LESSON 9
9.0 TRADITIONAL AFRICAN SYSTEM OF EDUCATION
9.1 Introduction
In this lesson, we shall discuss African Indigenous education. But first, we ask ourselves, did
African have a system of education? We can get the answer from our definition of education that
we learnt in our first lesson. From that definition, we are certain that Africans had their own
system of education.
9.2 Objectives
9.2.1 Discuss the view that before the coming of Europeans to Africa, African had their own
systems of education
9.2.2 Describe the aims, content and learning methods of the traditional African education.
9.2.3 Explain the philosophical foundations of African traditional system of education.
9.2.3 Discuss how aspects of indigenous education in Africa are relevant to the theory and
practice of early childhood education.
9.2.1 Introduction to African system of education
Traditional African education has also been used to refer to African Indigenous Education or the
Pre-colonial Education. It may not be common knowledge that long before the coming Arabs and
Europeans to Africa, the African people had developed their own system of education. However
many Europeans had the impression that Africans were not educated because as they claimed
Africans were primitive, savage and with no culture to perpetuate.
This mistaken belief arose from the fact that Africans did not have any formal schools to teach
their young ones nor did they know how to read and write. Such views limit the definition of
education to schooling or having literacy skills, which by no means provides us with the full
meaning of education.
Now, when we consider the definition of education, we see it as the “whole process by which one
generation transmits their culture from one generation to the succeeding generation” or “the
process by which people are prepared to live effectively and efficiently in their environment”.
From these definitions, we can clearly see traditional African education was complete and effective
in transmission of knowledge and skills required in preparation for a productive life in the
community. Let us now examine the aims, content and methods as used by the African education
system.
Q
Think of the community from which you come from and reflect on the aims, methods
and content of the indigenous education of the people.
The Aims of African Indigenous Education
African education was essentially for a living; it main purpose was to train the youth for adulthood
within the society. Emphasis was placed in normative and expressive goals. Normative goals were
concerned with instilling the accepted standards and beliefs governing the accepted code of
conduct, behavior and ethics of each individual member.
Expressive goals were concerned with preparing the youth for future goals and challenges. It was
meant to create unity and cohesion of members.
9.2.2 Describe the aims, content and learning methods of the traditional African education.
Aims of African system of education
 Preservation of cultural heritage of the extended family, the clan and the tribe
 Adapting the younger generation to their physical environment and teaching them how to
use it
 Instilling feelings of group cohesion and stability not individualism
 Preparing the individuals for adult roles and active participation in social life of all forms
 Learning practical skills and knowledge useful in making individuals self reliant and
independent
 Instilling in the youth the understanding and perpetuation of their own tribal institutions
based on their laws, languages and values inherited from the past to future generations
 In essence, traditional education aimed at producing a well-rounded personality in social
responsibility, job orientation, political participation, spiritual and moral values.
The Content
Since education was a lifelong process, the content of African education was contextualised; that
means it was relevant to the changing needs of the people.
Education was geared towards integrating the individual to the changing needs of the immediate
environment.
The content was divided into:
Generalized Content: This was open to all members of the society regardless of age or sex. It
included knowledge about the political, social, environmental, religious, cultural and physical
aspects of life
o Specialized content: specialized members of the society conducted this training and such
knowledge included divine healing- medicine men, soothsayers; craftsmanship- wood
carving, skin tanners etc
In essence the content of the curriculum comprised of the following fields:
Physical environment:
o The child was taught about the weather, the landscapes as well as animal and insect life.
o Children were acquainted with the skills of exploiting and coping with the problems of the
physical environment.
o Whether mountains, hills, plains, rivers or tropical forests dominated the child’s habitat, he
had to learn to combat its dangers and use its fertility.
Family and social life:
o The child was equipped with knowledge about their kinship relationships and what their
rights and obligations were within it.
o The child was taught about how to live and serve other people in accordance to the accepted
norms, rules, customs and avoidance of taboos and rigorous code of morality.
o He was taught decency of speech and behaviour, respect for elders and how to share
common tasks in the homestead.
o The child also learnt to imitate the actions of others and assimilate the mood, feelings and
ideas of those around him and hence acquire community identity.
