville)
- Congo River Basin States
- Congo Wars
- Conservation and Wildlife
- Coups in Africa
- Crime and the Law in Colonial Africa
- Democratic Republic of Congo (Zaire)
- Development of Early Farming and Pastoralism
- Diaspora, Kongo Atlantic
- Disease and African Society
- Djibouti
- Dyula
- Early States And State Formation In Africa
- Early States of the Western Sudan
- Eastern Africa and the South Asian Diaspora
- Economic Anthropology
- Economic History
- Economy, Informal
- Education
- Education and the Study of Africa
- Egypt
- Egypt, Ancient
- Environment
- Environmental History
- Equatorial Guinea
- Eritrea
- Ethiopia
- Ethnicity and Politics
- Europe and Africa, Medieval
- Family Planning
- Famine
- Farah, Nuruddin
- Feminism
- Food and Food Production
- Fugard, Athol
- Fulani
- Gabon
- Gambia
- Genocide in Rwanda
- Geography and the Study of Africa
- Ghana
- Gikuyu (Kikuyu) People of Kenya
- Globalization
- Gordimer, Nadine
- Great Lakes States of Eastern Africa, The
- Guinea
- Guinea-Bissau
- Hausa
- Hausa Language and Literature
- Health, Medicine, and the Study of Africa
- Historiography and Methods of African History
- History and the Study of Africa
- Horn of Africa and South Asia
- Igbo
- Ijo/Niger Delta
- Image of Africa, The
- Indian Ocean and Middle Eastern Slave Trades
- Indian Ocean Trade
- Invention of Tradition
- Iron Working and the Iron Age in Africa
- Islam in Africa
- Islamic Politics
- Kenya
- Kongo and the Coastal States of West Central Africa
- Language and the Study of Africa
- Law and the Study of Sub-Saharan Africa
- Law, Islamic
- Lesotho
- LGBTI Minorities and Queer Politics in Eastern and Souther...
- Liberia
- Libya
- Literature and the Study of Africa
- Lord's Resistance Army
- Maasai and Maa-Speaking Peoples of East Africa, The
- Madagascar
- Malawi
- Mali
- Mande
- Mau Mau
- Mauritania
- Media and Journalism
- Military History
- Mining
- Modern African Literature in European Languages
- Morocco
- Mozambique
- Music, Dance, and the Study of Africa
- Music, Traditional
- Nairobi
- Namibia
- Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
- Niger
- Nigeria
- Nollywood
- North Africa from 600 to 1800
- North Africa to 600
- Northeastern African States, c. 1000 BCE-1800 CE
- Obama and Kenya
- Oman, the Gulf, and East Africa
- Oral and Written Traditions, African
- Oromo
- Ousmane Sembène
- Pastoralism
- Police and Policing
- Political Science and the Study of Africa
- Political Systems, Precolonial
- Popular Culture and the Study of Africa
- Popular Music
- Population and Demography
- Postcolonial Sub-Saharan African Politics
- Religion and Politics in Contemporary Africa
- Rwanda
- Senegal
- Sexualities in Africa
- Seychelles, The
- Siwa Oasis
- Slave Trade, Atlantic
- Slavery in Africa
- São Tomé and Príncipe
- Social and Cultural Anthropology and the Study of Africa
- Somalia
- South Africa Post c. 1850
- Southern Africa to c. 1850
- Soyinka, Wole
- Spanish Colonial Rule
- Sport
- States of the Zimbabwe Plateau and Zambezi Valley
- Sudan and South Sudan
- Swahili City-States of the East African Coast
- Swahili Language and Literature
- Tanzania (Tanganyika and Zanzibar)
- Togo
- Tourism
- Trade
- Trade Unions
- Traditional Authorities
- Traditional Religion, African
- Transportation
- Trans-Saharan Trade
- Tunisia
- Uganda
- Urbanism and Urbanization
- Wars and Warlords
- Western Sahara
- White Settlers in East Africa
- Women and African History
- Women and Colonialism
- Women and Politics
- Women and Slavery
- Women and the Economy
- Women, Gender and the Study of Africa
- Women in 19th-Century West Africa
- Yoruba Diaspora
- Yoruba Language and Literature
- Yoruba States, Benin, and Dahomey
- Youth
- Zambia