Decolonisation

Written by Maleke Montshiwagae

decolonizing education has got nothing to do with graduating in a Zulu attire or any other traditional attire for that matter. .. it's more a fundamental question of curriculum as outlined by the likes of Prof Molefi Kete Asante who once gave a lecture at Unisa in the presence of Thabo Mbeki.

so in as far as graduating in a traditional attire is concerned, it is merely a theatrical or artistic act or expression. ...

Prof Irvan van Sertima warned of the tendency to compare what he termed "peripheral Africans to mainstream Europeans", he was speaking of a situation where Europe prides itself in the civilization peak of the Greeks while Africa as a whole needed to pride itself in the civilization peak exhibited in Egypto-Nubia as opposed to referring to Afrika in terms of the less developed parts of it.. Europe also had (has) less developed parts by the way, so this is not unique to Afrika. ..

.... in this way we should be able to derive the Afro character in the fields of science, astronomy, engineering, architecture, philosophy etc on the basis that they peaked in that geospace of Africa. ... not that they were not developing elsewhere in Africa! ...

.... once we've done this, it is then that we can decide to introduce certain aspects of our cultures such as attire, particularly those revealing attires which in my opinion must be reviewed and redefined, or spared for certain occasions and ceremonies since they appear to be an important part of the metaphysics of the BLACK "being" ...

..it is important to note that the way that these astronomies and engineering etc developed at the peak of African civilization in Egypto-Nubia, they reflect the African culture... so culture was not independent of these developments, ...

so, with all this said, decolonisation of education must form part and parcel of the broader global trends in Technology and Economics. we cannot be left behind while the entire world is "progressing" in these seemingly important aspects because these are existential realities.

.... Dr Lushaba at UCT speaks of knowledge in and of itself ... the decolonisation must focus on knowledge in itself in order to rehumanize BLACK people by including other forms of their knowledge that reflects their "being", as opposed to knowledge of itself which tends to focus on knowledge as a commodity to be consumed and "sold" in the markets! . . .

... Afrika ✊

........ . . . knowledge is power!