Cultural and religious life:
o Indigenous education inculcated a religious attitude of life.
o Religion was concerned with morality. It gave support to the laws and customs of the
community and to its accepted rules of conduct, which included courtesy, generosity and
honesty.
o Religion had much to do with moral principles such as conduct of one individual towards
another.
o It was ethical since it controlled the relations of the individual to the community. Morality
was largely sanctioned by the religion. They therefore, learnt the right observance on which
the welfare of the individual and clan depended.
o Thus for an African boy or girl, tribal laws and moral code were written in their minds and
heart to become part of all thinking and feeling.
Economic life:
o The economic role of children featured prominently in training. Within the homestead and
its environs.
o Parents and older relatives were responsible for the training in economic responsibilities.
Learning by imitation played a big part as the smaller children observed their older
members building, herding and hunting in the case of boys; sweeping, carrying firewood,
water and cooking for girls.
Methods of Instruction
Traditional educators applied various methods of instruction to attain educational purpose. The
methods of instruction were both formal and informal.
The informal methods included:
Play:
o Children were left to take their own initiative to make toys for play from the rich
environment. Boys imitated activities that were appropriate to their sex.
o These included such activities like making toys of wooden spears, bows and arrows and
shields from bark.
o They built model huts and cattle pens for these were the tasks for them when grown up
men. Girls participated in activities of the family and life in the home.
o They imitated their mothers by such activities like making dolls, plaiting baskets of grass,
grounding corn, making little pots of clay and cooking imaginary meals.
o Children also engaged in other forms of play like wrestling, swinging, chasing one another
aimlessly, sliding and dancing. These promoted socialisation and also development of
language.
Oral literature:
o This included teaching through myths, legends, folktales, proverbs, dance and folksongs.
o Myths were used to teach the young things that are beyond the comprehension of men such
as natural phenomena like death, origin of man, etc.
o legends were tales fabricated to account for events that took place but were fragments of
actual history. They told about people or events that actually happened.
o Folktales were drawn from day to day happening, which were meant to provide moral and
ethical teachings.
o Virtues such as honesty, hard work, uprightness, and communal unity were reflected in
such folktales. Music formed an important part of their daily lives.
o Many of their rites and ceremonies, feasts and festivals were important sources of teaching.
o Adults made desirable religious doctrines, practices and experiences available to the young
largely through religious ceremonies and instructions from such ceremonies.
Involvement in productive work:
Children learnt to become useful by doing and working hand in hand with the adults. Such duties
included farming, pastoral or domestic tasks.
o A child was expected to learn largely by observing and imitating the adults at work.
o The child was given formal instruction in cases where they make mistakes or perform
unsatisfactory work.
o The child’s age and sex were taken into consideration.
o The amount of complexity of work increased with age and physical ability of the child.
The formal instruction methods were mainly theoretical and practical inculcation of skills. These
included:
Apprenticeship:
o Parents who wanted their children to acquire some occupational skills sent their children
to work with craftsmen such as potters, blacksmiths or basket makers who would teach
them formally.
o The same happened with hereditary skills like those of an herbalist in handing over trade
secrets.
Formal instructions:
These were provided for in giving constant correction and warning to the child: some aspects of
domestic work e.g. herding, fishing, tending crops and in teaching the every day customs and
manners
Initiation and circumcision stages:
o In African tradition formal education took the form of succeeding stages of initiation from
one status to another.
o The most remarkable period was during circumcision when both males and females were
physically circumcised.
o Without circumcision a person was not considered grown up and could hardly have rights
of property or even get married. Circumcision was accompanied by formal lessons.
o Lessons were to deal with such issues like protection of homestead from enemies, marriage
and family life etc
o Among the African peoples there were no forms of continuous instruction resembling to
modern schooling.
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Education was given in stages from infancy to the time of marriage till death.
The homestead was the school.
Parents played an important role in the education of their children.
Other members of the community also played a role in educating the youth.
Teachers were not paid.
There were no formal syllabuses to be followed.
Promotion from one stage to another was automatic.
There was no certificates nor were there dropouts.
Discipline was instilled through punishments and rewards.
9.2.3 Philosophical Foundations of African Indigenous Education
A number of principles underlying African indigenous education can be identified.
Communalism
This philosophy emphasized group cohesion. Each child was brought up to fit within a community,
which saw the well being of each individual in the well fare of the group. Children were socialised
to subordinate their own interests to the interests of the community and not the individual.
Cooperation was preferred to competition, the individual was brought up to love and have
sympathy for fellow human beings and such love was to be reflected in all areas of human activities
and relations.
Preparationism
Children were brought up to become useful members of the community.
The children were brought up to take up future roles; boys were brought up in close association
with their fathers and male adults to become versed with aspects of being the head of the family.
Girls were brought up as future wives and mothers of children.
Functionalism
Education was strictly utilitarian and was generally for induction into the society and preparation
for adulthood.
Education was geared towards integrating the children in engaging in productive work.
It embraced all aspects of life – moral ways of living, social and economic participation and more
importantly job orientation and application of what was learnt to the needs of the society.
Perennialism
Traditional education mainly focused on the transmission of a heritage from one generation to
another.
It aimed at ensuring continuity and being the instrument by which civilisation perpetuate them.
Through education the members of the society made sure that behaviours necessary for the survival
of the cultural heritage were learnt.
Holisticism
This involved multiple learning.
There was hardly any room for specialisation in learning. Its aims, content and methods were
interwoven. The holistic approach to learning developed children into “jacks-of-all-trades and
masters of all”
9.4 Contributions and Criticisms of African Indigenous Education
Contributions
1. It deals with the realities of life. Traditional education was deeply rooted in environment both
physical and social. It brought children to the world of nature and people
2. It was guided by the principle of learning by doing. Children received functional learning which
largely prepared them to live and perform manual work on the land as well as in specialised
occupations
3. Traditional education tends to reflect on the values and expectations of the society as a whole
which should not be abandoned
4. . It plays an important role in instilling the African identity of the child through cultural, moral,
political and economic needs of the indigenous society.
Criticisms
1. Irrelevance in the modern world- its purpose can no longer enable children to adjust themselves
comfortably to the dynamics of life.
2. Its interests were focused on the needs of the group giving very little attention to the individual.
It provided very little contact outside the narrow confines of the tribal life
3. Strong adherence to tradition is a hindrance to development. Traditional African education
mainly served a static society as its education aimed at maintaining the status quo. It was nonprogressive in adjustment to life as there was no room for individual choice of a new career or
choice of profession. Birth fixed to life the social status of each individual hence the lack of
incentive to change one’s environment.
4. No figures or letters were learnt. This made it difficult to keep written records for use by future
generations. Details were forgotten and often distorted and as the years passed by their oral
histories became distorted and adulterated.
5. The methods of instructed are also criticized because it was devoid of any initiative or a spirit
of enterprise. The duty of the learner was to be obedient and submissive to the instruction provided.
There was no room for interpretation or explanation. Emphasis was on amassing, assimilating and
accepting the known facts. Facts, which were known to be good and therefore supposed to be
known by everyone. The products of this system were uncritical with imprisoned minds a system
which is irrelevant the modern world
9.3 Summary
From this lesson, we learn that African had a form of education with aims, content and teaching
methods. The philosophy that guided African indigenous education included perenialism,
communalism, functionism, preparationism and holistism.
9.4 Self-Test Questions
a) Explain how aspects of indigenous education can be used in teaching early childhood education.
b) Explain what you understand by philosophical foundations of African education.
9.5 Further Reading
Ocitti, P. J. (1973) African Indigenous Education, As practiced by the Acholi of Uganda.
Nairobi: East Africa Literature Bureau.
Sifuna, D.N. et al. (2006). Themes in the Study of the Foundations of Education. Nairobi: The
Jomo Kenyatta Foundation.